Blood in the Water IC Newbies Thread, For the new group to RP their time together while others away Options

[ntwi]

2300 June 16, 2072
Murphy Hall
PAN - Passive

Nemo sighs as he looks over all the papers and notes from today. At least I've got another few hours before I have to sleep to go over this stuff.

Composing a quick message to "Guest Bravo"
If you're not tired I would certainly appreciate the help with all this book work. I think I'll be draining your brain as much as I can the way these classes are though. Let me know if there's anything I can help you with.

[Penta]

<OOC: Doh, guys. I screwed up. I meant to say: I'll post notes on the 18th (battle day over on the main thread) when the combat has wrapped up. Post away for the 17th.>

[SleepIncarnate]

0500, 17 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

Waking up, she again made the preparations for her day, casting her spell to heighten her reflexes for the day and sealing it into her bracer to sustain for the day. Heading out the door to PT, she staggers a bit, the drain hitting her harder than it has in a long time. Shaking her head to try to clear it, she headed off to get into uniform and put on the backpack for the morning's fun. While out there, she was running a bit behind today, both from the added weight of the gear and from the shock her body and mind had taken. Afterwards, she quickly got a shower and headed to breakfast, trying to recover. As she finished and made her way to class, she was pleased to find the headache much lessened.

0700, 17 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

Lying down in a chair, she jumped into a VR session of on-ship combat with Ramirez, which she did decently with, able to find lots of places to hide to pick off her enemies with her rifle or the digital versions of spells (which only really covered her offensive spells), but she could always do better. After a couple hours of this, Ramirez jacked out and the training changed to the basics of leadership, stuff she'd done back in the Academy but couldn't hurt to refresh. There were a few simulations, but mostly it was an AR slide show with Ramirez explaining it in real space.

1100, 17 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

Heading downstairs for lunch, she sighed, glad that at least her headache had finally gone away during that lesson. That was one problem with these lessons, they didn't give her much time to recover from the effects of drain, but that was the cost of casting. She grabbed a light lunch and headed to her room for a quick nap. After the nap, she headed to the range for some more practice with the assault rifles before heading back up to Monti Hall for more lessons.

1330, 17 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

Sitting in the classroom, she tried to remain interested as Vaccaro went into the basics of intelligence analysis, though he could see she wasn't much interested in it and tried to point out how it helped. She understood how it helped, it just wasn't her style really, but she did try. Sighing as that came to an end, she leaned back and jumped into another leadership lesson, more advanced this time, specifically for her. It was combat leadership training, in a situation she knew all too well, one she considered the worst moment in her life. Soon she was gritting her teeth, tears streaming down her face as she could hear Roberts voice superimposed from time to time to teach combat and reassure her that sometimes the kelp hit the fan and a good leader did all they could to minimize losses. Roberts will pay for this when all is said and done.... Soon that was over, and she just lay there for several minutes, trying to recover her composure.

1745, 17 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

After a few more minutes, she headed downstairs, composing a message to Roberts as she walked. <Roberts, you sonofabitch, I'm going to have words with you soon about that leadership training.> Grabbing a plate of food in the mess hall, she went off to a corner to be alone, whenever someone tried to talk to her, she simply replied with "Fuck off" and generally avoided conversation the rest of the night.

1830, 17 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

The rest of the evening was spent in VR, learning how to sabotage ships in all sorts of ways, both explosive and not. By the end of it, she felt like her head was swimming, trying to keep it all in, about the only thing she could really pull from it long term being that the sound wave from an underwater explosion was more dangerous than the actual explosion itself, so smaller amounts of explosive than one would expect were generally used in such situations. Going to bed, she collapsed on her bed, trying to keep the nightmares at bay.

