Battletech RP: The Clan Invasion

[Justric]

Bandy's long face remained unmoved, showing neither his thoughts or emotions.

Listening to Jennings, Bandy mentally shrugged to himself. He wasn't impressed, but then again his views of honor and all the baggage it entailed tended to contrast highly with his Clan upbringing. Honor was found in serving, not in some obscure personal glory. And ego? It was another alien concept to him. Bandy took pride in his accomplishments and his work, always fighting and striving to be at his best, of course. But he had always done so in a quiet sort of way. He was humble, at least in comparison to most Clanners. After all, couldn't a warrior fight with complete commitment and to the utmost of his ability without having to crow about it? It was another mark against him in Clan society. As if his height and birth weren't enough.

Saying goodbyes? Internally, Bandy snorted. Who would he have said goodbye to? He was fairly sure that any 'goodbyes' conveyed to him would have been far more in line with 'good riddance.'

As their commander gave his speech, Bandy became aware of the undercurrent of tension within the room. Given the mix of so many different Clans, both Trueborn and freebirth, that was understandable enough. Mix that with the anticipation everyone must have to try themselves against a new foe while leaving behind the world they had all known, it became bloody obvious. Still there was something else.

"What is the name of our mercenary group? Also where are we operating and what is our first mission."

The warrior had some excellent questions. Personally, Bandy would just have waited for orders instead of asking so hastily. That was the nice thing about living in a caste society: those above you told you what you needed to know, when you needed to know it. He was also puzzled by those checking their wristcoms right at that exact moment; did they think the bunk assignments were going to change between now and the time they left the room? For his part, Bandy stoically kept his focus on Jennings' answers and instructions. The leader deserved his attention; anything else could wait until he was properly dismissed.

That was when Bandy realized the additional tension in the room somehow revolved around the warrior who had just spoken. Some of the others kept glancing at her. Is she famous or something? Should I know of her? What was the problem? Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with him, so he decidedly ignored it.

[Omega]

At being told to take a seat Jarric sat right down and proceeded to lean back a bit into a more relaxed position. Looking up at their star commander Jarric was shorter than most mechwarriors and used to being around elementals so the usual intimidating effect such a height difference usually made was rather lost on him. All the same he did listen in, at least for the most part, while he looked around at his fellow warriors now. He could have used the wristband they had given them but he trusted his own eyes more than he trusted the little machine, Might Before Metal was the motto for his clan afterall. They were a mix of freeborns and trueborns as well as various clans as their Star Commander made sure to mention. This was hardly an issue to him, there were no Fire Mandrills among them and the only potential issue among themwas the Jade Falcon, the Falcons and Horses had no love lost with the Falcons overly orthodox methods and the Hell's Horses being one of the most unconventional of the clans. Still with the freeborns he was certain he could build some comraderie, his clan was well known for accepting freeborns.

Something that piqued his interest was the Star Commander informed them that they were to be playing at spheroids and mercenaries. The concept of a mercenary was mostly foreign to the clans and as a result he had only a rough idea of the concept. From his understanding they were soldiers without loyalty beyond their units or even themselves, taking pay for combat. He did not understand economics at all he knew that the closest to an economy like the Inner Sphere had was the workings of the merchant class but without an actual currency aside from work chits that was a tentative comparison at best. It seemed he was going to fall back on his basic understanding, he was going to go into combat anf ight alongside all these people pretending to be a spheroid, putting his hands behind his head he figured it would not be too hard the more orthodox clans called them almost spheroids anyway.

As the Star Commander went on Jarric could really only smile, they were told to pack up their armor yet all he could think about was that in his last battle they had drawn a CJF force into an artillery barrage right after ignoring their challanges to duels then ambushed them with elementals, it had been a fun fight. He doubted he would be arguing with the others much but it seemed a big focus for the Star Commander that they all get along which he was fine with he liked to think he was likeable. As the Star Commander finished off his opening speech he was about to respond but the Falcon managed to speak first so he closed his mouth instead and waited to see what kind of name they had been assigned to go under.

