Mechwarrior: "Days of the Jackal"

[Shalimar]

McKenzie

McKenzie had to fight the impulse of drawing her gun immediately when she saw that the large cyborg was also entering the back, and it made her contemplate the thought of just leaving the Dark Knight compound then and there, but her curiosity had been piqued by all of the advanced Nagelring class simulators, and the availibility of the the Hatchetman in the sims, she had known her WOlfhound wouldn't be here, and she had also been pretty sure about the Hatchetman as well, it was just too new for a group like this to have access, unless the sims were stolen.

Her sense of duty to House Steiner and her family was what got her to stay, the possibility that someone was pirating their technology, and the chance that she could learn about it, otherwise she would already be gone. The young Steiner officer contemplates the Academy class Sims, unlike the mech shooters outside, these werent the dumbed down ones that would allow a kid like Ryan to get 5 kills unless he spelled his name GOD. In a real fight, going by his score on the shooters, he could probably account for 2 possibly 3 or even 4 targets, and that was damn good, making him one of the best pilots she knew, and definitely the best who hadn't gone to an academy, though it might have had to do with his mech. She had run through the same simulations piloting the same chassis, that of her former mech, and she had barely done as well, and she had been using every trick she knew about maneuvering the mech to best advantage.

 

[Mike D F]

Samuel had eventually gotten to the sims. He had done fairly well, though not as well as he'd like. He was still adjusting to his new machine and the fighting style to make the best use of it. He also had to scrape the edge off the rust that had grown on his abilities. And, his replacement arm's fine motor control wasn't quite up to snuff. Luckily, he was a wiley one, and was able to do well enough to pass, though he'd have preferred to do better. Frankly, he'd have preferred to have used his old chassis.

So, despite doing well compared to many others, he'd failed by his own standard. And his machine....he was in a foul mood. He got out of the sim and jammed a butterscotch in his mouth. The metallic taste had gotten particularly bad in the time he'd been in, and he wasn't able to get rid of it between business and the helmet. He took his hat out of the pocket he'd put it in when he had donned the helmet, slapping it angrily against his metal leg a couple times to unfold it.

So when the Dark Knight had offered for him to "learn a few pointers", he'd glowered at the man for several moments before snarling.

"Don't teach your grandmother how to suck eggs."

He paused for a few moments before muttering "Suppose there might be a few...subtleties in arena combat I haven't come across." in an irritable voice.

Hell, he could afford to be magnanimous. After all, unless he missed his guess, he was being offered a job.

As he stalked towards the back room, he continued to brood on things. He idly thought I need a dr... before firmly squashing that particular idea. He sighed before the doorway, studying the two thugs, and the man who'd likely saved his life. He gave a fairly deferential nod to him, and walked past.

He paused for a few moments before running his hand through his greying hair and replaced his cap. He studied those who'd arrived already. The kid was talking to another mechwarrior, and Harrison decided to avoid that pair for the time being. He sincerely doubted that he'd be able to stand the gee golly gosh routine in his current state of mind.

The Lyran lady, who'd caught sight of Samuel, was currently staring daggers at him, while quite likely trying to kill him solely with the power of her thoughts.

He muttered "If looks could kill." under his breath as she turned away, and quite firmly decided to start carrying his small service pistol, just in case.

The guy who'd taken him out of the Lyran's line of sight hadn't made an appearance yet.

So, that left the young Kuritan, who was currently on her own. Her body language was fairly stand offish. Ironside sometimes knew when he wasn't really wanted. He just didn't quite care. Besides, though he'd heard about the Combine's traditions, he'd not met one of their fabled Mechwarrior-Samurai and was curious.

He moseyed by her, and offered a polite "Ma'am" to get her attention.

"So, just out of curiousity, what is a, unless I miss my guess, well born Kuritan Samurai doing in the back room of a fairly insignificant mechwarrior stable on the Game World?" he asked conversationally.

 

[Maerdwyn]

Malcolm went into the back room knowing that he'd been a little lucky - Before scraping out two other victories more directly, he'd been able to bait one of the sim mechs into overheating - badly - without too much effort. I'd thought that bug was unique to Father's programs. In fact for they way the opposition was behaving, maybe the sims *had* been programmed by Father. But would the College really license their software out? More likely that the designer of these sims had the same sort of training as Father had had. Or gave. He briefly wondered if using the "bug" to take out that first mech was fair. Well, like Father always said, "An enemy's weakness, unexploited, becomes your own."[*Spoken in an exagerrated and somewhat dogmatic manner*] Guess you taught me some things despite your efforts, Father. Hey - Why are they looking at me like that? Did I say that out loud? Ugh. Well, maybe no one knows Chinese.


Malcolm returns any looks he get with a slightly embarrassed smile, then looks around, trying to figure out what's next. He finds a seat, within earshot of the young guy with five kills.

 

[Festy_Dog]

"Hey, I take it you did badly too? I can't believe I only managed to destroy 5 mechs before they got me. It's nice of these guys to give us some advice though."

