[PRP] Meeting new allies (Duel, Komi, Puddle, LK)

[Komitadjie]

Kelly completed the last item on the pre-operation checklist, folding the plastic-covered booklet and sliding it back into the seat pocket. He reached forward and gripped the sidestick controllers, settling comfortably into the padded seat and looking out at the others as they started their Zoids. A slight shake of his head at the total lack of attention to reactor procedure, a slightly sarcastic hope that he was around when one of her containment magnets failed flicking through his head, and he toggled on the 'tween Zoid comms channel.

"Black Knight, operational in all respects. Tyrant, how's your startup coming along?"  

[PuddleInk]

Murr! Now..how did he work this thing again? Talon grumbled to himself, flipping through the clipboard of instructions. Wasn't there some sort of instructions manual? ... That would be on his bed waiting to be read. With a sigh slipping through his lips, he rotely closed the cabin, put away the checklist in its designated pocket before gawking as one of the ZOIDS just moved to the grounds. Huh... Impatience would be the downfall of that one. Oh well..

The crackle over the Com system startled the man. He nearly jumped out of his skin before realizing that, yes, there was a communications system installed. Sometimes he missed the whole rotary phone thing.

With a meep, Talon scrounged around for a bit, made a mental note to not press any unnecessary buttons while in the hanger, and replied. "Green Tyrant good to go. "

Hum...Now what? He couldn't go storming off like Zylph. That so didn't suit his style. Eventually, Talon decided on just taking the ZOID out of the hanger, maybe walking it around for a bit, see how its walk cycle effected its other systems, bring it up to a jog and maybe even a quick sprint across the field. Now...if only he could remember which button did which. Aaand the clipboard came out again. "Grr...I hate new ZOIDs..."

 

[Komitadjie]

"There's definitely a bit of a learning curve," Kelly chuckled. "Remember, your com system is voice-activated, so when you talk it will pick up unless you tell it not to." He looked around himself carefully, making sure that all the service techs were clear, and slowly walked Black Knight forward out of its bay. Another check all around his Zoid to make sure everything was clear, and he slowly exited the hanger, staying carefully between the painted guidelines on the floor until he was sure there was nothing to damage with an errant motion.

"Talon, how about a quick run around to get the hang of the control system and feel out how the new Zoid handles?" Kelly pulled up a map as he spoke, highlighting a route on it with the eye-pointing controls and passing it off to Green Tyrant. "That route looks more or less clear of major issues, and there is poor mapping out that way. What say we go for a quick patrol out a ways where there's nothing to break by accident, and we can put on a bit of speed. Patrol around a bit, collect some decent cartographic information, and head back?"  

[PuddleInk]

"Oh...Uhn..I knew that. " Course he knew that the comms were voice activated! Most everything these days were voice activated. Made things easier for the pilots. I mean, who wants to have to press a button every single time they wanted to talk to the other members of their squad? How considerate of the designers to think of such things... Really.

Eventually, after double checking the controls for the umpteenth time, the Green Tyrant moved forward. Talon swore he heard snickers, but then again, that could have just been himself laughing at his own caution. Once clear of the hanger door, and a few hundred feet away from anything that he could possibly damage by a misstep, he spun the ZOID in a small circle just for the heck of it. Before...

A map popped up on the screen, halting the random action. "Aww..so we aren't going to run around the track for a bit? " Sarcasm heavily dripped off his words as he studied the map and the indicated areas. The proposal sounded rather safe. Then again, anything could go wrong as they'd be heading into uncharted. Not that Talon minded. A good random exploration here and there was always good. The few moments of silence was broken by soft laughter. "Sounds like a good plan there. Always wondered what lied in the blank parts of the map. "

 

[Komitadjie]

"'Here be dragons' was the usual notation, I believe. Fortunately, I think we're more than capable of handing a dragon his scaly a** should we run into one," Kelly chuckled, "unless, of course you'd rather do some laps. Oh? Didn't think so." He grinned behind the semi-opaque canopy of the raptor, jogging slowly toward the nearest convenient exit of the city complex, not breaking the speed limit if he could help it, at least not until he was SURE he could outrun the MPs.

He really couldn't help but like Talon, the guy was new and inexperienced, yes, but he showed caution and rapid improvement, two hallmarks of a soldier that could definitely go places with a decent chance. Hopefully, these Zoids and missions would give him that chance. As he glanced over his shoulder to make sure Talon had gotten all squared away and headed in the right direction, his mind wandered back to his first mission He remembered the feeling of utter unpreparedness he'd felt, clutching his rifle with sweaty hands, and feeling sure they were going to get hit from every shadow. The same rifle still went with him everywhere, stowed behind the seat in it's padded carrying case even now, and it had become an old friend. So much time, and so many experiences between then and now, he ruminated... And he still got the jitters just a little at the beginning of each mission.  

[PuddleInk]

"Dragons, sea monsters, edge of the world...Pretty much the same thing. " Talon grumbled, following after at half the pace set by the Knight. He wasn't all to eager to just run off like that, but heck... he'd run if he had to and right now, there wasn't a need too. Though, getting away from possible catastrophe would be nice.

