One Night in Moscow (Shadow, Open)

August 28th, OE 102
Endymion European Front Main Operating Base
Moscow, Endymion territories
03:09 PM, local time

The blonde woman was rubbing her hands together in the cold, huddled in a big coat. It was reinforcement day, supplies manpower and machines to move to other, more forward, locations. Technically this included herself as her stay in the Russian backlines had lasted long enough. Every day since she managed to stumble into Directory- er Endymion now- territory again had been busy. One thing after another, at least she finally got to see the Weissritter again, now twice repaired and with a grim tale to tell.
But the business had its downside, it was all work work work with next to no time to take in the surroundings. Still, this would help with that.

Her assigned task was to give the one big shot to arrive in this wave of men and women a tour of the place, a warm welcome to earth. Her eyes peered outside, to the soft drizzle upon the window. A lukewarm welcome.

Still she put herself upright, walking towards the landing dock. She was curious who this Lunarian Noble was. Now it was just waiting for her to arrive.

A woman would walk into the base, she was wearing what looked like a black long coat with a fur collar. She had grey pants and red sweater too, adorned by her white hair and golden eyes. She stood out in crowd to say the least. She would approach the blonde woman as she walked in.

”So you’re the one who’s showing me around, right? I’m Priscilla Hunt, you’re Johanna, right?”

She said with a bit of a tired tone, she’s clearly been through a bit before arriving here at the base. She would shiver a bit as she finished her sentence.

”Ngh... How the hell do people even stand this weather? It’s unbearable compared to simulations of negative temperatures.”

She would cross her arms to warm herself up a bit. As she waited for a response from her tour guide.

A question wandered through the mind of the Belgian as she was approached by the woman, certainly the woman who she was to guide for today. That question namely being just how many Lunarian nobles had white hair, she'd seen images of Ashford, a few other nobles as well. It was like half of them had their hair as white as the moon they called home, a genetic trait developed there, hair dye or maybe something else?
She dragged her mind to the present giving the woman a nod.

"Indeed, Ensign van den Berg, glad to meet you Lady Hunt."
She shook herself a bit as the Lunarian reminded her of the lack of heat.

"As for temperature, it is what one grows used to when living here if nothing else. Personally I am used to several degrees warmer but I also heard that it is colder than usual for this time of year. Rest assured, the rest of Earth has a wider array of climates and during your stay there are good odds you will be seeing a variety of them, for the time being however I recommend we go inside where there's internal heating."

She gestured towards a nearby door, leading from the docking bay to the inside of the facility graced by the marvels of technology and the heat it provided and unless there was protest from the noble the guide would begin the tour.

“You can drop the ”Lady”, Ensign. I don’t need shitheads thinking I’m some princess.”

She said as she walked into the heated room, breathing a sigh of relief as she felt the warm air surround her body. It was quite different from home already, having this kind of air conditioning which contrasted greatly with the air from the cold Russian weather.

”Ahh... That’s way better. So who’s your commanding officer right now if you’re an Ensign? Do you have your own squad or something? I’d really like to know who I’m working with if I’m gonna be here for a long while.”

She remarked as she scrapped the snow off her feet on a mat.

”By the way, what’s the first stop here anyways?”

Johanna nodded, removing her coat and hanging it over her arm as she took note to not call the Lunarian a lady.
"That would be Director Sullivan, and currently I am part of a squad tailored for response and reinforcement engagements the usual elimination of Terra Sentinel and other elements is also on the resume but any combat unit down here has that."

It hadn't been all that long since her own arrival here all in all, so getting back in a rhythm was nice all in all. Even if that rhythm was a lot more violent then before with the changes in combatants, especially those 'weird' things in between them and Germany.
"Said squad also being the one you were assigned to. And our first stop will be the barracks, that way you can unload any items you want before the tour begins in full."

She moved ahead signaling for the noble to follow. Heading towards the barracks.
"In that sense we will be working together for a long while. A fair warning, the ample luxuries I heard are standard on the moon shouldn't be expected down here, especially when it comes to military bunks. Though I'd hazard to guess you figured as much by now."

As she led Priscilla along "Any questions so far, or anything you'd like to know?"

“Yeah, mainly when do I get to meet the rest of the team? I just hope there aren’t that many guys in it.”

Priscilla said as she removed her jacket, revealing the rest of the red sweater that she was currently wearing. She still shivered a bit, still unused to the extreme cold of Russia. She slung it over her shoulder as she continued to follow Johanna.

