2017-04-17: For the Joy of It
- Log: For the Joy of It
- Cast: Kahm Yugh, Elhaym van Houten
- Where: Aveh Desert
- Date: April 17, 2017
- Summary: During a scheduled report to Bledavik, Kahm requests Elly's presence for a little test of her newly deployed gear, the Vierge.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
It had been several weeks since Kahm had been able to comfortably wear his gebler uniform, not to mention his real name and rank. After spending several weeks in the field cultivating assets and investigating clues about the whereabouts of the black gear (among other things) as Marcus Rider, the captain had returned to Bledavik to debrief and corroborate the information hed previously provided via written report.
There was another bit of business that had driven his return to headquarters: evaluating Lieutenant Van Houtens combat readiness. Although she had performed competently as an individual in various operations since the incident in Lahan, the fact remained that she had yet to deploy with a year since that operation had gone awry. With a, few months having passed (and a new experimental unit waiting in the wings for reasons above his security clearance), Kahm felt it was well past time for Elly to get back in the saddle.
Apparently the right parties agreed with him, and a supervised, mock sortie had been approved. Kahm had recommended the site-a secured region in the aveh desert Gebler had taken to use as a training site for new arrivals. The procedure was standard for a basic combat evaluation: both gears had been loaded with tracer rounds where possible. The computers would register any hits as if live fire were used, and react accordingly. Of course, there was no simulating when it came to physical attacks-as with any military operation, some risk was attached.
Hauteclaire stood at one end of the practice field in full view of the sun, the white-and-gold trime of its paint scheme a clear marker against the endlessly duned backdrop of the desert. Kahm was settled into the cockpit with a veterans comfort, the grips of the controls as familiar as an old friends handshake. He idled optimizing some subroutines while the core booted up.
All systems green. He said after a few clicks, opening up a channel to Ellys unit to ask, Lieutenant, hows the new unit handling?
DC: You switch forms to Hauteclaire! DC: Kahm Yugh switches forms to Hauteclaire!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly had in fact been in Bledavik for a meeting on the Garlyle affair, so it all worked out. Maybe everything's comin' up Elehayym now! (No.)
Even so, here she is now, in her new seat. In a Gear. The air is cool, controlled and collected. It was wonderful to taste that crispiness in the meeting house; it is even more wonderful now to be cocooned in metal and to see the world through screens so bright and precise they're better than windows could ever be.
Kahm asks her a question.
Elly has to search briefly to find the reply switch. The panel moved a little.
"Everything's green, Captain," she replies. "The slave motor's settling in... All the control software is loading properly. Of course, the AEROD unit is still in test article mode... but I suppose we've got to learn to walk before we can fly, don't we?" She actually laughs a little after saying that.
"Ah - there it is. The Ether guide interpreter's installed, so I believe that makes everything on the green. What's our scenario, sir?"
The desert sun shines on the immaculate pink-and-white paint of the Vierge. It looks a little ridiculous, but, Elly is confident, it's a contrast thing for armor plate stress tests.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Good." Kahm said, his response crisp and clear over the radio, or at least it should have if they weren't experiencing any unexpected signal noise. He doesn't join in the laugh, but his voice at least contains trace of more good-natured mirth when he replies, "No worries Lieutenant, you'll be getting to try a little bit of everything today."
She asks for the mission detail, and Kahm slid back into clean air of command. "The mission is straightforward. You're to engage the enemy until either their unit is disabled, or yours is." He said, flipping his IFF tag in case Elly might wonder who the enemy should be. The Vierge immediately lit up in his forward viewscreen with an angry red targeting bracket. "Good hunting, Lieutenant." Kahm said, pressed back into his seat by the usual kick of acceleration as he engaged the gear's throttle.
Hauteclaire immediately lurched forward, gliding across the desert in a controlled, ground-contact thrust maneuver that resembled something akin to skiing, and was far more effective in the desert than trying make the damn thing walk in the desert. It approached the Vierge from an angle, strafing across and staying out of melee range at the moment, testing the Lieutenant's reactions with a few trace rounds fired from the machine's wrist guns
GS: Kahm Yugh has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Wrist Guns! GS: Kahm Yugh has completed his action.
