2024-04-15: Descending Into the Lion's Jaws
- Cast: Sousuke Sagara, Kaname Chidori
- Where: A live-in van somewhere in the REA Mainland.
- Date: U.C. 0099 04 15
- Summary: Shortly after a massive leak of files publicizing the specifications of nearly every mass-produced machine in the Earth Sphere on the Battle Operation forums, Sousuke Sagara and Kaname Chidori find a moment to discuss their situation.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
It's been months since the ship. Months since they lost Emmy, lost Kallen, and were cast out to find their own way. Fortunately, Sousuke knows a thing or two about that.
The van isn't the most comfortable, but Sousuke was able to get it at the cost of a few favors and the location of an old storehouse. At times like these...you traded any resource you had.
He slipped open the door to the driver seat, climbed in, and only when he was behind the sunscreen did he release a fraction of the tension in his shoulders.
Then he pulled out from his bag a packet of papers, loose-leaf but bound roughly with a large binder clip. "It was harder than I expected to find a print shop here," he says. "But it wasn't a big problem. The leaks are big news, but not in the circles these people think about."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The months haven't been the kindest to Kaname Chidori. There's less light in her eyes than there was when they were on the ship. She's waiting in the passenger seat when Sousuke arrives, and she smiles. "I kinda figured. Most of the net was just laughing when it happened... definitely figured a bunch of folks would download it just to have it.""
Teasingly, she adds, "I'll let you look it over first. You're the military nut here, after all~" It remains to be seen exactly how patient she'll be about all of this, though--she's already got a notebook and pen out for notetaking...
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke knows it, but...what can he do for it? All he can do is keep her alive. For now, that'll have to do.
"Appreciated," he replies to her generosity, with a small chuckle. He crosses his legs to use as a makeshift reading surface, flipping a document open. In aside, he adds, "The arena in Laos seems to have closed. The Huffman league bought them out and just moved all the teams to the island."
His eyes harden. "Someone's preparing for something. They want capable pilots all trapped in one place."
Then he releases a breath. Was that paranoia? He can never tell anymore. He feels like he's too sensitive and not enough, some days. "Perhaps," he hedges, and flips through the pages, eyes scanning quickly. "Hn. That's the load limit on the Sutherland...? I've never seen a pilot even come close..."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname's peeking over Sousuke's shoulder as he reads. She quirks an eyebrow.
"And the arena circuit pertains to us how, exactly?" she asks, rocking her pen back and forth against the paper between her fingers. "And what makes you think it's not just a regular corporate expansion?"
She peers down at the page. "Huh... that's pretty high, yeah. Maybe they were designing with a heavy-weapons variant in mind?"
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
"We'll need to survive somehow," Sousuke says. "I only have so many skills." Despite his comfort with the life at school...that life is over. Really, truly. He can't have it back.
He must survive.
"So, I had considered either moving us to an arena for a while or locating a mercenary group. But with the current turmoil, it seems none of the mercenaries are interested in a recruit with no machine of their own."
Grimace. Her presence still calms him well enough, though. Kaname's here. "It still could be, but there's some other points of interest in Huffman. Remember Qivi?" One of the former Shuffle pilots; reported killed in action fighting Triple Zero near Jupiter. "She had a garage on Huffman and left the code with the Shuffle drop box in this town." He reaches into his bag and pulls out a small business card case, flicking it in the light indicatively. "We should be able to help ourselves to some decent starting equipment."
As for the Sutherland: "Possible. It's standard procedure for maximum thresholds to be as much as double the 'normal' safety tolerances, but it does seem like Britannia's pilots prefer to play safe by those standards." Another flicked page, this one taken up by what looks like a subflight pack. "Did you see the FLOAT diagram? They seem to be early designs compared to what Britannia's ships are now deploying with. But the implications for flight are remarkable." Hm. He reaches blindly into his bag for a Calorie Mark. "An area the arm slave seems to be lagging in. Even Mithril essentially just used scramble boosters, not proper flight packs."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname purses her lips, sighing, but nods. She can't deny that her own skillset would help them make a killing in the arenas... "Hm... a garage-sized supply cache... well, given the way things went, I think she'd have wanted someone to use it to keep themselves going, if nothing else."
Her eyebrows lift as Sousuke brings up the FLOAT system. "Oh! Yeah. It looks like they're catching up with Minovsky Craft miniaturization..." Something she figured out already, of course, but she's not one to brag.
(She totally is, but not now.)
"Yeah, those boosters were pretty cool, but... thinking about the tech, they weren't exactly top-of-the-line, huh? They worked fine for what Mithril wanted to do, though--a subflight system's gonna be more conspicuous."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke nods. It's a bit euphemistic to speak of a dead comrade so...but that, at least, is something he knows quite well. "I agree," he says, and tucks the case away.
"They did their part, yes. Speed without the usual fingerprints of a machine deployment was more important to that operation." He speaks of it in the past tense and forces himself not to dwell. "The FLOAT reminds me of GGG's Ul-Tech thrusters...no obvious propulsive force, just a steady energy release. These output estimates, though..." He taps the paper. "That's more than suitable for full-speed combat. I'm only aware of ship-scale ones in production, but I think we should expect KMF-scale retrofits soon."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname blinks, pursing her lips. "... Hm. I should take a closer look. I didn't really pay super close attention, honestly..." She frowns thoughtfully. "Proliferation of Ul-Tech designs, maybe? Feels weird that 3G would allow military G-Stone usage like that, and I doubt synthesis is up to mass-production levels, so that's not likely..."
She shrugs. "I'll figure it out with a closer look, I'm sure. That sort of combat speed, though... hell of a time for a new mobile-weapon arms race," she mutters. "But anyway, I've set up an account for that game. Dunno if I'll play it, but I should be able to keep up with the forums, just in case there's another leak like this. A girl needs reading material." A grin plays across her lips.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke shrugs. "The flight principle is important but for a pilot I find the specifications more valuable. Knowing exactly what your machine can do can save your life." Should save your life. When things work the way they should.
His eyes hood. That beast of a machine Leonard had...is there anything on Earth that can match it? Al has already paid for his failure to understand that world of impossibilities...
No. Not now. He looks to her, feigning a smile. "Yes. The machines of the next few years will be quite something to see." That thought at least gets a more real smile to his face, faint though it is.
Hm. "A high-fidelity simulation game, huh," Sousuke murmurs. "Yes, it could be worth monitoring."
The notion of playing it doesn't occur to him, of course. He's the sort of man who has trouble with the reality of things he can't hold in his hands.