Episode 16 - R&R [4th]

[EZero8]

Wes shot Marvin a glare with the comment. So even he caught wind of the train wreck that might happen. Obviously this whole... thing... on the Dervish was not working. At this point, Wes had finished his burger, and wiped his mouth before responding.

"Not yet... But if I find things unsuitable, I just might do so," he replied. Unlike the others, he couldn't bring out a grin with all of this s*** going on. "It all depends on Abbey's final decision though. I'm not the one in charge."

Curren then heard the new guy's (the one with the pink MS) comment about the rampant stupidity and chuckled. "Get used to it 'Pink Lemonade.' We're all a bunch of wrecks on this ship. Better for you to bash, I guess."

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

-Hamburg-
-MS Deck-


"Hi," said Jeriden as he walked up to the man who was standing in front of the Nemo's cockpit, "Ensign Jeriden Kai, I'm one of the new pilots. And before you ask, I haven't been given a new uniform yet, that's the reason for the civvie clothes. You are...?"

[Commissar Bright Noa]

"LtCmdr. Ashlyn.' the man said and ran off after saying a few things to others.

"That a**hole... too busy being a hotshot to properly introduce himself." John said under his breath. "Well might as well go back and introduce myself and then I might go to sleep. God, I must be getting old." John thought as he went off.

[wonton bob]

-Hamburg-
-MS Deck-

As Bernard walks back toward the Nemo, he decides not to dwell on the new CO's confusion and give him the benefit of the doubt. But it was amusing for a bit.

I must have blinked and missed his jaw drop

The cockpit opens up again as Bernard takes a deep breath but before he can confront his fears another visitor has appeared.

"Hi, Ensign Jeriden Kai, I'm one of the new pilots. And before you ask, I haven't been given a new uniform yet, that's the reason for the civvie clothes. You are...?"

Bernard, a little eager to enter the cockpit now has to wait as another obstacle has materialized before him.

"I'm ensign Bernard Korbel. Welcome aboard the Hamburg. It's a tough little ship but don't let it fool you, its been in some fierce fights which explains the high mortality rate. But don't worry some of us are still alive to give ya a few pointers." Bernard answers with a smirk and a thumbs up.

Ha. I needed that. Sorry Jeriden.

He also unknowingly enters the Nemo without realizing it and with a wave of a hand starts up the 360 degree monitor. Raising his voice so he can be heard from inside.

"I'm just pulling your leg, Jeriden. Sorry, it's just been a drag around here lately. As for your uniforms..they should be in your quarters which shouldn't be hard to find since there's only 4 pilots here. You just missed our new CO so I suggest you get something to eat then get a accustomed with your Nemo...plently of bored mechanics around if something needs to be adjusted other than that there's not much to do around here."

whoa. how'd did I get inside?

[Goose]

Clute groans. And groans. And groans some more.

"It's official, Curren, Heyden," he says, shaking his head. "The three of us are the only sane and reasonable men left on this ship."

Jack meanwhile, is beginning to dig into his own burger, but pauses and looks at Jacob confused. "Jake," he says slowly, "I'm not sure what you mean by that. I tried to talk to Celeste again and again. She was highly abusive and distrustful, and accused us of not trusting her when her very actions showed she didn't trust us. Sorry, but I'm not too keen on her at the moment.

"As for the beam rifle, nobody in Team 1 uses a beam rifle, so if we swapped Celeste over there, and took in Wes, we'd have 2 beam rifles."

"Can it, Jack," says Clute, sighing. "Damn me and my attempts at humor that don't work. There will be no reassignments, alright? Just suck it up."

"I pity you guys," says Jack to Heyden and Wes. "You're in a team that... well, Team 1 has had some birthing pains, and Wes is off to a grieving team to replace one of their own. They'll resent you for replacing their old guy, even if it ain't your fault; it's how many units treat KIA replacements. Anyway, we're around here. If you need the beam rifle... I think depending on who's using a beam rifle in 1, we might be able to work something out..."

Clute merely sighs and shakes his head, and spares a glace at the door that Eddie has left. "What I don't get is how can unit cohesion be a bad thing. Just more idiocy."

"Loweno was a good skipper," said Jack quietly.

