|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 7:34 am
Backdated to before pretty as a car crash.Faustite had spun his wheels on it for an age. After so many weeks, he had to accept it: he was out of his element on this mission. Part of him felt uneasy for not having come up with all of its solutions and contingency plans himself, for how else would he demonstrate his competence if not in the realm of planning and strategy, but part of him saw it as an opportunity to develop his teamwork skills. Practice deference to those who had greater insight or expertise in the areas with which he had to work.
And perhaps it was the not-yet-dead Information General in him, but he already had his list of promising people to ask before he had formally written it down. Their number was few, given the special circumstances blended together for this mission, but he still managed a few souls.
However, Faustite was first a selfish General who wanted to give his own team a chance to show their resourcefulness. Unfortunately, most of his team was senshi, who would have no special skills or knowledge to convey to a Rift mission. They were all hors d'oeuvres.
That said, he still had Jadarite. She was smart, promising. And he had Celadonite, who was endlessly surprising himself. Often heart attack inducing, but Faustite could forgive his unannounced stunt.
Of them, it was Jada he summoned. He did so with a gesture of fingers through the air, curling about an invisible arm. A gesture that said attendance is mandatory, but you've a moment to compose yourself first. It was from Albite that he learned that moment of courtesy, for his fiancé had far more experience balancing civilian and officer than him, and had so patiently explained how jarringly difficult it was to bullshit one's way out of disappearing in the middle of an interview, especially when one vanished from the chair.
Summons sent, Faustite crossed his legs beneath his desk and waited for the familiar blonde to appear before him.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 2:06 pm
Luckily, Emmy's last job interview had been years ago, back with Argent Industries, who could have dealt with someone being summoned to Negaspace in their presence, anyway. She'd worked her way up from that into being her own boss. Which, ironically, left her more available to be pulled away at any time by her magical boss, but that was something she could work with. The warning was appreciated, all the same, because while it wouldn't have been the end of the world to arrive in Faustite's office in the tank top and lacy pajama shorts that she'd been editing videos in, it was hardly professional. As it was, she was able to power up in the split second before she was pulled through the void, and then she arrived in a sleek suit just like that. She stood tall on arrival, shoulders back, heels together. "You called, Sir?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:56 pm
"Need your help with something." His attention flickered up to her afterward. "Have a mission to prepare for. Need to outsource some of their preparations. You're a smart one; imagine you're up to the task." He beckoned her to take a seat.
As his heel bobbed under the desk, Faustite collated the pertinent information from the various papers on his desk. He did so only with the help of the cincher, which inadvertently helped the room to cool off. It also drove his smoke to vent only through his nose and mouth, which seemed to bother him. Still, keeping his papers clean and unburnt seemed worth the irritation.
"Found a building in the Rift, lodged inside a mountain. Fissure runs deep before it breaches the building, which means we've no visuals and no intel on what this building used to be." Because, if it was in the Rift, then its original purpose was long abandoned.
"We've multiple dangers at play. The Rift, which I can plan for; the climb, and the building itself. Thought that two minds would be better for logistics.
"Need you to learn how we'll rappel down to the building, then acquire the equipment. Climbing shoes, belay lines, whatever you think will work. Don't concern yourself with funds.
"Also need your help preparing for the worst inside of that building, too. Have to plan for every worst case scenario if I'm sending a team in blind. Understood?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2022 4:06 pm
Jadarite tried not to base all of her self worth on what other people thought of her, but she wasn't immune to compliments. She preened under Faustite's, rolling her shoulders back. One of the things that she appreciated about him was that he got straight to business, and so she listened to his briefing carefully. A smug grin spread across her face as she realized that he was asking her to help him plan and organize something. "Of course," she said with a small nod when he had finished. Although she didn't know anything about climbing gear, that would be easy enough to fix with a few hours of research and a trip to a local outdoors store to consult with someone who did understand that kind of thing. "Two questions," she added, and started with the easier one. "What's of interest of this building? Or, more generally, what's the purpose of this mission?" She went silent for a moment, trying to think of a phrasing for her second question that didn't sound pointed. "You ran a Rift mission previously, didn't you? Can I see the reports from that?" She swallowed. "We could look at those, see if there's any information that might be useful." It took restraint not to say anything that could be improved upon. She might not have been present on that mission, but she would have had to be deaf not to hear about the high casualty rate, and the blow to Negaverse moral that had followed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2022 10:07 pm
True to his nature of never sitting still, Faustite crossed his legs and bobbed a foot restlessly. He was unbothered by hehr questions, and even if she had framed her ask about the Rift mission in terms of improving on the original design, he would have treated it just the same. He motioned for her to take up one of the metal chairs, as both questions demanded careful explanations that were not necessarily short.
