Economics of War (MK, Tack)

[ShadowVigilante1]

Bordeaux, France
November 31, 2880
1:45p.m

”Damn it, I knew it!”

The sound of a wrench dropping could be heard as a frustrated Ryan sat down with his mechanic jacket partially covered in soot. It seemed like he also had a couple of drying towels on hand as well.

“Engine froze up, and now the whole oil filter is filled to the brim with nothing but water. Gonna need to disassemble the whole thing.”

He would grab one of the towels and wrapped it around said oil filter as he started to use the wrench to remove the oil filter’s bolts. It sure seemed like a lot of work as he was already having difficulty removing the bolts given the amount of pressure that was inside the filter holding it together. “They just had to design this thing like a tank. Couldn’t have been something simpler for maintenance.” After that he would wrap his hand around the towel, using it as a grip in order to get the piece of machinery out of the engine block. He would pull with a little bit of strength, not wanting to damage any other components on the inside. “Come on you piece of crap! Get. The. Hell. Out!” He would yank it one more time and it would cause a cacophony of gunky water to go gushing all over him as all the liquid inside quickly drained out. It would very much cause a bit of a loud disturbance due to the pressure exerted by the wave of water.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

There was a sharp chill in the air as a small buggy made it's way along the Garonne. Under any other circumstances, this could have been a nice place to stop and take a day or two to enjoy what the town had to offer. But that was never going to be easy to do with command deciding now would be a good time to give the Jubilee crew a proper mission.

"Hilde, come on, time to wake up."

The driver nudged at her blue haired passenger with an elbow, forcibly getting the Garlean girl to wake up.

"Ugh... Are we there already?"

Wiping the sleep from her eyes, the Aschen Awakener awoke, groggily nudging back her friend. "Heavens forbid I actually get to sleep in for once. Of course command couldn't bother to give us some advance on the operation. But I must digress, it would be nice to get our hands dirty today. Just the three of us once again, right?"

The final member of the trio poked her head up between the two front chairs, just giving a wordless nod before pointing towards what must have been their meeting point- An Arm Slave, and what looked to be some poor guy getting absolutely drenched in... What one could only hope was water. The buggy would pull up alongside the Mobile weapon, allowing for the blue haired girl to jump out, arms crossed behind her back as she introduced herself.

"Hildeburg Cheesewright, of the Jubilee. Ryan Kessler, I presume?"

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

Ryan would sit up, his clothes drenched in nearly black water from the inside of the engine. Thankfully his head remained relatively dry. His eyes would widen a bit at the fact that his help had arrived so soon. He would slightly fumble to stand up as he was not only stunned by their sudden arrival, but also by the fact that it was ANOTHER group of women. And he was terrible with women.

”U-Uhh… Yeah, I’m Ryan. And uh… I thought they were sending a few more of you guys.” A little bit more water would splash on his cheek, causing him to react by kicking the engine with his foot and to exclaim: “This piece of junk is gonna be the end of me and my budget.” He would grunt slightly as he had a look at the oil filter in his hand. “Well… need to leave this out to dry.”

He would leave the wet oil filter out on a workbench he managed to borrow earlier before turning back to Hildeburg. “There’s a cafe down the road. I’ll meet you there when I manage to change clothes.” He said as he started to unzip his mechanic jumpsuit, removing his arms from the sleeves to show his black undershirt underneath. “Oh and uh, don’t expect me to pay for the food, because I barely have any money left.” He said before going somewhere more suitable to change.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

"Driving a battleship right up to the town might send the wrong idea, so they're docked up the river."

The lanky driver was the one to respond, while Hildeburg just nodded. "If you want, we can talk about get our engineers to finish up whatever repairs are needed, but until them, we shall await your arrival at the cafe." Hilde gave a polite bow to Ryan before hopping back into the buggy, driving off down the road as he mentioned. "He seems pleasant enough. Makes me think that command recommended us accompany him to make sure the job gets done-"

"Hey, don't sell the guy short just yet, I've got a good feeling about him!"

"Hmm. Well, I suppose so... Maybe we should have offered him a towel?"
========================

The trio were gathered round a table outside of the small cafe, all very clearly looking pleased with the selection available, although they were waiting for their new associate to arrive before ordering.

