This thread is meant for in character talk and discussions that can be done in between scenes or when characters have downtime without interfering with the scenes. Consider it like a Bubba's Raiders chatgroup and what not...

Hey all! Group comms for all!
We will reach Moxley III in about 23 hours. Its good to have you all aboard

My apologies for the lousy food. Tomorrow I have a kitchen they say, so I will make you all a delicioso Bouef Karita with the Haricot Terrano and fresh spaghetti. You will be eating your plates!

“Colonel, I’m setting up my servers right now and looking for OpFor parameters. If we are planning to fight the Clans, do you have any recent combat footage or databases I could use for the baseline?”

I am not a computer specialist but wouldn't it make more sense to do that at base instead of in the dropship? This thing is cramped enough as it is.

You still have an empty top bunk above yours Bubba. Give the man some space.

It’s not permanent, Colonel. Most of the equipment is field mobile. I just want to make sure the setup has a chance to boot properly and compile. Part of that is a baseline OpFor setting and logistics.

He can easily do that in the hangar bay someplace Bubba. He doesn't even need to tap into the ship

Thank you. I’ll make sure that I am out of the way.

@Sabatino Giodarno: If today's dinner is what you can do with prepackaged food, I can't wait to see what you can accomplish with fresh ingredients!
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Wed 08 Mar 2023.

"Once we get to, where ever were going, how long will we be there before we have to ship out again?"

Our first order of business is to secure the entire moon, and not just our base compound. when we are sure we hold the entire moon, or at least have it safe, we start planning the road onward.

We will be landing on the second moon of Moxley III shortly, and our compound there is secure. The moon has a light atmosphere and breathable air, so we are good on that part. It has a gravity due to its spin around the planet, another good thing, and the compound we have 'procured' seems to be an old Lyran forward base.

The only problem with that moon is a possible pirate presence, but that we will have to check out, and if so... deal with.

Eileen was leery about operating on Lunar environments.  Historically there were complications.  Either it was so small that it had no atmosphere, or it was orbiting a larger planet creating complicated gravimetric issues for conventional units.

Atmosphere would at least mean they could have boots on the ground for recon and scouting to lighten the work for the mechs.

"Understood.", she says simply.  She was going to have to put her focus away from Clover, and smith some munitions to use.

Skinner listens to the banter enquiring from the CO about the pirates. "What do we know about them? Anything?"

It was several hours later, and with Cassidy's help, her engine was as complete as you were going to get without a machine shop and the more specialize materials they would provide.

Eileen was glad that she had showered earlier in the day, because with the whole food snafu, water might be at a premium too.

She knocks, waits a brief moment and then enters in the area she was bunking.  She looks around to see if 'Doc' (Nadia) was around or if she was still mingling with the crew.

Thoroughly frustrated with her conversation with Max, Nadia had finally withdrawn after some time and, by now, was lying once more on her bunk in a tank-top and shorts, half-studying another medical article as she tried to cool her temper. As Eileen made her way into the cramped bunkroom, Nadia looked over, and wordlessly extended half a plain chocolate bar, reciprocating the earlier cracker.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:59, Sat 11 Mar 2023.

Eileen comes over and takes the offered bar, sweets were always welcome in her book.

"I have some news and reading material for you.", she comments as she's finish around in her jackets breast pocket.

"Over heard Sabatino discussing expired food or some such.  I'd be careful of what i'd eat for the rest of the trip, and be prepared for possible food related complications."

Eileen offers up one of her comp unit data disc, "I also have this.  Thought you could use a change of reading material.  It's what i managed to copy today from the dropships library logs.  Preliminary pathogen, and other biome related hazards you'll probably want to read up on.  It goes to reason that if were going to the clan homeworlds, someone should be prepared to innoculate us, or at least have a clue how to handle medical issues we'll run into there.  Also medical procedures... with equipment... i've never seen before and can barely understand what they're suppose to do."

"This is a loan.  Make your own copy, because i'm going to need that back to study the equipment to figure out how they work, cause god forbid you want to use one, someone is going to have to figure out how to build it."

As Nadia digusts that information, and browses the disc,Eileen goes into her locker and breaks out her camping equipment.  Setting up a camping stove on the floor.  It worked off a battery unit and heating coils.  A small pot was put on it to boil some drinking water that Eileen poured out of the half dozen she had brought on board.

"You hungry?", Eileen waits for the water to boil before adding pasta.

The revelation that she might be dealing with an outbreak of food poisoning caught Nadia's attention, and she sat up. "Our new gourmet chef was serving expired rations?" What the hell had Kreig gotten them into?

