I'm available for a collab right now, @NanoFreakV2 @Eklispe.
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*poke*
someone working on a post?
someone working on a post?
considering how mega always plays the same basic guy, it's easy to get them mixed up :p
Not the same, just...very similar. :P
Joe was watching the sunrise outside of the facility while the captain called them to the briefing room, and didn't even hear it.
A while later, while he was still watching, the captain also left the facility.
As the sun was rising behind the exit from Joe's perspective, he quickly noticed the captain, a peculiar sight outside of the facility while pilots are still not back from a mission. In similar fashion, the captain would likely also spot Joe, who was now approaching her, wondering what she was doing outside.
"Also here for the sunrise?"
"You could say that.", Sophia began to have a conversation while checking what she had with her, rummaging around her pockets.
"If you plan on leaving, you should at least debrief the returning pilots first." Joe had a way to quickly break down into what he was trying to say.
"You're goddamned laser-guided, y'know that? How the fuck did you deduce that, shitlocke?"
"Your recent conversation with me, in combination to you leaving the facility right now, when you have no known relatives in New Anchorage, pilots are still returning, and everything you would need to do as a captain can be done from within the facility. The only other explanation would be you enjoying sunrises, but your answer said otherwise. Or tell me there is a 3rd option?"
"Nah, you're right on what I'm doing. So, are we gonna have a little episode too so this has to hurt, or are you going to take it how it is?", Joe's Captain asked him.
"I myself plan on leaving too, you know, but my plan involved you staying captain until I am 'dead'. So, what interests me would be the reason."
"You really plan on getting the fuck out of here too? Interesting."
"If you know why I am here; as a punishment; you would know why I have no reason to be here. In addition, I trust the other pilots to be able to defend New Anchorage, even with me gone."
"Well, you have a point. I guess I can't see things in perspectives not my own. If I was in your situation I'd be giddy."
"So, tell me, why are you leaving? Especially since you are interested in at least speaking to the 'man behind the mask' for once, and you had no knowledge of me planning to leave."
"You know how I talked about 'the soul' and all that shit? I only feel alive when I know I could die at any moment... I'm going back to my old ways."
"Only feeling alive when one could die at any moment. Could one not die at any moment regardless of the situation?"
"Yeah.. but bullets whizzing by, explosions that could knock you off your feet and splatter you, thermal weapons that burn you slowly... It's exhilerating, you know? You probably don't, of course."
"I don't experience that myself, but I can see why people would enjoy it. The rush of adrenaline and other hormones and neurotransmitters, when in danger, can be like a drug."
"You sure like analyzing things until they're no fun anymore. Well, before I go hitch-hiking... You got any questions? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, just leaving you dumb youths in the utter dark."
"Could we stay in contact, in secret of course."
"Probably not. I'm going to moving from place to place constantly, but if you really want me to, I guess I can send letters. If I do, you make sure to pass them around in secret to your equals."
"Thank you. For we may meet again some time."
"I plan on it."
Joe wasn't really happy about the result, as his escape plan had been foiled by the captain's escape plan, but he couldn't blame her. While she continued to walk away, he waved after her for a while, before heading back into the facility.
Sophia waved back, looking forwards.
A while later, while he was still watching, the captain also left the facility.
As the sun was rising behind the exit from Joe's perspective, he quickly noticed the captain, a peculiar sight outside of the facility while pilots are still not back from a mission. In similar fashion, the captain would likely also spot Joe, who was now approaching her, wondering what she was doing outside.
"Also here for the sunrise?"
"You could say that.", Sophia began to have a conversation while checking what she had with her, rummaging around her pockets.
"If you plan on leaving, you should at least debrief the returning pilots first." Joe had a way to quickly break down into what he was trying to say.
"You're goddamned laser-guided, y'know that? How the fuck did you deduce that, shitlocke?"