”Oh yeah, you don’t need to worry about what I think of the barracks. Most of my training was in outdoor survival either way. So if I’m fine with sleeping on a rock, I think the beds here on Earth shouldn’t be a problem. Well, unless for some reason someone has a snake or spider as a pet, then obviously that’s a completely different story. But I doubt it with the super cold weather here.”

She took a look around her, attempting to familiarize herself with her new surrounding. She was gonna be here for a while so it was important that she did so.

"Initial introductions can happen once we arrive in the barracks, though for what reason are you saying that?"
The second part of the first statement got Johanna curious, and while she had read the profile there was value in hearing it from the woman herself.

The hallways they passed in the meanwhile were very similar in their looks, though the quantity of people around varied from section to section, the first where they started was bustling with people hauling in the new machines and people and the part where they were now had a large number of people in them as it bordered on the barracks and as such contained a large number of facilities people used daily. The path through it was simple enough to memorize either way, the barracks by definition needed to be easily accessible and easier to navigate.

"And that is good to hear, as for pets as far as I know no one here has those. As you mentioned the weather doesn't allow for it but especially the people in charge don't want to deal with that either. So don't expect to see many if any pets around here. Thankfully however the beds we have still are better then bricks, even if some might disagree with that notion." She joked as she stopped in front of a door.

"And here we are, our 'room'. Which we share with six others. I'll let them introduce themselves once we get inside."

“Too many guys wanted to court me back then. I got sick of it like the second or third time. Some of them just want me because of how I look, sometimes it’s the family status, sometimes it’s both. Honestly, most of them are just a waste of air, couldn’t be bothered with any of them. I really just hope it’s not the same here, because it would be a very. And I really mean a VERY good change of pace for me.”

As Priscilla continued to talk as she made her way to the barracks. She would chuckle a bit as well as Johanna mentioned the complaints people have had about the beds practically being bricks.

”Well, I guess that is true sometimes. Especially when the springs are extra stiff.”

She would stop in front of the door next to Johanna.

”6 others? Huh, pretty big squad with us included in the mix. You can go first, Johanna.”

She said while tilting her head, notifying Johanna that she could get introductions started inside.

"We have some extra people who aren't combatants but my machine as well as the one you are bringing with you are not standard models, so a few of the people with us are maintenance." She answered the, rhetorical, question first before giving her own remark at the one Priscilla made herself.

"From personal experience, don't let your guard down around the girls either. But I'll save the tales of my school days for another time. For now." She opened the door, pushing it inwards to reveal the room. Six bunks on display and two more hidden behind the opened door. Various personal items places around a number of the bunks in sight and six people moved in sight at the opening of the door, two of them from behind said door.

In the blink of an eye it was easy to see these people were from all over the former Directory and the current Endymion territories.
"Everyone, meet Priscilla. She'll be a part of our group from now on." Johanna remarked. "So go ahead and introduce yourselves."

A middle aged asian man spoke up first, taking the lead keeping things short and formal.
"Cheng Zhi, pilot."

A short brown haired woman spoke up next.
"Helena Jindrova, head engineer." She quickly pointed her thumb at a slightly taller blond haired main with glasses besides her "And he's Anton Artemovich my assistant."

Anton gave a swift nod in response before the final woman, by default the tallest of everyone present gave a big smile.
"And I'm Mackenzie Bennet, good to have some new blood here." A thick Australian accent coming from her voice.

”Well... you sure know how to pick ’em.“

She said while looking at the group. Well, at least it was predominantly female instead of male, exactly what she was hoping for in this situation. This way she shouldn’t be easily distracted by the presence of men.

”As the Ensign here already said, I’m Priscilla Hunt and I’ll be joining you all as a pilot. Oh and uh, I hope that the Vysaga doesn’t treat you too badly, Miss Jindrova. It’s a bit of a tough customer on the engineers, even back home.“

She would turn to Johanna, a hand placed on her hip.

”Oh yeah, my stuff is still being shipped from the place where I was staying at. It should be here in a while though, so we can move on to the other areas for now.”

"So I've heard," the woman replied "They sent over a hotline to call not if but when I get stuck on something so between that thing and the Abend we're sure to have our hands full enough with borderline black box products." She shrugged at the notion seemingly didn't mind it too much "The only real concern I have currently is that motion control system and tuning it but for that you have experience no?"

Johanna nodded to the situation showing the rest of the areas was fine, they'd get back there when her stuff came with. As such she stepped outside.
"I'd like to take credit for assembling them but that wasn't my doing." She admitted "Either way once you're ready we'll go through the facilities from most to least important. So that would place the mess hall first followed by the hospital and lastly recreation. Hopefully by then they'll have brought your stuff over and we can fetch that on the way back."