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

Ryan would confidently walk through the door, now wearing a trenchcoat with what seemed to be a dress shirt and tie underneath. “Sorry about that, my other friend thought it was a good idea to leave that thing in the freezing cold when it’s the worst thing you could do with a machine.“

He would pull up a seat and would sit down, albeit looking a bit uncomfortable due to the company around him. They certainly looked… interesting. And they mentioned being part of a Jubilee, must be some elite hit squad or spec ops group he hasn’t heard of. “Anyways, you’re uh… here about the hit, right?” He said before bringing up a tablet and began pressing a couple of targets. “I was wondering if I could ask an important question first before we start. When you say eliminate, do you mean to kill or do you mean to disable? It’s important for me to know how I’ll tweak this plan.” No bumbling idiot here this time, he assumed that who he’s working with are professionals and will act the part of one, hence the outfit for the meeting.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

"Eh, I have a friend who'd argue that sinking partway into a swamp is worse."



Hildeburg chuckled a bit at her "joke", leaning back as she listened to the rest of Ryan's statement. "We have no qualms about killing this warlord if we have to. He is not the first, nor will he be the last. I’m not cognizant of any civilian hostages he’s holding, or anything that would stop us from doing so.”



“What about you, Ryan Kessler? I would hope we’re able to work within whatever your plan is.”

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

“I was wondering if you would be open to disabling the target instead. I need some information and they’re one of the only ones who might have it. Not to mention not all of these warlords are likely that bad, but of course that opinion will change depending on whatever this warlord is like. I’ll kill them if they don’t step in line.”

He would realize he hasn’t been introduced yet to the other two people at the table, he would take some time assessing them before asking for their names. “So uh… you didn’t exactly get introduced earlier. What are your names?” He said before placing the tablet in the middle to project a hologram of the battlefield along with the projected route of the roving band. He managed to get intel from the officer on the roving band’s usual route, and there seemed to be a nice ridge to act as a sniping position. It was his territory, his expertise. And all the military team had to do was help him deal with most of the riff-raff that would come from the roving band’s Mecha.

“Also would you be able to tell me what fighting style each of you use? It will help me figure out where I’ll position you for the assault.” He would in the meantime take up the menu to look at all the food items he probably couldn’t afford.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

"Oh, certainly. If that is what you wish, then I would be more than happy work towards disabling and catching them instead."

"Oh, sure, just make the promise for all of us. I mean we're gonna follow anyways but-"

"Anyways." Hilde playfully elbowed the lanky girl, drawing an eye roll from her. "Hildeburg Cheesewright, commander of the Aschen Knights. I'm a practicioner of the Eight Leaves One Blade school, specializing in the Helix form. I'm more of a... Close combat fighter." She'd extend her hand out to Ryan, giving as friendly a smile as she could manage.
"Hi, I'm Mira, I can hit things with a hammer or set up land mines. I guess I can also analyze enemies for weaknesses and vulnerabilities with Gally, but it's whatever."
"Oh, and that's Lyn." The smallest of the three girls was sat stock still with the strange blank visor just covering her face, not saying a word in greeting. "She's agile and typically uses uh, Slash Harken or whatever they're called to disable opponents and such."

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

“Aschen Knights…“ He would let the word hang there for a moment. “Like Erebonia’s Divine Knights?” He was curious, did they have a direct association with one of the Divine Knights of legend or was it simply psychological warfare. “Do you have one of them stuffed in your ship or something?” It was good that this topic came up, it would be pretty bad if he started laughing at the last name “Cheesewright“ in front of the bearer of said name. “But it’s nice to meet you Hildeburg. And sorry again about the… messy introduction.” He said before shaking her hand firmly.

”Mira… I see. The land mines will be useful to slow down their movements. And if you could point out any weaknesses in their main carrier that would be helpful as well.” He said as he positioned two red circles on the holographic map, noting where they could place these mines. “Nice to meet you as well then, Mira. Look forward to seeing you smash things, I hope.” Well… his grammar was already beginning to deteriorate, not a good sign by any means for prolonged conversations. Hopefully it doesn’t devolve into jargon by the end of this.