[ntwi]

2300hrs, 17 June 2072
Day Room, Murphy Hall, UCAS Naval Station Baltimore
PAN – Passive

Nemo tosses himself onto a couch with sigh ”I think I can feel my brain leaking out of my ears. At least this was the last of the heavy academic courses for me, the remaining ones are more hands on which should help.” A couple of pops are heard as Nemo stretches. ”Political Science and Psycobabble made for a long day of classes. I mean “Don’t play obnoxious music fraggin loud”, “Don’t create AR overlays of naked SimStarlets on your crewmates.” How much new information did anyone find in that class? Too bad not everything is that straightforward.” With that, Nemo pulls out his commlink and begins another two hours of extra study.

[Penta]

<OOC: So, about the 18th.

I'm going to presume that the main crew remembers their orders and contacts Roberts soon after finding out there are slaves aboard the Chantico's Bounty. It's much simpler than the alternative.

So, that happens...Eh, I'll say about 0500 EDT, in the other thread.

PT runs as I noted down - Breakfast is usual except for the absence of Roberts from the table. If asked, the answer from one of the other instructors is simply that other duties necessitate his absence. Morning runs as normal re classes, and Roberts is back by lunch.

After lunch, he pulls Yinglong aside for a private chat during the post-lunch break - which me and SI will RP separately and post up, I guess.

Afternoon classes are normal, as is dinner and evening classes.

For the 19th, go on as normal. Up for a private chat that day is Drest.

I'll have to review my notes for the 20th and 21st.>

[Penta]

<OOC: Brief changes.

Drest will be going first, then Yinglong on the 19th.

BetaFlame, let me know by whatever means you prefer how you want to RP the chat - PM, IM, email?

By the 20th:

Okay, day 5 of classes is as normal. Molo and Nemo get chats with Roberts after lunch and after dinner respectively.

Day 6 (the 21st) will see the team undergoing damage-control training as a group during morning classes, and firefighting training during afternoon classes, overseen by Lt. Benitez in both cases.

Day 7 (the 22nd) will see the team practicing Zodiac ops out on the Chesapeake Bay. How to drive a Zodiac, mostly.

I'm still thinking up plans for days 8-14.>

[Penta]

<OOC: I flipped the order one final time due to SI's availability last night.>
1230 EDT/1730 Zulu
18 June 2072
Naval Station Baltimore, Maryland, UCAS

Roberts approaches Yinglong shortly after lunch - unlike previous days where he was dressed in Navy-issue utility camouflage, today he's in service khakis.

"Yinglong? Could we talk for a bit?"

With that, he leads her outside, where he begins walking on the road around the parade deck. After a bit, he speaks. "I got your message."

She merely nods, pigtails bobbing a bit as she walked, listening.

"Well, you wanted to talk, but didn't say what about. Care to enlighten me?"

"You know full well what about. That little 'advanced leadership' lesson you set aside."

"Oh, so you think that was my idea?" Roberts stops walking and turns to Yinglong. "Actually, it wasn't. I trust you remember Colonel Young?"

"How could I forget?"

"Yeah, he said much the same about you. He's the Joint Staff's liasion on this op, and when I briefed on your group, he suggested it. Over my objections, but he made a good point. Thusfar, you've never really let yourself get over that mission. You bob and weave fine, but it's not totally unlike PTSD - you eventually have to quit letting the trigger do that to you. That may well take confronting it, again and again. Avoiding it works fine - til you have no choice but to confront a similar situation. In that situation, with the kind of regrets you're carrying, our biggest worry is that you'll freeze. That you'll hesitate." Here Roberts pauses.

"I argued it was too much. I take it from your reactions that you agree with that assessment. Point remains that you gotta face it sometime. If that means it hurts, well...I apologize, but better it hurt here than that it come up out there. Here, at least, we can work through it. You may hate us for it, but we're actually trying this with the idea of things being better for you after it's all done with then before."

"Are you planning on putting me in charge out there? Or sending us into a spirit infested city?"

"We're preparing for whatever might arise. Which is to say - we have no idea what the hell might happen. You may very well end up leading people. If that happens, we want you to be ready to do that."

She shakes her head. "That past is mine, it won't happen again. I didn't freeze then, I won't freeze if it happens again."

"You didn't freeze then because you didn't have time to brood," Roberts points out. "You've had how long since to do just that? To replay things in your head over, and over, and over again?"

