Breakroom Blues [OPEN to Britannian military]

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph sat at a table in the barracks breakroom. A half-eaten bag of pepermint candies lay on the table, surrounded by discarded wrappers. A magazine rested in his hands, open to an article about the latest aircraft technology. He read half-heartedly, finding the opinions of the "experts" to be lackluster at best. They were downright stupid at worst.

After reading a particularly dimwitted statement, he tossed the magazine onto the table. Its impact blew a handful of the wrappers to the ground. "Morons," he said, thinking aloud. "I don't care what material you use, a maneuver like that's gonna tear the bird apart." There were several other Britannian soldiers in the room watching the news on a television mounted on the wall. The anchors were discussing an expolsion in the ghetto.

With a sigh, Kristoph glanced at his watch. Jesus, could he take any longer?[/i] he thought of his direct superior, the Knight of One. Sure, it was nice to work under Freddie, but the guy had a tendency of taking forever in any sort of bureaucratic undertaking. Kristoph popped another candy into his mouth and hoped for something to happen.

[sakuraacr]

Jojo, a new recruit to the eyes of area 11 military yet also the junior officer of most brigades, entered the hall noting most importantly silence. Except for the news, pool table, and the music of the background the hall seemed rather tasteful to her liking. She would enter the room carrying a mummy bag holding all her belongings as her chinese eyes darted left and right in the room but it was obvious by uniform and skin color that she was a Britannian.

Jojo would scan the room with her naturally purple eyes as she noted a man talking aloud about a plane book. She looked to him curiously and asked, "Where do I put my belongings? I am new to area 11 directly after being in area XX (for story purposes) and seem to be a tad lost around these parts of the area." She would look at the man who seemed to have been waiting on someone as well as she remembered the address of Knight of One and remembered she too was to meet him for unknown circumstances.

"I am Jr. Officer Stenton. If possible please show me to the housing unit." She wanted to be polite for she didn't see any ranks in the room save for the average brute that she would meet she needed to meet others that could help her though bored as she was she'd have fun doing some sparring with these people since she was considered a black belt in most martial arts per say.

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph gave the new arrival an appraising look. She looked familiar, but he couldn't place from where. He leaned back and shifted the candy's position in his mouth a few times while she explained her situation. "Welcome to Area 11, Stenton," he said, finally remembering that he had read her file.

He stood from the table and picked up his bag of candies. "I'll take you to the Officer Quarters. Stay close, Frame-jockey," he told her as he left the breakroom. He privately admitted to being grateful that he had something to do now.

He turned right and headed for the officer's bunks. "Can't say I envy you, really. Area 11 is a bit quiet as far as open combat is concerned." He turned again. "Right now, it's mostly acts of terrorism: a bombing here, a kidnapping there. Thanks to the sheer number of assholes that live in this colony, it's tough to figure out which ones the Black Knights are responsible for." He crunched the remains of the candy and popped another one in his mouth. "Want one?" he asked, stopping and holding the bag out for Stenton.

[sakuraacr]

Jojo smiled lightly as she would carry her bag with her as she followed you towards the barracks rooming. She had listened to him rant on before but now he seemed to have a kinder more indeffinate tone as she would follow him into the rooms. She threw her gear on a bed and that was when she was told about the area being very quiet. "I hope to change that stillness actually."

Jojo had followed him in the rooming and then asked, "I am guessing your waiting for someone just like me?" She had asked the question as she grabbed a single mint and popped it into her mouth and then twisted it into her mouth tasting it feeling the burn of the surger dissolving inside her mouth as she went on to ask, "By chance what is your rank? I am unfamilier with your profile though all those others inside the breaker room seem to be grunts."

She said the term with an amount of zeal noting her unexpected uncare for the lower ranks. Jojo would go on to watch his face while listening to his reply to her question about the rank of his own. She just couldn't see this guy as a grunt, especially if he was waiting on the same guy as she was when she arrived.

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph leaned against the door frame and watched while Stenton tossed her bag down. He nodded at her admitting to a desire to wishing to change the Area's status. "Wouldn't mind seeing this place returned to a free-fire zone myself," he replied quietly, a hint of viciousness creeping into his tone.