"Your recent conversation with me, in combination to you leaving the facility right now, when you have no known relatives in New Anchorage, pilots are still returning, and everything you would need to do as a captain can be done from within the facility. The only other explanation would be you enjoying sunrises, but your answer said otherwise. Or tell me there is a 3rd option?"
"Nah, you're right on what I'm doing. So, are we gonna have a little episode too so this has to hurt, or are you going to take it how it is?", Joe's Captain asked him.
"I myself plan on leaving too, you know, but my plan involved you staying captain until I am 'dead'. So, what interests me would be the reason."
"You really plan on getting the fuck out of here too? Interesting."
"If you know why I am here; as a punishment; you would know why I have no reason to be here. In addition, I trust the other pilots to be able to defend New Anchorage, even with me gone."
"Well, you have a point. I guess I can't see things in perspectives not my own. If I was in your situation I'd be giddy."
"So, tell me, why are you leaving? Especially since you are interested in at least speaking to the 'man behind the mask' for once, and you had no knowledge of me planning to leave."
"You know how I talked about 'the soul' and all that shit? I only feel alive when I know I could die at any moment... I'm going back to my old ways."
"Only feeling alive when one could die at any moment. Could one not die at any moment regardless of the situation?"
"Yeah.. but bullets whizzing by, explosions that could knock you off your feet and splatter you, thermal weapons that burn you slowly... It's exhilerating, you know? You probably don't, of course."
"I don't experience that myself, but I can see why people would enjoy it. The rush of adrenaline and other hormones and neurotransmitters, when in danger, can be like a drug."
"You sure like analyzing things until they're no fun anymore. Well, before I go hitch-hiking... You got any questions? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, just leaving you dumb youths in the utter dark."
"Could we stay in contact, in secret of course."
"Probably not. I'm going to moving from place to place constantly, but if you really want me to, I guess I can send letters. If I do, you make sure to pass them around in secret to your equals."
"Thank you. For we may meet again some time."
"I plan on it."
Joe wasn't really happy about the result, as his escape plan had been foiled by the captain's escape plan, but he couldn't blame her. While she continued to walk away, he waved after her for a while, before heading back into the facility.
Sophia waved back, looking forwards.
Imgor was still struggling for strength, and thus just barely made it over the fence. He just wanted to rest right now, the state of his body left him with no other option, and a horseback was a good way of resting while traveling.
He relaxed every non-vital muscle the moment he would not just fall off the horse at the slightest movement. The horse was visibly confused by this, attempting to escape.
He relaxed every non-vital muscle the moment he would not just fall off the horse at the slightest movement. The horse was visibly confused by this, attempting to escape.
"Do we know what the gun was aimed at, before it was destroyed? If so, we could determine its minimal maximum range. That knowledge would be useful in determining how much of a powershift this railgun would have caused, had it not been destroyed.
I'll leave you to determine whether or not this knowledge is worth the efforts of acquiring it."
Joe turns to face the captain: "I assume we can safely say 'mission over'?""
With a sigh of soul-crushing dissapointment, "Joe... Why did you even say that first part? Who... why would we even give a fuck?". Sophia shook her head "Well, anyway. Yeah, mission over."
"Regardless of what we do, it will have consequences. Knowing the strength of each player allows us to predict them somewhat." Joe prepared to leave the command center for a more quiet and secluded location, for his little private talk with the captain.
Sophia followed her pupil, which amusingly in her head, could be said to be both the quietest one and yet the most talkative one at the same time. Sophia snickered at the thought.
After reaching a secluded janitor closet, Joe remarked: "This should be lonely enough."
"Sorry to even imply this, but you really want to talk about things in a janitors' closet? Y'know this has strange implications, right? What if somebody walks in on this?"
Sophia waved around her hands, "Wooo, oh boy Joe, I didn't know you were into older women! .. You do know that's what they're going to assume, right?"
"I am fully aware of that, however, the risk may be necessary. To-"
Sophia interjected, "Why don't we just go to my office?"
"That also works, but I didn't want to use it without your permission."
