RP: Origin OIF Karakoram episode 1.1: A New Hunt

Destiny was quiet as she usually seemed to be as she followed the others out to her mech. Her custom mech, The Xiaah, sat before her with it's odd color scheme decked out in her own equipment. The heavy maul looking weapon rested head down at the Mech's side and on the left arm a large module that held the image of a shield on the front, it looked unremarkable for the most part besides the fact that it was the largest mech in the group being the M5 Knight model.

She turned to look at the others in the bay area and spoke up. "Are we free to do a check over and enter?" She asked aloud.

"No time for painting but I'm sure Jennifer's crew can swing loading one onto your mech before our first sortie!" Nora answered the twins, grinning and winking at the head Mechanic as if telling her she should do it, but in a non threatening way. And if anybody else needs to update their preferred loadout, then Jenny here is the woman to see! She's got the know how and the whatnot in order to get it done! besides, we have a little bit till we're out of FTL and into battle, so there's no time like the present to get ready. So, yes, Oracle, now's a perfect time to do that. Everyone else, too, double check your rides, otherwise they might get a bit bumpier than we want!" and without much more, the bubbly be-space-suited freespacer hopped through the hatch into the mecha bay containing her own unit and immediately began floating due to the null gravity withing, using practiced methods to move herself through the air and over towards her obnoxiously painted M3 unit, Bangarang.

"I don't think you'll be able to use two, we don't have time to fit sub arms before the mission, and you two still need to go talk to Jennifer about your loadout." Charles said to the twins as he pointed towards the way they should head. "I'm going to check on my frame, so if you want me to take you there you'll have to wait a few minutes."

He took advantage of the null-gee environment and pushed off the railing of the walkway he and the twins were standing on, propelling himself in a gentle trajectory towards his green and white M3 unit, and began giving it a look-over.

The twins didn't even hear his last line, having taken off as soon as his arm pointed the way, they didn't need to know where they were going because adventure would always lead to victory! Or something like that at least.

After a while of blindly running around they made it to the office the needed to be in and burst through the door babbling over each other about getting big guns and directions and how Anna knew her way around better but couldn't cook.

"So how about it, can we have one? Pretty pleaseee!" Bella eventually asked, both turning to face the mechanic with expressions full of hope and wonder.
"Yeah, can we have the big gun!" Anna chirped in, pointing to picture of it on their infopad.

Malik, true to his new nature, stayed out of the hijinks and childish shenanigans. Mostly because he feared that with his luck, even getting close would cause him some more trouble or heartache, that he would be punished by the powers that be for having fun with more cruelities.

Ignoring his Hank Hill-like stoicism, Malik was businesslike and efficient as he planned out what to do. This was reflected in the weapons load of his Nohman: Missiles. Lots of missiles to back up the twin gauss cannons over the frame's shoulder. Clearly he planned to stay as far away from the fighting as possible, but he kept a single chain straight just in case things went poorly.

Destiny, known as Oracle to the others, gave Nora a nod before she started to look over her suit. She kicked off the floor and floated around her suit in an effort to make sure everything was hooked up correctly and everything was in place. Her weapon, the hammer, seemed to be in working order, along with the shield module that rested on the left forearm. She went so far as the check the rocket boosters on the back of the suit as well, to make sure they were secured in place and hooked up correctly (though she would never know if that was the truth or not with her limited technical knowledge...)

Once satisfied everything was in place correctly, she floated to the cockpit and entered. An internal systems check took the woman just a few moments as it was one of the things she had practiced religiously on the last trip. But as she progressed through her checks and made sure she got the clearance, her Mech would thrum to life in it's dock, waiting to be given the ok to start moving. "Oracle in the Xiaah, ready to move out on orders."

Jennifer looked up from the list of parts she was reviewing, and stared at the pair in front of her. "Which big gun." She stated. There was no question, there was no confusion, there was simply her trying to be sure of what was being asked. "We've a half dozen different models of heavy guns available to fit onto the frames. So just saying 'big gun' tells me nothing." She said.

Of course, as Malik considered that, he forgot to inform the person who could install all of that. In fact, the instructions given to the work crew assigned to Malik's mecha were in the process of removing the default, factory issued loadout from the mecha, and there was no equipment located nearby to be put on in it's place. It seemed that Jennifer wasn't joking about going so far as to effectively unarm a mecha if she wasn't given a loadout form.

The crew at Destiny's mecha though, were putting in the final touches to lock everything into place. That being said, as she settled into the mecha, the work scrambled, the one overseeing the work hitting the emergency kill switch, if only because she damned near fried some of the work crew. "Damn it Oracle!" Josaphine, the woman assigned as head of Oracle's work crew yelled. "Check your fucking bay before you kick over the engines! We ain't even done installing your jets!"

