[color=#61FF00]”And naturally being defeated is outlawed in squintland. Fucking barbarian.”[/color] Karel growled at Fuka’s ‘outlaw’ comment. But stiff demeanor aside, at least the boss knew how to run a briefing. After having to cook out of water during a significant number of Sapphire Swords sorties, this was a welcome change. Maybe he’d come around yet. As the presumed captain gave the ten-second warning, Karel looked around for something resembling a stable handhold. Resigned to his fate, he sat down on the floor where he found a rust-free patch and gripped his chair, not wanting to risk the rickety thing folding underneath him if he leaned the wrong way after the jump. The jump apparently quelled any will to argue if there was any, leaving them headed to the main event of the night.

[b]Ankhanne, Mech Bay[/b]

The Combine girl immediately made a beeline for the only heavyweight in the racks. Made sense in a way, if she was familiar with the machine, more power to her. It would make everyone’s life easier. [color=#61FF00]”Look at her go. Add some fried chicken on top and she’ll outpace the ship.”[/color] He said quietly to the nearest person when Fuka took off, covering an impressive distance in a few seconds. Following her path, his eyes fell upon the Mech bays and their mis-matched occupants.

[color=#61FF00]”Bože, co jsem komu udělal že mě takhle trestáš kurva?”[/color]

The ‘Mechs were… about what could be expected given the DropShip. That Centurion was a prime cand- of fucking course, nevermind. Trebuchet 7K. Sniper, no. Hermes II 4K. Walking oven, no. Javelin 10N. Alright loadout and jump jets, but the armor may as well have not been there, no. Panther 9R… Kind of a sniper, but with decent armor and able to keep itself cool… No, that minimum range on the PPC would spell his doom sooner than later. He passed the Urbanmech without acknowledging its existence at all. The Raven was a sweet deal, but he didn’t like the likelihood of the controls being written in that spilled tea leaves script the Capellans used. The Mongoose was definitely an ancient design, but despite being Drac-made, it was built for the SLDF - back in the days of glorious standardization - and therefore most likely in an actual language. And with a loadout he liked and blistering top speed of over 120 kilometers per hour - assuming these particular ones could reach it without rattling themselves apart - that would do it for a start. Karel climbed up to the closer Mongoose’s entry hatch and dropped down inside. He clambered back out faster than he went in, driven out by the smell of what he guessed was dead rodents and mold that permeated the cockpit and made his way over to the second Mongoose before anyone had time to claim it. [color=#61FF00]”Spare parts.”[/color] Were his only words as he passed an AsTech visibly confused by his behavior, pointing at the abandoned BattleMech.

Standing in front of the other, hopefully nasally inoffensive antique, parts of the armor were still stripped to allow the technicians easier access. The parts that weren’t were clearly intended to have some kind of green-black-sand three-tone woodland camouflage pattern, except it had a few problems. Chiefly among them that the person who applied it had no clue what the hell they were doing and they also clearly grabbed a bucket of paint that said ‘desert sand’ instead of ‘sand’ and thought “Good enough.”, resulting in a Jackson Pollock-esque mess of olive and black colors interspersed with [url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/ec/50/41ec500e1bb868343da5a46d32a07794.png]pink[/url] splotches.
“Soooo? What do you think?” An oddly chipper MechTech appeared by his side.
[color=#61FF00]“It’s the BattleMech equivalent of a crackhead.”[/color]
The techie nodded her head energetically in agreement. “Good luck, merc.”
Making his way inside, he took some time to examine the dashboard, ergonomics of the most commonly used controls he could identify at a glance, field of view and… a cup holder? He was staring at a loop of wire welded to the dashboard, with a piece of scrap metal similarly attached underneath it. [i]What else[/i] could that have been?