[Paingodsson]

Charles took a sip of his drink as he pressed a button as a world popped up on a hologram in front of them and the room got darker. "We are of course from the Wolfs Dragoons Mercenary group, however, this sect of that group will be known as Nightstalkers." Charles said as he took another sip, "You don't like it... tough, you are under orders." Charles said.

"Now then back to business." he said as he turned his attention to the world. "This world is Called Buena, it used to be controlled by House Steiner, they were recently in a skirmish with House Davion on it. They Lost, however House Davion reports they had multiple Men flee from Combat. We are being hired to find these men, and either take them alive if they surrender or kill them." Charles said

Charles spat on the ground, "Cowards they are, for that i have no mercy for them, so even if they give up you shoot on sight, they will receive no such honor." Charles said as he pressed a button and the room lit back up and the hologram was now gone.

"You all also have another member of your crew, she is in the mechbay working on her mech, she has worked on my ship for quite some time now, although she isn't shown to be in our Fighting Units she is apart of them, I would suggest going to find her and get to know her." Charles said as he sat back down and relaxed.

"If you have heard what you want you may go, if you wish to talk or have any other questions stay and voice them.

[urukhai]

Territh sat as he was instructed, he held beck the temptation to smack his fellow Snow Raven, who was busy gawking at the Falcon trueborn, he also held back from snapping at him "no need to get yourself into a losing fight on the first day, besides they might have use for us in the future. So lets not paint the wrong picture." Returning his attention back to his captain he caught the last fringes of the opening. He rolled over what information he was able to get in the period where his mind had wandered So are to be Mercenaries.... this could be interesting, very, very interesting. Even if it is just being deserter-hunters at this point.

Standing he gave a short salute to the commander and slid out the door, only this time unlike in the large crowed he didn't much care if he bumped anyone even if they were trueborns, as he saw it they were all equals now, though that didn't stop him from trying not to hit anyone. As he stepped outside he took a look at his wristband and pulled up the direction to the mechbay, and began to walk down that way, whistling as he started. Walking into the mech bay he found his way to his Warhawk, he smiled a bit as he looked at the faded white and blue warpaint, with the long black las scars that had not been painted over. After he had looked it over he turned to the bay proper and began to look for the last member of their battlegroup

[vodka]

Dieter sat there as his new commander talked over the new assignment and about the mercenary group they would now be portraying as "House Steiner bit off more then they could chew again,and House Davion comes out with a new world and a few rats we will be cleaning up for them" he commented mid briefing,House Steiner being on the top of the charts for incompetent commanders that slide down the scale to just plain stupid when they pick someone for social status and not how they have proven themselves in battle "Maybe if they got a competent commander low moral wouldn't be a problem"he said more to himself than anyone else as they continued with the meeting,stopping to ask only one question "Cowards they may be,but im guessing we will be working with only a merchs salary for the mission so i would suggest we take them in if it gets the higher pay.we will need to cover ammunition and repair costs on our own less we blow the whole thing by meeting with a clan ship every other time we need something" it disturbed him how much he already sounded like a mercenary 'but that's more of a good thing'he thought.

after its conclusion he looked at his wrist device for the way to the mechbay to check on his yeoman, painted a fine white camo scheme and dotted scorch and pochmarks from his last encounter with a fire ant and a dead end "Sixty tons of long range death but no good in close range fights" he glanced at the other mech he owned,a firefly with a dark blue paint job to blend in to the night better

[Omega]

Continuing to listen as the brief went on Jarric at first maintained his smile but upon hearing their mission his mood blatantly soured. His face visibly betrayed the wild storm now of his anger and when told he could stay and talk promtly stood up and bellowed out a single word, "DEZGRA!"

He let that word hang in the air for the barest of moment before going on, "I fully understand we must leave our honor, the ideas of zellbrigen behind as we begin our new mission to integrate with these spheroids but you tell us we must junt down and kill warriors who have broken from conflict!? I am fully ready to abandon my honor as a clansman but I will not do so as a warrior, there are some lines which must not be crossed. If we do this, hunt down and butcher defeated warriors then what is the next step? Will we take orders to butcher women and children, will we destroy population centers, will we bombard our enemies with nuclear weapons," for a moment he stopped and speaking more softly, his voice almost a hiss, "Will we allow ourselves to become the next Amaris?"

