Lancer: The Beautiful Machine IC

[n0ble]

The Last Call

Liz is the first to reply, chasing down her words with a gulp of what looks like incredibly purified water from her hedron-mug. She speaks to Lupo, seemingly back on-shift for the intensity "Have you considered importing a limbic suppressor? Might require an entire amygdalin overhaul-might trend a bit too close to full fight-flight suppression. Bad for a pilot to lack those kind of instincts." Liz takes a sip of from her water than withdraws a small reciever from where it's hitched at her belt. A small handheld position tracker, crude to look at, but functional for how it displays the distance between two points. "SLATE's here." The Lady Kareftis shoots a dubious glance at Liz before giving answer to Derek's question. "Well. That clinches things then. We start now." Irimloza pauses for a moment, letting her response to Derek's query fill the air before Karst cuts through it with answers for Lupo, Holden and Levi.

"Not so much an issue of discovery as it's going to be timing. Once the same strata as the jammer SLATE will track it down. Not a question of if, but when. Ideally, we time the discovery and destruction of the jammer with the train coming back here. Or far to here enough that it turning back to Klataua isnt viable. Means no reinforcements from the Capital. Means its just us inmates. And the screws. You take the time to repair to full strength. Once the jammer is down we can start printing a few of our frames in advance of your return." Kareftis and Liz both look to the Old Man as he says this, the latter clearly anticipating the prospect of mechanized combat more than the former, clear for how the younger woman grins. "Its not much. They'll almost certainly go for the Ghetto in some capacity. But alongside what we've got scuttled in terms of more conventional armaments it should be enough to hold until your back and ready to tip things down here. Then," The Old Man punctuates his words with a familiar nod at Biff, made stiff for his age, before taking a hearty gulp of his beer. A little bit dribbles from the side of Karst's mouth before he wipes it away with a forearm. In the wane light of the room, it becomes apparent that Emil's old Albatross Uniform is self-cleaning. "The surface." Its a plan that suits Emil's history: with the type of mechanized warfare utilized by the Albatross it makes sense to all present that the Old Man would favor a style of warfare that utilizes what he knows. Speed.

Kareftis picks up the slack where the Old Man goes silent: "Your shared access to frames implies a rudimentary competency when it comes to operational capacity when part of a whole. As such, your chain of command on a squadron level is entirely your own purview." This last word sounds strange and half-hushed from the Karrakin noble woman, as though she's uncomfortable with using the Armory's word for their sphere of influence. Like some kind of legendary apex predator that doesnt belong on Shotora. She recovers, and continues. "In as much as we can, we've managed to locate and acquire several additional assets. We cant afford you all of them-" A grin tugs at the corner of Izrimloza's mouth."-but enough that there should be some leftover for our resistance here." She turns her smile on Holden, her lips a firm but reassuring smile.

All three look beyond you as the door to the room creaks open, the same non-descript man who showed you in ushering in a small quadrupedal frame no bigger than a nobleman's toy-dog. SLATE's NHP casket is carriaged underneath the slopped back hull of the frame's black, the entire thing clearly some sort of survey drone that's been reappropriated to serve as the smallest body in the NHP's possession. A small screen no bigger than Liz's distance measurer sits in the center of the NHP's body a flat faced emoji displayed on it.

"You're late."

The flat line that passes for the emoji's mouth becomes a wavy line "Nice scanner, dweeb." The line settles from tachycardic to a sideways "P" with the loop hanging down. Then the little drone gallops forward and around two supports before jumping up onto Liz's crossed legs with an "Oof." All assembled the three-four now-turn expectantly to you.

Spoiler: OOC

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I think for this mission everyone can just pick a single reserve, no roll this time-not really in a situation where scarcity is an issue at the moment (and these assets have been specifically prepped for your selection). When Karst, Liz and Irimloza print their frames to stall things out in the Pit, they'll make use whatever reserves you dont pick. This wont have a mechanical impact on how things proceed, but maybe a fictional

Summary of things: Karst, Kareftis & Liz + SLATE will print their own frames out once the jammer is down-it doesnt really matter, but they're all effectively LL 2 right now from a fiction to mechanics perspective so they'll need it down to: a) print off their non-GMS frames and b) maximize the advantage that comes with unrestricted printer access by using these frames to holdout-they wont be wasting print material you could use on repairs via printing off GMS frames for themselves, especially given their familiarity with said frames over GMS models. This, combined with any remaining reserves left to them should be sufficient to hold out against an initial wave the Warden deploys until you arrive back, rest up and really tip things in the Revolutions favor (theres got to be a better name for the movement-something for us all to discuss OOC ). I'll be posting an ongoing reserve list in the first OOC post later on