"And how often are you planning on giving horribly wrong information on missions?"

"The way Young tells it, wrong or right, he didn't plan on what transpired then, either. Intelligence has flaws, you know that/ Our knowledge of the other side will always be imperfect, sometimes horribly so. We'll endeavor to give you the best intel we can, but one thing with this assignment is that you'll be doing a lot of intel collection yourself."

She shook her head again. "See, this is why I left the military. Can never accept responsibility for your own fuck-ups and always trying to decide what's best for other people."

"Pardon? Don't paint with such a broad brush. Yes, you got screwed, okay? They sent you into hell with no intel, no support. To be fair, they were trying to prevent another Chicago and having to set off a tac-nuke, but it doesn't make it right. Does it help you to know that Young still has nightmares over that mission, same as you do?"

"Not really. He wasn't out there in the field, he never saw it. I was the field commander out there, not him. He doesn't have the memories of what happened. And that kind of shit happens every day in the military, though usually on a smaller scale than what happened to me. You know it too. Just look around."

"Yeah, I do know. But you take the good with the bad. I'm given to understand the corps will screw you worse. Getting off the subject, though. Those leadership sims? I get your objections, and normally I'd agree. But it's really simple. You had the last few years to run away from your past. Time to face it." A pause, then. "You might hate them, but for my part? I'm trying to make sure you come back from this in one piece. That might require a little cruelty, but it'd be inexcusable of me not to at least try to prepare you."

She shook her head once more. "I'm going to finish this just to prove you wrong about thinking me broken. But I swear if you tell any of the others about this..... well, let's just say I have my ways."

Now Roberts looked offended. "What kinda jackass do you take me for? Nobody outside the instructor cadre knows around here. The crew you're joining won't know, either. And besides. We don't think you broken. Me least of all. We had thought you *at risk* of breaking. There's a difference."

"It's not much of a difference. It's that thin line between genius and madness."

"I keep arguing that when the shrinks sit me down every so often. They smile at me politely and look like they want to pat me on the head like a puppy." Roberts shrugs then. "That aside, besides the leadership sims, your thoughts on training thusfar?"

"It's mostly oriented at runners with no prior military experience, most of it is refresher for me, or expanding on already developed skills. What more needs be said?"

"Fair enough. So far as the sims go, I'll chat with the folks pushing them upon us. The shrinks that approved it honestly were trying to help, but I fully agree with you - helping is not what it's doing. There'll still be sims, but different scenarios."

She nodded and remained quiet, waiting to see what else he had to say.

"If there's nothing else, then, I'll leave you be."

"Then I will see you soon, I suppose."

With a nod, Roberts walks off, leaving Yinglong alone.

And she went back to her scheduled day, shaking her head.

[Penta]

<OOC: Okay, while I rack my brain and torture it for ideas related to week 2, here's my best idea. It's a draft, so I might make changes - especially if anybody has a better idea.

Basically, the whole point of the first week of training has been to teach you assignment-specific skills. The point of the second week will be to broaden your horizons.

PT remains at the same pace as Day 5 - that's the only constant though, that and mealtimes.

Yinglong and Drest are thrown into a reformulated crash course in magical intelligence collection - minus mind probe. Basically, it's customized for each of them, taught by Lt. Esteban and another mage (this one in an Air Force uniform), and works over how to use their current spellset for intelligence collection and analysis. For Yinglong, given her previous experience, this is *not* a refresher, unlike her first week of classes - it teaches new developments since she got out, and teaches her new techniques specific to the aquatic environment. For Drest, it should all be new in any case.

Molo goes through a fast-paced version of the Intelligence Analysis course, along with Nemo. Like their magical counterparts, there;'s also a good bit about intelligence collection techniques, though in this case using mundane means. It looks at each of you individually, your individual skills and cyber packages, and teaches you how to use them to collect and analyze intelligence. Lieutenant Commander Roberts and a Navy Lieutenant (whose name I have not picked, just that he's an elf who sounds like he comes from Iowa) teach these two, in their native languages if need be.

