Let's get down to trying hard now to be the best around...!

[actuallyselfish]

[Post Workshop in Flames]

[1]

Those of you who like to walk the halls of Saikhama Base might hear the faint sound of 20th century (old calendar) power ballads in the distance.

Follow this enticing music, and you come across Dido Sybil, putting in her daily training regimen with the Gebians.

A flurry of baseballs get hurled at her from all directions, thrown by the arms and mandibles of beetle people. Competently, if not gracefully, she sidesteps out of their way and slaps the ones she misses out of the air, jaws set and eyes focused.

Talk to her? Or, since she's distracted, prank her?

[2]

[Locked to Dido's Scary Super-Soldier Training Instructors]

You get a message on your comm channels from Dido.

"Could I start training in Zero-G maneuvering?" She asks.

[3]

[Locked to Ken and Mizuki]

Dido meets you guys in the cafeteria. "Say...could we talk a moment?" She asks.

Comments

[actuallyselfish]

Dido blinks. "They're not already over their head?"

She coughs. "Regardless...maybe I'm jittery after Ingram turned traitor, but their public backgrounds just seem...off. For starters, you've heard about Loni's uncle, right?"

[empress_without_a_throne]

Actually... I haven't. What about his uncle?

[actuallyselfish]

Dido leans in. "Scuttlebutt is that Loni's uncle is a mad scientist that built ShotSaber and FightSaber for Loni and Desta to use. The last time I talked with Ingram–"

She grimaces "–he mentioned that Loni's uncle was a very private person who wanted to keep anonymous and hidden. In the same breath he mentioned that there was a faction in the ESUN that would fund the UG based on how much we helped Gavin kick ass."

She shakes her head. "Maybe Ingram was sowing discord as part of his undercover op...but if not, what kind of uncle hands out super robots like candy and funds paramilitary groups so his nephew can play boy soldier?"

[tiger_ken]

Well, from what I was told by Loni...

[Ken steps up, and speaks up.]

He and Desta only got to pilot the two Sabers because the Lady's Good Men came hunting the machines. And so, then the two came out with them to fight the bad guys off. It was after that they then took up hunting the group proper...

[Ken cups his chin, considering something.]

Still... There is certainly something strange about it. I mean, it'd be one thing to help fund us by association... but to have it tied to how well they do because of it is... strange.

[empress_without_a_throne]

... Makes it feel like we're kids being paid to help some rich brat live the dream of being the hero of a little league team.

And I guess that also explains why Loni and Desta are pilots when they both couldn't care at all about proper combat discipline.

[actuallyselfish]

"Hell, Ilinka's the most sensible of them...and apparently she's an escapee from an hellish super-soldier training program."

Dido grunts and rests her chin on her hands like Ken. "How were Loni and Desta able to 'rescue' her without any backlash from the people who ran the program? For that matter, who sponsored this super soldier program and kept it under the ESUN's radar?"

[tiger_ken]

Considering what Ingram pulled on us, not as hard as you'd think. Despite the name, we're not as 'United' a bunch of nations as we should be. Could be state sponsored, could be privately arranged...

Though unless she was tied to the Lady's Good Men, why the hell were those two the ones that found her? They just stumble into the right warehouse?

[actuallyselfish]

"It makes you think that Ilinka, as swell as she is, was just another thing those kids had handed to them on a silver platter!"

She rubs at her eyes. "Whatever's going on–a shadowy conspiracy, alien sabotage, an uncle with more money than sense–we need to figure it out. Do some investigation, follow money trails."

She clenches her teeth. "I'm won't be caught flat-footed by another person backstabbing us!" She growls. "I won't!"

[empress_without_a_throne]

Easier said than done though... whoever this uncle is no doubt has connections. And I don't think he'd be thrilled to find out a trio from a has-been organization trying to stay relevant are trying to dig up skeletons...

But don't take me the wrong way, I agree we need to prepare for these kinds of things, especially since Ingram wasn't some rank-and-file soldier, and Sara was...

[Not even going to finish saying that. No need, after all.]

... We just need to be careful since we'll run the risk of making enemies the Unity Group won't be able to just beat on a battlefield.

[actuallyselfish]

Dido grunts under her breath, then slowly nods.

"Yeah, I can dig that." She steeples her hands together. "What do you think we should do to prepare, Mizuki? Maybe install a shut-down command switch in the Saber machines? Keep closer tabs on Loni and his gang?"

She frowns in thought. "In this situation, what would you do as a ninja, Ken?"

[empress_without_a_throne]

For the moment, we just have to keep an eye on them... and not trust them with any information that they don't need... if we can do that...

[actuallyselfish]

"Er..." Dido says, scratching her head. "I'm a bit confused: what kind of information should we be keeping secret from them?"

[empress_without_a_throne]

Anything about the Unity Group's inner workings or the like, for starters. Loni and his friends may get to come and go as they please, but anything we're in the midst of developing doesn't need to reach his ears.