2022-10-24: "I don't wait for miracles"
- Log: I don't wait for miracles.
- Cast: Ennil El, Suberoa Zinnerman
- Where: On the Garancieres
- OOC - IC Date: UC0096 10 24
- Summary: Ennil touches base with Captain Zinnerman, and lays out her plan to find Loni Garvey.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
The Garancieres has been a welcome enough host, if a bit eventful. The mechanical outlook, unfortunately, had not been as accomodating, and so Ennil El had found her moment to finally properly touch base with its captain. If she was going to be able to do what she needed to do...
"Captain. Ennil El. Came aboard at Torrington. Thanks for your time, and for the rendezvous. I'm afraid that the way we met, unfortunately, means I can't be much help." She slides a technical readout his way - the Jenice Kai is in remarkable shape for a machine dating back to the One Year War, but fused components are fused components.
"It's a bit selfish, but I'm going to need a Geara Zulu. Temporarily." She sighs, staring into the older man's face, working on getting a read. "I do intend to make good for the favor, of course."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
The Garencieres, despite needing to retreat from Torrington, has moved again much sooner than anyone aboard expected, though the captain's reasons for doing so are curious - there's no overarching Sleeves objectives relating to the Britannia-occupied southwest Japan, after all, but one of the crew is on detached duty in Nagoya for some reason.
So the ship is making its regular flight over the Pacific, running its legitimate business of moving freight among paying customers, with a specific eye towards OCU trade routes at present.
Zinnerman is at the office in his quarters when Ennil approaches him. He nods in greeting to her. "I recall. I wish more of you could have made it to the pickup." The outcome of Torrington for the Earth Zeon remnants had been... messy, after all.
He takes the readout, perusing it grimly. "Fused shoulder rotator mounts and a cracked reactor. Hrm, I see the problem." He puts the datapad down. "Tomura can replace the fused joints pretty easily, but the reactor is a harder ask. We can keep her in mothballs until we get what we need to fix her up. Other than Gilboa's custom model and the Kshatriya, any of our mobile suits is free to use by any crew member, so feel free to get accustomed to how a Geara Zulu flies." The Garencieres is not, after all, a dedicated battleship - its mobile suit complement is limited by the size of its cargo hold, and is commonly outsized by the number of capable pilots on the crew.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
There's a small smile on Ennil's face. It's not that she hadn't expected the captain to understand the mechanics - it's just always reassuring to hear someone talk shop. It's what home sounded like. "Well, I'm used to doing business. I had an itinerary worked up - but I won't be getting around in that Jenice for quite a while, and I don't want -" She's silent for a moment. She shrugs. "I've got an outline of the route. Should be a nice, safe trip and a Geara Zulu back home for you in... a few weeks? No hassle. The only folks who'd know about half of these would've had to be on the ground here since at least... Axis, round one?" She's quiet for a moment, and then softly tips her hands. "Like the Garveys. That's the theory I'm working with, anyway."
So there it is. Sure enough, she sketches out the route - one that, unsurprisingly, stretches across the Pacific from the origin point at Torrington. "It might be a pointless chase, but... worst case, I can touch base. A few folks here, I can put in a good word with. The least I can do for a square deal. If for some reason I can't come back with your Geara Zulu, you'll at least have the Jenice and folks who can help get the work done on it." There's a tenseness in her shoulders, a clear concern. "I don't think we're working with a lot of time, here."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
She doesn't want to be a freeloader, Zinnerman thinks, but doesn't say. "You want to go after her." It's an observation, not a question. "Good. I'd have put one of the regular crew on that, but two of them on field duty would stretch us pretty thin. I appreciate you volunteering for this."
He slides the pad back, nodding in approval at the route she's sketched out. "I don't have as much knowledge of the foxholes in this part of Earth as I'd like - I served on the African front, not the OCU. If you think you can find her, you have clearance."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Honestly sir, I didn't think she'd get away from that place." I didn't think any of us would, Ennil thinks and does not say. Except me, again. "Now that she has, I don't like the idea of who'd be looking for her. Wanted it to be me."
There are a lot of things she would like to ask. Some of them don't feel right to ask here, but she might not have a chance otherwise. "I've seen... some of the folks passing through here. That man in the mask. He's interested in the white suit that was at Torrington, isn't he?" In her head, it's still just as much a monster as the other shimmering suit that destroyed Torrington, but. "And you... and the Kshatriya's pilot, Ms. Cruz. You know who the pilot is. That's why he thought you'd have something for him."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
"Commander Frontal is pursuing leads on a secret of some kind that will give him what he believes to be decisive leverage over the Federation. The Unicorn Gundam and its pilot are the key to that secret, so we were ordered to ingratiate ourselves to him, yes." What actually happened is a lot more complex.
He folds his hands in front of him, resting them on the desk. "Since you're riding with us for now, you can ask any questions you like, if it helps you make a decision on where to go. I can promise you a place here for as long as you need it."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
There's an interesting moment after that last statement. A stiffness settling into her shoulders. But this is also her opportunity. "The boy in the white suit. I got a strange sense from his behavior in combat - that he wasn't trying to destroy Loni's unit. At first, at least. Then it seemed like something went wrong."
Her teeth grit, unconsciously, as she walks herself back through the battlefield that day. "Does that match what you know? About the white suit's pilot? Is he someone who... also wouldn't want Loni Garvey to be harmed?" Her fingers drum against the desk, quietly but insistently. "And it doesn't seem like anyone here dislikes him. Very much, anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
"He went out there to try and stop the Shamblo's rampage, to talk Loni down. As you say: It went wrong. He was on the crew for some time before Torrington - it seems like he's been taken into the custody of the Shuffle Alliance now." Which is an interesting complication Zinnerman is going to have to carefully negotiate, but he can afford to maneuver at a distance for now.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil nods. That satisfies the main thing she needs to know. "Well, consider me a volunteer then, I suppose. I appreciate the mobile suit, and we can set a drop-off nearby. I can't promise regular contact, but I'll do what I can to touch base." She takes a slow, steady breath. "I don't wait for miracles to happen, Captain. Stuff like that creeps me out a little. But, with everything that's happened at Torrington, and with the way things are going..." She tilts her head back. "If, by chance, that kid in the white suit hears something that helps him find Loni and stop her this time. That'd be pretty convenient. A shame he's not on board anymore. I'll be going before long, then."
Her eyes drift slightly, clearly walking back through another old battlefield. One a lot less recent than Torrington. "Ms. Cruz seems happy here, I think. Maybe that's one of the reasons... Well, I want to thank you for that, Captain."
<Pose Tracker> Suberoa Zinnerman has posed.
"I'm of a mind to make my own miracles, myself, and I try to take care of Marida as best I can." Zinnerman stands up and moves around his desk, offering a handshake. "Good hunting, miss El. Don't get yourself killed out there. Alec can set you up with gear for a long-term mission and a comm beacon in case you get into trouble."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
<poem> Ennil takes the captain's hand firmly. Despite the rough ride ahead, she's smiling easily enough this time. "Alright. I'll see about getting that set up." She chuckles a little. "Glad I got the right read on you, Captain. And don't worry too much - hunting down mobile suits is how I put food on the table. Just bigger game than usual."