He brought his hand to his forehead when she asked for his rank. "Damn, where are my manners?" he asked, the thirst for violence forgotten. "I'm Kristoph Vashti, Squire to the Knight of One." He gave a little insincere bow. "Don't bother standing on ceremony with me, though. You want to call me Kristoph, go ahead. You got something to say, speak your mind." He didn't bother adding that his lax attitude towards rank had landed him in a fair deal of trouble throughout his career.

Kristoph pushed himself off of the door frame and pocketed the bag of candies. "Soon as your stuff is squared away, I'll give you a tour of the place. God only knows when Freddy's gonna be done with whatever the hell he's doing," he said, referring to the Knight of One's business in the Area.

[sakuraacr]

Jojo noted his relaxed attitude and she found it quite humerous to be appropriate as she said, "Squire Kristoph? I'll just call you Kris if you don't mind. It seems to be such a mouth full to say the rest anyway." She merely had the bag on the bed leaving it their knowing if it was searched through there wasn't really any kind of precious material inside it to worry about. She would then follow you out as she would then bite down on the mint finishing the snack.

Jojo would follow you out asking, "Tell me of the situation of before my arrival. I know it has not been that much of a trouble but they shipped me here for a reason so what would that be perhaps?" She was curious and since this was the squire to the knight of one he should propably know due to him having read her profile, or at least she thought that was the case due to the circumstance.

Jojo would of course had bowed back eventually but under circumstance she gave a quick solute due to in her eyes the thought of a squire to one of the knights makes him in her opinion of higher rank than herself as she waited upon his response.

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph turned away from the room and started down the hall. "Kris works for me."He brought them to an intersection. He pointed down one hall and said, "Cafeteria’s that way. Food’s alright, but if you’re willing to pay a bit more you can just go into the settlement and get something better." He pointed the other way. "Restrooms are down there." He started walking again as she asked about the situation.

"The situation right now is… well, to be completely honest, it sucks," he revealed, exasperated by the fact that there had been so little action. "We have unconfirmed reports that the Black Knights are holding certain Britannian officials and soldiers prisoner – an act of war if I ever heard one – but they’re denying it, so we can’t just go and bomb their little island into the stone age." Kristoph was treading on thin ice, now. Princess Ayame’s kidnapping was still highly classified. He had to be careful not to reveal too much.

Kristoph turned down another hall. "The hangars are this way. Knightmares and aircraft are held in separate facilities. So far as I can tell, you’ve been transferred here to bolster the area’s defenses. The paperwork said that you were supposed to meet Freddy, but even I don’t have high enough clearance to see why, so that’s either on your end or his." He pointed to a door on their left. "Armory. It’s mostly infantry gear, but they’ve got a few sidearms for you Frame-jockeys." He kept walking until they reached an elevator.

He boarded the lift and pressed a button for the top floor. "Oh, and then there’s the Emperor’s wedding coming up pretty quick. In his infinite brilliance, our king has decided to invite the Black Knights to it." Kristoph practically spat the organization’s name. It was readily apparent that he had no love for the enemies of their nation. "You can rest assured that they’re gonna kick up some sort of shit there." The elevator stopped. The doors opened to a short hallway with a door at the end. He walked to the door and opened it before stepping out into sunlight. A quick glance around revealed that they were on the roof of the base. "I can’t say how long Freddy and I are gonna be here, but this is where you can find me most of the time. I would fly, but the bureaucrats don’t like fighters singing through the skyscrapers." He walked to the edge of the roof and leaned against the railing. "Any questions?"

[sakuraacr]

Jojo payed attention to each detail, even the minor ones. It was one of the things that gave Jojo her first medal of recon groupings. She didn't care much when he called her a Frame-jockey though in better sense she was a better sniper than pilot though her piloting skills in itself makes the fifth generation knightmares look like thirds compared to her fourth generation rose.

She kindly would look out at the open air as they had finished the tour at the roof. She remembered the full reports of the black knights and even considered them formidable opponents to the military but it was then with the comment of suspicious kidnapping that lead her to want to research more on the topic but that will be for a later note when she is cleared for the files.

She would then look out at the landscape facing outward at the city knowing that this was the reconstructed Japan's city where as of the other side of the roof was the old Japan, the ghettos. "You said the Black Knights are the most organized fo the groups, and that they were allowed to be present to the wedding of our royal emperor. I know since I am of chinese royalty that this is the perfect strike at assassinating the emperor."