Both left the awkward closet, and continued the conversation in Sophia's office:
"As I was intending to tell you, I have come up with a plan for the upcoming naval mission. As my task will be to hunt down the submarine to prevent it from interfering, I need to be at least on the surface of the water, or submerged as quickly as possible after the battle begins. Sadly, I cannot be in that state from the start, as travel in water is rather slow compared to airborne travel, so my plan is to fake a crash to quickly get into the ocean without risking being shot down."
Joe continued after taking a second to fill his lungs with air again: "To minimize the chance of being targeted, I want to make that crash as realistic as possible. For that purpose, I have installed a smoke grenade in one of the jet engines in swarm's jetpack. I can remotely trigger it from the cockpit."
"Okay." is all that Sophia could come up with, eyes glazed over. "Thanks for that exposition, but was everything except the smoke grenade absolutely necessary? I could probably figure the rest of that by my own."
"As I intend to completely shut down the engine once the smoke grenade is triggered, the fall will be completely unbroken, and there is the risk of me being knocked out, or even worse, killed on impact. I just want you to have a backup plan in case that happens."
While Joe wasn't lying, the chance of the described possibility was low, after all, Swarm had already fallen from the sky onto solid ground due to an attack on its computer systems, and Joe had survived inside just fine. In addition, it is to be expected, that soldiers die in battles.
"I highly doubt that it'd even happen, but... thanks for your concern, I suppose?". Sophia looked at the door to the hallway and seemed to think deeply about something or another for a few moments before returning.
"That is all I wanted to tell you, thanks for listening."
"Y'know, Joe, you really are strange."
"How so?" Joe inquired. He knew he wasn't average, but it still interested him in what ways he wasn't. In case he needed to fit in at some point in the future.
"You can switch between so many 'personas' at once in an instant. You're never really consistent from one minute to the next, not to mention days. One moment you can be the most selfless, hive-minded individual in our little group, and then the next I wouldn't be surprised if you leave one of your own squadmates to die a slow death.". Sophia chuckled.
"And you never talk to your actual equals. You're such a loner to the people you should be friends with, yet with me, your 'oh so scary boss and authority figure', you can never stop talking, when most people would say whatever they want to say in ten words or less."
Sophia zero'd her eyes right into Joe's, locking their gazez for a few moments that seemed like a strange eternity. "Who the hell are you?".
Joe replied, without averting his eyes. He knew doing so would make him seem like a liar.
"I just imitate other people's past actions, when they would be most beneficial. I guess that is who I am, the sum of all I meet."
"Meeting people and learning from their experiences is more... multiplicative."
"Would you die if you couldn't parrot anyone in a situation? Zero times one thousand is still zero."
"There is always some action someone else has done in a previous occurrence of that situation. If I am present when a situation occurs for the first time, there has always been someone else in the past reacting to a very similar situation."
"That doesn't answer my question.". Sophia leaned in, breathing out a cold gust right on Verona's face. "Allow me to rephrase it, then."
"Do so."
"If you took away all those masks, all your memories of other peoples' actions, would you be anything? Is there even a Joe Verona, a soul, beneath all of those facades? Who are you, individually?"
"I..." Joe's brain was sifting through all his memories, conscious and subconscious. It needed to come up with a way to answer that question, otherwise, he would end up losing some of the captain's trust, regardless of his reaction.
After several seconds, there was no clear answer, only a hint. "The current me does not know the answer, however, I can assume you know about my past, and why I am here, in the military?"
"Yeah, I do. I'm just wanting to know if that man is still alive, or if there's just an empty shell trying to gain a soul left. Tell me, is that man alive? There's no shame in admitting if your heart is hollow."
"Currently, it is as you say, hollow. But every hole, every hollow space, can be filled by something, that is not present there at the moment. And there will always be such a thing to fill it. I am incapable of finding it right now, but I have the suspicion I once came upon it, and will find it again some time in the future. If you can talk to me during that time, you are most likely speaking to what most likely is the 'core' behind all facades."
