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Post by pinksoyuz on Oct 18, 2009 0:21:40 GMT -5
"Please begin system checks, Ms. Adelaide."
The crystal clear voice seemed to reverberate through the cockpit of the mobile suit. A pair of hands began to respond to the directive by flipping a series of overhead switches while simultaneously pressing a sequence of buttons off to the sides. The red safety light that illuminated the inside began to flicker repetitively just as a vibration began to take a hold of the the entire structure. The pilot quickly toggled a switch on the far edges of the top and instantly the vibrations ceased, though the dark red light continued to flicker intermittently.
"Inertial dampeners operational," announced a monotonous voice.
Slender fingers began to tap the seat mounted screen, bringing a larger version of it up on the main view screen of the cockpit. A series of wave forms and numbers began to fluctuate wildly at first before settling down and steadily rising.
"Minovsky-Ionesco reactor output levels rising. Reactor I-field is currently stable and holding."
The red light gave way to a dim white light which was quickly overpowered by the screens becoming whitewashed with brightness. Fortunately for the pilot, however, her helmet visor instantly polarized to limit the amount of light that reached her eyes. Outside, a crimson lens moved along its tracks, scanning the mobile suit's environment and feeding its information to the pilot's screen. A multitude of secondary cameras aided in giving a near 360 degree view of the mobile suit, though she had to manually place those feeds on the screen.
"Audio check, Dr. Lampmann, can you hear me?" asked a more feminine sounding voice.
"Yes Ms. Adelaide, I can hear well and clear. Shall we try a video feed?"
Pressing a button on her seat console brought up an image of a control center with a lab coated scientist in the middle. A few research assistances could also be seen flanking the man and their attention soon went from their individual consoles to the large screen that dominated the room. And although Dr. Lampmann was directly from Zeonic Company and well acquainted with Nadia, the assistants were Zeon enlisted personnel who had rarely seen the prototype space suits assigned to Zeonic Company test pilots. Nadia, however, was fairly used to the reaction and put on a rather emotionless face.
Gripping the two control sticks, the test pilot said, "AMBAC systems show green across the board, Dr. Lampmann, I will now proceed to the designated testing grounds."
"Do be careful Ms. Adelaide," replied Dr. Lampmann, "and could you grab one of the ZMP-50s off the rack as well?"
The Earth native nodded then began to work the foot pedals in her cockpit while waiting for the signature cue. Not a moment too soon, the latches that locked the entire mobile suit to a superstructure skeleton disengaged, allowing the Zaku to float forward under the power of its secondary thrusters. Switching to her rear camera while the mobile suit continued on its journey down the corridor, Nadia watched with some interest at the twitching wing binders and their attempt at balancing the mobile suit in zero gravity. By the time she approached the section with the armaments, however, she realized that the mobile suit's computer wasn't picking up any of the 120mm machine guns.
"Dr. Lampmann, it looks like there aren't any ZMP-50's remaining," she reported with some annoyance in her voice, "and the only things here are the ZMP-47s."
Some time went by before Dr. Lampmann replied, "Alright, looks like you're going to have to use the 47. The fire control algorithm should be able to adjust accordingly, but we'll need some time to fine tune it for the new ballistics of the weapon."
"Copy that Gera-," Nadia acknowledged before cutting herself off. "Copy that Lampmann," she hastily corrected.
The lab coated scientist didn't seem to be perturbed by this slip and he merely adjusted the spectacles that he was wearing. The research assistants, though, looked at Lampmann and then gave Nadia a quick glance before returning to their stations. Nadia fought hard to maintain her straight face, and it would be quite a while before she and her machine would reach the testing grounds.