DC: MISS! Elhaym van Houten completely evades Wrist Guns from Kahm Yugh!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly breathes in and breathes out again. Her hands grasp the controls of the Gear with comfort; these are familiar, at least. Leaning forwards slightly as she warms up the boosters, she answers, "And the same to you, sir!" Then in comes Hauteclaire, coming in low and strafing forwards.
The answer Elly takes in the face of this is to fly.
It is really more of a thruster-assisted leap, albeit one which is explicitly connected to equipment that CAN fly over long ranges without major problems, because that is very useful in these situations. Vierge is only slightly hindered by the rod-type weapon it's been equipped with, which is being held in the Gear's left hand, still readied after pre-flight inspection.
"It handles like a dream," Elly murmurs, before testing matters by pulling into a powered turn, one tight enough that she grimaces from the centrifugal force of it. Nonetheless, the Gear does turn round with acceleration and no ground contact, the balancers putting one leg out in a dainty way as Elly steers low, killing the little altitude she'd gotten.
The foot touches the sand. It is artistic.
Significantly less artistic is the effort to slam the rod down atop Hauteclaire's big dumb head and/or shoulders from behind. The blow is slightly slowed by the trainer protocols but the intention, at least, is direct.
"I don't intend to lose, Captain; I hope you don't mind!" Elly responds, mid-whackin'.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Kahm Yugh with In Rod We Trust! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Kahm Yugh guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's In Rod We Trust for 37 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Good." Kahm said, his response crisp and clear over the radio, or at least it should have if they weren't experiencing any unexpected signal noise. He doesn't join in the laugh, but his voice at least contains trace of more good-natured mirth when he replies, "No worries Lieutenant, you'll be getting to try a little bit of everything today."
She asks for the mission detail, and Kahm slid back into clean air of command. "The mission is straightforward. You're to engage the enemy until either their unit is disabled, or yours is." He said, flipping his IFF tag in case Elly might wonder who the enemy should be. The Vierge immediately lit up in his forward viewscreen with an angry red targeting bracket. "Good hunting, Lieutenant." Kahm said, pressed back into his seat by the usual kick of acceleration as he engaged the gear's throttle.
Hauteclaire immediately lurched forward, gliding across the desert in a controlled, ground-contact thrust maneuver that resembled something akin to skiing, and was far more effective in the desert than trying make the damn thing walk in the desert. It approached the Vierge from an angle, strafing across and staying out of melee range at the moment, testing the Lieutenant's reactions with a few trace rounds fired from the machine's wrist guns
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Not at all Lieutenant." Kahm confirms, kicking Hauteclaire's boosters into reverse as Vierge went skywards, "I would prefer that you hold nothing back-I've no intention of losing either."
The captain took careful note of the gear's maneuvering as Elly took it through the air and down. Clearly optimized for high-performance, and Hauteclaire's scans showed that that ether condenser wasn't even operating at full capacity..there was plenty more that the Lieutenant put into it.
What she does put in, however, is both graceful and elegant, even if did culminate in the gear's rod coming down unceremoniously at Kahm's head.
"But battles are not beautiful..." Kahm murmured to himself, twisting the control sticks and increasing the gear's thrust. Hauteclaire was no slouch itself in the ability to maneuver-the gear turn on a veritable dime, spinning on its heel in a whirlwind of sand so that it's back now faced the Vierge, absorbing the blow with a clash against the bladed side of the large anti-gear sword that was magnetically secured on the back.
"Nice reaction." Kahm said. The magnets on Hauteclaire's frame retreated with a heavy thunk noise, and the blade-already grasped by the gear's right hand during the spin-swung free in a powered swing back out horizontally at the opposing gear.
"Now let's see if you can keep it up!"
GS: Kahm Yugh has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Heavy Swing! GS: Kahm Yugh has completed his action. GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Kahm Yugh's Heavy Swing for 192 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
High performance always has trade offs, even for the Holy Empire of Solaris's squadron of elite engineering talents, who are, quite possibly, just Krelian improvising off old records from five thousand years ago, but never MIND...
