She can do it! (At least she'd better!)

[actuallyselfish]

[1]

[Dated to a few weeks after "Keep Away"]

Those of the Unity Group who like to creep about the Saikhama base at night may hear faint sounds of grinding and hissing come from the main hanger deck.

Those who investigate this discover two things.

One, all the mechs that fought in the latest battle have been completely repaired. Not just the standard limb reattachment and armor replacement: they've also had new paint jobs and their scratches ground out!

Second, Dido Sybil is at the controls of a huge lathe and machining device, grinding out some kind of component from alloy stock. Sparks fly, and she gazes at her work with eyes shadowed from a grim mood and lack of sleep.

Interrupt?

[2]

The next morning, Dido is still in the hanger, hanging from a work harness like a narcoleptic rock climber, and rocking side to side like a baby in a crib.

She snores as you approach, and has a bit of dribble on her chin.

Wake her up?

[3]

The next next morning, Dido's out at a nearby abandoned airstrip, running some wires from a strange metallic cylinder in the middle of the field to a concrete bunker.

She looks up at you. "What are you doing here? Nevermind, get in the bunker with me!" She grins. "This should be cool!"

Get in the bunker with her? Ask what the heck's going on?

Comments

2

[tiger_ken]

[Considering that's a somewhat precarious position, Ken considers his options before he might dare move...

He climbs up, by hand, to meet her, and then poke her cheek slightly.]

3

[herodrawing]

Huh?

[Large question marks appear above Izuru's head. He looks around, hoping to discern just what the hell is going on here.]

What's this about?

Are we going to explode something?

1

[empress_without_a_throne]

[So much noise can't go unnoticed by Mizuki. But who would be at work but-]

Dido...? What are you doing up so late?

3

[broken_puppet]

[Lamia is wandering in what appears to be a daze before she is called over by Dido. Looking at the setup she follows to the bunker.]

Is this standard practice for the testing of new weaponry and explosives?

Re: 2

[actuallyselfish]

"Ahhhh!" Dido's eyes snap open, and she flails about in her harness.

"Let me go! Let me–"

She blinks. "Oh. Hi, Ken!" She looks down at herself. "How's it hanging?"

Re: 1

[actuallyselfish]

"Huh?"

Dido looks down at Mizuki and pushes some goggles up to her forehead.

"Sorry, what? Hold on!"

She powers down the machine and walks over to the railing. "Hey Mizuki. What did you say?"

Re: 3

[actuallyselfish]

"We're going to try!" Dido says, dragging the cables into the bunker with a rough yank. "And maybe-just maybe, doing so will save people's lives in the future!"

She leans against the door for a moment and swigs from a canteen at her belt. "Wanna help out?"

Re: 3

[actuallyselfish]

Dido looks up at you and cocks her head to the side in thought.

"Standard practice..." She mutters. "I probably should have looked that up."

She shrugs. "Anyways, this should be safe as long as we stay under cover, Miss...uh, what's you name?"

[empress_without_a_throne]

Dido, it's late. Stupidly late. Staying up can be one thing but working at this kind of hour goes well beyond burning a candle at both ends.

Re: 3

[herodrawing]

Sure. What are we doing, weapons testing?

[actuallyselfish]

"No, no, it's good." Dido says hastily, reaching above and picking up a thermos.

"See? I've got coffee!"

Re: 3

[actuallyselfish]

"...maybe?" Dido says. "It's more of a proof of concept. You know, what happens if you take a Sol Energy Capacitor and switch off all it's safeties at once."

She smacks her hands together. "Big Boom, is what I'm hoping!"

She fishes around the tangles of cables and consoles in the bunker, and then holds up a box with a big red button.

"Would you like to set it off?"

[empress_without_a_throne]

And coffee's no substitute for a good night's rest.

... Seriously Dido. I already had a long, drawn out conversation with Ken about overworking yourself, I'd rather not have to give one for you too.

[gundamx_gonnagiveittoya]

"What should be cool? I just came to see what was even going on out here."

Garrod saw the bunker and simply came to investigate. This better not be dangerous!

[broken_puppet]

You did not look up standard practice before you executed the experiment?

[Lamia begins moving toward the bunker at a faster pace and begins to analyze where the most structurally sound part of it is to take cover behind. She takes a moment as she passes Dido to answer her question.]

Loveless, Lamia Loveless.

Re: 2

[tiger_ken]

Uh... you tell me?

[Ken shrugs, as best he can with his arms holding on to the nearby mecha so that he doesn't fall.]

How do you even fall asleep this high up?

[herodrawing]

[Izuru glances outside the bunker.]

You don't know how large the explosion's going to be?

Re: 2

[actuallyselfish]

"I have no idea, Ken." Dido says, rubbing the crust away from her eyes. "Well... I might have dozed off? While trying to do an all-nighter?"

"Please don't tell Mizuki about this. " She adds hastily.

Re: 2

[tiger_ken]

Honestly, if anyone's seen you, she might already be hearing about this.

[That is to say, he won't tell because he won't need to.]

What were you even working on that demanded staying up though? I mean, you could've just picked up the day after.

[actuallyselfish]

"Pssht!" Dido says with a wave of her hand and a chuckle. "Me, overworking to punish myself like Ken? Ridiculous!"

There's a nice long moment of silence.

"Really, I'm not doing that!" Dido insists. "I've got an actual, constructive goal worked out!"

[actuallyselfish]

"It's more efficient to ask for forgiveness than permision, right?" Dido says with a shrug. "And nice to meet you, Lamia. The name's Dido!"

She points a thumb at herself. "I'll be keeping your mech in fighting shape in the future!"

[actuallyselfish]

"Uh...well, I'm testing out a new prototype for a hypothetical weapons system." Dido explains as Garrod walks up.

"It's like..." She snaps her fingers in thought. "Well, have you ever tried to plug two nine-volt batteries together at each end?"

[actuallyselfish]

"Well hypothetically speaking," Dido frowns. "Since a Sol Capacitor bank at max charge has 100 KIlowatt-hours of power, and it can discharge it's power at exponentially higher rates once it's resistors are disabled, the resulting explosion..."

She hesitates "...wouldn't be large enough to kill us?" She finishes lamely.

[herodrawing]

It's like I'm talking to Suruga. Are we really really safe?

Well, only one way to find out.

[Red button, push! How reckless of you Izuru.]

[empress_without_a_throne]

Which is?

[Yeah Dido, Mizuki's still skeptical.]