Watching Warriors Work (DT-1, Afternoon, Simulator Room)

[Theodore Beker]

"Periphery folk, huh..." he frowned and finished his own drink before opening another and offering James a second.

As Bruun stepped in Theo cracked one open and passed it to the mechwarrior heppy for the break of the mood. "You looked like you were getting into the zone. Didn't want to be presumptuous," he chuckled, "I take it we should expect to have an exciting round 2 then?"

"What were they called? Balmung, I think? The commander had poetic notions and had started the company to fight the Ronin wars. Things were wrapping up there when I joined up and the jobs got a little reckless."

[Dorgan Bruun]

Bruun smiles at James's tactful response on salvage and happily takes the beer from Theo. "Excitement for us for sure. Hope no one is planning to show off for the audience here. Entertaining y'all isn't what we need -- new team needs to know who's good at what, now, before the real heat comes on."

"But a little cheer if you see something great isn't out of line," he says, giving an exaggerated wink to Mata.

[James Hall]

James waves away the beer. "No thanks. One is enough for now. Your old team still around or were they too reckless?"

James shrugs at Brunn's comments. "I do not thinking that would be an issue. I don't think there's enough people to make it worth trying to show off."

Mata winks back, only to turn and watch the events unfolding in front of her. It was painful to watch.

[Theodore Beker]

"The Balmung? Nah, commander took a AC20 to the face by a lucky Hunchie and things just got worse after that. The last few mechwarriors took the best mechs we had left as severance and the rest of us split the remainder, blew half of it," he gestures vaguely, "Somewhere in Canopus and drifted off to new companies."

Theo winced as the lights started to crumble and break. "Aw, come on! These are assessment tests. Who gets up in a Jenner with two wobbly legs? Hot dogging for the sims." He shook his head as the Jenner's legs snapped and popped under the next wave of fire.

[Dorgan Bruun]

"It's nice to think that the bad guys won't shake off hits like that, but about the time you say, 'Ok, they can't come back from that'--somehow they do. Usually with a quick and lethal shot at the poor bastard... Oh, uh, apologies James, language." Bruun, veteran of 10 mercenary companies, actually looked embarrassed at what he'd said in front of the 8 year old.

[James Hall]

James just gives a confused look. "It's alright?"

While Mata whispered to her father, "What did he say that was bad?" Having grown up among pirates, she was used to much worse language.

[Dorgan Bruun]

"Ok, ok, thanks." Bruun still looks uneasy, but not too much so. He glanced toward the observation screens in time to see a hard hit to one of the mechs.

"Gah, that's gonna hurt."

[Comstar]

The end of the first simulator run was announced with the release of several access hatches, and the accompanying blast of warm air and smell of sweat. Yuri climbed out of the pod he had been settled in, across from the teams, sweating like a power lifter mid routine. Dressed in nothing but the cooling vest, board shorts, and tanker boots, he toweled off his face, downed a bottle of cold water, and then climbed back in for round two.


----

Team Alpha should saddle up, sweaty team Bravo can start watching.

[James Hall]

Watching the last of the match, James smiled. At least he wasn't with amateurs. Mata was more expressive. "Yay! They did it! The Grand Dragon is a heavy mech, right? So, it was really tough to take down." James nods. "They performed admirably considering what they faced."

[Freja Fogel]

Freja was not entirely pleased with the results, even though she couldn't fully explain *why*. Still, a victory was a victory. When her own pod released her, she searched around for a bottle of water. Any notions of modesty were non-existent; she'd only start dressing when she'd cooled off enough to make it relevant to do so. In any case, she soon headed over to the people crowding the monitors; there was another fight coming and she was curious enough to see how they'd do to stick around.

"Hmm..." she took another drink from the waterbottle as she looked around at people's faces.

I have no idea who any of these people are.