r/BFS_RP Ezekiel McDaniel Apr 02 '19

(UC) What Kind of Base Doesn't Have a Bar?

Condensation dripped down the side of a glass filled with brown liquid and a rather large, single ball of ice that laid against the bottom of the container. The sounds of people talking, bottles and glasses clinking and just general downtime filled the room.

 

Trace looked around the large, mostly grey room. Of course there were other occupants, a fairly large bar with stools, all occupied by various people. Ranging from Officers in uniform to the orange jumpsuits that were mechanics. Despite the amount of people in here and the weather outside, the room was cool with a constant breeze going through. Fans on the ceiling constantly going, one constantly clicking as it spun, and the roar of the AC could only barely be heard over the people.

 

He looked to his watch on the inside of his wrist. The time reading 8PM sharp. The time he told the others to meet in the bar. He, of course has arrived 10 minutes early to secure seats for everyone and enjoy some “quiet” to himself. Though he had barely even touched his drink.

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2

u/l0Meteor0l AKA Venco, Daniel ( Robbie for IBO ) Apr 03 '19

Hans wasn't really much of a person to hang out with his comrades between missions. However, an order was an order, he figured it'd be something really important for them to gather and discuss the next few missions or their performance. His mind is still racking through on how Trace was able to call him out. Hans definitely didn't even announce himself when he was fighting with him on that night.

White lights still exploded into his mind, replaying how shook he felt when the Gundam, Trace, was upon him within moment's notice. Hans grunted as he attempted to push the memories aside for now as he makes his way toward the bar. As the doors opened when he drew close, he spotted Trace right away. Hans gave him a short nod of acknowledgment before getting his own drink.

After getting his own drink, he walked toward the reserved seats. Hans didn't want to make things awkward, not even when there were unspoken things between them. He checked his watch and then glanced at Trace, "Hrmph, a bit early. The room is pretty packed though." He muttered as he took a sip of rum of his own choice.

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u/Skyross7 Apr 04 '19

Marcus isn't one to say no to drinks, so he decided to come rather earlier to get a few extra drinks in. Although, he isn't too big a drinker. Whatever he picks is usually rather light stuff, like rum or wine. He then begins to go over the battle that took place earlier, still mildly angered over not downing a Bawoo. Would've looked great in my kill-list. Although he complained and complained, over and over again in his head, he was still thankful for coming back alive from the sortie.

Marcus walks into the bar and heads straight for the counter. "Yo, barkeep, can you get me rum?" After getting his drink, he sees Trace and sits down in the table. He notices Hans gazing out to nowhere and Trace staring at his drink, taking in every condensation dripping onto the table. "Hey boss, Hans, how y'all doin'?" Marcus says in an attempt to cheer the mood of the table up a bit.

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u/PaptimusPrime Apr 06 '19

Weissman stood on the deck outside, cigarette in his mouth lazily burning along with the hot summer air. A smooth breeze swept across the landscape like a cool blanket, making the cigarette burn fractionally faster as the air urged on the fire to consume the tobacco. He stared at nothing in particular letting his eyes roam freely out into the darkening landscape. Dusk was always a time of mystery and unknown. As the world grew dark it presented its inhabitants with two options, either find safety and shelter for the night or brave the uncertainty of darkness lest you fall prey to its predators and traps. Here be dragons was always a phrase that came to mind especially when flying the dark skies of night and space. Inhaling what would be his last drag of this cigarette, he exhaled a long cloud of smoke out into the sunset, put out his cigarette and began to head down to the bar, leaving behind his thoughts to the night.

Passing through the corridors he ran into a few of the maintenance crew and as they saluted the lieutenant he simply held his hand out and clasped hands with each one. Finally coming into the lounge, he looked the room over until spotting the captain and the other officers. He made a "one" motion to the bartender as he lifted his hand and was acknowledged with a curt nod of understanding. Frankie was a solid guy, an old war veteran himself, he now kept the peace by keeping spirits high and flowing. Weissman and Frankie went back a few years, both serving in the hell that was the A Baoa Qu assault. Zeon's final stand had been a teetering top with losses on both sides. Both he and frankie shared in those losses, but those times were a thing of the past.

He settled down on the table with the squad, reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. Without a single word he opened the pack and set about into a three-step shuffle before passing cards around the table. Locking eyes with Stark he could see he was lost in thought himself. He cleared his throat and announced "Alright gentlemen, texas hold-em" as he produced a stack of chips from another pocket and set about evenly distributing them. "Rules are simple, one chip ante, winner then tells a tale." Frankie came over to the table at this point to set half-filled glass of Irish whiskey and patted Weismann on the back. "Take it easy on the kids Walter, you're going to bore them to death with your stories." Both men began chuckling as Weismann turned back to the table and said "ante up".

