Random Update

December 9, 3071
Outreach
Red Dawn Barracks

It was a lovely afternoon, or at least in Lonnie's opinion as she basked in the early afternoon sun dressed only in an old t-shirt that had faded to an intermediate grey, the logo (if there had been one) was long gone, khaki shorts and combat boots, her white hair pulled back into a short pig-tail. It was a far more casual look than was typical, combined with the air of relaxation about her, she seemed to be almost a different person, which prompted those on guard duty to pause for a moment in their rounds to make sure she was indeed Sgt. Silvestri. Her eyes danced with amusement as she assured one young man that no she wasn't freezing and that she didn't need a coat, that to her it was a lovely summer day. Lonnie tried hard to hide her amusement, it was obvious he meant well and while she couldn't tell him outright, compared to Tharkad at this time of year, the weather was very balmy for her.

Finally she was left alone and she closed the file she'd been studying on Sheratan, the location of the company's actual contract. For security reasons she'd chosen not to use voice recognition software that she normally used choosing to use the holographic keyboard display attachment instead. In an odd way it felt good to be typing instead of talking, but her usual spots made typing probelmatical and for some reason today she didn't feel like complete seclusion. With a sip of coffee from the large mug at hand, Lonnie's long, slim and elegant fingers began to speed over the keyboard.

"New Journal Entry, manual access."

"Life has certainly been interesting, we won a fairly desicive victory against Vicore and won four mechs which the Commander was able to use to get a good bit of cash for the unit. Even though I feel like I didn't do much in that combat, other than to act as bait, it felt good to be a part of something to help contribute to the unit. Though supposedly we'll be getting our kits this afternoon and will start doing guard duty. Odd, I never thought I would miss it, but I do. The others would laugh at me, but this is the most idle I've been in a long time. Before this my 'downtime' was taken up by the duties someone my rank had, even if I was in school or the LAAF."

She grinned a little.

"Actually, no, I don't think my lancemates would laugh at the fact I'm looking forward to guard duty again. They would just say some variation of 'I'm not surprised, we're dealing with Lonnie'. Just like they all said "Well, that explains a lot", when I finally told them who I really am. Even if it ended up being individually rather than as a group. Though looking back at how they each reacted, I'm glad it was one on one. And Richardson is the only one who reacted the way I expected which was basically 'And your point is?' Though I think I earned a very small sliver of respect from him when I said I didn't want to use my connections to lead a lance. I'm well aware I have no business trying to command anyone. All I'd do is lead them to their deaths and I can't do that to people who would trust me to lead them well."

Pausing from her typing, she absently laced her hands together, fingers laying along the back of the opposite hand and extended her hands with the palms out, cracking her knuckles. Then she drank some more of the coffee, truly appreciating the fact that it was the good stuff before resuming her typing.

"Jain... well not sure how to put down what Jain's reaction was. I think she may have been a little hurt or insulted that I didn't exactly trust the lance, and she also seemed a bit... Hm, not sure. She seemed a little impressed at the fact my mother is rich. Then again she comes from the MoC which tends to have the belief that you can buy anything. Maybe there you can, but in the Alliance if you don't have the political connections, money won't get you everywhere. But I didn't feel like belaboring the matter with her. I'd like to see if I can gain some sort of tenuous friendship and getting prissy won't do that."

"Oddly enough, Victor understood why I lied about who I really am. Though after he told me that he'd been somewhat on the run himself due to his father's involvement with politics, I can now understand to a certain degree. Never thought he'd have understanding for a Lyran though considering the hate he has for my nation. Not that I can entirely blame him, I suspect the fact I'm not entirely fond of many of my countrymen helps somewhat. The fact that my brief display of temper made him wary of me is something that I'm not happy about. Hopefully that won't negatively impact our relationship as lancemates."

Lonnie stretched a little then sighed as she rubbed at the tense muscles in her neck. She hadn't actually typed so much in a long time and her body was letting her know about it.

"I'm not too happy about typing out this entry, but the day was too lovely to spend indoors and I'm not sure if it's safe for me to use the voice recognition software outside the barracks. And I'm not being overly paranoid, Captain Mueller told us that there had been a perimeter breach last night by someone in a sneak suit. We weren't the only ones, and no one knows how much was learned by the infiltrators. So security has been increased. After hearing about what our real contract is, I'm inclined to believe it's the WoBs, but no one has any proof, though it would had to have been a group with a good deal of money and very good connections. If it's the type of suit I think it is, it costs a stupid amount of money to acquire. But, we'll see."

"As for the real contract? Well it seems that we've been contracted to do a raid into Blakist territory on the world of Sheratan to rescue POWs the WoB claims they don't have. But like Jain said, it's all too easy to believe that they would have prisoners they won't admit to. I've been trying to see if I can dig up any information on the world discretely, but there doesn't seem to be much. Thankfully it doesn't seem to have been nuked to hell and back like Caph, but we'll find out. This means that we aren't shipping out tomorrow after all, but in a week to ten days. Means I have more time to distribute my gifts to everyone. I hope that Signore Cabella likes the little basket I orderd for him and his beloved."