Taking the data disk from Eileen with delicate fingers, Nadia slotted it into her own datapad, transferring the relevant files over. "Some new reading would be nice... "Elevated Testosterone Levels and the Inhibition of Frontal Cortex Response." is fascinating reading, but I knew most of it already." Eileen may not have been a doctor, but a moment's thought would translate the title for her.

"Men are Idiots."

As soon as the file copy was completed, Nadia slipped the disc from her reader and crawled down off her bunk to return it. Padding barefoot over to where her companion had started cooking, she nodded and crouched down. "I could eat. Only managed half of one of Sabatino's meals before I lost my appetite. How can I help?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:26, Sat 11 Mar 2023.

I did not serve expired food! Mama mia what do you think of me?

I am throwing away expired food though! There are three Refrigoratore full of food past due date!

But I did not serve any of them!
Basta!

Eileen shrugs, "I skipped dinner.  Better safe than sorry.  Food is short.  If its good, more of it to go around for everyone else.  If it's not... i dont want any of it."

Eileen boils enough for two.  She breaks open a tin of tomato soup to use as a base for sauce which she throws into the pot after a few minutes.  A little plastic tray with a lid opens to show a little compartment of assorted spices.  She takes pinches of it to add to the soup base.

It runs a for a good bit to reduce the soup to a sauce texture.  Enough time to pass to talk before she serves some out.  She gives Nadia the good bowl and her one fork.  She uses a pair of metal rods for chopsticks and eats the pasta like noodles.

"I know enough first aid.  I know a bit about bio-tech, so i can assist but really i prefer working on things that don't bleed when i work on it.  The Raiders are strange.", Eileen tilts her head and looks at Nadia.  She was talking to 'The Body', and she was curious how that went.  That said, she barely knew Nadia, so she wasn't about to ask in case she didn't want to tell.  Her light reading... was perhaps a subtle hint?

Eileen giggles a little for no apparent reason, well... at least she wasn't looking into the effects of hormone injections and gender changes.  Though it was hard to imagine Max that way with a straight face.

"Thank you." Nadia had been about to dig out her own mess kit when Eileen handed over the bowl of pasta. Sniffing at the steam rising off the sauce, she smiled approvingly as her bunkmate continued to talk.



That was an understatement, if ever there was one. "You may be onto something there, Eileen. Giordano and Ton-Wang are hired with gusto, but they don't even have a proper doctor on staff. Well, they didn't before today, anyhow." Pausing for a moment, she sampled some of the noodles, finding they were as good as they smelled. "Good stuff for campfire rations."

Setting her bowl aside, Nadia leaned back into the post at the corner of the bunks staring up at the ceiling tiredly. "Maximus is... Hell, he might as well be an alien, like we thought they were at the start of the invasion. It's a whole society built by people that see everything through the lens of war, and yet somehow, they've made it work. All honor codes and personal pride like the Dracs and the warrior ideal as the pinnacle of society, but somehow they've left us all in the dust instead of killing each other in an orgy of blood."

She waved a hand to her bunk and the datapad laying there. "I was actually reading an article on pituitary hyperactivity and the related complications. According to him, Max isn't even big for an Elemental." Nadia paused for a moment, composing her thoughts.

"Humans aren't really designed to be as tall as Max... It's all the brain's fault, of course." She chuckled. "So, it doesn't really matter what you're doing, running, fighting, sitting on the floor, sleeping like a log. Your brain gets about a fifth of the blood in your body. It will sacrifice limbs, shut down organs, and paralyze parts to get what it needs." A small pause before she continued. "Which is all well and good, but gravity isn't anyone's friend. When you get as tall as Max, or taller like he suggested Trueborn Elementals are, your heart has to work harder just to pump blood uphill to your brain. The arteries have to constrict more, and it comes pouring back faster. Which are all the classic symptoms of hypertension and everything that leads to. Pulmonary embolisms, heart attacks, strokes... High blood pressure is a killer."

There was a note of angry wonder in her voice. "But the Clans somehow not only managed to make it work, they engineer their Trueborn Elementals to encourage it! They've figured out how to genetically engineer away one of the problems that have plagued humans since we stood upright for the first time, and what do they use it for? To make a more deadly soldier. I just don't get it, and he's one of the core elements of the Raiders."

Not a proper doctor you say?
Hrmm...

I must be losing my touch then...
You youngsters think you know it all, but I will have you know I used to be a heart surgeon... Or at least a surgeon with a lot of heart.
Alcohol got in the way though... But I hardly drink anymore these days.

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.