With that said she began to lead the way down the halls once more.

“Yeah, I’m not stranger to tuning my own machine.”

She replied back to Jindrova, before turning to Johanna and followed her out of the room.

“I guess I’ll see you all later. Adieu.”

With that sorted she would close the door behind them as she walked down the halls alongside Johanna, keeping her hands in her pant pockets. She kept looking around as she walked, still being cautious of any... predatory member of the opposite sex.

”So I’m guessing that it was Director Sullivan who put your little team together? I would have thought they’d pair you with other ace pilots aside from me.”

She asked somewhat curiously to find out more about the other pilots who were important members of Endymion’s military frontline.

"I mean if we do that that means we got one strong front and than absolutely nothing anywhere else, not to do the rest any disservice or anything but putting all your best in one spot will just make your enemy decide to ignore and walk around that." She replied as she walked down the halls, "So instead there's a spread. Also in case something happens to either of us the group still got something that punches above a huckie."

Hands found pockets after a swift point to the side, informing the direction they would be walking in.
"I'd guess that more Aces would get grouped together should something like Upsilon be needed, a spearhead to break through enemy lines or elite force for defense of a vital target. But for the time being what's needed is an army and what better way to keep that standing than a few solid pillars every so often." She gave Priscilla a nod of acknowledgement.

"Or is every squad on the moon filled with aces? Some rumors paint it like that but I'd always thought they were well, propaganda." Her curiosity was piqued, as she leaned into the question "Actually while we talk, what's it like on the moon? I've never been there, meant to visit but well. It's never been too hospitable."

“Well... I guess you have a point there, can’t exactly argue with that logic. But were you part of that Upsilon group you just mentioned? I’m guessing it’ll be a lot stronger if you got the Knights from the Moon. Well... what’s left of them anyways.”

She followed along as Johanna pointed them in another direction, confidently still making her way around the base.

”Well... when you put it that way...” She said in response to the comment about the Moon’s military structure. “I would say every squad does have an ace. Usually a Knight with a Raftclans like my brother. Although that’s mainly because we had smaller numbers compared to the Directory. But I guess we won’t need to worry about that shit anymore.”

”As for what it’s like on the Moon, you could say it’s like living in a gilded cage. Sure you have fancy houses, but you don’t exactly have much room to roam around in a domed city now do you? Honestly I prefer some other parts of Earth, especially this place called, Europe.”

"Yeah I was part of it, but uh... Complications came along the way so I wasn't there for half of their deployment." Best to keep that story tied up in its box, she figured. It was one of those things that shouldn't be spoken aloud about. Both what happened to Upsilon, as well as her. "And yeah now that the knights are being absorbed into the military I expect them to be spread around. You being here kinda proves that as well."

"So its all kind of the same up there huh? Anyway good news for you technically we're already in Europe. This part of what used to be Russia is at least, and we'll likely be pushing into Europe sooner rather than later. I for one am hoping the push will be successful because well, the thought of some Terra Sentinel schmuck rummaging about my parent's house doesn't sit well with me."

She continued her pace down the halls calmly.
"Actually hey yeah, thinking about it now that the knights are properly entering the military aspects of it should be way stronger, the directory had ample plans for things but when it comes to proper well, hard hitting forces I guess? Like the Raftclanz the best we really have from that are a few Grungusts. The big bots never really stuck into the mass production but you guys do have that or well I guess we all do now."

"Maybe with that a proper push through Poland into Germany is close at hand."

“Well if you’re not comfortable about it now, maybe you can talk about your time in Upsilon some other time. Or don’t, it’s up to you really, I won’t push you.” She probably thought it was a bit sensitive for her so decided to lay off on that topic for now just as she was doing.

Having heard of Terra Sentinel, she shook her head a bit. “I still can’t believe they’d go so far for just revenge. Like seriously, who would take over a whole country? It’s clearly become more than revenge at that point, it’s more like making a point while holding a gun to someone’s face. I’m still surprised they even managed to do so much.” She would sigh, there clearly had to be an end to that. It’s already gone too far. “At some point I hope somebody wakes those idiots up to what the hell they’re doing. Because it’s clearly not healthy for anyone.”

“I’ve seen those Grungusts.” Priscilla commented about the Directory’s super robot. “They kinda screamed mascot more than they did war machine for me. It might be the head though. It’s good that you guys at least have some variety in that sense. The Lunarian Kingdom’s best stuff is a lot of “hand me downs“ from our ancestors, not that it’s a bad thing. I mean the Queen even uses an old Mobile Weapon from who knows when? Mine too, thing’s pretty old but it can still kick ass despite its size.”