Everybody gets pulled into ethics discussions related to their coursework - and uniformly, the questions are challenging. "No right answer" is not, apparently, just a slogan. The objective here seems to be to challenge the trainees' prejudices and thought patterns, and see what they do and say in response.

That takes up 4 days.

Day 5 of week 2 begins with PT as usual. It then has you boarding a van for a short ride over to the docks, where you spend the day (skipping lunch) practicing boarding ops from a Zodiac, using non-lethal weapons and spells versus instructors from the UCAS Merchant Marine Academy aboard a freighter. Repeatedly, followed by debriefs after each run-through. It doesn't end til 2300, when you're herded into the van and brought back to your dorm.

Day 6 begins with PT, but after breakfast? You're led into an auditorium where the letter of marque, additional details, and the authorizing Congressional resolutions are read out by Captain Walker, who then takes Q&A on the stuff for the next 30 minutes at least. He briefly outlines the stuff explained to the original crew so far as chain of command and the like (as well as who you can and can't hit, plus the prohibition against the slave trade), too. After that comes a crash-orientation to the features of the Fedallah, plus what might best be called hyperreal sandtable exercises in various scenarios on the water - basically, to give everyone a crash introduction to approach and shadowing tactics at sea. And that's all before lunch.

After lunch, you're given decisionmaking exercises (Yinglong, these will be familiar from your Academy days) where you're all, briefly, put in the lead of the four of you and asked to describe how you'd accomplish certain objectives given specified resource and other constraints.

Settings vary in these decisionmaking exercises - some scenarios occur on the water, some occur in urban settings, some occur in rural settings.

That evening is declared as off-time. Feel free to spend it as you see fit, while staying within the training area. Lights out remains the normal time.

It's off-time for the instructors as well, and they're not adverse to trying to break down barriers with their students, when the students seem approachable.

Day 7 is taken up with what Roberts describes at breakfast as "annoying outprocessing tasks". A final security briefing that takes 30 minutes, outlining your responsibilities now that you hold classified info in your heads (basically boiling down to "don't tell anyone our secrets"), reading and signing of the oath regarding classified information and reading of the Espionage Act 2069, which among other things sets the penalty for espionage or treason as death. You then sign the act to indicate that you understand the provisions.

After that, you have the morning to catch up on the real world with provided matrix access and the like. It's monitored, but not filtered.

The afternoon sees you handing back in issued gear and getting back your stuff, plus the gifts left for you in your quarters when you arrived, as well as some of the blue uniforms. They know you're not likely to use em, but hey. They can try, can't they? Besides, they're custom-fit.

Day 7's evening is a final check-out from the dorm, plus a meetup with Doc and a red-eye flight to New York under assumed names, along with Roberts. Like your flight from Miami, your stuff is shipped separately.>

[SleepIncarnate]

OOC: Could work, but we're already approaching a wrap up of the main thread's IC stuff.

[Penta]

<OOC: Yeah, but it'll take a week IC time to get to NY.>

[SleepIncarnate]

OOC: Sure, but my point is, we're not even done with week 1, so now we're going to have them wait on us to catch up in days?

[Penta]

<OOC: Fair point. My one suggestion to make things go faster would be to speed through those parts of week 1 left (where you aren't chatting with Roberts), then skim through week 2, all in the same post. It's why I described the whole week in one bite.>

[ntwi]

1230 June 18, 2072
Marti Hall, Baltimore Naval Station
PAN – Passive

Nemo takes his seat around the lunch table and reaches for the platter of chicken, glad to be out of the morning classes. ”I don’t know how the rest of you get through these classes without the extra study time. I don’t think I would have passed these classes without the help from my sleep regulator.” He pauses as he eyes the food before taking some of the potato salad. ”Working with the drones is interesting though, as I’ve never done much on the controlling end. It’s given me a few ideas for them working semi-independently while acting as part of an assault team. It will depend on the type of drone support that we have though, so we’ll see what we have later.”