The two Forwardmost bays on the Karakoram, those being bay one on the Port side and Two on the Starboard side, were the bays holding everyone's Mechs. Bay one housed Bangarang and Bellona, as well as the unnamed Mecha which now belonged to Cheylarus and the twins. Bay two housed Xiaah, Scrapyard, and two M4's, one of which had now been designated Nohman by its pilot, Malik. These two Mecha bays were humming with activity as Jennifer's crews busily went about doing final checks and making sure everything was ready for the mission.

As Charles glided his way across Bay 1, Nora gave the young man a friendly wave, before landing on her own unit and beginning to chat with her own ground crew about how the Mecha was doing, what details were needing to be finished, and so on, joking with them about new scuffs in her paintjob and the like before hearing Oracle's ready announcement over the comms. This, in turn, caused the team lead to giggle out loud, probably almost as obnoxiously as Bangarang's paint job, before responding to the Lorath woman.

"Oracle, Hun, we aren't heading out for at least another thirty minute, you can relax for a bit and I'll let everyone know when it's go time!"

Before Malik appeared an almost ghostly visage of a middle-aged woman, who appeared to be of Nepleslian descent, she was, however, slightly transparent, and sported neon green hair with matching eyes. She was wearing a standard Origin uniform, however, instead of legs, her lower half sort of ended in a whispy way, almost like a ghost or a Genie, sprung forth from the confines of a lamp.

"May I help you, sir?" this glowing ghost asked, before continuing, "I can file that load sheet for you, or point you in the correct direction to submit it directly to the maintenance lead, if you'd like?"

"Uh, I forgot what it was called, but Charles knows! It's the big one that's hanging up on the wall down there with the really big barrel." Anna tried to explain while Bella sprinted back out of the office and as fast as she could down to Charles, completely unphased by any potential faster methods of contact, bursting into the bay the girl didn't hesitate to leap towards her target. With a cry of exhilaration, the twin crashed into Charles head first.

"HEY! We need your help, Jennifer wants to know what the gun is but she can't understand us." The girl spat quickly before grabbing his arm and attempting to push off from the mech to send them back towards the railing.

The two young adults went flying backwards into the mech as a result of the collision, spinning twice in the air before being stopped somewhat violently by its armor plating. Bella was spared a direct impact, as Charles' head and upper body ended up taking the brunt of the impact, though she was not spared fully. As the two decelerated, her head was sent on a collision course with his, and their foreheads met with a loud bonk.

A few heartbeats passed awkwardly with their faces near each other before the twin spoke, and Charles was pulled away by the arm. Though he made brief attempts at protest, there was simply no way to stop his and Bella's momentum until they reached the railing near the entrance to the mech bays. "Wait, I still have to run through some checks! Do you know what might happen if I don't?"

Thankfully she couldn't be seen just then in the cockpit of her suit, otherwise they would see the scarlet that overtook her cheeks and lit her pale complexion bright red. She let out a small sigh and cursed herself internally before she calmed herself down and keyed up her comms.

"I... Apologize for that. A bit over eager I guess... I'll make it up to the crew tonight I promise." The least the Lorath woman could do was buy them food and drinks tonight after this mission was over with for nearly incinerating the lot of them. Instead for now she just sat back in her seat and went over her systems again to make sure at least the electronics had were ok. Otherwise the larger woman just waited and twiddled her thumbs as she began to grow nervous over her first mission sortie. Even when she had been lost all those years ago in the attack on her convoy, she had simply been out on a diplomatic mission. Her ship had been armed to the teeth for sure, and she had a full fleet with her, but she never expected to see combat. The thought of being back out in space, fighting it out brought flashes of panic in her chest as her palms great sweaty, her knees began to rattle a little. Flashes of the invaders on her bridge played in her mind, the sheer panic that had brought and she had to calm her spiking heart rate down lest someone find out the normally calm woman was nervous.

Cheylarus had decided to hang back a little and prop herself up on a bench just outside the threshold of the zero-g mech bay, a potted fern keeping the quiet young Nepleslian company as her laptop was opened and the faint metallic clacking sounds resumed. She was still listening to the whole conversation but Chey had work to do, said work consisting of the young blonde-tipped brunette cross-referencing a series of weapons sheets against a spreadsheet she had opened up - she was no ace but combat was nothing new to the girl and she'd ran enough service flights in the frames of others to know how they handled, she could shoot well too and had the NSMC to thank for that, so confidence in her abilities was at least on her side if nothing else.