"Abbey is the captain on this ship. This isn't Hamburg. Suck it up, Jack."

[mcred23]

-The Dervish-
-Mess Hall-

"Not yet... But if I find things unsuitable, I just might do so," Wes said, his face and tone serious, "It all depends on Abbey's final decision though. I'm not the one in charge."

Marvin nodded at the comment, when Wes replied to Heyden's comment. He sat listening for a few minutes, overhearing some stuff from the other table about beam rifles and transfers. He rubbed an itch on his nose, "Let me take a guess at what Eddie told you..." He said to Wes, pausing for a moment to think, "He probably said in some terms you're the low man in the team now..." Cowboy paused, trying to think up some other words, but only came up with, "Right?".

Ian, who had just drained the last of his coffee, turned to face Wes, "By the way Wes, if you want a beam rifle, ask if anyone in the other teams aren't going to use there. You know we're only alloted one per team, and Eddie's loves that thing." He stood, grabbing his tray, "I bet Eddie went to the Ready Room-"

"He did." Marvin reported, guessing.

"-So I'll go check on him. I'll see you gentlemen later." And with that, he left to drump his tray and leave. Marvin nodded, before turning back to face Wes, expecting to hear a string of negative comments about being in the team.

[Wedge14]

"Don't call me that." Heyden quickly growled to the pilot that refered to him as pink lemon aid.

He listened quietly as more people complained and added their own thoughts and opinions on the matter and explained it to the newcomers. the way they were prattling on about a beam rifle was just idiotic. Heyden needed to get out of the messhall before he popped a nerve and started slamming lunch trays down people's throats.

"Maybe you all should worry more about the Titan's beam rifles then your own."

Heyden said standing up leaving his lunch tray and mess behind.

[Lans]

- Hamburg -
- Mess Hall -

It's already past lunchtime, the room is almost empty but there's a few people still lingering around. Randy asked two sandwiches and a glass of coffee. He sipped his coffee, tasted the flavour and began eating his sandwiches. He finished the coffee and leaves it at the table. Still eats his sandwiches, Randy heading towards the Bridge. He passed some intercom within the ship corridor, he thought about it for a moment before dialed for the Bridge.

He heard a tone or two before someone answering his call, "Yes, this is Ltjg. Randy Emington of the replacement pilot. Is Captain of the ship currently present on the deck?”

(( Just to make it clear, I'm asking for Capt. Loweno ))

[King Monkey]

Jacob's relatively stable mood is quickly deteriorating. It seems like he's surrounded by people with bad attitudes. It's becoming apparent that every team on the Dervish has a malcontent. Team 1 has a newcomer who apparently thinks the way everything is run on his new ship is wrong and that they're a bunch of idiots despite their accomplishments in the last battle.

Team 2's leader can't stop himself from berating and attacking a fellow pilot and anyone else who comes to the man's defense or disagrees with his own opinion.

And in Team 3, Jack can't wait to get rid of one of their teammates despite the fact they're the only team in the entire fleet who didn't have a roster change after the debacle that was their last battle. It's a team that's been together since Jacob got to be a pilot, but apparently, Lt. David wants to fix what no one else thinks is broke.

"She's just not friendly," he replies aloud after letting Heyden and Eckardy have their little rants. "That doesn't mean she doesn't like us. But, whatever. It's not like anybody on this whole ship is happy unless they're complaining about something. The Titans will be doing you poor bastards a favor when they blow the ship to Hell and end all your miserable lives."

Rising, he snatches up his tray and storms over to dump the contents and cast it on the conveyor belt that takes it to be cleaned. Then, shoving his hands in his pockets, he stalks outside, looking up only long enough to try to pick a direction to go that neither Eckardy nor Heyden took.

[Commissar Bright Noa]

John walked into the mess hall and saw that this place wasn't as busy as the Irish class. He went to the kitchen and got a hamburger. "Well, this place ain't so bad, I might as well look at the MS deck and he strolled off.

[EZero8]

Curren let out an audible sigh at the whole spur of comments on the beam rifle. "Jesus... it's not the godd*mn beam rifle I'm ticked off about. I'm well-versed with the clay shooter as well, though it's not my weapon of choice. I'll find a way to adapt. Survival depends on that anyways.