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Post by pinksoyuz on Oct 18, 2009 1:52:28 GMT -5
Assignment ZC-0079-05-29A101 Employee Nadia Adelaide is expected to do the following to the best of her abilities: - Analyze and observe the effects caused by the I-field resulting from the presence of Minovsky particles. - Experiment with the effects caused by the aforementioned generated I-field - Test more efficient experimental shielding methods against the I-field for use in compact autonomous vessels - Analyze and observe the effectiveness of tail binders for improving AMBAC performance. - Collaborate with third parties to analyze and observe the effects of all tasks tasks in real world environments (Note: Given the current state of relations between the contractor and the Earth Federation, the Zeonic Company strongly discourages collaboration with the Earth Federation) Please understand that while the Zeonic Company is in itself a civilian entity, you, the employee, will be under the local authority and leadership of the Principality of Zeon and its Space Assault Force department while on this assignment. This will entail that you will receive a rank and uniform corresponding to the Space Assault Force along with a salary corresponding with the rank. Because the Principality of Zeon is currently in a state of armed hostility with the Earth Federation, you will be considered an enemy combatant by the Earth Federation. By default, you will be afforded the definition of being a privileged combatant and should you become captured by the Earth Federation, you will enjoy the rights and protections of the Geneva Conventions, as both belligerents are currently signatories of the conventions. However, this also requires you, the employee, to abide by the same laws and regulations as outlined by the Hague Conventions and Geneva Conventions when on this assignment. Knowingly violating the laws of war as outlined by the conventions may surrender your position as privileged combatant. The Zeonic Company strongly encourages you, the employee, to read through the Hague Conventions and Geneva Conventions and become familiar and comfortable with the material (The suggested readings can be found in the Appendix section of our electronic library). The Zeonic Company fully understands that there lies a risk of armed hostility between you, the employee, and elements of the Earth Federation's armed forces. Should this occur, the Zeonic Company strongly recommend that you flee the scene and only fire your weapon in self defense. However, the Zeonic Company is aware that contradictory orders may be given by the contractor, including the order to participate in armed hostilities against the Earth Federation. The Zeonic Company is not allowed to instruct its employee, you, to follow or disregard such instructions due to contractual obligations, but the Zeonic Company wishes its employee, you, to exercise sound judgment. The Zeonic Company regrets to inform you that given the nature of this assignment, serious bodily harm or death may arise from this particular assignment. In lieu of this information, the Zeonic Company will supplement your existing salary with an additional hazard pay (both of which are independent of the stipend provided by the Principality of Zeon). Furthermore, there will be no increase in your insurance premiums while on this assignment. Due to the possibility of working on Earth, however, the Zeonic Company requires you, the employee, to receive immunizations against potential diseases and pathogens that may be present on Earth. As always, the Zeonic Company is committed to furthering mankind's knowledge and insight into mobile suit technology. Your participation in enriching mankind in the area of Minovsky physics will be greatly appreciated by all. Good luck!
"Well?" "Well what?" "Well, how do you feel about it?" "..." "Nadia, don't do this to me. It's hard enough having been a chair on the committee that decided on this." "I'm not saying anything." "At... at least tell me what you think about it." "..." "Please?" "Ugh." "C'mon." "Fine, fine! I think it's stupid. I'm going to die out there, and this mind, THIS mind, will be lost to humanity forever," exclaimed Nadia Adelaide while poking the side of her head rather forcibly. "Wait, are you serious?" inquired the man next to her. "Yes I'm serious! I should still be on Side 3 working for ZC's R&D division. Do they honestly think I can fight in combat? Hah, they're mad." Scoffing, the man replied, "Don't you think you're being a little too childish, Nadia? If you read closely, you're not supposed to fight. Just gather data." Pausing for a moment, he then relaxed his tone and kindly added, "And besides, you're a great pilot." She didn't respond, opting instead to close her eyes and lean her head against the open window of the shuttle. Her left hand continued to clench her contract papers while her right hand rested on top her legs. The woman certainly didn't have the heart to fight, nor the volition or patriotism to do so either. She only agreed to this assignment because it would almost assure her free reign in research at the facilities owned by Zeonic Company. But now she was having her regrets."Nadia, are you crying?" asked Gerald after hearing what he thought was a sniffle. With her voice noticeably faltering, the Azores girl retorted, "No, w-why would I do that? I'm, I'm a grown woman for goodness sake." Nadia opened her eyes and to her surprise the Earth had come in view in all its glory that the Moon could no longer suppress. What was even more shocking, though, was that she began to have a feeling of homesickness for the first time in many, many years. Her regrets began to manifest themselves into a desire to have changed her present situation. What if, she thought, she didn't zoom through school? What if she just enjoyed life for what it was and made friends and went to parties and... and..."It's okay to cry. Grown men cry too, you know," comforted Gerald. It took several seconds for Nadia to tear herself away from the sight of the blue giant, and when she did she immediately used her free hand to pick her attache case from off the floor and open it. She took out a tissue and then closed the case after stuffing the papers in it. "I guess," she said while dabbing the white cloth on her face. "But what if a ranking soldier gives me an order to fight? It's in the contract, you know." Her male counterpart looked down at his pressed pants and remained silent for a minute while Nadia looked on. He had indeed been on the committee that worked with the Zeonic Military Force in designing this contract. Due to the safety concerns, he and his colleagues weren't exactly at liberty to refuse the ZMF's demands in sending test units into combat, but that didn't mean that Gerald or the others condoned such actions. It was clearly a sign that some burden had been placed on the Principality's war effort, though none of them dared utter those words lest terrible, terrible things happen to them in the name of national security.
