[DP2, EE, officer lounge, expecting] The burden of command

[Richard Winter]

He hadn't even registered the man when he came in. "Huh, um,... I'm fine, but,.. thanks" He let out a sigh.

[GM Yuusha]

"Better luck next time."

Steffen chuckles cheerfully as he gets to mixing something.

[Richard Winter]

Richard drank some of the whiskey in his glass. He laughed briefly. "If I am to believe Laks, I must have a quarrel with spirits because of my bad luck".

[GM Yuusha]

"She said that?" Steffen's bushy brows furrow ever so slightly. "Are you superstitious Richard? Mind if use your first name?"

[Richard Winter]

"No problem" he answered if he could call him by his first name. "And no, I'm not really, I was just telling her a story earlier about how I got stuck in a tree on Kelenfold for a day and a half."

[GM Yuusha]

"Do call me Steffen. I'd like to hear this story. You don't strike as a tree climber Richard."

[Richard Winter]

"Was on patrol on Kelenfold at the time and got ambushed, I was piloting a COM-3A at the time. Our Lance Leader decided that we should tactically retreat, but the enemy cornered us and we had to take an unknown route, needless to say the route was peppered with mines. As the lightest mech and scout I went ahead and tried to create a route that we could get out of, it went pretty well until I stepped on one of the mines." Richard took another sip.
"I ran as far as I could with the stump, but the enemy was catching up fast, I told Alpha then to take the rest out and I would eject, which I did. Since Kelenfold's jungles are quite dense it took me into a tree, but when I landed it had broken my mechanical arm." He waved his prosthesis. "Luck of the draw, you might say, a real arm would probably have had an open fracture and I would have bled to death up there."

[GM Yuusha]

Steffen nods a few times, looking intrigued. "That's quite the scare. Mines and light mechs do not mix. What happened after that?" He'd even paused his mixing to listen.

[Richard Winter]

"Well, without a working arm I was trapped up there, fortunately not for too long. Some locals came to scavenge the remains of the mech, which meant I got back down from the tree." he took another sip. "I thought it was the bandits at first, but luckily for me they didn't want anything from me,... except for the parts of course, but without my arm and reinforcement I couldn't have done anything anyway" he shrugged. "So the guys took me, gave me rudimentary help and sent me away again."

he paused for a moment.

"I was looking for my unit, but they had already moved on, or rather fled. It took me a week to find them again, at least what was left of them,.... a few days later the Angels were there."

[GM Yuusha]

"Gotcha." He resumed his drink prep. "That all sounds to me like you were lucky rather than unlucky."

[Richard Winter]

"In hindsight, yes" he said and smiled, "It's all the little stumbling blocks that sometimes you focus too much on and forget the whole path so far"

[GM Yuusha]

"Absolutely. I imagine that, at the time, it wouldn't have seemed lucky at all."

[Richard Winter]

"Yeah. You've probably been Merc for longer, though, right? Want to share a story while we're at it?"

[GM Yuusha]

"I'm more a listener, but let's see... what kind of story would you like to hear? Something serious or something funny?"

Finishing his drink concoction, Steffen now had some kind of orangey cocktail. He enjoyed a bit from behind the bar.

[Richard Winter]

"I'm more in for fun stories, besides, maybe I will learn a nice anectode about the Angels with it." he said smiling at the man.

[GM Yuusha]

"Me too. Alright, so, I can't give names as I'd embarrass a few folks, but I should tell you about some of the training exercises I've led. Trainees can be a hoot. The absolute best moment was when one of my trainees was piloting that Urbanmech that Alex's lance ended up with. He got stuck in this biiiig muddy swamp after insisting he could get through it rather than use his jets. He was always worried about jumps. Thankfully past that now, but anyway, he takes a few steps into the swamp and everything is fine. But then, this one step more and the mech starts sinking. In a panic he tried to run and that only made it worse. He then face plants into the swamp and the mech sinks nearly fully under this rancid brown water. The whole time he's on the radio crying for help and I'm trying to calm him down." Steffen shook his head, chuckling a bit.

"I had to say at least five times his cockpit was pressurised and he'd be fine operating in space so a little swamp water wouldn't be a danger. Not without holes in his armour at least. I finally calm him down and I have to halt the whole exercise to call in a salvage crew to extract him. They managed to get the Urbie upright and then they needed a strong crane to pull him out the sucking mud. It was like watching a trash can emerged from the ground. Really, really funny. But the absolute best thing was the sound it made when it finally got pulled out. It sounded like this loud, horrible quick fart. A real squeaky pop." He tried imitating it and then he was laughing. He wipes his eyes. "You can bet he was then begging us all not to give him a callsign about it. I took pity on him, but let me tell you, it was tempting."

[Richard Winter]

Richard was laughing hard while Steffen was telling his story "Bloody hell, whoever was the unlucky one is lucky he didn't get a callsign because of it" he was still laughing "I can think of several off the top of my head".

[GM Yuusha]

"So could the other trainees. If we'd gone with one I think he'd have given up."

Steffen enjoyed more of his drink. He was in an excellent mood.

"All set for tomorrow?" He asks casually.

[Richard Winter]

"Of cour,..." he began, but he changed his mind shook his head and continued "To be honest, if been nervous the whole day. Kelenfold has left deep scars and I worry constantly about whether I can manage to be a good leader."

[GM Yuusha]

"That's normal." Steffen smiles reassuringly. He put back things or washed and dried them up as he spoke. "It means you're a good leader if anything. If you didn't worry you wouldn't care. Commanders who don't care tend to either chuck their soldiers in a grinder or they make mistakes. Big ones. I won't say don't be nervous or don't worry, but try to keep it in moderation. A little is healthy. Too much and you won't sleep. We all need to stay on our toes. You'll feel better after a victory. We all will. Just remember you're not out there alone."

He taps his ear.

"If things get dicey you pull back. Withdraw, call in support, communicate concerns and issues. As long as you're on the radio you're not alone out there. Trust in your lance mates too."