5/19/2013, 18:23
I'd been a while since I'd seen the rest of the crew, though I knew Mal wouldn't be around and neither was Calc. Still, I got to fill in the rest on glossed over accounts of working with Senshi in an un-mentioned role, and in turn I found out about the details of some of the unsupported close scrapes that Mal had mentioned on the discussion group. Which was unpleasant to hear about, to say the least, though obviously they all survived it. Dee spent most of the time doing her own thing too; probably trading posts with some newsgroups. She'd been doing a lot more investigation on making a body lately.
Boarding actions remained undiscussed. I knew that all of us were in the war, they'd been in danger too but... it wasn't something you could talk about to people who weren't doing it, and those who were had even less reason to. I had to half wonder if they were seeing me as being more distant. It was probably the case. I didn't mention what I was back for either and they didn't ask. Even if they would find out about it later, there was no sense letting the cat out of the bag.
I left the ship fairly covertly when we hit Kandor, not wanting to be seen to be associated with the rest of the crew. Paranoia maybe, but I'd lost one staging base due to being observed by human intelligence assets going to it, and I wasn't about to endanger my friends. So it was in full ninja garb that I made my way to a discreet bar in one of the older parts of the city.
Mal had a table in a back corner, and cooly appraised me for a few seconds as I approached before blinking in recognition. He gestured to the other booth and slid over a pint of Guinness.
"You look ridiculous, man," he commented in greeting. I had to grin as I pulled down the turtleneck mask dealie and took a pull from the beer.
"Yeah, 'twas the idea really. Been keeping busy?" Mal nodded slightly; I suppose it was a silly question. "Me too, though I suppose you know about some of that."
"The bits that aren't too hard to dig out... actually, speaking of which, who's Kali actually?" I nodded, taking another sip from the glass, having expected that.
"There's the short answer and there's the long answer. Short answer is girltype me."
"I figured that much, yeah. And the long answer?"
"The longer answer is that she shares headspace with me, shares memories and skillsets, but she thinks and acts differently enough that she's more not-me than me." I paused at Mal's look and sighed. "I know how that sounds, yes. We're kinda beyond conventional psych though, y'know? And it works."
"Fair enough, I guess I'll meet her later. So without going too far into detail, the operation you're proposing... you're sure you have the forces to pull it off?"
"No bullshitting?" I paused. "No, I'm not sure. I don't know exactly what we're going to be running into; I'm sure there's more intel than what we have but a lot of this is going to be going in blind. It depends on us getting good enough information to blend in after we take the ship, and if things go south the ship may not be up to getting us out in a hurry."
"Is this a good idea, then?"
"Yes, it is. It's risky, but we're about the best trained and equipped for indoors work on this side of the fence. If there's a final destination, we can infiltrate and get intel that I doubt anyone else can, and fight our way out if we get made. Or take an objective, or whatever. It's going to be improvisation and that's our bread and butter."
"All right. In more detail then, let's see what snags we can hash out ahead of time. I've got a meeting with some others setup on the 22nd."
Franky, that wasn't surprising... it was really what I'd been hoping he could set up. I had the basis of a plan, in enough detail to improvise, probably, but someone else to pick through it helped find all sorts of little niggly details that bore thinking about. After a good hour or so and a few more beers we'd gotten to a point where we were mostly satisfied.
"So why senshi?" he asked a while later when we were to something more akin to shooting the shit.
"Aside from that, as a group, they're one of the toughest things you can insert into a spaceship corridor?"
"Yeah, obviously. As a group they also tend towards cheery idealism, long-winded speeches, and the like. Not really special forces material." I had to grin slightly at that.
"That's a common conception."
"I notice you didn't say misconception." I nodded.
"Well, the thing is, there's two major operating factions... what they call themselves is unimportant, but basicially it's sorted into whether they want to make the world a bright shining utopia," the sarcasm at that was practicially etching holes in the table, "by creating things or wrecking things, usually to the accompanying overwinded slogans. All well and good." I took a pull from my beer and chuckled slightly. "Thing is, and what they don't like to talk about, is there's some who don't really fit in, per se."
"You're recruiting from the Darks?"
"I see you know all this already. Yeah, pretty much exclusively. They're not so much a faction, and a lot of them find the others even more irritating than I do. This kind of thing seems to appeal to a lot, honestly. Place to belong and all that, plus applied violence to a good cause. Yeah, I know, nihilist reputation, but it's largely crap; at least all the ones I recruited. Just because they don't want to help in the same way the L and Js do..."
"Okay, but the speeches?" I had to grimace, remembering how long it had taken.