Keeping the Zoid ahead in sight, talon took a few moments to just glance around, take in the perspective and remember a few things for when he was bored and needed to relax a bit. The lines of buildings and the infinite space ahead was appealing in some sort of way. Yep...Totally more of an artist than a warrior. Maybe it was detaching himself so he wouldn't feel nervous, but it was nonetheless something he made a mental note of.


Then there was that whole need to know what lay beyond...Perfect mission, in a way. Not really. There was that whole reporting back stuff, but that was just boring protocol. Couldn't be helped.

 

[Komitadjie]

Kelly signaled intent to exit to the gate operators, and paused for a moment to wait for Talon to catch up, using the time to survey the desert beyond the opening doors. It looked quiet and empty, just like it was supposed to, what with being desert and all, but you never really knew. A good run would be relaxing after that mess in the base, though, and who knows, there might actually be something interesting to see out there in all that open space.

"Black Knight to Green Tyrant, looks clear to head out, the gate is open and waiting for us, they know our approximate time of return as well, so they'll be looking to let us back in."

He glanced back toward the hanger to see if any of the others had picked up on their idea, but apparently nobody else wanted to try out the new Zoids in free-form. Oh well, such was life, he ruminated. At least they'd be doing something vaguely useful at the same time, although desert-mapping was really best left to units with flight capability. There WAS something to be said for eyes-on-the-ground, though...  

[PuddleInk]

So it didn't take Talon long to catch up. There's only so many times you can look down rows of buildings before getting the sense that it might be just the same. Which it was. Loosing interest with looking around, the Tyrant came to a halt next to the Knight.

"Alright. Sounds reasonable of them..." With little goading at all, it seemed, Talon moved through the gate and out into the desert landscape, instantly taking note of the rolling sand and jutting plateaus and mountains in the distance. " I wonder what this place looked like under water," he mumbled,"or at least, with water on the surface. Greener most likely..."

Just a bit of speed was picked up as he wanted to get a little further away from the compound. He glanced up at the sky, then around him. Seas of sands punctuated with mountainous outcroppings of rocks. Yay. A person could get lost out here no doubts.

 

[Komitadjie]

"I wouldn't have minded seeing that myself, Talon." Kelly let Tyrant take the lead, bringing up the back and more or less letting the Zoid do the driving while he examined the terrain around them. "There's enough valleys and canyons out here that it almost had to be a very interesting terrain set. Probably not as easy to get around on, though."

He watched the heat wavers from the late-afternoon sun blasting down on the sand, and without really thinking about it, reached down to increase the cockpit cooling slightly. "This is one of those times that I'm really glad to have a Zoid around, being out there on foot just plain sucks." A long look at his radar display showed nothing close by but them, and he looked back up at the terrain. A mesa drifted by to the left as Black Knight ran, and Kelly smiled as he looked through the HUD. He never ceased to be amazed how much of a personality a Zoid could display, even without a voice or visible features. Black Knight was enjoying this. "How's the Tyrant holding up, Talon?"  

[PuddleInk]

"It'd be wet and down right impossible to explore with the water level's that high. " he snickered taking a few moments to pull out of that odd, fantasy world to pay a little bit more attention to the task at hand. Didn't want to end up getting killed or what not by tripping over his own feet. The embarrassment would be mortifying. "Most of the interesting stuff lays in the canyons and in the rock outcroppings. Probably a few undiscovered temples to the old gods in those rocks somewhere reachable by foot. "

The heat really wasn't a bother. Heck, they lived on the edge of a desert and in a city no less! People could deal with heat without Zoids like they did long long time ago. A sliver of a smile crossed his face as he overheard Kelly alluding to the heat. He was tempted to say it wasn't that bad, but it was probably best to say nothing. Heck, it wasn't his fault the Black Knight was all black and that black soaked up heat faster than green, even if the Zoids were metallic and could soak up heat on their own right regardless of color. "Neh. So far, so good. Can't help but get the feeling Tyrant's up to something though, must be my paranoia. " It probably was, what with not really being fond of anything that could think for its self. But, heck, Talon couldn't deny that it was useful.

 

[Komitadjie]

"Eh, I know what you mean, it sort of feels like Knight is really getting a kick out of just running. Of course, I can't hardly blame him, after being cooped up in the hanger for so long." He changed course a bit, running along the side wall of a canyon and looking down at the rocks and gravel in the dry wash below, still curious what it would have looked like full of water. Acting on a moment of almost childish impulse, he veered away from the edge again, turning onto the flat plain, then cut the controls hard toward the edge, jamming both throttles fully forward. "Ok, Knight, let's see how we catch air!" Black Knight surged ahead, gaining momentum with every stride, dumping every possible bit of spare reactor power not consumed in essential systems into the leg actuators. As they reached the brink of the vast drop, Knight launched itself into a low, fast leap, sailing across the open gap with almost effortless grace. So great was the leap that it not only cleared the open divide between the flat plains, but carried them a significant distance out onto the flatland beyond.

