2025-06-24: Convergence of Satellite Orbits
- Cast: Koji Kabuto, Lianne Moren, Crowe Brust
- Where: Fujinomiya City
- Date: U.C. 00100 06 24
- Summary: As Koji helps Satellicon's newest adoptee situate herself, Scott Labs assigns Crowe Brust to the Photon Power Labs, to study and refine his machine's unique reactor. Little things about each of the three are briefly silhouetted.
<Pose Tracker> Crowe Brust has posed.
It all began with something as simple as one could imagine, a giant hard to identify /thing/ attacks a civilian population, most things get wrecked - you know how it goes, usual kaiju fare; the difference for that one occasion, one would point out, would have been that Crowe was there - and that the Brasta was being readied for a field test not too far away.
Point is, really, that one way or another, Crowe Brust ended up accruing a debt well in the millions (a whole HUNDRED of them for that matter) and legally bound to one Traia Scott for work. But work how? one might ask, well as a test pilot for once - borderline corporate spy on another; and what better way to do that than to work with the one "terrorist" group that Traia's usual business contact tends to work with! (and with the Photon Power Labs, because they're hilariously well versed in general Kaiju handling - even if they were mechanical.)
Thus, an email would be sent out to both sides with a noticeably set-up delay of several hours, perhaps to fuck with Crowe - perhaps because Traia left it on the drafts without sending - but it more or less went as such:
"Hello and greetings, I'm Traia Scott - of the Axion Foundation's Scott Labs - and I'm here to request a certain bit of data, in exchange for the services of my here test pilot (picture attached) He owes me a metric ton of money, and will do practically anything for money; his unit will be shipped in when confirmation of his arrival is sent - and if Crowe is seeing this: enjoy the sugar water, I'm not giving you any more free meals~"
With this, we cut to the aforementioned Test Pilot - a slightly disheveled young man done in by the hooks of whatever-work-life-he-had as he calmly steps out of Fujinomiya City's premiere ramen restaurant after enjoying a hearty bowl of its titular meal: Boss Ramen [Pose not sponsored] his phone - oddly enough modelled after old flip phones (probably because the shell was cheaper than custom ones.)- beeping out as a timer finally gives him the signal he needs, as the miserable fool in need of capital begins stalking the crowds in search for a certain devil in women's clothing.
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Lianne is more than a little nervous, walking through the city. Sure, it was mainly the Gaia Sabers they had to worry about on Earth, and they aren't supposed to be here - but they weren't supposed to smash up her home colony either. That being said, it's kind of nice to walk around outside again (and on Earth, that's still pretty new!), so she's in a good mood overall.
The ship had been in need of supplies, and Lianne needed to know how supply runs go now that she had joined up, so she's tagging along with Koji as they walk around Fujinomiya getting what they need, and mainly helping by carrying the bags. Girl's stronger than she looks. "Thanks again for the detour..." Lianne says for probably the third or fourth time as they walk out of one shop, a new bag laden with a variety of personal essentials in hand. She hadn't had the chance to bring anything with her in the hasty flight from Side 4. "I kinda felt bad borrowing all my stuff..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The rising tensions of the Earth Sphere have made having Lianne and her new Gundam on board something of a small pressure release - adding a little more firepower to Satellicon and allowing them to recalibrate their force projection has been a breath of fresh air.
That in mind, it's hardly a problem for Koji to help their newest pilot with getting her personal essentials, especially since it's not necessarily a guarantee that she'd be able to get around in Japan that easily - the presence of one of the OCU's historic heroes goes a long way towards smoothing things over.
"It's not a problem. Helping you get settled in is the least we can do," he explains. "How is the apartment, by the way?"
In the span of seconds between him asking that question and any answer he might receive, however, his phone buzzes. A single brow arches as he notices that he's been mailed on his professional account; it's joined by its brother as he plays back Traia Scott's message.
"... That's odd. People don't usually volunteer pilots to us. What was Scott Labs's whole deal..." He frowns, trying to remember anything interesting about that other establishment.
<Pose Tracker> Crowe Brust has posed.
The simplest way to remember Scott Labs was by their previous product - the Axio - an all purpose machine that, due to its low manufacture cost and the axion foundation's lax business policy, was most well known for being used by almost every small-to-medium terrorist group under the sun. And in this case by Traia's presentation at a tech convention a year-ish prior presenting the concept of a "Dimensional Beast Buster" machine - something capable of handling whole swathes of giant creatures with a large array of modular equipment, kinda intersecting with the Ichinana in some ways.
Regadless, it wouldn't take that long either for Crowe to find his mark - kinda hard to miss the Legend Himself, Koji Kabuto, walking around the street with a woman that wasn't his wife; the admittedly shady brittanian "tourist" attempting to seem nonchalant while walking about 15 meters behind the Gundam pilot and mr. Kabuto. You see, Crowe'd been given two options: Either a pretty lady in particular clothing, or anyone openly related to the photon laboratories; and given no real direction besides "hey, just follow them!" what would Crowe do if not put that specops knowledge to use and... very poorly tail the pair - what can you do, Firebug was an extermination squad, not an assassination one.