After a few minutes it was all neatly typed up and attached to an email along with a request to retag her assigned mech's systems to the nickname "Jagermeister" for now rather than just stick with the factory-standard ID belonging to the M3 she was going to fly. The email was flicked through the ship's infrastructure and quickly arrived as a new work-order for Jennifer's crews. With a sniff, Chey hopped back onto her feet and tucked the laptop beneath one arm before walking for the hatch, gently pushing off the ground once she felt the gravity fade. Sending herself lazily floating over to where the others were assembled and only stopping when one metal hand gently clunked against the stock-painted hull of the soon to be renamed Jagermeister.

"Sorry guys, got lost in my own head for a bit, yikes~" she offered with a shrug, Chey's oversized jacket and loose strands of hair slowly warping and bending out around her dainty figure as though she were sitting at the bottom of a lake.

"So uh anyway, when are we supposed to get changed? I assume not last minute because that's just kinda dumb obviously but I'm still wondering, this isn't Yamatai afterall so we don't fly naked..." Chey finished, finding that a little funnier than she thought it would be, or at least funny enough for the mousy girl to chuckle under her breath as her mech was given a quick once-over.

After watching the flying tackle between one of the twins (which one was that?) and Charles, Nora sat a little dumbfounded before being snapped out of it by Cheylarus' question.
"Oh! uhh, There's changing rooms in the passageways from the ready deck for you to get into your APS, Miss Decker!" the small type three 'spacer answered, motioning to her own suit as she did so. "You can get to them directly from the bays so it's not too far. I don't use those too much since I'd make everything radioactive but you guys can feel free to pick a locker and change into your suits! The black suits with green piping are for anybody to take, but the colored ones already belong to people, so I'd suggest not stealing those!"

Confident that she had given a good answer, Nora went back to checking over Bangarang and chatting with her ground crew, although she did pause a moment to send everyone an automated count down to their estimated launch time, with time points for when they would be exiting hyperspace as well. the timer said exactly 30 minute more FTL travel, with another 15 minutes estimated before launch.

Jennifer's screen would also pop up several more notifications- One of Cheylarus' loadout choices, as well as a 'pending' for Malik's actual choices.

Oracle's Bay

The lead tech shakes her head. "It's fine. Give us 5 minutes and those jet's will be done and ready for a test. We'll make sure to be out of the way when you check 'em!" She reported, giving the techs finishing up a thumbs up to actually do so now that they were not at risk of accidental friendly cooking.

-----

Mecha Maintenance Office

Jennifer looked over at her terminal as a ping sounded indicating notifications. While she waited on the answer of which gun the pair were wanting, she reviewed the data. Hitting and holding a control with one hand, a loud clieeep sounded in the room. "Bethany, shooting you OIM-53615's loadout. Also, go ahead and check the Ident on it to be 'Jagermister'." She said, tapping on her screen with the other, while letting go of the intercom control. Soon a voice could be heard replying back via the office's intercom.

"Got it Boss. Jagermister'll get fitted right up! Shouldn't take us long."

Returning her focus to Anna. She figured she'd wait. She trusted her people to make sure Scrapyard was in good shape and ready to deploy, including all it's spares for the fight ahead. The only non-combat mecha in one of the combat mecha bays, she was an oddity. But, as those who'd been around on the previous trip out with the ship, just because it was a redneck uparmored support mecha usually used on planets for construction or the like, didn't mean it wasn't without its own tricks. Especially with Jennifer's know-how.

"You don't need to run checks, that's what the technicians are for! So c'mon we need you to tell Jen what the gun is called so we can have it before we get there." Bella chirped while continuing to drag the other person along behind her despite his protests, she was reasonably strong for her stature though nothing superhuman. "in fact I can tell you what will happen, the mech will work perfectly as intended and you will be able to fulfill your purpose of carrying ammo for my sister and I."

Meanwhile back in the office Anna had taken a seat and was waiting impatiently for her sisters return hopefully with either a name or number for the gun, instead, she witnessed the other girl burst through the door triumphantly with Charles in tow, that worked too she supposed. "Can you tell her what you told us? We don't want to miss out, pretty please?" Anna asked, pleading eyes digging into Charles' soul.

"It's uh, just Chey~" the mousy Nepper frowned slightly before rolling her eyes, refocusing on the 'spacer with her lips curled into a slight, crooked smirk, "But thank you, Miss Nora, I'm going to go get changed now if that's okay? because I am wearing way too many layers to be comfortable - feel like I'm drowning in all this uniform, it does help keep the ship's chill off my kidneys though I guess," Cheylarus shrugged before hooking the ends of her shoes beneath one of her M3's armoured plates, anchoring herself for the moment.

