Best and Brightest (Tyr)

MKR

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#1
It was the day after Belfast had been decimated, the image of the Shiseiten still was burned into Johanna's mind. How it shrugged off anything they threw at it and even took what should for all purposes be a lethal blow to anything that lived without seeming all that bothered about being split in half. Suffice to say the Weissritter's pilot had not slept well and now just stared at the ceiling of her room. The Weissritter for its part would need to be repaired and parts replaced, but that wasn't going to cut it. She needed something better, which left the question of how she would get something like that in the first place. She could contact her dad and see if he could pull any strings? Maybe she could use her position in Upsilon to get some prototype shipped to her?

The Belgian blinked a few times, right now she wanted to just turn on one of her games and forget about these woes, but that wasn't going to fix anything. If only it fixed something, anything, just some small step forwards to get back on track because at this pace she would be lying here doing nothing. Funny that, normally she would've loved a fight followed by a month of getting to do whatever she wanted. But this was different, that wasn't a fight that was a struggle to survive and this free time just felt, hollow. Like some fun vampire sucked all the joy out of it and left this empty husk resembling a month off behind.

That made this funny in all the wrong ways, a funny to see not one to experience first hand. She covered her face with her hands, what would she do now?
 
Aug 25, 2018
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#2
The door to Johanna's room opened, revealing Kvinna entering the room. Though she didn't walk far in, staying near the entrance. She looked at Johanna over her nose, her lips curled to a satisfied smile. "Directory's best and brightest? Trouble against crabs, immediate infighting and fleeing. And you, even Slask did better than you did!"

For a moment Kvinna's face twisted to a mocking echo of a surprised expression before the smile was back. "But I understand. With the sorry performance you had with your trash bin of course you'd have to delude yourself into thinking you were accepted into humanity's best and finest. Instead of what Upsilon truly is, a hastily put together freak show."
 

MKR

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#3
Johanna sprang up at the sound of the door opening, she would've welcomed a distraction. All except this one. The words almost echoed in her head as Kvinna lay on the insults to both her and Upsilon, she wanted to protest but her voice escaped her as the tirade continued. When the verbal assault finally came to a close Johanna had a mixed expression, predominantly anger but in there she also held some contempt and that last bit of pride she wished to protect from the brown haired woman.

"T-That's. You. No.. You're wrong." Johanna muttered, "I-it might've been a rough start but we'll do better!" It was more to convince herself than to dissuade Kvinna she said this as she sat on the bed, staring daggers at the woman in the door opening.
 
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Aug 25, 2018
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#4
Kvinna looked at the woman, her desperate, weak denials, savoring the moment... The feeling of Johanna's emotions.
It was delicious. "You certainly can't do any worse! You froze on a battlefield!" Kvinna laughed. "But your trash bin is destroyed, you have nothing to move around. Is a mere month enough to repair it enough for it to function, if you can call your showing that?"
 

MKR

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#5
As the insults continued Johanna shrunk, none of the statements were wrong in their own right but phrased to bash the pilot and the laugh was the icing on the cake, a very angry and sad cake, she raised her voice to object. Albeit the confidence in it was still shaky at best.

"Well I was at least on the battlefield!... And I'll have something even better than the Weissritter before the month is over." Her voice muted somewhat "As soon as I figure out how."

She shook her head and looked at the heckler on her doorstep again. Inside she felt that defending herself or the group wouldn't work like this, not when she could barely muster that. However one thing Johanna realized as she spoke, Kvinna herself.

"And at least I was out on the battlefield, that's more than you've ever done for this group! All you seem to do is complain and belittle so unless you begin actually doing something you've got no right to complain!" There was a hint of confidence in the last statement. If she couldn't win this by defense she had to go on the offense the Weissritter pilot reasoned, how well that would hold up was to be seen.
 
Aug 25, 2018
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#6
The effect was immediate. Kvinna's eyes narrowed, with them seeming to almost burn with ire, though it did not seem to be entirely focused on Johanna. Clearly, her's words had struck a nerve. "Unfortunately, Huvud thinks it is better that that failure pilots Fabularis, while I make sure that the Mobile Weapon stays in working condition. Unlike you I can both pilot well, handle and maintain our technology." Each word was dripping with anger and contempt.
 

MKR

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#7
As the tide turned a wry grin formed on Johanna's face. Her striking a cord was not lost on the pilot and she planned to double down now that her verbal counter offensive had worked.
"Well if this Huvud rates a 'failure' over you, what does that make you?" She said "Well for one it seems to put you as his personal assistant."

"And empty boasts with no way to prove them? You probably were even more stiff then me when that thing fired at the Air Christmas." The belgian smirked, confidence once more on the rise.

"Oh but I will lend you that you were sent as a mechanic. So how about it? Wanna be useful for once and start patching up everyone's machines?"
 
