An average elemental reaches maybe 50 years of age tops Nadia. After that they become obsolete anyway. So why live longer?

In reply to William Hagfarsson (msg # 22):

And I quote

Statements like this do not inspire confidence.

In reply to Maximus Blaze (msg # 23):

<sarcasm>Because no one over the age of 49 has ever accomplished anything worthwhile right? *coughs*Benjamin Franklin*coughs*</sarcasm>

Also, what are all you perverts doing peeking in our bunkroom?!

Who's Franklin Benjamin?

And we aint peeking... Its all on security cams.

*laughs* Something more current then. Kerensky was 67 when the Amaris coup happened, and 83 when the Exodus occurred.

Edit: I'm glad I wore boxers to bed then.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:40, Sun 12 Mar 2023.

I'm not ;)

"For such a bright girl, that seems like a rather dim thing to say?  As big as the universe is, who's to say what is... and isn't normal?"

"Take this honor code you speak of.  You're a scientist.  Tell me how big is your sample size... what... one person?  maybe two?  Say the entire staff are clanners, maybe a few dozen?  You're making a pretty broad presumption on a narrow interview.", Eileen opens up a small cooler (the sort you put a six pack of beer in) and takes out a couple of small drinks and offers one to Nadia.  It's a yogurt drink the size of a shotglass.  (it's cold and sweet)

"Now for instance, lets say you know nothing of the inner sphere, and you just showed up, and fell in line with say a pirate group out in the rim.  Are you going to say from this small sample of people, highly specialized for a specific lifestyle, would qualify you on the social dynamics of the entire inner sphere.  Don't be daff lass.", Eileen makes a dismissive gesture.

"As for 'The Body's' brute size?  I think you're reading too much into it.  You can find lads with that sort of build.  Usually in entertainment, or sports, but they exist.  They're built different it'd be rude to make presumptions at what they're good at, and not...", Eileen scratches her head and thinks about Nadia's arguements.

"It's a matter of specialties and what you're willing to give up.  They may excel at a specific task... but the balance would be... they are lacking elsewhere.  A brute makes a fine soldier but maybe less so to be a strategist, or statesmen.  You might have the deadliest soldiers around, but that just means you're arrogant and over confident.  The rebel partisan is not going to be fighting an upfront sort of war.  Why would we ever play their game and play to their strong suit?  Con them and swindle them.  If they're Draco'd up like the combine and uptight about honor, well we've seen how stupid that can work out.
 The business of war is anything but fair or honorable."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:39, Sun 12 Mar 2023.

Nadia sighed tiredly and waved off the drink as she slipped back to her feet. "No, you're probably right, Eileen. A single interview with a Clansman openly explaining his culture isn't a big enough sample to know anything about their culture. Forget I said anything." Stretching in a constrained manner, Nadia made her way back up to her bunk and stretched out where there was more room. Picking up her datapad, she pulled up one of the articles the redheaded analyst had offered and started to read. "You've given me a lot to think about and work through; thanks for dinner, and don't worry about the dishes, I'll take care of them in a bit."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Sun 12 Mar 2023.

Eileen grins at Nadia's reaction, "A single interview... does not reflect a large enough sample for insight into a society.  It does reflect enough insight for an individual.  So perhaps the reason you're so...reflective... at the moment is because of what it says about this individual, and if you reflect on 'yourself', it perhaps says something about yourself too."

"Naw.  I got this.  When camping never leave cleaning up off, that's how you attract bears.", Eileen pockets what's left of the bottle of water and the dishes to clean up.  A pot, a bowl, a fork, and a pair of shop sticks.  Eileen enjoyed the comforts when possible, but knew how to be a minimalist when it was practical.

"Let me know if theres anything good in there, i'm mostly working through all the technical jargon.  The Bio-Tech is all you."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:22, Sun 12 Mar 2023.

Nadia hmmm'd in a non-committal fashion at the analyst's, well... Analysis of her reaction. Her reaction couldn't be related at all to having had her fill today of arrogant, self-confident people who dismissed or ignored everything she said, could it?

She was fuming again, she realized, and she needed to calm down. A long slow breath while she stared at the ceiling and Eileen started to arrange the dishes for washing. "Here, and I would think from your analysis, the way to attract bears was to interview them." The joke was delivered deadpan, coldly, but she rolled her head down to look at the redhead and venture a smile. Peace in the bunkroom was more valuable than her temper.

She turned her attention back to the datapad at that point. "I will, though I already see just from the titles that the two might overlap more than that. If this title is accurate, the Clans may be using stripped-down neurohelmet technology for neuro-diagnostics. We may be seeing a lot more crossover than with Inner Sphere technology."

Falling back into her reading, the doctor read until lights-out, and spent much of the rest of the journey with her nose buried in her datapad, only coming out of it when descent was announced.

-->To the Compound Grounds

"Get reading.  They say they're having trouble starting that thing up.  I can game the tech all they want, but if it's physiological solution we need, it's going to be all you."

Eileen does the light chores, and goes back to the bunk planning to go over her own data disc, but sleep wins out after a long day.

~~> To the compound grounds.

@Bubba "Colonel, could we have the bed in 306 replaced with doubles? Sutherby and I are going to split it to save space."

@Kreig @Herrera "Mike, Eileen is saying Clover is at least a day out of flight-ready alone. I'm going to stay here and help out."

No problem. The ground floor has shared rooms if you like, or you can carry a bunk bed upstairs. Either is fine

Everyone can spend the day getting to know this place. Tomorrow is game day. I want everyone in the command center at 06.00 sharp!

"Would have been a day, working by myself.  Since you and some of the boys from the Engineer area helped out, she can fly now.  She's just not mission ready for anything fancy.", Eileen comments about Nadia's concern about Clover's readiness.