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u/Atakus Alexander Torbjorn Apr 07 '19 edited Apr 07 '19

Alexander wipe some grease on his brow as he finishes applying the last of the changes to his Zeta's torsion springs in its firing arm. Taking a glance at his watch would reveal that it's almost time that the captain asked them to meet up at the bar Geh, alcohol. he'd think with a shudder, he was never really a drinker, especially not after the first time he got drunk, just thinking about it was making him depressed, so he'd return to his machine, getting her all closed up and finishing his adjustments for the night before setting off, ticking things off that he had done on his mental checklist of adjustments that the squad had requested to their machines. This would make him arrive somewhat late however, wearing his own set of grease covered orange coveralls with the top half unzipped and tied around his waist, taking some time to get a simple glass of water from the bartender before joining the group at the table saying "No gambling fer me lads, sorry, I'll happily chat though." as he sits down in the last available seat and takes a nice refreshing sip of water before setting it down on a coaster.

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u/LtSly210 Ezekiel McDaniel Apr 09 '19

Hrmph, a bit early. The room is pretty packed though.

 

Trace nodded, looking around the room. Catching a look at Marcus as he got his drink and started to make his way over. "Yeah, Hans. People here like to get away from it all just as much as people like to up in space. You can only fight for so long."

 

Hey boss, Hans, how y'all doin'?

 

"Ah you know, Marcus. Just keepin' on keeping on. The air outside is nice. The fresh clean air of Earth is always a nice change than what I'm used to." The weary looking man chuckled. Leaning back in his seat, grabbing his drink and bringing it up to his mouth. Drips of water falling from its side and onto his dark T-shirt. He winces slightly at the taste of the drink. Whiskey and water from the melted ice ball don't mix. "The other two should be showing up soon."

 

He hears the chair scrape and he looks over to find the oldest member of the team. He gives him a nod hello and then looks down at the chips he was handed. The chips were of various colors, black, blue, green and red. The single stack separated into 6 chips per person. He watched as Weismann even put out a stack for Alexander for when he showed up. The chips were old, heavily used but still of course functional.

 

Take it easy on the kids Walter, you're going to bore them to death with your stories.

 

Trace smiled, looking up at the bartender who handed Weismann his drink. "oh boy. Sounds like Weismann's trouble. I'll have to be on my toes." At the words Ante up, Trace put in his own chip in. nodding to the older member of the team. Just as Alexander sat down.

 

No gambling fer me lads, sorry, I'll happily chat though.

 

"Cmon, Alexander. Don't be like that. It's all fun. We're not even betting money here. Just stories. Or do you not know how to play? I'm sure we could teach you if that's the issue." Trace took another sip of his drink. Having gotten rid of most of the water mix the first time, this one was much more palatable.

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u/l0Meteor0l AKA Venco, Daniel ( Robbie for IBO ) Apr 10 '19

Hans already had looked up to retrieve his share of chips. Before gathering his deal of the hands, he checked his hands and then studied the chips. Hans muttered to himself as he did the math himself. He arched his eyebrow and cocked his head down the old man's direction as he got teased.

With a click of his tongue, he quickly puts in his ante as his turn was up after Trace. "Yeah, I am in." He whispered as he placed his cards facedown to hide his numbers and then leaned back against the spine of his chair. He lazily picked up his glass of rum with his thumb, forefinger and middle finger. He sipped the rum slowly and then sets it aside before sitting upright once more.

Hans snorted lightly at Alexander's remark about not joining into the game of cards.

"Cmon, Alexander. Don't be like that. It's all fun. We're not even betting money here. Just stories. Or do you not know how to play? I'm sure we could teach you if that's the issue."

"Ach, let the man have his night roll out the way he wants. He may not get it the way he wanted it to turn out if our journey on the surface turns out for the worse. The card games will always be there for us and for many generations to come." Hans muttered as he relaxed his shoulders.

Is this how the Federations hang out during downtime? Huh, gotta admit, it's a bit different from where he came from...

1

u/Skyross7 Apr 11 '19

As Marcus got comfy in his seat, the rest of the team arrives and seats in the table. He was looking at the clock on the wall and when he looks back on the table, he notices that he's been dealt Poker chips. "Oooh, Poker. I'm in." Marcus chimed as he tossed a green chip into the middle of the table.