"Most of the crap I'm tired of is having to shuffle from team to team like a bunch of useless spare parts," he admitted. It was about time he spoke his mind openly about what's bothering him. "No more than a few operations later, I'll be off to replace another unlucky soul on a decimated team. Or next thing I know, I'll could be on a Sally-K kicking it with a bunch of rookies, because of my tiny shred of dignity for having survived to this point. It happened with the whole Karaba deal, and it's happening now."

Wes shakes his head before standing up to toss his trash before continuing.

"Well... since apparently everyone's still in a foul mood even weeks after that crap we put up in the Shoals, I'll take my leave. There's really nothing more to get out of my chest anyways," he says as he tossed his stuff into the waste mechanism. "Chill out, guys."

[Cardi Doorl]

- Amman City -
- Spaceport -

Jonas Anderson, clad in a pale green Polo shirt and plain brown pants, stubbed out his cigarette as he entered the port in which the Salamis Kai-class Chuikov, his mothership, was moored. He'd spent a good deal of off-time around the city, but within the next few hours he'd be on duty again. That would provide just enough time to carefully store the fresh food he'd bought downtown, rest up a bit, then get ready for duty.

Jonas would need that rest, considering he hadn't slept at all the previous night. He sighed and kicked himself mentally. Throughout the days, he could convince himself, and really believe, that he was done worrying about his screwups in the shoals. At night, though, he had nothing but his thoughts to keep him company. It was during those times when the nagging doubts crawled right back into his mind. Vantz's face was everywhere, and he wouldn't let Jonas get a wink of sleep.

A new guy had recently been assigned to the Chuikov to fill the slot Vantz had vacated. Jonas had yet to see the guy, considering he hadn't shown up by the time Jonas last went off-duty.

Not to worry, though. As Jonas took an elevator up to embark upon his ship, he thought about his team. Jonas planned on showing Caroline and Julian some authentic New Yark cuisine. His culinary skills were admittedly meager at best, but Jonas figured, with a mental smirk, that rank would prevent those two from criticizing the cooking too much. As for this new Ryu guy... well, Jonas would have to see how he'd work out.

After showing his AEUG credentials to the ship's security guard, Jonas stepped in and made his way to the break room to store his armful of foodstuffs.

[Psyden]

--September 29th, UC 0079--
--Portside Cargo hold of Columbus Class Transport Talon--

She was right. The Federation had begun developing a combat pod based on the SP-W03, but the weapon in front of her only bares a passing resemblance to her beloved work pod. The wide canopy of the worker pod has been done way with, now replaced with 3 small windows. The Ball is also bulkier with the addition of armor, not to mention the gun turret mounted on top. But Celeste’s is different from even the RB-79 in production, with slightly thicker armor and greatly improved thrusters, her Ball, nicknamed the ‘Pearl’ because of its white color (a name that has also be given to Celeste), is superior to the mass production types. Even the gun is different, a 90mm 3 barreled gatling gun with a counter-thruster to cope with recoil. The 90mm was one of the options for a main weapon, but it lost out to the 120 and 180 recoilless. Instead of scrapping the unit and its weapon, it was assigned to Celeste after the 5th Evaluation Team was disbanded. It and her wound up in the 219th Escort Squadron, which specializes in escorting ships through ‘Hazardous Navigation Areas’, which in layman’s terms are Shoal Zones.

Celeste turns around to look at the large container secured on the other side of the cargo hold.

Looks like my Pearl is already obsolete…

The pilot entrusted with one of the Federations first production model Mobile Suits, who was sitting on a crate near his suit has seemingly wonder off somewhere. Walking over to where the pilot was to see if she could tell where he went, Celeste notices that he left something behind, a book titled ‘Operations Manual’.

With a grin, Celeste picks it up.

“It ain’t like I won’t be piloting one of these things in the near future, so it shouldn’t hurt if I get a head start on learning on how do use one…”

With her justification, Celeste begins to flip through the manual.

--October 1st, UC 0079--
--Crew Quarters aboard Columbus Class Transport Talon--

Celeste is flipping through the manual for probably the 3rd time, mentally picturing the control lay-out and practicing the various sequences for controlling it with imaginary throttles, buttons, and so on when a voice cries out over the ship’s intercom.