Kevin does his best not to look mortified by Ryan's skill. He didn't know what the kid was piloting, and the way in which he spoke suggested that he thought dropping five mechs was considered under par.

"Well, let me get one thing straight with you," Kevin says, and smiles, "You did well. Thats why you're here. If you didn't do as good as you did, you'd be walking back to whereever you sleep by now. Actually, even if you did somewhat worse than you did, you'd still be sitting here I guess."

Kevin looks Ryan up and down. The kid had considerable skill, but Kevin was certain that Ryan's naivety had some affect on his selection. It became unclear whether playing dumb or playing smart would get himself through any further selection processes. A happy medium was always the way to go at times like these.

"Name's Kevin. Kevin Mayne," he says, and extends a hand to shake, "And where did you train to get an idea in your head that how you performed out there was bad? You're being too hard on yourself my young friend."

 

[Drakknyte32]

"Hi I'm Ryan, Ryan Dale. I learned how to fight in an old simulator on my planet. That and shooting at desert runners."

"I guess my learning on the simulator is why I thought I was doing bad. I often get up to 8 kills on the one at home. But that one I've had years of practice on and it isn't really the same quality of the ones they have here."

"Actually I probably wouldn't have made that many kills if I hadn't gotten lucky and stumbled onto the back of that heavy mech. And all the others I got were lights."

 

[Festy_Dog]

Kevin nodded understandingly, an old simulator on some backwater planet didn't seem impossible. He just assumed that the kid had spent scary amounts of time using the one simulator over and over to attain the level of skill he had now. Whether at any point Ryan had stepped into an actual battlemech was another matter. Kevin was under the impression he was talking to some gamer type, not exactly what he had hoped for when he showed up.

"Hehe, five mechs of any kind is good. Though by the sound of it your favoured choice of mech seems on the heavy side; assault, heavy?" Kevin comes to the decision to just let the kid keep talking, he might say something interesting or amusing at some point.

There's a brief moment when the Kuritan woman's attention is on Ryan. If she was surprised as Kevin was to see him get through she hid it impeccably well. He noticed though that she didn't come over to resume whatever conversation she was having with Ryan before, she was in fact avoiding interacting with anyone close to her. Maybe she was worried about someone with the same temperament as the Steiner woman pulling a weapon on her. He smiled at the thought of this somehow becoming a huge Mexican standoff. Though as interesting as the Kuritan woman could be Kevin had his plate full talking to the rookie. He reigned in his thoughts in time to catch Ryan's reply.

 

[Drakknyte32]

"A Maruader Mad-3D. I do like heavies but I practice with that one because that's the mech I actually have."

 

[Maerdwyn]

Despite the young man's self-deprecation, Malcolm is still impressed. He also figures that if he going to get farther along in whatever selection process is occurring here, he needs a little more information about what's going on.

He stands and approaches the two men, smiling pleasantly. "Excuse, gentlemen. I do not mean to intrude, but after hearing Mr. Dale, here, speak a moment ago, I just wanted to say that I too, had some luck in the sims, but still did not approach your results. You can be very pleased with your performance, I think." His accent is noticeable, but easily understood. He offers his hand to both Ryan and Kevin. "My name is Malcolm Zhang." After the handshakes, he says, "The Dark Knights have certainly assembled a large amount of hardware and skill." He doesn't add, Hope I can keep up. "Does either of you know what their purpose is here today?"

 

[Radiant]

Yuriko

So, that left the young Kuritan, who was currently on her own. Her body language was fairly stand offish. Ironside sometimes knew when he wasn't really wanted. He just didn't quite care. Besides, though he'd heard about the Combine's traditions, he'd not met one of their fabled Mechwarrior-Samurai and was curious.

He moseyed by her, and offered a polite "Ma'am" to get her attention.

"So, just out of curiousity, what is a, unless I miss my guess, well born Kuritan Samurai doing in the back room of a fairly insignificant mechwarrior stable on the Game World?" he asked conversationally.

For a long moment Yuriko just stares at Samuel. At first she just tries to decide if he is searching for trouble but obviously he is not. Then she fights down her anger and shame about her current situation while she considers that he might try to mock her but despite that it could be meant like that it does not really sound like it. Since it seems just like normal interest to her she finally decides that she is probably bound to give an answer. Considering that she doesn't really know herself what she's doing here and while she thinks of an answer she also guesses that it is probably wasted effort to try to explain the differences between her warrior family and the true samurai of the combine.

All in all that makes a very long time of staring from the totaly unmoving face of a lady with two not too nice looking blades on her back.

"Strange circumstances and a long string of bad luck. And above all, neccesity. In the end it doesn't matter how strange the things you have to do to fullfill your duty are."
Then she finally does answer she sounds as friendly as the first time she spoke to him but this time it does seem a lot more sincere.

 

[Drakknyte32]

Ryan shakes the newcomers hand.

"Pleased to meet you Malcolm. But please, just call me Ryan. It still feels wierd being called Mr. Dale."

"I thought we were here because of a recruitment drive by the Dark Knights. That's what it says on the posters at least."