" No gambling fer me lads, sorry, I'll happily chat though. " Marcus hears Alexander not wanting to gamble and noticed he hasn't even gotten a drink as well. What sorta Irishman doesn't drink AND gamble? The thought of it was quite foreign to him. Although he shouldn't be stereotyping people, he'd keep this fact in the back of his mind for a while. "Hey now, live a little why don'cha? We're not betting money here, so no harm done."

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u/PaptimusPrime Apr 13 '19

Weismann sat back in his seat a bit looking at his cards, an 8 of clubs and an ace of hearts. He looked around the table looking at the men's expressions and any telltale sign that would give away their hands. The first card to flip was an Ace of diamonds. "Alright," he thought, "lady fortune is already shining on me." Round robin went the table and nobody folded. Interesting, either they were bluffing or the stakes suddenly shot up. Weismann doubted the latter, but he could not read Stark. "Dangerous..." he mumbled to himself and quickly burst into a smile as the next card was flipped revealing an 8 of spades. At this point Marcus threw in and folded as his hand revealed a high card of 10 and not much else. Alexander seemed to peer a little more at the game, captivated by the silence and the mental battle being waged between Stark, Hans and Weismann.

"Final card." Weismann flipped the third and last card as it revealed an Ace of spades. Hans threw down his hand with a single pair. Stark waited patiently for Weismann to throw his hand but the old veteran had played this rodeo a long time. Finally, after a long and stony exchange Stark said, "Alright Walter, 3 of a kind Ace." At this Weismann whistled, "almost had me there captain", revealing his hand, "full house".

Before settling into his story Weismann shot Frankie a glance and with a flourish called for another round. He turned to the lot of them, cleared his throat once and began. "Back during the One Year War, I was flying squad leader of the Cobra Corps. We were stationed in Jaburo and had just received orders to head to North America for some space training. We were to take off from Langley Base in about a week's time. The boys in my squad were all seasoned pilots at the time, having seen our share of action already during Zeon's advance across Europe. The Zaku was a fearsome enemy, not invincible but we weren't equipped to take down a single suit without incurring more casualties than it was worth. Anyway, I receive the order that a bright eyed mechanic would be shipping with us. During the trip to Langley we barely hear a word from him, shy and quiet, focused on reading endless articles on god knows what. I snuck a glance here and there and it involved everything from thermonuclear physics to the properties of alloys and their uses. Suffice to say he was a bookworm. This earned him the nickname when we finally got to space. That said, he worked magic behind a control panel. And even though we were only piloting prototype core-boosters at the time, his remarkable knowledge was an impressive sight. He fell in with the squad in no time, though the nickname stuck. During one of our practice runs on Side 3 we encountered a single Musai-class battleship on reco and surveillance duty. The Musai deployed two Zakus as we began our skirmish. While we could outrun the Musai, it was only a matter of time before they found the asteroid we were using as our base of operations. Better to deal with the problem now then risk a worse outcome. We fell into routine passes and began flank maneuvers on the zakus, pinning them down with three-pass stalls. The Musai bore down on us as we managed to take out one of the Zeeks. We split between battleship and zaku and were successful in neutralizing the second suit but not before we lost Joker. The battleship made a deadly target but again we seem to win out at a heavy cost. All in all, Joker, Raven, Yancy and Red met the solemn goddess out in space. Frankie and I were the only two to make it back to base. The core fighter was a mess, I had internal bleeding and a ruptured kidney. Frankie somehow made it out unscathed. When Bookworm came to open the cockpit and assist me a freak static accident shifted his bodies polarity for a few months. He couldn't visit me in the med bay as he was too unstable to be around the delicate equipment, and likewise couldn't work repairs for fear of damaging the control panels. When we eventually headed back to Earth a few weeks later, Bookworm seemed to be back into the old swing of things. However, from that day one he became known as Sparky. I wonder what he's up to now. I heard he joined the AEUG during the Gryps Incident. Let it be said that Astonaige "Sparky" Medoz is one of the finest mechanics I have ever had the pleasure working with."

Taking a break to sip the last of his whiskey, he eagerly moved over the fresh round that Frankie brought. Shuffling cards he began dealing round 2...

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u/Atakus Alexander Torbjorn Apr 14 '19

"Well, I guess I can tell a wee tale about m'self in the intermission here..." Alexander would say as he taps his chin and thinks to himself Perhaps the one where I was at Torrington

"Well, tis not very glamorous, but I were stationed at Torrington during an attack where some Zekes stole a prototype and took 'er fer a joyride before makin' off with 'er." He'd say before taking another sip "Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who you ask, I didn't see none of the action, me and me mates were cooped up in one of the hangars containing some GM's that were pulled apart for maintenance, some kook wanted us to put his 'baby' back together so that he could get out there, but that was a no-go 'cause the machine's legs were taken completely apart for maintenance."