Aug 25, 2018
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#8
As Johanna kept talking Kvinna became more and more furious. Near the end her clenched fist trembled. They twitched a few times towards Johanna, likely in an attempt to punch her, but something kept forcing it back down.

The urge to punch the smug human in front of her was almost overbearing to endure, but the conversation Huvud had had with her before she and Slask joined Upsilon kept the punch from happening. She would not disappoint their Lord. She would not become a failure like Slask.

"Enough." Kvinna forced out past her teeth, voice quivering with anger. "You know nothing of us, proven by your ridiculous idea of me being as weak as to be scared of the thing that almost killed you. I tire of this, keep wallowing in your despair, pilot without anything to pilot." She turned on her heels and marched out of Johanna's room as abruptly as she had arrived.
 

MKR

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#9
Johanna nervously eyed the fist for a moment, when it became clear that it was not on a collision course with her face she smiled again, doubly so when Kvinna stormed off. She let the intruder exit without any more insults but still thinking up more to sling at her regardless should a retort come, or perhaps for next time.

She stood tall for a moment before reality reasserted itself and she sunk again, its true she had nothing to pilot right now. But that didn't have to be the case, after all the Weissritter wasn't completely destroyed and Johanna did know at least one mechanic within Upsilon. The Weissritter could not only be repaired, but perhaps improved.

Johanna crossed her arms, she'd show Kvinna what that trash bin could do.




Luckily for the Belgian locating a certain Frenchwoman was quite easy. Her eyes went over the hangar, the damaged visages of every single unit in Upsilon bar one adorning the walls in the places allocated to them upon arrival. The pilot wondered where the Granzon could have gone off to before deciding that 'No clue' was the best answer she could come up with right now.

The other thing that drew her attention was in the far back of the machine, the Weissritter was currently less locked in place and more suspended the left arm of the machine still loose from the rest of the unit, black scorch marks covering the front and back of the unit. She could still almost see the black fireballs that struck her and left those burns upon her unit.

She shook off the thought, her eyes once more going over the room, purposefully ignoring the units this time and instead opting to look for Juliette, the idea was to approach her and try to get her attention without being all too disrupting to the repair effort as a whole.
 
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GEAR

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#10
As Johanna made her way through the hangar, the full extent of the devastation was on display - not only the weapons of Taskforce Upsilon, but also civilian machines had been brought in to share in supplies, at least until more could arrive. As she picked her way through the throng, making her way through a miniature jungle of stacked supply crates, extracted, wrecked parts, and in-progress salvage operations, she would have made her way into a clearing of sorts, where some makeshift workstations had been hurriedly established.

Sure enough, there was a familiar form huddled over a desk in repose, arms pulled up underneath her head, with a tablet as a makeshift pillow. Her shoulders rose and fell in a rhythmic, gentle cadence, and the sound of her breathing could be heard even with the occasional grinding or whirring of heavy machinery... and of course, who couldn't use a little rest after the kind of hours she'd been working since the incident?

"...Oh, monseigneur..." Juliette Carpentier murmered drearily, a small yet happy smile spreading across her face as she pulled the tablet a little closer;

"Je'taime..."
 

MKR

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#11
She couldn't help it, her eyes were drawn to the rest of the units present making the scale of everything that much more clear. Terror and inspiration in one, something to defeat to prevent from happening again. Before the terror could take over Johanna's eyes fell on the sleeping Frenchwoman, intent on expressing her love for someone by snuggling her tablet.

The Belgian walked up to the sleeping mechanic, slumped over her desk. She didn't want to wake her up as she seemed to be enjoying the rest but she reasoned it would only take a bit and if Juliette needed more sleep she could always get some more afterwards. Nevertheless she felt it would be really rude to do so and it wasn't like she had anywhere to be afterwards either so double rude.

Johanna sighed, taking a free chair and sitting down besides Juliette while pulling out her phone, luckily if someone needed a distraction there was always an app to help you fill the time. She just hoped it wouldn't take too long for Juliette to wake up.
 

GEAR

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#12
Fortunately, Johanna wouldn't have long to wait. An alert caused the tablet to rumble against the woman's cheek, causing her eyelids to flutter as it tried to get her attention. Its surface briefly displayed... an unfamiliar, avian looking design as the screen lit up - but only for an instant, as the woman reflexively snapped it closed with a flick of her finger.

Slowly, she up, shaking her head with a low groan - and jumped in surprise at the sight of Johanna, giving a little yelp as she did so, pulling the device up so that it shielded her face.

"Oh! Madame Van Den Berg..." She sputtered, slowly lowering the device, her features now flushed a bright crimson as she stammered:

"Excuzes-moi... I was just..."
 