Kelly retarded the throttles to slow down a bit, curving back toward the canyon, not wanting to get too far from Talon. "Wow, ok, it would appear that they've done some fairly significant work on these that was NOT a standard jump, as a rough guess, I'd say I got thirty-percent more inertia out of that than I could have realistically expected. Give it a shot, Talon, let's see how Tyrant does!"  

[PuddleInk]

There wasn't much to argue with. No one would like to be cooped up in one place for a long time like that going through tests over and over again. Talon noticed the new course and observed for a bit. "You know, the canyons fill in the wet season with flood waters. It's really quite cool. Dangerous, but cool. " Bringing Tyrant to a halt, he observed the leap over the ravine and just kinda blinked a couple of time.

But was he going to do that? Hell no! He rather liked living thank you very much. A glance at the length of the canyon didn't help. It seemed to go on and on... Then again, why not just jump across? "Uh... You're crazy, you know that? " He grumbled and did back the Zoid up. His rational was wandering alone wasn't a good idea in the desert. Talon didn't take long to coax the Zoid in to a dead run. It was a little unsettling to find that Green Tyrant seemed to be a little too eager to leap over the chasm of doom. Ugh...At least one of them was having fun with this.

The Raptor-class sailed over, slowing down a couple steps at a time to recover. Talon sighed and swore the Zoid was laughing at him. "Can we, maybe, next time not leap over something that is potentially unstable and fills up with roaring flood waters three times a year? " he grumbled. Was he slightly impressed with the performance? Yes. Kinda. It wasn't like he was used to custom modified Zoids. But heck... the best antidote to over-excitement was taking a stance that everything, in its own way, is expected. Not a sane approach, but it works for subtle panic attacks that like to sneak up randomly.

Even so, he suddenly thought of a hop-scotch game that could be implemented with this canyon. Slowly, Talon crept the Tyrant closer to the edge of the canyon and peered down at the rubble washed floor. "Hop-scotch... Jump rope... Hum. I'm missing one.. Hulahoops? Er..What were we talking about again? "

 

[Komitadjie]

"Of course I'm a tad crazy, I'm out jumping canyons in a Zoid that I'm not familiar with, with specs that are nonstandard, and a fairly decent mind of its own, I'm starting to thing. That's not the kind of thing a fully-rational person does. Of course, it IS a good deal more fun than sitting around the base wondering when that psychotic teammate of ours is going to get herself or ME killed. At least if I blow myself into a fireball out here, it's my own fault."

He laughed, still excited by the long jump they had made, and joined Talon in looking over the side. "I'm voting that we come back out here when it's flooded, it would be a very interesting view, I think. Not to mention being even more interesting to jump over. Where's the fun in finding a bridge or something? It's not half as amusing." Kelly grinned at Tyrant through the canopy. He really wasn't half as daredevil as he was letting on, the canyon walls here seemed quite solid enough, and the jump was not excessive for even a stock Raptor's specs, but it was still fun.

"Hey, take a look down, about thirty degrees to the left, and down forty or so. Range about eight-fifty, MAD is picking up a hard contact on the canyon bottom. It's not moving, but rocks shouldn't be coming up like that in this area, most sedimentary rocks aren't magnetic as far as I know."  

[PuddleInk]

"Anything is safer than sticking around there... Er... Rational thought doesn't seem to become you. You pulled a gun on the girl, for crying out loud! Gah...."

Great. Talon was in the middle of nowhere ( though probably a couple minutes sprint back to the compound) with someone laughing like mad and talking about returning when the ravine is flooded with waters that could pull a small, unanchored Zoid under water for hours and float it twelve miles away. Yeah. Time well spent. Now he was talking about seeing stuff in the ravine! "Can I shove you in the waters? You know, just on the principle to see how the raptors look equipped with flotation devices and snorkels. "

Talon sighed, a hand moved and pinched the bridge between his eyes. Now he was talking about magnetic rock? Hang on...that actually made sense. "Ah... Could be an odd deposit of rock. Or one of those hidden temples that was washed over by the seas millennium ago. " That was a bit far fetched. "Then again, could just be a carved inlet for a raider's stash... " He was rather curious now. He wanted to know what exactly it was, and well, anything shiny is appealing.

"Let's check it out? Pleaase? "

 

[Komitadjie]

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Talon! That simply begs to be poked at a bit. And hey, in my defense she chucked a freaking knife at me... Which she forgot to retrieve, it's kind of a nice one, too." He chuckled and looked around for a convenient way down into the canyon. "Hmmm... flotation bags and a snorkel... I'll bet we could rig that up..."

He spotted something down the ridgeline that could be useful and jogged down closer, inspecting the huge boulder that came up almost above Black Knight's shoulders carefully. "Hey, I'll bet this'll work. Lend a hand here." He extended and locked the small forearms of Black Knight, resting them against the upper surface of the boulder in a slight crouch, tilting his feet to bury the claws on his feet into the loose rocks and gravel atop the ridge line. "We give it a really good shove, then get the hell back, there's a good chance that if this works right, it'll take a big chunk of the canyon wall down with it, and leave us a rubble ramp to get down. Just need to get back smartly, so you don't get a quick, unpleasant ride on the avalanchevator."