"Though with the increased security due to last night's incursion it meanss not going off base alone, which makes sense. Glad I didn't have plans that needed to be cancelled, and I can't believe Jain just outright asked Mueller to go clubbing with her tonight."

She grinned a bit ruefully.

"Not that I'm faulting her or anything, I would have liked to have asked Nicholai out to dinner and dancing, or catch a show, but I don't dare. I haven't seen any indication from him that he might feel anything for me beyond the fact I'm one of his soldiers. It's funny, I normally have no problems being blunt about how I feel about someone, and I'm used to rejection... But this is different. And not just because he's my employer and commanding officer. Guess time will tell on that front, but it's hard to see him everyday, even if it's just in passing and trying to hide how I feel. And I'm torn between hoping we're on the same dropship and dreading it."

"Think I've had enough typing for one day. End journal entry."

A flash of temper

January 18, 3068
Tharkad
Tharkad City

"Take your hands off of me", came the icy tones of the angry young woman clad in the cadet uniform of the Nagelring, her vivid blue eyes looked as if someone had taken the heart of an intense flame, flash frozen it then carved it into two identical orbs. Anyone with a hint of instinct for self-preservation looked into that very intensely angry gaze would have not only let go of her arm, but would have taken off at a run. Unfortunately, alcohol had the tendency to kill that instinct in some.

The big oaf that had grabbed her wrist leered down at her drunkenly, "Why shood I hot shtuff? I kin shew you a real good time", earning him a scowl that made her thin black brows even more like the wings of a raven. Marlana was pissed, beyond pissed, but her training still held. He was a civilian, stupid and ill-mannered from the booze he'd been guzzling all night, but still a civvie. And while he was one of the star lacrosse players of Tharkad-U, he wasn't all that dangerous to her, despite what he may have thought. Lana sighed, screw being polite this was one idiot who was in for a painful lesson.

"Well, since you seem to want to play rough..." Her words caused the idiot to grin even more and start to pull her closer to him, thinking she'd finally given in. He quickly learned his mistake as she dropped down into a combat stance, her feet shoulder width apart with her knees slightly bent. Continuing in a smooth move she yanked her hand back and down, breaking his balance even as the free hand came up and grabbed his wrist. A faint popping sound accompanied by a painfilled howl came as the cadet twisted his wrist none too gently to free her trapped hand, then continuing her manuever she spun around end up behind him, his arm still trapped in her grip. Another twist and the jerk was on the ground the sudden drop having knocked the wind out of him. His howl of pain resumed when she twisted his arm again, this time with a loud enough pop for the now gathering crowd to hear as she dislocated his arm. A swift cuff to his head shut him up as he was knocked into unconsciousness.

A heavy hand dropped down on her shoulder, "Shouldn't have done that, bitch", came the rough voice of a slightly more sober teammate of the idiot Lana had just put down. Her blood and temper raging, she didn't stop to think as one booted foot stomped down on a large, hairy one. At the same time her right elbow shoved itself into his solar plexus bringing his face near the back of her head as he gasped for breath. Just as she had hoped as threw her head backwards into his nose, not just breaking it, but flattening it with a gush of a blood. Whimpering her second assailant let go and fell backwards on his ass, as he tried to figure out if he wanted to protect his injured nose or foot more.

Straightening up, face a pale mask of fury, eyes blazing with fury, Lana calmly put her uniform to order, her gaze meeting the shocked ones of the onlookers. "Anyone else?" she asked in tones so soft that they were almost inaudible. The crowd took their opportunity to disperse, except for the poor host of the party the incident occured at. Brad Jamieson couldn't call it a fight because neither of the two idiots had a chance and he couldn't call it a beating because he knew she hadn't started it. It was still a mess. Giving the young woman a chance to calm down, he called the police along with appropriate emergency medical personel to pick up the two offenders.

"Christ, Marlana. Did you have to be so brutal?"

She gave him a sharp look, then sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I was probably a little too rough, but both of them had been harassing me all night. Enough was enough. I wanted to teach them a lesson they'll never forget."

The handsome man surveyed the scene and shook his head, his golden blonde hair just brushing his shoulders and his green eyes looked troubled. He'd gotten to know Marlana from a few shared history classes and while he thought she was quite attractive, he knew better than to make a move on her when she hadn't shown any signs of interest. Had he realized that two of his guests were going to bring the two problem children as their dates, he would never have invited them. Brad would much rather have the intelligent, if quiet, Marlana as a guest than those idiots. It was his turn to sigh, this was going to be a long night and not the kind he'd been hoping for.

"What are they going to do to you at the Academy?"

She shrugged, "I'll get an ass reaming, some sort of unpleasant duty, and life will go on it's way. Probably won't get any weekend passes for awhile, but that's fine. What I did wasn't that serious, though I don't think that first meathead will be capable of playing this season. If he's still in the university after this."

"And if they press charges?"

Her smile was thin and humorless, "If they're that stupid, I'll deal with that then. Doubt if they will though, I wasn't the only woman they were bothering tonight. Just the one they made the mistake of grabbing."

Brad shook his head as he began to understand why he'd heard she was a difficult person to have as a friend. And hoped she was right about the consequences of her actions.