0700 June 19, 2072
Marti Hall, Baltimore Naval Station
PAN – Passive

”A day of breaking things and blowing them up,” Nemo grins ”Should be a fun day all around.” Nemo loads his plate with bacon and eggs with a side of fresh fruit. ”Although if you see a small grey blob running around loose somewhere, could you grab it for me. I fear my brain leaked out my ear and made a run for it last night after Navigation.”


<OOC: Sorry, been a little out of contact for a few days. Do you want each of us to post a single blurb of the second week?>

[Penta]

<OOC: Yup.>

[Penta]

<OOC: Okay guys. I'm...sensing a lack of interest for the second week. Which makes sense.

I'm going to suggest we all play it like this:

Still presume the second week happened as I drafted it, but off-camera. (Something had to take up the time, after all.)

I will write up the outprocessing today, or at least try to, and post it here. After that, you can post the flight to NYC, and convos with Roberts during week 1 (as players want to do them) will go up here, too; out of sequence, but that's okay. This thread will, after the groups link up, remain for reference.

Alternatively, you guys can write on week 2, and just use my out-processing post for reference.>

[SleepIncarnate]

18 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

After spending the day in self defense, more "leadership" classes, and some intel analysis, Yinglong looked forward to the evening of trying to summon and bind one of the dwarves of Nidavellir. While Esteban and Drest worked together nearby, she went about setting up the necessary bits for her summoning and binding, and began trying to summon, and finding that the dwarf was particularly difficult to summon, feeling the backlash of her failed attempt. Sitting down, she tried to regain her focus, and an hour later tried again. This time, she saw its form crackle into being, the musky scent of the deep earth filling the room as she began her ritual, again focusing hard and putting her all into this binding, well aware that spirits were not her strong point. After 5 hours of circling the dwarf, enclosing it with ever growing smaller circles of soil, salt, sand and the like, she finally had it completely under her control. Walking over to it, hand touching its cheek softly, she spoke to it through the mental link they shared.

"Go home, rest, and enjoy your service in Nidavellir. I will call upon you only as I need you, and thank you for your assistance to me."

19 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

Another long day, at least this one started with some basics in arcana and enchanting, aimed to the magic user instead of the mundane, but then proceeded into more first aid, more intel analysis, and even how to pilot the ship. Come dinner, she felt her excitement fill her once more, as she prepared to summon and bind one of the storm spirits of Thrudheim. After a couple failed attempts, and much drain, she sat to rest, regaining her thoughts and thinking about how to properly do this. An hour later, she was up and trying again. It finally took her three more attempts, at the end of which she was barely conscious, so she sat and rested a couple hours, knowing she had until sunrise to finish this, and finally she got up, not fully composed, but began her binding ritual, setting incense about the room, trying to bind the spirit, and several hours later, she sighed, seeing it had failed, watching the spirit return to whence it came. Sighing, she went off to bed.

20-27 June, 2072
UCAS Naval Station Baltimore - Monti Hall
PAN - Passive (Nuriko Kamitoku)

The remaining 8 days were a blur to her, PT every morning, group exercises all day. She began spending more time researching how to better summon and bind spirits, recognizing she needed to address that weakness in her abilities, it would be expected of her to handle the matter. And soon, it was time for them to all head off to NYC.

[Penta]

<OOC: Before replying, read the OOC notes afterward.>

0600 EDT/1000 Zulu
29 June 2072

Day 14 of the group's training began like the last two weeks had started every day...With PT.

Except when PT wrapped up.

That's when Gunnery Sergeant Hernandez brought the group to attention, and had the Guests step front and center.

"Guests! I am informed that today is the last day you'll be spending with us before you leave for your assignment. With that being the case, I must admit the same curiosity as my Marines - who the hell are you people? To remedy that, I'd like you to step forward and give me names to know you by besides the designators I stuck you with two weeks ago," he booms out.

"Guest Alpha! Step forward and identify yourself!"

The same is asked of Bravo, Charlie, and Delta.

