Ready player one! (D2 EE Simulators - Simulation Battle)

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"Woohoo~" The sweat soaked redhead comes stumbling out of her simulation pod with a little cheer. "Bug extermination success!"

Turning towards Ezmeralda with a grin, the small Sergeant offers her an even smaller fist to bump. "We did great there, Easy. This was fun."

Then she shoots her Captain a bright grin as well. "Water! Drink! Please. I can still feel the heat."

The young Mechwarrior is brimming with energy, after the exhilarating fight.

[Ezmeralda]

"Yeah!" she fist bumped back, "I wasn't expecting them to be quite so close at the start but that made for a good ambush simulator. Put us both through our paces."

She took one of the energy drinks, "My hunchy runs pretty cold unlike Cat's sauna." She chuckled.

[Lakshmi Kaala]

"Hai. It must have given you a jump to have so many enemies appear, near and far, like that. You both handled it well. Splitting up was the right thing to do. It made it harder for them to pin you when they also had to split up." Laks comments, walking over with the drinks. With Ez taking one of the energy drinks she has the other for herself. Cat gets a bottle of cold water. It had a few ice cubes inside.

The small captain nods in agreement with Ez. "It does, but you're getting rusty with your comms and AC/20. It won't hurt if you treat the simulations tomorrow a bit more seriously." She claps her hands to dispel the thought. "That said! You both used the enemy's range against them, focused more dangerous enemies first and you avoided any major damage. For a company of tanks, even light tanks, to be taken out by just two mechs for no real damage of note to either is impressive." Then she grins with mischief. "Now, when you can do that solo I'll give you my recommendation for captain."

[Ezmeralda]

"Yeah, the Autocannon let me down pretty badly. I was hoping it would make short work of things," she shrugged, "Sometimes it works but the aim on those things are kind of janky."

She laughed, "Given how much more dangerous those SRM boats are I wonder why the AC/5's are the standard model."

[Lakshmi Kaala]

"Hmm. Cheaper ammunition and longer range. I thought the LRM variants were quite threatening myself." Laks shares her thoughts as she pats Ez's shoulder. "You enjoyed that, ne?"

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

She took one of the energy drinks, "My hunchy runs pretty cold unlike Cat's sauna." She chuckled.

"I'm a hot running girl like that. Thanks, Laks!" The tomboy laughs and grabs the water bottle to quickly drain it. "Brrr~" She shudders from the sudden cold.

"That silence at the start was weird, but we quickly found our groove anyway and stomped them good." She shoots the Captain an even bigger grin. "That's a challenge I want to take on, Laks! Not today, but one day."

"Yeah, the Autocannon let me down pretty badly. I was hoping it would make short work of things," she shrugged, "Sometimes it works but the aim on those things are kind of janky."

She laughed, "Given how much more dangerous those SRM boats are I wonder why the AC/5's are the standard model."

"Hmm. Cheaper ammunition and longer range. I thought the LRM variants were quite threatening myself." Laks shares her thoughts as she pats Ez's shoulder. "You enjoyed that, ne?"

"Yeah." The small redhead agrees. "Missiles are freaking expensive. And you know why I went straight after those LRMs. That one in the South made a big mistake staying exposed like that. It was kinda bait with another tank in waiting, so it wasn't exactly stupid, but one basic Scorpion is no real threat to a Wolverine. Anyway. What was up with that one invincible SRM tank?!" She rants with another laugh. "It was so frigging tough!"

[Ezmeralda]

"Solo? Yeah... that's a job for a mech with rear-facing guns," she shudders, "Swarm attacks."

She laughed at Cat's complaints, "I think it just moved enough so you kept hitting different armour plates."

[Lakshmi Kaala]

"It'd be hard in a slow Hunchback, but it's doable in a Wolverine. You need to use all the terrain really well, that's all."

Laks pivoted on her heel to head back to the noteputer she'd been using.

"I'll make you both a copy of the fight so you can look over it later."