Sophia sighed, "..Have some advice, okay? Find something, anything, to enjoy in your 'line of work'. The rush of winning, the joy of dodging pain, or hell, for you, even the love of slaughtering your marks. Just enjoy something, alright? It's a start. Everything else comes naturally."
"Thank you for the advice, but I fear there is nothing I know worthy and able of being enjoyed by me. I am staying alive, because there is no point in ceasing to exist."
"I suppose there's hope for you yet, then. Now get out, I need my solitude or else I'll be 'friendly' and 'sociable' and that makes me want to puke."
"As you say." Joe left the room after bowing down slightly.
I'll leave you to determine whether or not this knowledge is worth the efforts of acquiring it."
Joe turns to face the captain: "I assume we can safely say 'mission over'?""
With a sigh of soul-crushing dissapointment, "Joe... Why did you even say that first part? Who... why would we even give a fuck?". Sophia shook her head "Well, anyway. Yeah, mission over."
"Regardless of what we do, it will have consequences. Knowing the strength of each player allows us to predict them somewhat." Joe prepared to leave the command center for a more quiet and secluded location, for his little private talk with the captain.
Sophia followed her pupil, which amusingly in her head, could be said to be both the quietest one and yet the most talkative one at the same time. Sophia snickered at the thought.
After reaching a secluded janitor closet, Joe remarked: "This should be lonely enough."
"Sorry to even imply this, but you really want to talk about things in a janitors' closet? Y'know this has strange implications, right? What if somebody walks in on this?"
Sophia waved around her hands, "Wooo, oh boy Joe, I didn't know you were into older women! .. You do know that's what they're going to assume, right?"
"I am fully aware of that, however, the risk may be necessary. To-"
Sophia interjected, "Why don't we just go to my office?"
"That also works, but I didn't want to use it without your permission."
Both left the awkward closet, and continued the conversation in Sophia's office:
"As I was intending to tell you, I have come up with a plan for the upcoming naval mission. As my task will be to hunt down the submarine to prevent it from interfering, I need to be at least on the surface of the water, or submerged as quickly as possible after the battle begins. Sadly, I cannot be in that state from the start, as travel in water is rather slow compared to airborne travel, so my plan is to fake a crash to quickly get into the ocean without risking being shot down."
Joe continued after taking a second to fill his lungs with air again: "To minimize the chance of being targeted, I want to make that crash as realistic as possible. For that purpose, I have installed a smoke grenade in one of the jet engines in swarm's jetpack. I can remotely trigger it from the cockpit."
"Okay." is all that Sophia could come up with, eyes glazed over. "Thanks for that exposition, but was everything except the smoke grenade absolutely necessary? I could probably figure the rest of that by my own."
"As I intend to completely shut down the engine once the smoke grenade is triggered, the fall will be completely unbroken, and there is the risk of me being knocked out, or even worse, killed on impact. I just want you to have a backup plan in case that happens."
While Joe wasn't lying, the chance of the described possibility was low, after all, Swarm had already fallen from the sky onto solid ground due to an attack on its computer systems, and Joe had survived inside just fine. In addition, it is to be expected, that soldiers die in battles.
"I highly doubt that it'd even happen, but... thanks for your concern, I suppose?". Sophia looked at the door to the hallway and seemed to think deeply about something or another for a few moments before returning.
"That is all I wanted to tell you, thanks for listening."
"Y'know, Joe, you really are strange."
"How so?" Joe inquired. He knew he wasn't average, but it still interested him in what ways he wasn't. In case he needed to fit in at some point in the future.
"You can switch between so many 'personas' at once in an instant. You're never really consistent from one minute to the next, not to mention days. One moment you can be the most selfless, hive-minded individual in our little group, and then the next I wouldn't be surprised if you leave one of your own squadmates to die a slow death.". Sophia chuckled.
"And you never talk to your actual equals. You're such a loner to the people you should be friends with, yet with me, your 'oh so scary boss and authority figure', you can never stop talking, when most people would say whatever they want to say in ten words or less."