"It's been less than ten minutes, and I can still feel that ramen forever escaping my reach... such is the life of a beggar"
Crowe whispered to himself, a chill running down his spine, as if the future of his career was laughing at him - I mean, his boss certainly was laughing her ass off back at the labs, serves him right for treating her precious research station like an open battlefield.
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
"Well, the old one had bad insulation, too many holes, always had this weird damp smell, and the toilet didn't work half the year. So pretty big net improvement." Not like she'd joined expecting any benefits, but it was a nice surprise! "Honestly, I was kind of expecting to be cooped up on the ship all the time. Bracing for always being on the run and having to sleep with one eye open and all that," She makes a sort of running motion with her arms as she says this, the shopping bags shaking. "This is much nicer."
Lianne feels a strange sensation, a tingle in the back of her mind. "We're being followed, though..." she says almost just as the thought occurs, not even pausing the rhythm of the conversation or looking behind her.
From Crowe's perspective, the young woman is probably entirely normal in comparison to the hero standing next to her - kinda cute, sort of patchy clothing, and carrying a bunch of bags like she'd been on a shopping spree. Not exactly what one would expect from a member of Satellicon. Maybe support crew or something?
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Good. We don't have a lot of influence on much beyond energy distribution, but setting a good standard for managing the city's needs encourages other companies to step up," Koji grins.
He doesn't question how Lianne suddenly knows - plenty of his friends have had inexplicable intuition some might call 'Newtype abilities' - he just nods, without changing his pace at all. "Don't look around for them, keep walking and stay by my side," he mutters, changing their course slightly to the public park out in front of the New Lab standing over the city.
He could duck into an alleyway, but that's more of an obvious indicator that they're onto their tail. Better to utilise the glossy, futuristic textures of the city's materials to their advantage - a reflection in the glass of the Lab's boarding elevators, for instance, could give them plenty of information without tipping their hand overmuch.
He keeps walking until they're under a tree in the park - it's long past sakura season, so the cherry tree is in its green phase - then comes to a stop, before turning around. A second to match the reflection to the image attached to the message, and to the person in front of him... "Brust-san, I assume."
<Pose Tracker> Crowe Brust has posed.
Crowe would follow the pair throughout with the same casual strut for that few long minutes before Koji stopped and turned to face him, the subject of this callout momentarily pointing at himself before adjusting his coat and breathing in to speak - his arrival was in some way expected, or he was certainly easy to identify, probably both some would say; though he was certainly quite far from home, and even further from anyone who would recognize him from the village torching days. As such, he simply responded appropriately
"The one and only, though Crowe is fine-"
He stopped for a moment just, generally noticing a slight lack of both cover, as well as the fact the hero turned scientist knew his name already; the genuinely dumbfounded expression quickly tightening into a look that can only be described as "killer", Crowe here was anything but highly aware, but dealing with a devil in goth lolita clothing for years develops quite an instinct
"I'm guessing my boss sent word of my arrival? That's...- When did she even send that-"
actual confusion that Traia would even be nice enough to send in word of his "transfer" ahead of time, shortly after Crowe's phone would beep lightly in his coat's inner pocket - a short gesture asking for a moment as he flipped it out, only a simple "Hey, got the job yet?" from miss Scott herself.
"Wild guess, it arrived five minutes ago. I can explain-"
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
Lianne takes a breath and then nods, and fights off the urge to look back. She hadn't seen the message, so she instead goes through several possibilities of who might be following them, none of them very good. Should she do something, duck into an alley or something maybe? Actually, best just listen to Koji. She sticks by him as they enter a park, hand unconsciously drifting into one of her bags.
"...Oh, is he with us?" she says curiously, as the exchange shows that it's probably not a Gaia Saber or SAL agent or whatever here to kill them. She drops the swiss army knife she'd acquired during shopping back into the bag.
[Awww, I wanted to try it out...] ...Well that was a weird thought to have. Glad she hadn't had to, though!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The wide-open space in the middle of the day serves Koji's purposes for defusing a confrontation just fine - after all, it would look really bad if the head of the Photon Power Lab's Experimental Development Division just shot a man dead in the middle of the city, or vice versa.
"Yeah, I was just sent the message to expect you," he explains. His manner is completely peaceable - no intent to fight at all. "You're Scott Labs's test pilot, is that right?"
He looks back at his phone, reviewing the transcription of the message. "It's pretty unusual for pilots to be assigned to us, but we do have a department for mobile weapon energy systems so it's not unheard of. Your boss hasn't sent your machine over yet, though."
<Pose Tracker> Crowe Brust has posed.