Jarric had spent much of his anger in that tirade so was more calm now but still fumed, he was ready for anything the Star Commander said or did but he would not butcher defeated warriors like cattle, to him only the like of the Great Betrayer would commit such an act.

[Miss Nikki]

A chill washed over Felicia as she listened as well. She was kind of with the Hell Horse on this subject, but well at the same they were spheroids. She reached up running a hand through her hair. "They're inner sphere cowards who abandoned their men and ran. Don't get all torn up about, it won't effect your status." She moved around the man and headed out the door into the mechbay.

As she arrived she stopped right in front of her Turkina it was Gray with some browns and greens splashed across it, several score marks were raked along the left side of the chassis but other than that it was in immaculate condition. She blinked at a panel plate that was kind of askew the bead of the weld on it having broke. She sighed and pulled her jacket off, wearing a black tank top underneath. She tossed her jacket on a hook and gathered up some welding materials. Pulling down the welding hood she ran a steady bead around the plate sealing the plate back on, before taking the hood off and setting it on the ground. She ran a hand across the mech's foot before sitting on it and zoning out.

[Hellbot711]

Scarlet was inside the Mech Bay working on her Thunder-Bolt. Several other crewman were inside her mech bay as well. She rode down the lift and stepped off then backed away to look at her mech from afar. The crewmen were finishing the massive Nova Cat Insignia on the front of the mech. She grinned then ran back up to the lift and had the lift take her to the pilots cabin. She stepped inside and began to run a full diagnostic of her mech. The massive size of the thunderbolt meant it would take several minutes for the diagnostic to complete. Upon finishing the diagnostic she sat in the chair and began to power the mech up to test the Servos in the joints and the condition of the weapons. She let the connections to the mech be disconnected and had it step away from the constraints. She moved the arm and watched from the pilots seat as the arm responded in kind. She then moved the arm with the cannon in it and that to moved as well. She opened up a communications channel with their Star Commander. "Scarlet reporting. My mech is fully operational and I am awaiting orders inside the Mech Bay."

[Justric]

... Will we take orders to butcher women and children, will we destroy population centers, will we bombard our enemies with nuclear weapons... Will we allow ourselves to become the next Amaris?"

"Yes." Bandy's words cut quietly through the protest. The quad Star Commander's voice was not harsh or cutting, just a simple declaration. It was not often he would pull rank, but he would not abide by such an open challenge to their assigned leader. Not unless Jennings showed himself incompetent. "We will do whatever it takes to complete our overall mission. By volunteering, we have sacrificed ourselves and our honor for the greater glory of the Clans."

He shrugged. "If ordered to fire on non-combatants, we will fire," he gave a quick glance towards Jennings, "So long as the strategic importance of doing so is made clear. Our current orders are to locate the enemy and terminate them with, as the old saying goes, extreme prejudice. Those are the orders you will obey, or I will fire upon you myself." Again, his words were not heated nor forceful. Bandy saw no reason to level threats at his teammates. It was a simple statement, spoken as casually as a discussion of the weather, in bland tones from an unmoving face. "As the commander stated, our honor is no more."

[Caelum]

Well, here he was. In his mech. Ready to rumble. Yawning lightly, Markus took a quick diagnostics check of each of the systems, subsystems, and weapons, disconnecting it from the connectors that held it in place. Everything seemed to be in order, for the most part, but he would need to adjust a few things when he got back. He flung his ER PPC's around to point backwards, before back forwards once again. At least those were working in order. The mech itself was a calm paint of black and brown, providing a fairly accurate camouflage for most environments. Savage Wolf MkIV, the best of the best, In Markus opinion. A cheap devil too ,so replacement parts were never much of an issue.

He had fairly ignored the blabber mouths at the mission reading. In his opinion, it didn't matter what they were doing- He just lusted for a bit of combat, though they probably were not going to get much. Honor and some other things flashed through his mind, but he just shook his head and ignored it. He was a merc now, no time for bullshitting with others.

"Frostwolf ready to roll, all systems are a go." He said calmly into the communications channel, smiling lightly. "You kids ready to kick some ass?" He muttered.