Sophia zero'd her eyes right into Joe's, locking their gazez for a few moments that seemed like a strange eternity. "Who the hell are you?".
Joe replied, without averting his eyes. He knew doing so would make him seem like a liar.
"I just imitate other people's past actions, when they would be most beneficial. I guess that is who I am, the sum of all I meet."
"Meeting people and learning from their experiences is more... multiplicative."
"Would you die if you couldn't parrot anyone in a situation? Zero times one thousand is still zero."
"There is always some action someone else has done in a previous occurrence of that situation. If I am present when a situation occurs for the first time, there has always been someone else in the past reacting to a very similar situation."
"That doesn't answer my question.". Sophia leaned in, breathing out a cold gust right on Verona's face. "Allow me to rephrase it, then."
"Do so."
"If you took away all those masks, all your memories of other peoples' actions, would you be anything? Is there even a Joe Verona, a soul, beneath all of those facades? Who are you, individually?"
"I..." Joe's brain was sifting through all his memories, conscious and subconscious. It needed to come up with a way to answer that question, otherwise, he would end up losing some of the captain's trust, regardless of his reaction.
After several seconds, there was no clear answer, only a hint. "The current me does not know the answer, however, I can assume you know about my past, and why I am here, in the military?"
"Yeah, I do. I'm just wanting to know if that man is still alive, or if there's just an empty shell trying to gain a soul left. Tell me, is that man alive? There's no shame in admitting if your heart is hollow."
"Currently, it is as you say, hollow. But every hole, every hollow space, can be filled by something, that is not present there at the moment. And there will always be such a thing to fill it. I am incapable of finding it right now, but I have the suspicion I once came upon it, and will find it again some time in the future. If you can talk to me during that time, you are most likely speaking to what most likely is the 'core' behind all facades."
Sophia sighed, "..Have some advice, okay? Find something, anything, to enjoy in your 'line of work'. The rush of winning, the joy of dodging pain, or hell, for you, even the love of slaughtering your marks. Just enjoy something, alright? It's a start. Everything else comes naturally."
"Thank you for the advice, but I fear there is nothing I know worthy and able of being enjoyed by me. I am staying alive, because there is no point in ceasing to exist."
"I suppose there's hope for you yet, then. Now get out, I need my solitude or else I'll be 'friendly' and 'sociable' and that makes me want to puke."
"As you say." Joe left the room after bowing down slightly.
I have the suspicion everyone here is waiting for someone else to post.
While the Captain was away, Joe had a look at the data sent by the NCs, what data did they sent, and how was it interpreted by the recieving computers. Maybe it would help sometime in the future.
Joe was interrupted by Sophia's voice, "Verona, what the hell are you doing?. It was obvious something was bugging her.
"Do you remember why I am here? To provide ideas on tactics and analysis on the situation of this mission. I can't analyze something, if I know nothing." The cold response was, while true, not the reason for his behaviour.
"Yeah, guess so..", Sophia nodded at her aide, before resuming. "Only makes sense, coming from your overtly curious ass."
"Did something happen? You seem a bit more refreshed than before you left, and I doubt is is makeup."
"Just realizing what I should be doing is all.", Sophia cracked a faint smile, "Don't worry about me, kid. You have your own problems, and I know I can handle mine."
"What's the sitch?"
"Could I speak to you under 4 eyes for a bit, if the current mission leaves enough time?"
"Under four eyes? What the fuck are you saying..?"
"Its a saying I am kind of used to. A person has 2 eyes, so speaking under 4 eyes means..." Joe waited for Sophia's thoughts to complete the sentence in her mind.
"In private."
Sophia waited a moment, apparently considering. "Fine. What do you want to discuss?"
"Something regarding the upcoming naval mission, and I intend it to be only known by very few, as it involves having people not knowing."
"We'll talk about it when the mission's done.
"Understood."
"...Did anything happen while I was gone?"