She would sigh, this time in distraught despite all her mostly positive tone throughout the whole conversation, causing her figure to slump a bit.

”I’m still definitely not completely ready to pilot that thing. My brother would have knocked it out of the park way better than me. Hell, I can’t even use my Psychodriver powers just yet for some stupid damn reason.” At this point, she was probably starting to feel like she was rambling a bit too much, it began to show on her face that she thought she might be disappointing Johanna with all this talk. Despite her training, she was no soldier, not by a long shot.

"If you want to have a pleasant conversation about how they've gone too far you are free to do so." Johanna replied with a shrug "Don't be surprised if they happen to not feel like sharing your interests however. They by all means are extremists, I doubt they have health, be it that of others or their own in mind. If they wanted to see the old Directory dead and buried they succeeded a while ago. Whoever they had a grudge against is dead and buried by now but here they still are, like children throwing a tantrum."

She sighed, switching onto the topic of the Grungusts "I've always had some trouble taking them seriously, they're.... so colorful, like a kid's toy come to life. Still seeing one in combat reminds you that it is something that packs a punch above a Huckie. But I didn't know that it was mostly hand me downs, shows me for not being too educated on it. When we have some time you'll have to tell me about how it is there." Johanna had some curiosity she wanted sated and with a bit of luck Priscilla would be fine doing that.

"Still, even if your brother would be better with the machine surely you wouldn't have been sent here if the brass didn't think you capable of using it, no?"
With that said she stopped, they had arrived at the mess hall. "For now, as you can see this is the mess hall. Don't expect any spectacular food. Its military rations after all."

“Yeah, but all I’ve seen are combat simulations. Never any real fights so I might be good, but only in theory. So unless we’re rolling out really soon, I doubt we’ll be able to see if they were right.” She wouldn’t dwell on it any longer for now, doing that would just make her look weak.

”I’d be ok with sharing what the Moon is like. But yeah, maybe I’ll go ahead and tell you about that some other time.“ Her expression brightened a bit after that little slump she had back there. Her eyes would then fall upon the mess hall, not that bad. “Funny thing about rations, the rations we had were usually just normal food. We didn’t really have time to make a load of military rations, so we usually ate whatever we had. Well, that or it just goes for the knights because they really love being fancy even in the military.“

”So Johanna, I’ve told you a bit of where I’m from, what about you? Where did you come from here on Earth, I’m gonna guess you were born in a cold place seeing as how used to it you are.” She decided to ask her a few questions since it seemed like Johanna was asking more questions than she should be right now. “Also what’s your mech like? I haven’t seen it yet since we got here.”

"Given what I've heard about food on the moon, be prepared for the drop in quality. Anyway lets move on, the hospital is nearby." Without further pause she continued, listening to the words Priscilla spoke. She crossed her arms at that. Home. Such a weird thing nowadays with all that's happened and didn't happen who was where and where was what. Yet they said home was where the heart was.
"Well, less cold. More wet really, I'm from Belgium myself. De Haan. Speck on the map really but its home."

As she walked she seemed to pause her words, seemingly processing that herself.
"It's weird you know, I used to miss it so much. But now- I'm almost afraid to come back to it." She sighed, leaving the topic behind for now. "As for a more pleasant topic, my mech is the Weissritter. Or sorry, Weissritter Abend nowadays. Need to get used to that still. Either way its probably the fastest thing we're packing on this continent right now and that's no unwarranted boast, it used to be fast and they made it faster. Well when I say 'they' I mean Juliette specifically."

Her hands uncrossed and moved back into her pockets.
"Its main purpose is long range combat so being able to make a gap swifter then most foes can close means it is great for that. Add in some help from yourself and the rest and we're practically already running circles around them."

“Belgium, huh? Sounds nice, I actually wouldn’t mind living in a small place in all honesty.” She would listen to Johanna talking about how she was scared to go back home, afraid of what it might look like. “Well, the sooner you go back, the sooner you won’t have to worry about being afraid of going back.”

As she moved onto the topic of the Weissritter Abend, Priscilla couldn’t help but be a bit intrigued. “So we’re both fast huh? I think we’ll both make great teammates. But aside from being faster, what else is new? I would have to take a guess more integrated weapons or a better gun? Personally leaning towards the bigger gun, who doesn’t love shooting a big gun? It’s satisfying when you get it right.” Now it got her thinking of what other war machines the Directory and its aces managed to cook up while she was sitting on the Moon twiddling her thumbs.