"I'll take that as permission to take Clover out for the lay of the land.  Nothing fancy.  I'm going to be taking 'Doc' along for a joy ride, so i know better than to put her too much at risk.  You have any particular direction to suggest?  Maybe a preflight into whatever were suppose to scout in the morning?", Eileen asks the Colonel, since any direction was good for Eileen, it might serve as a warm up for the morning.

Feel free to take the birds for a shakedown spin. Just stay within a 10 km radius of base.

“Colonel, with your permission, I’d like to pilot the Commando on this recon run and start shaking some of the rust off.”

You got it. Take it for a spin today if you like but get her mission ready by morning.

Thank you, Colonel. Do we have a list of available munitions and equipment available for future modifications? I’d like to be able to make contingencies in case we are surprised and need to adapt to a new threat.

Its a Com-2D. So it comes with a SRM-4, SRM-6 and medium laser. Ours also has ECM. Future variants would require a full field refit as its not an omni like those fancy Clan Mechs.

Copy that. Thank you.

From Raider Moon -~> Out of sequence with Josephine.

Eileen is good, but she's only one person.  She's not afraid to delegate.  They were point on recon tomorrow and if she screwed up, then it went down hill from there.

She's a little persuasive and grabs a few of the guys that she met in engineering to help rush Clover's load for the mission in the morning.  A few large crates  are quickly unpacked and along with Jo they spend a few hours getting clover ready.

There's a really large hole in the cargo bay that has a Bomb Bay installed over it.  This also becomes seating for Josephine to ride for the mission.

It's actually a tight fit when it's all said and done, cause in the a big radar dish is installed in the weapon mount on Clovers nose, along with a protective tempered glass bubble to protect it.  A serious amount of electronics is installed in the bay around where Jo will be sitting.

When the dust settles, Eileen goes over, what Jo just volunteered for.

"We are going to going to fly the AWACS mission together.  I'm tactical.  My number one job is to make sure we get home alive.  My number two job is to make sure you get your job done.  Lastly, i would consider it a bonus if we inflict any hardship on the Op Force.", Eileen grins.

"Your job, as far as you're concerned is to run the eyes.  I'm going to turn over the sensor suites for you to use.  Visual, Radar, IR, Seismic... the whole kit and caboodle.  Most of it is automated and will save for review later, but human guidance to interpret and fine tune the searching as we go can do wonders.  We can transmit some back to base so they're not blind and can get the gist of what we know, but you'll see it first and in better detail.  If you need me to get a better look you tell me on the headset and i'll get us in closer.  If you really find something interesting, let me know and we can do a fly by and drop a remote sensor to really keep an eye on things.

That simple, if they're running EW interference, we work to find a blind spot to get the mission done."

Eileen thinks about it a moment, "Dress warm, and bring a sidearm.  You never plan to be go down, but if you do you're glad for the comfort of having one.  If it makes you feel better i've never had to ditch.  Questions?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 23:02, Thu 16 Mar 2023.

Jo listened carefully to Eileen's description, her ears on the redhead while her eyes were focused on the inside of Clover. She looked over all of the electronics, making sure she understood everything laid out in front of her, everything she would be expected to operate to find the information they needed. As complex as the equipment was, there didn't look to be anything she couldn't handle.

"Alright, seems simple enough. You fly, I look for the bad guys, we do not get shot down." Jo shot a quick grin at Eileen. "Question. Will you telling me about your plans for that fusion engine be too distracting for your part of this? Because it would certainly help keep me distracted from the potential of that whole ditching thing." A chuckle, an edge of nervousness to it. Riding in the VToL, operating the sensor equipment, running comms, none of that bothered her in the slightest. The possibility of entering a combat situation? That part made her a bit jittery.

"Question two - after we return back here from a smooth, successful mission, will you show me how to use said sidearm? I feel like it will be a lot more comforting if I knew what to do with it besides 'point and click'." Jo shrugged her shoulders apologetically. Unlike most everyone else here, she was a civvie, with no military training to speak of. Where she grew up, carrying a firearm just escalated the level of violence. Now she needed to fill in that gap in her knowledgebase, as soon as possible.

"Sure, we can talk shop if that helps keep your mind off things and if you need lessons for a sidearm, maybe you should hold on to my lucky knife till the next mission.  I can give you lessons if you really want, but around here i'm sure there are no shortage of guys with more combat experience to give it to you.."

Eileen points to a bank of switches.

"I usually can make the drops from up front, but you have the option to also.

 We have five Remote sensors.  If you drop them as is, you'll get feed back here.  If you spend the time to change the feed, you can have it take the feed from another sensor, which should extend the range by another 2 klicks by daisy chaining them.

 The other drops are tactical, and you shouldn't need to worry about it.  That's all there is to it.  Easy.", Eileen's tone is light and easy to shoulder.  It almost feels like training banter instead of preparations for the first op both of you are doing for the unit.  Far from sitting on the sidelines, you're the point on this mission.  If you don't find anything no one else finds anything to do.

"A knife, that I can handle." Blades, those were familiar and comfortable. Eileen was right, that the idea of having a weapon on her did make her feel more secure. Firearm training was a problem for future Jo, not today Jo. Today Jo would carry Eileen's knife, and get her own as soon as they got back from the mission.

For a few minutes, Jo was quiet, working her way through the switches the redhead had pointed to. Changing up feeds, making sure she knew exactly what connected to what. Her eyes flickered across the screens, watching the readouts, humming a small tune as she adjusted a few things. She was a fast learner. "Got it. If there's pirates out there, we'll be the first to find them." Her face split in another grin. Her nerves were calmer, feeling prepared for this, and the idea of being the ones to locate their target held its own excitement.

This message was deleted by the player at 12:59, Sat 18 Mar 2023.