"Not too much. The 'low-level' enemy mechs were easily decimated by Little Dragon, but something about that railgun still seems odd. Its capacitors seem very unusual, and look like they've been toyed with, likely to enhance the amount of stored charge. I do not know how much energy those capacitors might be able to store before discharging internally."
"I think you're wrong on that front, but still close. To me, those look like they've red-necked-"
Sophia paused and turned on her ear-piece after putting it back on.
"Goldenspur, Little Dragon! Stay the hell away from the railgun! Its capacitors.. Looks like tesla coils of some sort? They could ignite your fuel reserves, or fry out something?"
"Tesla coils? I doubt their arcs could do that, unless the fuel tanks would be not conductive or not grounded. Same for electronics' housings."
"I've got no idea either, but that's the closest thing I could think of. Hell, they could be plasma field manipulators for all I know."
"What about using gravity to arc some projectiles onto those 'capacitors'?"
"No fucking shit, Joe."
"From what I noticed, few consider gravity when in the haste of a fight, and they are not a sniper."
"You're smart and attentive, Joe, but god, do you ever stop talking?"
Joe didn't reply. He could counter that, but that would be proving her point, so he just replied with a smirk.
Joe was interrupted by Sophia's voice, "Verona, what the hell are you doing?. It was obvious something was bugging her.
"Do you remember why I am here? To provide ideas on tactics and analysis on the situation of this mission. I can't analyze something, if I know nothing." The cold response was, while true, not the reason for his behaviour.
"Yeah, guess so..", Sophia nodded at her aide, before resuming. "Only makes sense, coming from your overtly curious ass."
"Did something happen? You seem a bit more refreshed than before you left, and I doubt is is makeup."
"Just realizing what I should be doing is all.", Sophia cracked a faint smile, "Don't worry about me, kid. You have your own problems, and I know I can handle mine."
"What's the sitch?"
"Could I speak to you under 4 eyes for a bit, if the current mission leaves enough time?"
"Under four eyes? What the fuck are you saying..?"
"Its a saying I am kind of used to. A person has 2 eyes, so speaking under 4 eyes means..." Joe waited for Sophia's thoughts to complete the sentence in her mind.
"In private."
Sophia waited a moment, apparently considering. "Fine. What do you want to discuss?"
"Something regarding the upcoming naval mission, and I intend it to be only known by very few, as it involves having people not knowing."
"We'll talk about it when the mission's done.
"Understood."
"...Did anything happen while I was gone?"
"Not too much. The 'low-level' enemy mechs were easily decimated by Little Dragon, but something about that railgun still seems odd. Its capacitors seem very unusual, and look like they've been toyed with, likely to enhance the amount of stored charge. I do not know how much energy those capacitors might be able to store before discharging internally."
"I think you're wrong on that front, but still close. To me, those look like they've red-necked-"
Sophia paused and turned on her ear-piece after putting it back on.
"Goldenspur, Little Dragon! Stay the hell away from the railgun! Its capacitors.. Looks like tesla coils of some sort? They could ignite your fuel reserves, or fry out something?"
"Tesla coils? I doubt their arcs could do that, unless the fuel tanks would be not conductive or not grounded. Same for electronics' housings."
"I've got no idea either, but that's the closest thing I could think of. Hell, they could be plasma field manipulators for all I know."
"What about using gravity to arc some projectiles onto those 'capacitors'?"
"No fucking shit, Joe."
"From what I noticed, few consider gravity when in the haste of a fight, and they are not a sniper."
"You're smart and attentive, Joe, but god, do you ever stop talking?"
Joe didn't reply. He could counter that, but that would be proving her point, so he just replied with a smirk.
Some people are just unlucky, m8. And you're a smartypants who tries not to use the most common websites and whatnot, so I assume you're 'low on the list' anyway, right?
Depends. I am less likely to fall for random mass-attacks, but I am also more likely to be targeted specifically, because avoiding such sites USUALLY has a reason. Although the risk of the latter is still extremely low, I guess.
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