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

She laughed at Cat's complaints, "I think it just moved enough so you kept hitting different armour plates."

"Yeah, that thing barely resembled a tank at the end there, dented to heck as it was."

"It'd be hard in a slow Hunchback, but it's doable in a Wolverine. You need to use all the terrain really well, that's all."

Laks pivoted on her heel to head back to the noteputer she'd been using.

"I'll make you both a copy of the fight so you can look over it later."

"I'm still learning, but I feel like I did great today. What you taught me works really great for this. Please teach me more and I am sure I will take this Sim solo soon enough."

Catherine gives her mentor a grateful smile.

"Thank you for the copy, much appreciated."

[Ezmeralda]

"Yeah, a copy would help me work on how that start went so rough," she shook her head, "That was a rough start."

"Hunchies aren't the best solo mech. I might try it out with some other rig though," she shrugged, "Something to worry about once we have a little pause in the combat again."

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"That forest I jumped into at the start should have been within your range, if I remember things right, Ez." Catherine muses. "Maybe that would have changed things a bit for you. That first salvo really knocked you on your butt."

Then she shoots her a bright run. "Really, you should try out a Wolverine, Ez. I could never go with a mech that can't jump. I'd feel so stuck and glued to the ground."

[Ezmeralda]

"I was more worried about keeping things out of my back but that might be right, hmmm," she spent a moment thinking about it.

"I don't know. Jump jets tend to wreck my aim," she shrugged, "A few for quick repositioning would be handy like the Shadowhawk has. I piloted a 2K for a little while starting out."

[Lakshmi Kaala]

Laks listens to the chatter as she downloads the data and writes onto CDs for each of them. She hums a bit as she does so. Cat gets a thumbs up to her request. There would be more to teach in time.

With the CDs in hand, she walks back over to the pair. "Here you go. I remember you saying about your start in a Shadowhawk. Did you prefer it Ez? Ano, what would you like to be piloting? Some scary 100 ton machine?"

[Ezmeralda]

"The Shadowhawk wasn't great, the 2K in particular was very much a reasonably fast PPC brawler. I mean the PPC could do damage but... it was almost all the thing had and the standard model is trying to do everything and failing. Anyways I was just used to lay out screening fire as the Hunchback advanced so, yeah, I wanted in that juggernaut once it was open. I'd like a heavier machine with maybe some more diversity in range like how the Atlas has that LRM rack for while it moves in."

She took the disc. "Thanks Laks. This should be useful."

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

Catherine accepts her own CD copy with a smile. "Thanks, Laks."

"I want a bigger version of the Wolverine." The young Mechwarrior adds cheerfully. "Just as fast, but tougher and better armed. And way more heat sinks! Double pepper and some lasers. That's my little dream."

[Ezmeralda]

"Wolverine is sort of as big as you get before you have to sacrifice one to get the other two," she grinned, "I mean, you are talking about a Thunderbolt or a Grasshopper."

[Lakshmi Kaala]

"Any bigger and it'll definitely be slower. 55 tons is the sweet spot." Laks agrees, nodding along with Ez. "I'd just like to upgrade my Lucky Strike."

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"Crush a girl's dreams, will ya?" Catherine laughs. "I am sure it is possible though. Even if 55 tons is a pretty good sweet spot for jumpers."

She greedily gulps down some more water, bottle already half empty. "I'd be happy as a duck to just get double heat sinks into Dúthracht for a start though. Then maybe swap the big laser for a PPC."

[Lakshmi Kaala]

"That's a good idea, but it would limit your firepower at close range." Laks observes. "Still, with a few extra medium lasers that isn't a problem, but the mechtechs will complain at having to reroute additional power to new weapons." She'd definitely had this conversation before.

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"We'd have to get a real load of those double heatsinks first, before any of them ever trickled down to me. I'm definitely not getting them before you, Laks." She gives a little shrug. "And I am sure you are not the only one ahead of me in the queue."