Crowe loosened up for a moment, uttering a hushed remark about his boss before typing something out on his phone and putting it away, simply looking right back at Mr Kabuto and answering the easiest doubt for him to address - specially given what Crowe here knew about the machine he was assigned, that its engine was fucking weird.
"Yeah it uh, might have to do with the power source, Mr. Moneybags Axion himself brought it, and the chief is kinda struggling to figure it out herself."
There was a tone of slight annoyance to the entire ordeal, specially considering how Crowe had been sent out without real word or warning, with it only arriving when the subject of said forewarning was probably ready to turn him into a statistic; but c'est la vie, being worked to the bone is still better than being sold off to the highest bidder, specially when that wouldn't even pay his late father's part of the massive debt he carried - uncharismatic losers with skills on robots usually didn't sell well when the closest big armies would put him in the spotlight again for his old comrades.
As For Lianne, he turned his head slightly to look at the lass, expression sharpening as a rather more professional tone took over - not all loser afterall, part of him was accessory to mass murder- I mean Soldier-
"Also lass, the knife idea was sound, though maybe not much with one you'd find at a retail shop; lemme guess, Swiss army multitool knife - good in a pinch, but their blade is subpar, would need a couple rounds of sharpening before it could effectively pierce flesh"
this was followed up with a rather simpler presentation, his arm twitching slightly up as if he was about to slap out a salute - managing to make it into a high wave instead, keeping it casual (sort of), as he ever so calmly spoke - a shit-eating grin that screamed loser taking the spot where his face should be.
"Regardless, Name's Crowe, Crowe Brust. I'll be under your care Mr. Kabuto, don't be afraid to throw work my way, beggars can't be choosers, and I'd rather work my debts in the span of a lifetime."
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
"Enough force and the right location could make up for the blade, if the main point is getting away." Lianne says automatically. "At least I think so. And I didn't buy it for stabbing people, 'being followed by a stranger' is a pinch." Lianne pouts a little at that, though she isn't really that offended. Not like she WANTED to threaten him.
"Oh, but I'm not the newbie anymore! It's only been like, a week and a half? Time's gone kinda fuzzy with so much going on." Lianne smiles brightly, at odds with how she was just about to threaten somebody with a knife. "I'm Lianne. Nice to meet you."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Well, unusual energy sources are our stock and trade, so I suppose that makes sense."
He'll ask about these 'dimensional beasts' later.
Crowe's reaction to Lianne possibly pulling a knife out of her bag causes Koji to double-take, reassessing the other man carefully. "Ex-military, huh." The temperature has cooled a little; evidently that detail and Crowe's accent have added up to some unpleasant solutions in Koji's head.
Not for the first time, his father's dying admonishment/request surfaces in the back of his mind, and he forces himself to set his misgivings aside - until the background check, at least.
"Right, well. If this unit is so interesting, we'll be happy to take a look at it - and I get that you're hard up, so when we get around to the paperwork step we can discuss how we'll be managing your pay - specialist contractors can command a decent sum from our grant budget, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Crowe Brust has posed.
Crowe was finally allowed to momentarily step out of Traia's leash of bullshit for a couple seconds, letting out a sigh of relief as Koji finally talked about the formal "transfer" so to speak, the Brittanian man moving the hair out of his face for a moment before extending a hand towards Koji - the wavering smile on his face very noticeably accompanied by the equally shifting tone of his voice as he made one simple clarification
"I will point out, my experience in the Brittanian military was more of the "Run away and hope they don't try to find me" sort than the "honorably discharged" kind of career."
a simple enough thing to consider, followed up by a light greeting nod towards Lianne as she presented herself, asserting herself his senior by the span of a week or so causing Crowe to almost chuckle for a second; the sharp smile that drew upon his face not so much one of brutal honesty, as much as it was one of open-bookness - easy to read, but a bit more complicated than just the surface wording; for a moment, Crowe almost looked cool. Just a moment though, as Koji would find himself receveing one more little beep from Crowe's proper employer "Seems like he didn't get mugged on the streets, good - would be a shame to miss that; I'll send the DMB-00 in the morning, see if you can see what makes its VX tick, Dr. Kabuto - Regards, Traia Scott."
And there it was, the confirmation that there was infact a proper machine being sent in, not a scam afterall; and judging by Crowe's "cool grin" slowly twisting back to the shit-eating, money-loving dumb smile, it was made very clear that... Handling this guy, it was going to be somewhat easy.
<Pose Tracker> Lianne Moren has posed.
"...Honestly I can kinda relate to running away from the military? Though I wasn't part of the military I had to run away from. Not really had good experiences, anyway..." Lianne says, as a sort of peace offering to the new recruit after the awkward start. "Hope we can work well together!" She offers a hand.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji does manage a chuckle as Crowe explains that he is AWOL from the Britannian military. "Well, you wouldn't be the first to do that and then throw their lot in on this side of the border."
He shakes Crowe's hand. "Welcome aboard, then. I hope to be impressed by your machine's capabilities!"