Making landfall (D1 EM Dropsite)

[Richard Winter]

...

"As soon as the mechtechs give the okay, Sgt. Zhou and I will go out on patrol and help Sgt. Machuru with the offloading. After that, we'll see what else we can do for the company," he replied, taking a sip of coffee.
"Fucking cold here, Hesperus is consistently 30°C" he said and nestled his hands even more on the coffee cup.

[Eric Voelker]

"More haste, less speed I suppose. Laks volunteered her lance to get off first and to help establish a perimeter. We can venture further afield in an hour or two."

He nods in agreement at Richard's sentiments. "If I could have taken a decent paying contract on a tropical world..."

[Richard Winter]

Richard nodded "Laakshmi's people are probably best for this. Fast enough to get from A to B, but still blessed well enough with weapons and armor to put up a fight should they encounter anyone."

".... then most would probably complain about mosquitoes or snakes" Richard completed Eric's sentence. "You eat what's on your plate, that's what they say, right?"

[Eric Voelker]

"That's right." Eric chuckled a bit all of a sudden. He leaned toward Richard and spoke quieter. "Laks gets moody if you don't let her out to play. Loves her mech."

He shifted back and took a sip of coffee. "Besides, she's our best pilot and her lance is very reliable."

[Richard Winter]

"I met her and Catherine yesterday in the mechbay. She could hardly keep still and when she was finally allowed into the cockpit she started blasting music through the speakers," he recounted happily. "But Laks seems to be monopolizing the Company's talent, at least from what I've heard about Cat, she's supposed to be very good too."

[Eric Voelker]

"Ja." He shifts to German. "That sounds like her. She's a character." (German)

Eric glanced over to Sosanna and Alison. He knew Sosanna knew some German, but he didn't know about the teenager techy.

"Hellcat? Yes, she's talented. She's spent all her life around mechwarriors and battlemechs. She'll be a monster in a year or two, if combat doesn't rattle her too much. Her father was decent too."

A large assault mech lurched out of the hangars and onto the blasted snow. A Longbow. A Rifleman soon followed, guns silently moving to sweep the sky. Eric watched them with particular interest.

[Alison Rodríguez]

Alison didn't even get a chance to reply when the man quickly escaped. She kinda watched, before turning back as Sosanna spoke.

Sosanna made a knowing noise as she sipped her coco.

"Don't mind him dearie. Men that age are set in their ways."

"It's ok. A lot of men often get intimidated when a woman can sing a metal style better than they can. Even all these hundreds of years later it's the same" she shrugged "I'm not all metal though. I like anything really. what about yourself? What kinda stuff do you like?"

[Richard Winter]

...

"I hope for her that nothing happens to her. She is still very young" (german until further notice)

He looked longingly up at the gigantic war machines.

"One day,....... one day I'll have one, too," he said yearningly.

[GM Yuusha]

"Hot drinks and biscuits. Some gentle background music. A few potted plants to put into the ground. Some delphinium, wisteria and lavender too."

She sips her coco.

"And good weather."

[Eric Voelker]

"We can only hope."

He turns back from the mechs and notices Richard's expression.

"You'll need a big pay day contribution for that Lieutenant. After the dropships, they're our most expensive equipment." Eric wonders what Richard might say to that.

[Alison Rodríguez]

"Sounds really....relaxing" Alison nodded, holding her hot chocolate closer and resisting the word boring at the idea of just gardening and relaxing music "won't find a lot of that here. Well, there might be gardens but these machines don't make much background music, and I can't imagine the gardens will look as nice for a while."

She shrugged.

"Not that I suspect we'll be here long enough for anything like that."

[Richard Winter]

...

He chuckled: "Either that or one of the MechWarrior of the AFFC is kind enough to gift me his." his chuckled turned into a laugh.
"But seriously, it's not an easy goal, I know that, but I'm working towards it. After all, I wouldn't have become a mercenary if I could somehow get the money together some other way." He paused to take a sip of coffee. "But, somehow, I'll get my own little war machine. Part of me is secretly hoping we'll find an old bunker with mechs in it somewhere and we'll each get one."

[GM Yuusha]

"It is."

She makes a thoughtful noise. "You're probably right dearie. It's a shame, but it is what it is. Do you like flowers?"

[Eric Voelker]

"That'd be nice. However, you're more likely to earn one if you can take down an enemy mech on your own. Much easier said than done, mind. Don't be foolhardy. Still, your Vulcan, it has some bite. If you can get behind something two or three times and land your shots then you'll do some real damage."

[Richard Winter]

...

"That's a thing?" he asked suprised. "Starlit's always took all captured mechs as company property".

[Eric Voelker]

"We do too, but if - big if - if someone is solely responsible for a salvaged or captured mech then it is within my discretion to award it, partially or fully, as a bonus." He smiles elusively then. "There would be some contractual stipulations to the bonus of course."

[Richard Winter]

...

"There's nothing free in the Inner Sphere either, is there?" he laughed "I guess I'll have to roll up my sleeves and hunt a good number of mechs then" he said enthusiastically

[Eric Voelker]

"That would be ideal. Don't worry about the terms. They'd just be along the lines of no competition clauses and a certain amount of time with us until the bonus is secured. It'd be pretty idiotic of me to give out mechs only for my pilots to jump ship or sell them immediately and retire."

[Richard Winter]

...

"If I were to conquer a mech I probably would have stayed for a while anyway, so far I like it quite a bit with you guys."

[Alison Rodríguez]

"My father had a small garden of lilys and other plants, but they were more for work than anything so I was often encouraged not to play with them. Beyond that? Never really stopped to check 'em out. Travelling between planets and setting up shows and then well, this world. Can't really stop and smell the flowers while being attacked can ya?"

She looked over at the boxes being carried out, feeling glad the only thing she had to lift was this warm cup of hot chocolate.

"How long have you been doing this now?"