He would slightly stare at Lyn who remained mostly unresponsive. It was like he was staring at a mannequin. He simply nodded in her direction once Hildeburg explained what she could do. “Knightmare Frame, huh? I’m familiar. Not a day went by in Canada where didn’t see one of those things guarding the Britannian Embassy. What kind of model is it exactly?” Of course, his knowledge on higher end models was nonexistent due to all the red tape on military technology, but thanks to Top Weapon, he is knowledgeable on most of the openly used Mobile Weapons.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

“Valimar, yes. Our technicians are giving him a once over with the rest of the Mobile Weapons aboard the Jubilee. We can get some foodstuffs to go and bring you back to the ship to do some proper introductions with him and- Ah, I nearly forgot Mineva. She’s our brawler and gunner- I’m not exactly sure what the proper terminology would be, but she’s very much the type to rush in and smash people.”

Hildeburg smiled, pleasantly surprised that the young man knew of the Divine Knights. She politely raised a finger to get the attention of the young server. Mira, on the other hand, was throughly engrossed in the map, biting on her lip as she took in the positioning. “This seems reasonable… Shouldn’t be too bad.” The woman glanced back to Lyn as Ryan tried to prod a bit more, waving her hand in front of the mask- Nothing. “Oh, okay. She pilots an XT dash four-oh-one Chuyen, some limited production Frame. Harken on the wrists, and then a pole weapon thing. And Mineva has a Kestrel Beta, with her gun breakers.”

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

“A Chuyen… I see. I’ve heard a little bit about that model, personally not my thing though.“ He would position a few more people on the map. Placing ”V” for Vendetta Valimar on the map, ”M” for Mira, ”L“ for Lyn, and “GNB” for this Mineva.

“So your friend is Eorzean? I’ve met a few Gunbreakers before and I really want to learn a bit from them. I want to learn how to use Gunblades.” But he’s never heard of the Kestrel Beta, being unfamiliar with Panzer Soldats after all. “So she’s a fast hit and run specialist then? That seems a bit unlike the Gunbreakers I’ve heard of, but I guess you can be fast if you can just shield yourself with magic bullets. Looking forward to meeting her too as well.”

He would clap his hands together before rubbing them together. “Alright then, I’ll get into the plan then unless you want to order your food first?” He said as a waiter approached them with notepad in hand.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

Hilde gave Ryan a quizzical look as he explained his understanding of her gunbreakers, herself understanding less with every statement. “No, she’s Brittanian..? And I don’t think the bullets are any more magical than they’d normally be for Orbal stuff?”

Turning to the waitress, Hildeburg would order whatever was the specialty of the house, which Mira would enthusiastically translate into French, ordering some pastries for the table and a water. Nudging the masked girl, Lyn snapped back to consciousness, whispering her other to Mira. “Ah, one bill for the table, what would you like, Kessler?”

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

“Huh? Britannian?“ Now that got his interest a lot more. “She a member of some royal house? And if she isn’t using a Gunblade, then she’s using… Gunbreakers? What are those anyways? I just got confused since there was this group of guys at the Eorzean Frontier who called themselves Gunbreakers and used weapons called Gunblades. They’re self explanatory and usually imbued their cartridges with magic in order to empower them to fire specialized rounds.” He said before glancing back at the menu. “I need a sandwich, something with a bit of everything. Protein, vegetables and so on.” He hoped they had something like that at least. “If not, a savory crepe will do.” He said before fixing his plan, changing Mineva’s GNB to Min instead.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

“It’s… Tonfas, but she can channel some Orbal energy through them, and they can shoot?” Hildeburg looked like she was struggling to describe the weapon, but frankly she was still struggling to wrap her head around Ryan’s explain of gunblades or whatever. She very pointedly didn’t answer any of his other questions involving her teammate, instead staring at him for a moment.



Mira finished their order, having picked whatever seemed like the most filling sandwich on the menu for the mercenary, while Hilde began to look at the map as well. “So, how familiar are you with the Divine Knights?”

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

He nodded a bit as she explained Gunbreakers. Very different from Gunblades. But it seemed like she was dodging the Britannian Royal question. Well, he could always ask her himself later on.

“How familiar am I?” He asked himself before thinking a bit. He still only knew the basics really. “Well… there’s 6 of them I think? Then there’s the fact that they all have a unique ability. But other than that, I’m not sure I know that much aside from hearsay.” He hoped those counted as common knowledge, he still didn’t know how rare Zemurian Ore’s use was as he only got to see it used once when he had Zector’s weapon made.

“Did I get my facts right?” He said while slightly unsure of some of the details, seemed like he was very genuinely trying to think if he missed anything.