She would look as Kris kindly as she would turn and lean against the bars of the roof having her purple hair flutter in the air, "I just have one request when it comes time to fill in roles for it all. I'd like to be in my knightmare but also if allowed by the higher ups to be equipped with an M107 sniper rifle. It is a fairly old model but it is by far the best sniper rifle I am familier with. If what you say is true about me being the defense of this run then logically I should be in my knightmare with an anti-personel sniper rifle."

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph looked at the sky and listened in silence while Stenton offered her opinion. Today would be perfect for flying, he thought absentmindedly as a light breeze whispered across the roof. He nodded at her assessment of the wedding. There was no way in hell the Black Knights were going to let the opportunity pass.

He was brought back to the here-and-now when Stenton asked for a sniper rifle. "Now that has an effect on the landscape," he said quietly. "Freddy's got what it takes in a close-range firefight, but distance isn't really his thing. Could be he's bringing you in to provide long range fire support." He dropped another candy into his mouth and added, "I do what I can, but I'm just one guy in a plane." Kristoph may have hated Knightmare Frames on a personal level, but he knew that they had their place on a battlefield.

"I can't procure anything for you, but are you sure you want a 107? That rifle's gotta be at least a hundred years old, if I'm thinking of the right one." He had never spent much time studying infantry weapons. "I'm sure R&D has come up with something better suited to what's coming." He wasn't actually sure of it, but scientists and the like were always working to improve current weapons and invent new ones.

He looked at Stenton with an appraising eye. "You know what? The pencil pushers can blow a fat one." Kristoph pushed off of the railing. "You ever flown, Stenton?" He was walking towards the door even as he asked the question. "I don’t mean on one of those boring as hell transport planes, but a real, honest-to-God supersonic jet. Ever been up in one of those?"

[sakuraacr]

Jojo would listen to the guy's assessment of the knight of One's known close quarters mastery of fighting where as it was quite possible that she was the reason of being transfered due to her sniper skills and long distance battlements. Then the question of the m-107 sniper rifle came up and she awnsered to the best capability. "I prefer the older modules due to the scope not being electronic and the anti EMP and anti tank bullets. This gun is old but it can bring down a whole knightmare with an accurate shot like me."

Jojo had then had her own rising eye brow moment when the question was asked of her availabilty and expirence with fighter jets. "I've been in a bomber plane before but that is about the only military class jet I have had expierence in. Why do you ask? Is it because that you want me to go flying with you some time?" She knew aviation was a tad like piloting her own knightmare frame so the question of basis was similer.

She would love to have flown while in wait and sort of laughed at the snide remark about the 'Pencil Pushers' who in her opinioun would propably be the R&D folks merged with the public awareness folks. She wouldn't care if people were scared of seeing her inside her own knightmare so what was the point of not being in a fighter jet of the same mentality? There wasn't any so in the right it was perfectly legal.

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph smiled over his shoulder at Stenton. "Close, Frame-jockey." He turned around so that he was facing her. "Today is too good a day to not spend flying, so that’s what I'm gonna do. The way I see it, you have two options. One: you stay here and be bored out of your skull while you wait on Freddy; or two: you come with me and find out what it’s like to dance with the angels," he said, all the while trying to guess at the correct size of flight suit for her.

He turned back to the door. "Either way, it's up to you. I may outrank you, but I’m not gonna force you to do anything." Kristoph opened the door and, just before crossing the threshold, turned back. "I don't make this offer often." In actuality, he had never made it to anyone. "Take it now or it’s gone forever." He meant it, too. He gave everyone he met one chance to prove themselves in his eyes and this was Stenton's. He fixed her with an expectant look and waited for her answer.

[sakuraacr]

Jojo would smile as she knew he was truthful about the it being gone for good if she said no. She would smirk then as she walked up behind him as she said, "I'm a size small on the pilot charts." She knew this information well due to past expirence and the frames having the same size system as the jets. She was five foot some inches but it always was a good thing that the flight suits were made by waist size due to the elastics in them. This helped with the sizing a whole lot more than normally would.