MKR

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#13
When the engineer awoke Johanna put her phone down, getting a glance of the design in the meanwhile. It seemed Juliette liked bids from the looks of it. The reaction got a slight laugh out of the Belgian, the Frenchwoman turning red as a beet did not help her case either.
"Good morning and don't worry, after everything so far I can understand the sleep and jumpiness." The Ensign seemed to enjoy the momentary distraction and after giving her conversation partner a moment to calm down and relax she spoke up against.

"But uh, could we discuss the Weissritter's repairs for a moment?" She asked
In the moment she hadn't thought of all too great a method to bring up the white knight stowed in the back of the hangar so just going straight to the point was the best she could come up with.

She fiddled with the magnet on her case to keep her nerves down. Still somewhat shaken in her own right.
 

GEAR

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#14
"Bien sur." Said the Frenchwoman, nodding in the affirmative as she gave a catlike stretch and yawn, fingers reaching high into the air... only to curl out, then tighten back as she folded her arms.

Leading the way, she began to chat, producing a stylus from her breast pocket to wave about animatedly, her fatigue seemingly forgotten in a mere instant when there was work to be done.

"It is unfortunate that such severe damage was taken..." She said, pulling up a diagram of the Weissritter on her tablet and circling several key areas;

"Replacement parts for these old-one-offs aren't easy to find... But, we'll find a way to make it work. What was it that you needed?"
 

MKR

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#15
Johanna would listen, she was no tech expert but she had guessed that the Weissritter's parts would be tough to come by, at least for anything not based on a Gespenst. In that regard she was lucky the rifle was unharmed as replacing that must be nearly impossible.
"Well you see, I was thinking that the Weissritter could use an upgrade, both on its own and compared to the rest of the PTs we've got here its a bit of a relic."

The Belgian looked over to the unit, black scorch marks not having magically disappeared since she first entered the hangar.
"But I honestly have no idea what to suggest aside from 'Better specs' so I was kinda hoping you had some ideas on what to do with it, I mean who to better ask for how to improve a unit than the woman in charge right?"

She hoped that there were some ideas in Juliette's head she wanted to test, frankly at this point she'd take anything to be able to compare to the rest of Upsilon and to show Kvinna what for.
 

GEAR

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#16
"Upgrade? Ah, a promouvoir, you say?"

Juliette listened to the woman's concerns, arms folded, nodding along sympathetically. As Johanna paused, she stopped, tapping her bottom lip thoughtfully with the stylus. There were gears turning behind those eyes as they sparkled with possibilities, as she began scrawling hurriedly on her tablet.

"It is quite the coincidence that you mention that..." She said as she scribbled, giving a smile as she did so.

"The Directory has quite a few new toys it is looking to test... With the proper modifications, I am sure we can make Madmoizelle Weiss comme neuf!" - With that little flourish, her cheeks turned red yet again, and she gave a sheepish grin.

"...With your permission, of course."
 

MKR

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#17
Johanna practically beamed at Juliette's proposition. Not only an upgrade but new toys too from the sound of it? Now that was quite the prospect, she composed herself and responded.
"Well permission granted, seeing as that exactly what I came here for."

She wondered what the Directory had shipped over for testing and what would all work with the Weissritter, all things considered there weren't that much sniper units but perhaps something more to do with the speed and mobility? It was something to eagerly await.

"I suppose its best I stay in the area for at least a while then so that we can test the Weissritter when its complete?" She asked Juliette.
 

GEAR

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#18
"Tres bien." Quipped the Frenchwoman, twirling her stylus expertly.

"It will take a few days to get everything together... In the meantime, perhaps I can arrange a substitute?"

Turning the tablet over to the beaming woman, Johanna would see that its surface was now adorned with several technical readouts selected by the woman. Two of the three would be immediately familiar - the third, not so much, but she may have glimpsed its foxlike silhouette on the battlefield prior.

"There are a few machines still available... Huckebeins, Riots..." Explained Juliette, pointing to each machine individually as she spoke - before bringing her indicator to the last one, giving it an affectionate tap.

"But, perhaps you would like to borrow the Serius II? She is no slouch in a fight... For a support machine, that is."
 

MKR

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#19
"A substitute would be great." Johanna nodded along, peering over to the tablet and thinking it over. She let Juliette finish her mini sales pitch for the Serius.

"Well back during training I mainly practiced with a Huckebein, so I know its weapons and its controls but... I will admit that I am curious about the Serius, for a substitute though I'd take anything with a long range gun. Something to sharp shoot with." She answered. "Also wont you need the Serius? Don't get me wrong I'd love to take it for a spin but I don't want to have it be at your detriment."
 

GEAR

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#20
The Frenchwoman just laughed and waved off the concern, bringing her (admittedly chipped, at this point) painted nails to her mouth.

"Pas de problème." She said, gesturing to the machines stacked all about her, as well as the piles of paperwork and tablets stacked up at her makeshift workstation - the mess spoke for itself.

"I won't be going anywhere for a while, it seems. Besides - this way, Madam can stretch her legs, non?"