“Will you guys be bringing it into battle by any chance? Your Divine Knight?” He was also genuinely interested to see if he would be able to get one of its peers in action, possibly even learn their weaknesses or their techniques.

 

[Tackle Jackie]

Nodding along, Hilde got enough information out of the mercenary that she felt at least a tad more comfortable with him. He seemed to be a nice fellow, but there was something she couldn’t quite put her finger on…

“They will be joining us, yes. Valimar and Hildeburg are a pair.” Mira corrected Ryan as gently as she could, smiling and nodding politely to the server as they brought out their drinks and the like. “I suppose we should get ourselves ready, so how would you like to go about all this?”

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

“Alright then...” Ryan would lean forward a bit as he finished making the plan. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

A large transport that looked to be suitable for multiple Mobile Suits was displayed on screen. A Fat Uncle aerial carrier.


“From what I’ve managed to gather, our target Filibert Natalia utilizes an aerial transport as their base of operations as well as their mode of transportation. So suffice to say, we’ll need to create a controlled crash to minimize their injuries and to make sure we don’t miss any of them. As much as possible, I’m only going to try and disable one turbine. If any of you can fly, you might wanna help set them down gently before moving away. I have a feeling they might need this thing after the battle is done.”

He would then display how he wishes for the Fat Uncle to crash, somewhere right in the middle of the minefield he placed down earlier.

”Mira, I need you to place explosives around this perimeter. You will need to lower the payload of your mines however, I don’t want all of the pilots coming out of this with shrapnel going through their entire body.”

There would be a display of a few units coming out from the Fat Uncle. Knightmare Frames and Panzer Soldats.

“When they land, expect a number of Knightmare Frames and Panzer Soldats which you should all be familiar with. They should be easy enough.”

The KMFs and the Soldats would be crossed off the map temporarily. ”What we really need to worry about is the Mobile Suits they have packing. At best we’ll be dealing with a couple of old Zakus, at worst it could be an old prototype unit that they’ve restored. So we’ll need coordination to take them out.”

With the enemies briefed on, Ryan now moved to discuss their positions. “Hildeburg, Mira, both of you will be sent out into the front. With your Melee oriented fighting styles, you’ll be well suited to quickly cut down the first wave without much casualties. Same will apply to the following waves.“ With that, he would move both of them to the front line of the attack. ”Lyn here will deal with any stragglers and will also help distract or topple their Mobile Suits.“ He would move Lyn to the side, a prime spot where she could see any stragglers and pick them off from a distance. “Meanwhile, your Britannian friend will provide medium ranged support and will destroy any weak points of the Mobile Suits that come out. She’ll likely switch between the frontline and support roles but that’s for her to decide.” He would move Mineva right behind the frontline to support Hildeburg and Mira. “Finally there’s me, I’ll be providing sniper support for the first few waves, but if things get out of hand I’ll provide close ranged support as best I can.”

He would take his drink before taking a sip and would set it down. “So, any questions?”

 

[Tackle Jackie]

The trio had been listening to Ryan’s plan intently, mulling over the details pertains to them individually as best as they could. Mira would be the first to speak up, half mumbling as she took note of the minefields placement. “I can see what I can do about that when we get back to the ship. I’d have to actually get in and disassemble some of the anti-armor mines we have to actually lower the boom… And I doubt any of our units actually have the capability to help land something that jammed packed with Mobile weapons.”

“Aside from her concerns… No objections here, I suppose.”

 

[ShadowVigilante1]

Ryan would nod at Mira’s concerns. “I can always help with the adjustments if you want. I’m no stranger to DIY stuff. But at the very least if we did have something that could fly, directing it to fall in a certain direction by pushing it from the side should work.” After having addressed that, he turned to Lyn to see if she had anything to bring up. “How about you? If you don’t feel comfortable talking you could always ask your friends to tell it to me instead.”

 

[Tackle Jackie]

"If she isn't bringing anything up, then I doubt she has anything to say."

"To reiterate, no objections from us, I would say. And no, looking at the size and mass of that transport, none of our units would be able to safely do what you're asking at that scale." Hildeburg was pulled out their wallet, leaving a sizable payment on the table as the rest of her team stood up. "Alright, we'll meet up soon then. Here are the coordinates where you can find us along the river. See you there, then."