Hauteclaire whirls back and throws up sand. The visual distortion makes the camera iris contract protectively and Elly squints as her relative illumination level drops and oh DEAR there it comes. Vierge tenses to spring back.
It does spring back. Just not fast enough. That blade slings forwards and hits the side of the Gear with what is, from outside, a majestic CLANG and is, from Elly's perspective, an ear-straining experience in being the ringer inside of the bell. One of the screens flickers for a moment, but the problem is resolved; Vierge lands with its poise intact, but a visible dent in the side.
"I could say the same, sir... You moved extremely quickly. What's the reaction factor on that machine...?" As this shop talk occurs, the rod spins up and is held at a dynamic but pointless angle. That is because Elly is pressing her thoughts down through the Ether amplifier--
What comes out is a burst of simplified geometric 'lightning', the equivalent of a flash bang, but the indicator is pretty clear and calculated. If this was FOR REALSIES that would have, in fact, been a bolt from the blue desert sky right at the Hauteclaire.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Kahm Yugh with Anemo Bolt! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Kahm Yugh takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Anemo Bolt for 216 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Kahm Yugh!
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"It's about as near the Holtzmann limit as I've been able to get it." Kahm replied in between blows, which was to say that there was a delay of a few milliseconds between when the pilot wanted to do something and the machine reacted. "But even this can be enhanced with the ether control system." He replied, wary as the Vierge held it's weapon in a decidedly non-combat posed, reacting just a hair too late to avoid a 'strike' registering on Hauteclaire's chassis.
The viewscreens were momentarily blinded by white light, and the computer began reading out a damage report. In reality the machine had a little more then a few burn marks on it's exterior, but the system read and processed the attack as if had been 'FOR REALSIES' and choked off performance is necessary. Kahm nodded in approval.
Good shot.
"I heard you were in the element program, Lieutenant." The captain said, placing his hands on pair of experimental-looking control orbs that flanked either side of his seat and focusing his will, feeding a circuitous flow of ether into the gear that gradually expanded, "So was I, once."
Hauteclaire's boosters surge with a renewed force, and the gear jettisoned into air, daring the Vierge give chase. "Let's see how you are with aerial combat next." Kahm said, pointing the cannon mounted on Hauteclaire's left arm and taking aim whether she followed or not, firing in a low-yield beam that was too diffused to do more than surface damage.
GS: Kahm Yugh has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Anemo Beam! GS: Kahm Yugh has completed his action. GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Kahm Yugh's Anemo Beam for 226 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly sets her teeth as her bolt of lightning arcs out and then the Captain opts to share more of his background with her.
"... I," Elly begins, because her own situation is complex enough that she is thrown from her current situation by the mixture of embarrassment and shame which come from remembering the back half of her interval at Jugend. Then Kahm reveals that he wasn't so far off himself. Hauteclaire takes off and bursts a shocking electric beam towards Vierge, catching it momentarily flatfooted.
The cockpit buzzes loudly as a reasonable facsimile of impact shock. (The sword didn't need it.) Elly shoves the Gear's controls afterwards, Vierge taking to the sky with a slightly unseemly haste, the acceleration pushing her back into her piloting couch as she answers, "... I didn't know. I'm honored to work with you, sir. More so than I had been --"
Elly's fumbling attempts at brown nosing fade as she exhales with force and narrows her eyes into the roar of the storm. Her hand uncurls and curls on the left control stick as her mind feels as though it shifts downwards. Encompassing the Ether amplifier is always tricky - her test with the AERODs had gone even deeper into a strange oceanic feeling, but those are thankfully offline for now. (Why was I thankful for that?, Elly wonders.)
The rod comes up with a dramatic flourish.