Jojo would then walk back indoors as she then held the door open for the squire as she said, "Lead the way Kris. Feel free to allow me to fly with you." She didn't know this was the first time he offered such a circumstance so now she would propably be more normal and yet still take the oppertunity for granted due to the tiresome wait up ahead for the knight of one that still had yet to show in her eyes so now she would fly with kristoph. "I just have one question. Will this run be a co-plane or a regular single pilot plane?"

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph's smile returned. "Glad to see that you know something about flying," he told her as he walked back down the short corridor to the elevator. Truthfully, he was surprised. Most Devicers that he had met were of the opinion that flying and piloting a Knightmare used the same skill set. Kristoph had been in more than a few bar fights with Devicers over which was tougher. It was childish and ridiculous, he admitted, but he had to defend his honor as a pilot. He boarded the elevator and pressed a button for the hangar level.

"Aircraft are deployed from a different hangar than Knightmares," he said by way of explanation. He spent the rest of the elevator ride in silence. The doors opened to the hangar and he walked out as if he owned the place. Aircraft of various types waited for their pilots. A handful of technicians were performing routine maintenance. Kristoph called out to one of the technicians. "Stevens!" The man shot ramrod straight and turned from where he had been supervising the recalibration of a helifighter's VTOL jets. "Get a flight suit and a helmet to the Junior Officer here and have Jonas and Vernon prep one of the Mistrals," he ordered. The technician gave a quick "yessir" and ran to follow the orders.

Kristoph turned his attention back to Stenton. "It's a two-seater. You'll be riding shotgun. Soon as Stevens gets you a flight suit, go change in the locker room over there." He pointed to a pair of doorways set in the wall. He started walking towards the one marked MEN. "Don't take too long, I wanna be up in the air as soon as possible."

He changed outfits quickly, easily slipping into his flight suit. He retrieved his helmet from a locker and tucked it under his arm. It was black and had the word AEON emblazoned in silver just above the polarized visor. He made his way to the jet while tapping a quick message to Freddy on his datapad, letting the Knight know where he and Stenton were going. With that business completed, he clambered into the pilot's seat and started the pre-flight check.

[sakuraacr]

Jojo would happily take the suit and helmet liking the red color as she would travel into the doors of the changing room She would then gather together her whole set of living as she would then get her own clothing off which wouldn't be her undercloths which would be her own knightmare flight suit which she only took off when she was in her bed or in a whole setting of relaxation like the baths.

She would then put the flight suit on and then zipped her suit together as she would lock her suit into the room. She would then gather her mind as she went into the room of different jets as she would then get her helmet on over her face as she entered into the MEN jet as she sat in the co-seat. She would then thumbs up Kristoph saying over the intercom, "All fine on my end. I like the flight suits you guys have. They're not as tight as the knightmare suits which is a plus."

She then tapped into the start up deals as she started up the continuous buttons starting up the jet as she said, "All is ago to bring up the jet. Take her out," Stevens would say over the communications as Jojo would look out at them as she would notice the guy named stevens as she would remember to talk of Kris about the whole thing of the knightmare bar fights as well.

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph slipped his helmet on and thumbed a switch to close the canopy. The glass shell slid down and sealed against the Mistral's hull. "Air Traffic Control, this is Aeon," he reported into the radio in an official tone. "I'm taking Mistral Alpha-zero-seven on patrol." He heard the beginnings of a protest from the ATC before he killed the connection. "Heh. They're gonna be pissed," he said to Stenton with more glee than was appropriate for the situation.

He taxied the jet out of the hangar and onto the tarmac. "Alright, Frame-jockey, time for you to see what a real pilot can do." He pushed the throttle forward and the jet rumbled under him. The plane started down the runway and, after a moment of being pushed into his seat by g-forces, climbed into the sky. "God, it's like going home again." He pushed the throttle all the way forward and gave a cheer as the plane jumped forward.

"You hurl in here, you're cleaning it." Kristoph threw the Mistral into a series of tight barrel rolls. When he leveled out again, he turned away from the city. They were soaring over the ghetto in mere moments. Kristoph pulled back on the stick and the jet started climbing until even the largest buildings looked like toys on the ground far below. He executed a half-roll so that they were upside down. He looked at the ground and, for once, his voice was filled with reverence. "Would you look at that? This, this right here, is what it's all about... How're you doing back there?"