"End goal is to get into the building and deduce its purpose. Suppose the curiosity of it becomes apparent in its context: assuming you've never been, the Rift sports ubiquitous youma energy. Even if you cannot see them, you will always feel them. When I returned to the Scar — the location of our previous mission in the Rift — I didn't feel a single youma in its vicinity. That coincided with the appearance of a fissure, inside of which was the building. Know it wasn't there before, when the Scar was populous; I scouted the area several times before I brought teams. Whatever's inside that building, youma won't go near it." That was, he thought, the most unnerving experience he had in his years of prowling the Rift.
Faustite was quiet as he half-twisted in his chair and popped open the glass faces to one of his bookcases. He pulled out a metal book box from the bottom shelf and levied the heavy thing onto the glass surface of his desk, then nudged the bookcase door shut with the back of his boot. The book box was locked, and Faustite produced a small metal key from subspace that unlocked it. Inside were sets of file folders, each one marked with a codename.
"Top one," he instructed as he looked at her. The topmost folder was clearly marked with THE SCAR in Faustite's characteristically jagged handwriting.
"Includes all the collated information about the mission, including the final report submitted to the Sovereigns." If Jada needed any proof that Faustite wasn't proficient with technology, the reams of handwritten notes was a dead ringer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2022 10:01 am
'The Scar', said Faustite, when talking about the location of this second mission. 'THE SCAR,' read the file that was talking about the first. Jadarite reached for it with increased interest and wasted no time in flipping through until she could find the final summaries and reports. A few seconds passed while she skimmed through the first few pages, her glasses pushed low on her nose. "There was a rock climbing casualty," she said, her finger pressed at a certain spot on the page while she glanced back up towards Faustite. Her voice was even and without judgement. She was as logical as if she was looking at the moving pieces of a chess board. "The others we could probably prevent by confiscating starseeds before we head down, but rock climbing seems more complicated. Honestly, if you handed me a rope right now, I'd probably fall to my death." That meant she would have to learn more about climbing before they returned to this place, but it wouldn't be enough for just her to know what was going on. "I suggest training participants beforehand, or looking into recruiting an experienced climbing guide or instructor who can," she waved a hand, "Keep things running smoothly and safely."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:53 am
Faustite nodded, then was silent for a time. Most of the Negaverse’s members were fully human, with no artificial timer attached to their hours spent as a normal civilian. Jada was right, any members he obtained should be trained beforehand. He wasn’t certain about recruiting a climbing guide, however; perhaps something like that was suitable, but he lacked the formal training in Infiltration to be able to identify a good candidate among rock climbing instructors.
Besides, if he was told that he was only brought into the Negaverse to train people for a single mission, he’d likely take it as well as he took his own reasons for recruitment from Umber’s journal.
But — recruiting someone into the Negaverse for this purpose would save considerably on cost. And he and Celadonite could attend.
“Find us an instructor,” he decided. “Help you add them to the roster when you find one.” He shifted and watched her, waiting for the remainder of her evaluation.
It was helpful — having a second opinion like this. Having someone many times smarter than Albite, who could read a room as well as a report. Someone who was efficient, who would make a better General than him without the cruel levels of efficiency that Schörl sported.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 6:11 pm
Jadarite's lips twitched a tad upwards the moment that he followed her suggestion. She was far to professional to jump up and down in her chair, but this was her equivalent. Now this was a personal mission that was more than just paperwork. "Yes, sir," she said, and her nod was sharp. Her gaze returned to the paper in front of her, but only for a few moments. It seemed silly to spend her valuable meeting time with him reading through paperwork when she could easily do that in her own office, or home. She was also going to have to dig through some databases if she was going to find more information on the Rift, and therefore on any possible dangers that this mysterious building might hold. "Do you have a deadline for my risk analysis?" she asked. "Or the recruitment?" Of course she would do both, it was just a question of when.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2022 11:25 pm
Those were questions she was asking. Faustite did not immediately answer; he had never recognized her suggestions as a risk analysis, nor did he formally know what one was. He supposed that, if he ever made it to the working world before he was youmafied, he would be more familiar with one. It sounded like something an office worker in a button-down and slacks would do in their cubicle while they ate their lunch. It sounded like empty words and cerebral horseshit in that setting, but that setting may as well be a dream to him. Some figment about which he no longer cared.
Jada's risk analysis, as she called it, involved lives. Lives that, even if he was as cold and calculating as some of his peers, were worth preserving based on cost of replacement alone. And, seemingly commonplace for him now, his mission lead straight into the Rift. More danger, more chance of losing officers to it.
Sooner was better, then. He supposed it was better for her to ask for an extension than finish her analysis in a leisurely manner with wasted days. But, there was a whole division of work and life that most officers had and he'd hardly experienced at all.
"One month," he said, finally coming alive again. "For both.
"And Jada — thanks."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