Hernandez then shakes hands with each guest, nodding as they identify themselves. They're then introduced to the other Marines.

After they're released from the group, then, he can be seen heading into Monti Hall, as the other Marines board trucks bound for who-knows-where.

It's at breakfast, then, that the next unusual thing happens.

Roberts gets the room's attention as breakfast wraps up.

"Okay, folks. As Gunnery Sergeant Hernandez noted, today's your last day with us. Here's what'll be happening: You'll leave here to take care of annoying outprocessing stuff. 30 minute security briefing, then you get the morning to catch up on the real world through Matrix access we'll provide. After lunch, you'll hand back in your issue gear, get your stuff back plus what we left you, and generally pack up. Tonight you'll receive cover identities for your flight with me to New York aboard a commercial flight. We'll then be heading to meet up with your assigned crew."

The security briefing is about what you'd expect. The usual briefing on your responsibilities as holders of classified information (boiling down to "Don't tell anyone or else"), plus reading and signing of the oath regarding classified information, followed by a detailed reading and signing of the Espionage Act 2069.

If there's anything good to be said about the morning thusfar, it's that it's passed in a blur. Then you're invited to spend the rest of the morning catching up on the real world in Murphy Hall.

After launch, you spend the afternoon packing up - issued gear gets handed back in (such as the body armor, rifles, and so forth you've done PT with), followed by getting your stuff, plus what you were gifted, back. The paranoid will indeed find that they got everything back in the condition it was turned in in.

Then comes cleaning out your rooms - not a hard task, since they unleash cleaning drones after a bit. Still up to you to strip the beds and such, though, and do what the drones can't do.

After that comes your cover briefings - you're each given cover documents by Roberts, and informed that your gear will be shipped to your assigned ship by cargo flights - making it easier to get through airport security.

The tickets that come with your cover identities aren't bad - a normal commercial airline, but you're flying business class; that said, the cover IDs are almost uniformly dull and non-descript.

And so it goes - 30 minutes after you load your stuff (boxed and in bags) into vans, you also are loaded into vans,along with Roberts, destined for Baltimore-Washington International Airport. There, you'll meet Doc.

The flight is a quick one into New York's LaGuardia Airport, followed by hopping a commuter ferry from Queens to New Jersey, where you're in vans again.

These take you to a marina, where a 60-meter yacht dominates over the other ships there.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Motor Yacht Fedallah, your new home."
---
<OOC Notes: This covers day 14. Feel free to write up to it. After it, of course, will depend in part on the original Fedallah crew. For the record, I had to fudge a few things: IRL the ferry runs on catamarans from Atlantic Highlands, NJ to Manhattan. Manhattan being weird in SR, I decided they added a LaGuardia stop. Takes about 40 minutes IRL, versus up to two hours on the roads. It is, however, very expensive IRL.>

[ntwi]

OOC: I'm leaving the dates blank as my brain is tired and not wanting to do math.


Week 2, June 2072
Naval Station Baltimore
PAN - Passive

After four days of classes on intelligence collection and analysis, the ethics day comes almost as a breather to Nemo. "Getting myself and my team home alive at the end of the day" is his guiding principle, and one that he will not put aside. If it means others die, thats a sad day, but there will be other days. Sacrifice yourself to save someone, and your not around to do anything after that. Others may find it crude or simplistic but it's kept him alive through more than one hell already.

Day 5 brings a smile to his face as going toe to toe with live opponents always brings that reality to it that simsense never quite catches.



OOC: Damn time limits on my access. I'll edit this in another few hours with more detail.

[Penta]

OOC: Ntwi, don't sweat the dates - I keep a calendar in my head.

Dates don't matter terribly during the training phase, just the relative position (day 8, day 10, day 12, day 13, whatever).

For everybody else: Okay, you may not have the inspiration to make a post from the second week. That's fine. That's why day 6 of week 2 (day 13) is there.

Your character basically has a day of near-total off-time after Walker is done briefing you. You're not in normal conditions, but the time is yiurs. If your character has that amount of time to spend as they will, how do they spend it?