"I'm not like... needed here for the time being, am I?"

As Charles was pulled into Jennifer's office, he appeared to be doing his best to adjust to the rapid changes in gravity which, while usually not disorienting, seemed to be a bit more difficult while being pulled behind someone. He paused for a moment as Anna stared at him, before giving in. "There's just no stopping you two is there?"

He stepped up to the desk slightly and began to explain to the head mechanic. "They want the K1-3400, as giant rifles, I think. Do you think that's doable within the timespan before we sortie?" He asked, as he began to make a list on a mobile terminal of other things that might be useful for a sniper unit, like a smaller secondary weapon and lots of ammo for the main one. "I have an idea of some other things they might find useful as well."

Mecha Bay One
"You do you!" the chipper Freespacer responded to the much quieter Nepleslian, letter her go off to the locker room to be changed. She also chuckled a bit at watching what was going on with Charles and one of the twins, before they, too disappeared back into the ship. Her attentions were once again set to the preperationsof her Mecha. Truth be told, the small Freespacer woman was extremely excited. She had flown Mecha in combat before, and had flown them for years, but, it had been a while since she'd done anything other than training, or as it was officially reported 'Testing'. This time, they had a solid lead and were likely to actually come into contact with their enemies.

Ready Deck, Jennifer's office.
From the Hallway, an average-heighted, Dirty blonde technician watched in amusement as a small girl dragged a slightly smaller man down the hallway, and into her Bosses office. Intrigued, the woman, whose name was Tory and had been with the ship on its previous outings chuckled, recognizing the Diminutive Nepleslian Pilot known as Charles being on the receiving end of some kind of fiasco or another. She approached the door, just in time to hear the girl's demands (And look at that, there was another just like her!) as well as Charles' translation. Knowing that she could do it before they dropped out of hyperspace, the woman popped her head into the office and interjected.

"Well, If I can get Charles' help, we can prepare at least one before we're out of hyperspace, probably not more than that, though. I'll call my team and we can get on top of it if'n you don't mind, Boss."

With little more than a metallic Cheylarus pushed off from her mech's chest, slowly tumbling through the air two or three times before coming to a halt on the railed platform that lead back to a gravity-affected area, the pale Nepper letting out a small sigh as her weight returned before moving off to the locker rooms - laptop still hugged close to her chest as well-worn sneakers padded down the hall.

Once there, Chey shimmied out of her half-uniform and sort of just stuffed it into the locker she'd claimed earlier before sauntering over to wash her face in a nearby hand basin, splashing the cold water over her freckled features and drying off her metal hands her mind began wandering back to her laptop.

Sufficed to say, since she had some time before they actually needed to do stuff, Chey had decided to stretch out chest-down across one of the nearby benches like a cat who'd found a warm bit of sunlight and log in to one of the tech-focused forums she often perused - Chey could care less about how little she was wearing, where she grew up the constant heat warranted exposed arms, legs and midriffs so whoever entered would be greeted with the sight of her pale and toned figure wrapped up in an nsmc sports bra and underwear, propped up on both elbows as she scrolled through countless new posts from the past couple hours.

Charles turned to the technician, giving a small wave hello. "Sounds like a good plan Tori. I'll need to get changed before we start though. I'd rather avoid a rush to get my pilot suit on at the last minute. If Jennifer decides against using the big guns, send me a message please." He said, as he began to make his way out the door. He stopped before exiting the room, and looked back at the twins. "If you feel like it, I'm sure we could use your help getting the gun ready too."

Charles then began to make his way towards the locker room adjacent to the mecha bay that Bellona was being stored in. The passageways of the Karakoram directing him towards the room. He entered through the door that was nearest to his locker, and made his way over to it. His jacket, shoes and pants were the first to come off, allowing him to begin slipping on the skintight green pilot suit.

He then slipped out of his normal shirt, and tied the upper half of the pilot suit around his waist, and began to fold the clothes that he had taken off, placing them carefully in the locker before shutting it, and looking around for a place to sit while he put on the rest of the suit, at which point he noticed Chey stretched across one of the benches. Seeing fellow pilots with very little on wasn't exactly uncommon in the NSN, but at Origin, seeing people lounging around in a state of undress was a fairly infrequent sight, even within locker rooms like this.

"Uhhh..." He began, turning slightly away so as to preserve what modesty remained in the room, "You might want to get changed soon, we'll be sortieing not too long from now."