"Training."
I'd been a while since I'd seen the rest of the crew, though I knew Mal wouldn't be around and neither was Calc. Still, I got to fill in the rest on glossed over accounts of working with Senshi in an un-mentioned role, and in turn I found out about the details of some of the unsupported close scrapes that Mal had mentioned on the discussion group. Which was unpleasant to hear about, to say the least, though obviously they all survived it. Dee spent most of the time doing her own thing too; probably trading posts with some newsgroups. She'd been doing a lot more investigation on making a body lately.
Boarding actions remained undiscussed. I knew that all of us were in the war, they'd been in danger too but... it wasn't something you could talk about to people who weren't doing it, and those who were had even less reason to. I had to half wonder if they were seeing me as being more distant. It was probably the case. I didn't mention what I was back for either and they didn't ask. Even if they would find out about it later, there was no sense letting the cat out of the bag.
I left the ship fairly covertly when we hit Kandor, not wanting to be seen to be associated with the rest of the crew. Paranoia maybe, but I'd lost one staging base due to being observed by human intelligence assets going to it, and I wasn't about to endanger my friends. So it was in full ninja garb that I made my way to a discreet bar in one of the older parts of the city.
Mal had a table in a back corner, and cooly appraised me for a few seconds as I approached before blinking in recognition. He gestured to the other booth and slid over a pint of Guinness.
"You look ridiculous, man," he commented in greeting. I had to grin as I pulled down the turtleneck mask dealie and took a pull from the beer.
"Yeah, 'twas the idea really. Been keeping busy?" Mal nodded slightly; I suppose it was a silly question. "Me too, though I suppose you know about some of that."
"The bits that aren't too hard to dig out... actually, speaking of which, who's Kali actually?" I nodded, taking another sip from the glass, having expected that.
"There's the short answer and there's the long answer. Short answer is girltype me."
"I figured that much, yeah. And the long answer?"
"The longer answer is that she shares headspace with me, shares memories and skillsets, but she thinks and acts differently enough that she's more not-me than me." I paused at Mal's look and sighed. "I know how that sounds, yes. We're kinda beyond conventional psych though, y'know? And it works."
"Fair enough, I guess I'll meet her later. So without going too far into detail, the operation you're proposing... you're sure you have the forces to pull it off?"
"No bullshitting?" I paused. "No, I'm not sure. I don't know exactly what we're going to be running into; I'm sure there's more intel than what we have but a lot of this is going to be going in blind. It depends on us getting good enough information to blend in after we take the ship, and if things go south the ship may not be up to getting us out in a hurry."
"Is this a good idea, then?"
"Yes, it is. It's risky, but we're about the best trained and equipped for indoors work on this side of the fence. If there's a final destination, we can infiltrate and get intel that I doubt anyone else can, and fight our way out if we get made. Or take an objective, or whatever. It's going to be improvisation and that's our bread and butter."
"All right. In more detail then, let's see what snags we can hash out ahead of time. I've got a meeting with some others setup on the 22nd."
Franky, that wasn't surprising... it was really what I'd been hoping he could set up. I had the basis of a plan, in enough detail to improvise, probably, but someone else to pick through it helped find all sorts of little niggly details that bore thinking about. After a good hour or so and a few more beers we'd gotten to a point where we were mostly satisfied.
"So why senshi?" he asked a while later when we were to something more akin to shooting the shit.
"Aside from that, as a group, they're one of the toughest things you can insert into a spaceship corridor?"
"Yeah, obviously. As a group they also tend towards cheery idealism, long-winded speeches, and the like. Not really special forces material." I had to grin slightly at that.
"That's a common conception."
"I notice you didn't say misconception." I nodded.
"Well, the thing is, there's two major operating factions... what they call themselves is unimportant, but basicially it's sorted into whether they want to make the world a bright shining utopia," the sarcasm at that was practicially etching holes in the table, "by creating things or wrecking things, usually to the accompanying overwinded slogans. All well and good." I took a pull from my beer and chuckled slightly. "Thing is, and what they don't like to talk about, is there's some who don't really fit in, per se."
"You're recruiting from the Darks?"
"I see you know all this already. Yeah, pretty much exclusively. They're not so much a faction, and a lot of them find the others even more irritating than I do. This kind of thing seems to appeal to a lot, honestly. Place to belong and all that, plus applied violence to a good cause. Yeah, I know, nihilist reputation, but it's largely crap; at least all the ones I recruited. Just because they don't want to help in the same way the L and Js do..."
"Okay, but the speeches?" I had to grimace, remembering how long it had taken.
"Training."