“RED ALERT! RED ALERT! BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

Celeste only has time grab the edge of her bed, but it is not enough as the room drops down below her and the bed is ripped from her grasp. Now upside-down, she lands hard on her ceiling in a crouch. The lights in the room flicker and turn to red as she darts for her pilot suit.

“DIRECT HIT TO PORTSIDE HOLD! DAMAGE CREWS RESPOND!”

Dawning her pilot suit in record time, Celeste is down the corridor in a blink of an eye. With sealed helmet, she rushes into the hold and stares at the scene. There are twin holes in the top and bottom of the hold large enough for a Ball to fly through.

“S***!”

Her Pearl, which had been safely tied down is down against is now against the outer bulkhead and its gatling is nearly sheered off. The container that broke loose and caused this is already being restrained not far away. She looks around and notices the crate that holds what is without a doubt the most powerful weapon within this small transport squadron, the Federation’s preproduction Mobile Suit.

Grabbing a nearby technician, she gabs a finger at the non-descript container.

“Where’s the pilot for that thing?”

“I don’t know, ma’am.”

“Well, find him and get him here on the double!”

“Ma’am!”

The technician heads off towards the crew quarters as she goes towards another group who are strategizing on what to do next.

“Ya’ll, help me get that thing prepped for combat. You, bust open the weapon’s crate. You two, get the crate open.”

Celeste helps the later two undo the latches on one of the sides of the box to allow her entry and she begins the start up sequence. Slowly, the suit starts to come to life. One by one, the systems check out and the monitors finally come to life.

Celeste opens the hatch in time to see the technician she’d sent off earlier to retrieve the pilot return alone. She jumps down from the cockpit and grabs him by the shoulder in order to talk to him.

“So, where’s the pilot?”

“In the infirmary. Doc said he hit is head when the ship got hit. He’s out cold, but the Doc says he’ll be fine.”

After thinking for a moment, she comes to a decision.

“I’ll pilot it.”

“Do you even know how?”

“…Kinda…”

Celeste leaps back for the cockpit as the technician starts clearing people away. After the hatch closes behind her and she fastens the restraints, the GM slowly starts to move and clumsily grabs the 90mm machine gun and shield.

“Celeste Angelina, launching. What’s it like out there?”

“Confirmed: An enemy interdiction squad. A single Musai with 2 Zaku Is and an old-model Zaku II.”

“Copy that. Here I go.”

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Amman -

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

Merkwürdigliebe and Banner entered the bridge, and Rem immediately re-introduced the pair from Anaheim and got to the point of his visit. Abbey was somewhat pleased that at least one AE employee didn’t try to bore him to death with pointless “we care” for-the-customer style small talk.

"I'd like to speak with some of the team leaders after things settle back down to discuss volunteer testers. There is a low probability of test failure at this point, and none of the tests will critically endanger the pilots. However, since none of the pilots are official AE test pilots, we would need to take volunteers. We would also need to collect a fair amount of data on the pilots,” Banner finished, and the doctor stepped forward to speak.

“Er, yes, captain. Your engineer Mr. Polk is a clever fellow. Clever. I spoke to him when he had a moment of free time and wrote down some of my initial observations... Rem is quite correct in stating our need for concrete data from ships that have been in combat,” Dr. M said in his strange half-murmuring voice as he shuffled through the papers he carried. Abbey noticed when he began to talk that he had done so in a way that made it seem as if he hadn’t been waiting for Rem to stop speaking, and that he had only remained silent while he worked out in his head what he wanted to say. Even if he had interrupted his colleague, it probably would have seemed more an eccentric lack of social grace and attention than actual rudeness.

Abbey folded his hands in his lap and nodded with an appropriate air of seriousness as he thought over the men from Anaheim. He mentally shrugged and decided it was time for a proper delegation of duty to his new XO. “Mr. Barrique,” he said, turning in his seat slightly to look at Richard, “I’m sure you can help these gentlemen with whatever they need. And see if you can’t find a couple of pilots willing to help,”. His voice didn’t quite hide his amusement as he dumped Merkwürdigliebe and his eager friend in Richard’ lap.