The sand explodes behind Kahm. It's as if Kislev managed to land a massive shell here in this training ground with some kind of absurd sky-violating cannon: The sand rises like the waves or ripples on a sea, arching high enough to come down with a patter like dessicated rain. More to the point, probably, is that he's about to thwack into a
oh crap, Elly thinks. "Look out," she tries to warn Kahm, because this effort at CLEVER BEANS also meant that it was, albeit indirect, a full-throated attack! At least he is in fact in the air. On the ground that'd probably be a leg-breaker.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Kahm Yugh with Terra Lance! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Kahm Yugh has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate! GS: Kahm Yugh takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's Terra Lance for 127 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm was never one to take compliments terribly well, and Elly's praise in particular seems...well, a little strange, given her social position over him. "We can both feel honored to be in a position to make a difference down here." He said after some deliberation, "Regardless of where we came from before."
This was certainly a bit chattier than Kahm usually got during an operation. Perhaps whatever he'd has the access to read in the Lieutenant's file reminded him a bit of another Jugend grad fresh on the ground some years ago. Still, it didn't change the fact that in a middle of a battle, Kahm Yugh was forgetting to fight.
He was in the midst of a quandary over the Vierge's capabilities-why wasn't she deploying the AERODs?-when the early warning system detected a spike in ether density on his 6. A big spike.
Kahm was already reacting the instant Elly called out, spiking his own ether output to enhance Hauteclaire's speed, turning on such Gs that even he began to feel a little sweat on his brow as the gear sharply veered off-course from the explosive plume of earth, narrowly clipping one of the wing stabilizers in the process. The gear glided back landside, landing with a slight bounce thanks to the damage stabilizer. Rather than initiate another attack, Kahm switched his IFF tag to neutral.
"Alright, I think I've seen enough." He said, intoning a degree of satisfaction, "Cease further hostilities, Lieutenant."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
That's a good question, isn't it?
Then again, maybe she doesn't want to risk botching them up while testing the Gear's other capacities. Etrenank wasn't built in a day, except in some of the childhood indoctrination narratives, after all. Swallowing, Elly brings the Vierge back to hover, arms coming into a loose fold for the sake of weight balancing.
Is he going to shout. Is he -
No.
He sounds pleased? Elly feels a deep relief, but it does not fully reach her voice. "Understood, sir. Er..."
Sand keeps falling, but it doesn't do more than put a little static into her reply. "This Gear is really... Ah, do you have any remarks? If you'll authorize it, I think a few additional maneuvers would be beneficial." This may mean she wants to fly it in a big circle and keep enjoying the A/C.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"The gear seems well suited to you." Kahm said, already running the figure on Elly's performance, "It's responsive to your controls both in maneuvering and ether amplification. It's rare to see a pilot take to a new unit so naturally."
Kahm had the Hauteclaire stow its blade, magnetic locks deploying with another cha-chunk as the sword secured itself. "Some officers might mark you down for using an attack like that in a mock battle, but it's what I was hoping to see." He admitted, his voice tempered with years of active duty, "When you're out there, when you're really out there, you can't afford to hesitate, no matter who is in front of you."
The white gear slowly rose back into the sky, boosters building power for an altitude more appropriate for the return flight. "Remember that, Lieutenant. It'll keep you alive." He said, his face stern enough in the transmission that it was discernible when he let up a bit, "I'll authorize you for a bit more flight time to get used to the unit, and i'll put in a word for you with Adjutant Hawwa should she ask about a little sortie."
Even Kahm could understand the thing Elly was asking for. It was rare enough to be able fly only for the joy of it.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Oh - Thank you, sir!" The rest of Kahm's explanation is thoroughly absorbed by Elly, probably burned into her heart to be held close and possibly agonized over later. "I hope your Gear wasn't badly impacted even so." No, it's floating upwards, and Vierge rises to match it.
Elly takes in a deep breath...
And then transmits in reply, "Understood. I'll put this Gear through its paces!" The Vierge does not, exactly, get driven into a salute, but its upright posture does stiffen and one hand raises up in an acknowledgement gesture, even as the other stows that rod. Fortunately, nobody saw any hearts coming out of it - not today.
And of course it parallels Kahm until they're within the visuals range of the base, just to keep the chain of contacts intact. Just in case.
Fortunately - and despite the odds - today there is no freak encounter or collision in Elly van Houten's life.