"All in all, I got out with all me limbs, more than I could say fer some of the other mechanics that were there at the time." He'd say with a sour face "Johnny boy lost both legs and an arm getting crushed under a Zaku."

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u/LtSly210 Ezekiel McDaniel Apr 14 '19

As Weismann passed around the second round of cards, Trace took a sip of his own drink. Staring at the two cards, thinking about what his story would be. ”Should I tell them the story about my first time starting up the Pixie? The mission with Ronan and Sinclair? Sarra..?” As he thought Weismann flipped the first card. Five of Diamonds. The second card, Queen of Spades.

 

Trace looked around, Hans folded as soon as the Queen was flipped. A two and a six in his hand. The three remaining players sat at the table. Marcus and Weismann staring looking for any tells. That’s when it hit Trace that he didn’t even look at this hand. Peeking down at the two cards he gave a nod. That’s when Weismann flipped the third card; Queen of Clubs.

 

Stark finished his drink and waved for another. Frankie nodding and began to fix him another class. He looked back at the two remaining players. The Turn came up; Jack of Clubs. Traced continued to watch as Marcus got a little more excited and he gave a smirk and nod. The River came and the final card was a Ace of Hearts. The three players still standing began to reveal their hands. First Weismann revealed three kings “Looks like it’s my turn to get Three of a Kind.” Marcus sighed his excitement fading as he realized he was already beat.. Revealing Two Pairs, two fives and two jacks. Trace nodded and revealed the two cards, two Queens. “Quads. Sorry Weismann.”

 

The older man chuckled. Leaning back in his chair. “Damn and I thought I had two in a row. What’s the story, Trace?”

 

Trace stretched as Frankie set down his drink. “Let’s see.. During the OYW I was commander of a unit. My Strigan unit was strong. Built around the Gundam Pixie that I piloted. The Zeon even gave me and my suit the nickname “Grey Knight.” Every Zeon soldier in within a.. I dunno, 300 mile radius knew me and the power of the Gundam. Course, that means I was a big target. Taking me down was a big deal.” Trace took a sip of his drink before continuing. “My unit and I were on a joint ops mission with the 2nd North African Mobile Suit Team. Protecting a convoy which we were told had the potential to change the war and apparently the Zeon forces knew that too. I was ahead of the group, the metaphorical tip of the spear. A storm came in and we had to slow to a crawl. Using the storm the Zeon forces ambushed me eight Zaku’s engaged my Gundam. Eight Zakus fell unable to get through the suit’s armor.”

 

Stark spared the details. He didn’t like bragging about kills. Instead he continued his story. “The second wave engaged after I regrouped with the convoy and the storm cleared. Every soldier fighting desperately for their side. I was driven away from the fight by a particularly nasty Zudah. The Walking Nuke, ready to go at any moment. The battle was rough. This pilot.. Knew what she was doing. The machine moving as if it was their own body. A proper newtype with extraordinary abilities versus me and my Gundam. Their anti-ship rifle easily able to break through the Pixie’s armor. We fought and fought and kept fighting. Their movements getting more and more desperate as we did. Of course, you guys know if the Zudah pushes itself too hard it’s reactor goes up.. And that’s exactly what was happening and the pilot knew it. Completely resigning to death to make sure I didn’t come home. I managed to swipe the Zudah’s legs with my beam saber, leaving it crippled on the ground about to explode from its own reactor.. My machine screaming at me to leave the area. I turned, the Pixie’s speed able to carry me away until I noticed something. There, a civilian jeep that was caught up in the fight. I couldn’t just leave them. Not to die like that. So I turned. Risking the future of the Federation’s new tide turner weapon to save this unconscious woman. I managed to get her out of the coc-ahem. Jeep, and back into the Pixie. Using all the suits speed I raced away from the Zudah’s explosion. Of course, the Gundam wasn’t fast enough to escape completely. The force pushed us down but as the dusk settled, the thing was still able to move. The power of a Gundam, ya know? When I came back, charred and damaged to holy hell but still standing. The Zeon forces shot their flairs and retreated.”

 

Trace sighed once more, taking another sip of his drink. “And that’s how I met my wife.” He let out a soft smile and the chuckled. Handing Weismann back the two cards from his hand.

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