- Hallway -

After she finished checking out her Rick Dias (with a bit of time wasted talking to one of the mechanics as they watched Dr. Merkwürdigliebe floating about), Michiko cleaned up and went to the room that had been given to Celeine Caro’d. At the end of a hallway of normal crew quarters, it looked the same as everyone else’s in the corridor. Michiko hesitated outside the door, fidgeting with her uniform skirt. After summoning up some willpower, she pressed the door chime and waited to be sent away.

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

“Hey, cap. Ltjg. Emington on the horn for you,” called out Carmike, one of the bridge operators. Loweno grunted acknowledgment and picked up the receiver on his chair’s arm. At least it was something to break up his latest periods of boredom. “Capt. Loweno here. What can I do for you?”.

[Lans]

- Hamburg -

Randy doesn’t know about this man named Loweno, but as a Captain of AEUG warship he might have some interesting background. 'It would be nice to meet him in person, maybe we have something in common... does he prefer tea or coffee?' He keeps it as a mental note.

“Yes, Capt. I just arrived here and one of the pilot give me some situation report which make me wonder if there is some misunderstanding.” Randy lean forward, his face close to the intercom before continue. “I’m here to pilot MS, while I have no problem with leading a team I’m sure someone who know them better should take the job instead of me.” He pause for a second, thinking about some possibility before add, “In case that I’m the only solution you got…"

"Well, let’s start with the Hamburg role in the fleet, is she act as a support or is she has any fix position within the fleet? After that I should get some information regarding the pilots then I could compose their role in the team. I do hope that we don’t have any issue between pilots.” He takes his breath his hand rubbing a section just between the eyebrows. Even now Randy felt the weight of responsibility. He understands it well that the three men he leads would determine the survival or the destruction of this vessel, its crew included. “Captain, I’ll try to live up to your expectation. When we’ll leave the port?”

[Gambit01]

Celeine was still on her bed, shuffling her bare feet on the bed when she heard the door chime.

"It's open," she muttered half-heartedly, not really caring much about...anything, really.

Celeste...

[Wedge14]

Heyden's scowl slowly reverted as he made his way through the halls. The holier then thou pilot was making his way to his quarters, but couldn't help himself from visiting the bridge.

Pan liked it on the bridge. Which was odd given his character, but really shouldn't be a surprise. He liked to be right in the middle of things thick in the action and there was always something going on the bridge.

As he stepped into the bridge he didn't acknowledge a soul as he approached the windows. Taking in the sight of the port he could see the whole fleet. The New Yark was looking as good as always, The Chuikov was coming together and the Hamburg looked as it was reborn.

Heyden mused for a moment briefly trying to remember the name of the missing ships. The man couldn't.

Speaking allowed to himself and noone in particular.

"The fleet looks like a fleet again."

[mcred23]

-The Dervish-
-Mess Hall-

"Maybe you all should worry more about the Titan's beam rifles then your own," the new pilot to the Dervish, Heyden said in passing, causing Marvin to frown as a string of responses came to mind, but none of the words left his mouth.

Still, Curren replied partly to the comment, followed by more complaints about being shifted around from unit to unit. He got up, still talking and tossing away his trash before leaving with "Chill out, guys."

Marvin, now left alone, shook his head and stood up, muttering to himself various comments. Curren seemed to be pissed off about every detail of being switched to Team 2, and that in turn was pissing off Marvin. It wasn't like they were rejects, he and Eddie had been through enough that they knew how to fight, and Ian was a freakin' Zeon ace! Hell, Wes was still on the same ship, which as far as Marvin saw, was a very good thing. The guy had some right to be angry, Marvin admitted, but he seemed to be taking it way to hard.

And once again, things seemed pretty sucky. All these pilots were b****ing and whining over stuff that seemed so minor, like that MacAlpin crap. It was teasing. Sure, Eddie could be annoying that way, but it wasn't something for them to blow up over like they did. It wasn't anything like the openly hostile attitude and treatment Marvin himself had gotten upon joining the Dervish in June.

"This bunch..." He said quietly as he moved down the line, grabbing food and dropping it on his tray. It was odd.

===============================================

-Ready Room 2-

Ian entered the ready room to a blast of music. It was the usual rock stuff Eddie had playing whenever he was present, Ian knew Eddie had various copies of all the music he had kept in places like his room, his MS and in every ready room on the ship, plus a few other likely places, so he could always hear it. The music wasn't as loud as it always was, but it wasn't quiet either.

Eddie was sprawled out on a couch, reading a paperback book with a picture of men with rifles on the cover and what seemed to titled 'The Day' something or other, Eddie's hands over the rest and it something Ian wasn't familiar with. He walked around so that he was partly in Eddie's view, which is when the younger man spotted him, "Oh, s'up?".

Ian shook his head as he slumped into a chair nearby. "You ought to know."

Eddie sighed as he dropped the book onto his chest. He reached over to a remote that was on his side and the music went down a notch. "Like I said, f*** it."

Again, Ian's head shook. "They'll probably hate you now," he said admonishingly.

The response was a raspberry from Eddie as he picked up his book again, "And I still say f*** it. It's not going to bother me whether they hate me or not, it's not going to change me any. I like who I am, the people who are my friends like me for who I am. The rest can suck it."

"Wonderful outlook."

"Got me through a lot." A page turned in the book.

"And probably got you some nasty enemies."

Eckardy sighed again, dropping the book once more to his chest, as he turned his head to look Ian in the eye. "Look, whats done is done is s***. I honestly don't care. I won't dwell on it." He chuckled, although his tone had annoyance mixed into it, "If those motherf***ers want to whine and b**** about 'Annoyin' Ol' Eddie' and how they're not where they want to be and not getting whatever gun they want or whatever-"

"You felt Wes was pissed about that too?" Ian asked.

"He didn't look happy about anything," Eddie shrugged quickly, "But if any of them really want to complain-" He grinned as a flash of insight crossed his eyes, "then let them! It's their damn right to do so, and it's mine to ignore it!" The book was again picked up and reading was resumed.

Ian sighed, "I tried." What followed was several minutes of no talking on either part. The music had switched to another song, something about food with sexual overtones, and Eckardy went through a few pages, before Ian spoke up again, "What is that you're reading?"

Eckardy's eyes never left the page. "'The Day The World Changed'. It's about this Federation Army unit back in World War III that pretty much changed the course of the war in a few battles."

"Ah..." Ian said, not really getting it. Pre-UC history really didn't interest him, although he did admit the music wasn't all that bad.

"One of my great-grandfathers was in the unit, and I like history." Eddie explained further. Ian merely nodded, not that Eckardy noticed, and closed his eyes and listened to the music some more while vaugely attemping to drift to sleep.

[The Big Zabowski]

Richard could only narrow his eyes, his face showing a nonverbal response of "Ill get you some day, Abbey." With a deep breath, he nodded up to the two men and stepped over to the bridge exit.

"Well, you might as well get the lead out .. Boys on this ship are getting antsy and were nipping at each other's arses last week. God only knows what they're up to now, and really do need something to keep them occupied."

Richard punched the button on the bridge exit and the door swung open; revealing the hallway and several grippers that slid by on the line that ran along the wall. He paused in the doorway, waiting for the Doctor and his lackey to gather their things and thoughts before they made their way to the Ready room and then the Mess.

All the time, Richard was thinking to himself about his days at Anaheim, and his former position as a pilot under Merkwürdigliebe..

I wonder what the hell Merkie cooked up this time for the boys. If anything, it'll be one hell of a trip. Hope they've changed their diapers.

"Coming doctor?"

[ScornMandark]

Rem nodded at the Doctor to go first, then followed the grip behind. He hated being thought of as the Doctor's lackey...but at least they were making some progress. If they could get some pilots in the suits, and get some test data soon, he would gladly take the lackey appelate. It's not like anybody here knew him...

Rem had only recently transferred to Dr. Merkwurdigliebe's division, reporting to him directly; however he had spent enough time at AE to know most of the test pilots, though, and recognized those he worked with.

"Lt. Barrique, forgive me if I'm wrong, but weren't you a pilot at Anaheim some time ago? I think I recall seeing you there. I've been working with the electronics team for 4 or 5 years now; before working with Dr. M I was on the VB project."

Semi-cautious even here, VB was shorthand for the Variable Binder project.