He looked up at Nadia's face and saw that the area around her eyes were flushed with red. It was hard not to have some pity for her, even if she was prone to these childish fits.Sighing, he finally whispered, "You remember that dissertation you did to get your Ph.D, right?" "Y.. yes, but why do you ask?" asked a very confused Nadia. "Well, I-fields disrupt communications right?" "Well, yeah, that's what I said." "Even with normal combat, the I-field generated by the Minovsky particles already make communications problematic." "What are you getting at, Gerald?" "Think about it, Nadia! Your equipment sets up the strongest I-field for its size!" "..." Getting even closer to her ear, Gerald finally said, "Off the record, you can ignore whatever orders are given to you. Communications are just too unreliable given your mobile suit and its capabilities." The two immediately regained some of their personal space, but instantly Gerald could see that Nadia's face had brightened up tenfold. And finally he witnessed something that Nadia hadn't shown for quite some time: a smile.
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Post by pinksoyuz on Oct 19, 2009 3:44:13 GMT -5
"Beginning MPSE activation run."
Nadia paused the recording to regain her bearings after concluding the training session with one of the base's more experienced pilots. While she could certainly keep up with them in terms of movement, the difficulty in gaining a positive weapons lock on the erratically moving reconnaissance Zaku was too much for her. But now she would finally be doing what she did best.
Taking another deep breath, the woman resumed the recording and then continued, "First test will be conducted while stationary to reduce reactor strain."
Her heart started to pound at the thought that this was the first live test of the MPSE system while running off of a modified Zaku II reactor. The main worry in Nadia's mind stemmed from the integrity of the cooling system that was shared between the reactor and the MPSE; any malfunction and serious complications could quickly arise.
"MPSE activated. 10%. Reactor drain within expected values, cooling system reports no faults, I-field strength stable, communications degraded 16%, visual impairment minimal."
Nadia's eyes remained fixated on the numerous graphs plastered on the mobile suit's screens, each reporting on the condition of various systems of the mobile suits. The details being displayed wouldn't normally be the concern of ordinary pilots and it would usually take a team of technicians an appreciable amount of time to digest the information, but the test pilot was well acclimated to deciphering the data in real time. A forefinger and thumb delicately adjusted a hefty dial to bring the MPSE output up in fine increments until the next benchmark was reached at twenty percent.
"MPSE output level 20%. Reactor drain within expected values, cooling system reports no faults, I-field remains stable, communications degraded 51%, visual clarity reduced 09%."
And then it soon dawned on her that the test run would take the better part of her day.
~
Pushing herself away from the upper cockpit hatch, Nadia floated through the hangar bay before landing on the floor next the test unit's feet. A few seconds later a loud siren signaled that the bay had been hermetically sealed and in no time a handful of uniformed technicians came out of one of the many passages. Behind them was Gerald Lampmann, Nadia's mentor who had taken her under his tutelage ever since the girl began to work at Zeonic Company.
"Hey!" he exclaimed as the two approached each other, "did you enjoy yourself out there?"
Shrugging her shoulders, Nadia took off her helmet and held it under her arm before replying, "It was interesting, I suppose. Reached 83% output before a cooling system anomaly showed itself."
Chuckling, Gerald nodded sagely and commented, "Yeah, you know we were rushed with that."
"But at least I didn't die; that's something, right?" Nadia joked, giving a wry grin to the man.
"Hah, always the optimist aren't you, Nadia?" he retorted while giving a chuckle.
The female pilot's grin quickly subsided and she averted her gaze away from Gerald as she muttered, "Yeah, right."
The male scientist, however, missed the change in tone and instead continued, "Well, the director of research wants to talk to you about something. He seemed a bit upset, but he wouldn't tell me why. Best that you go up and meet him right away, Nadia."
"Oh?" she asked, genuinely intrigued with what Gerald had to say, "I don't think I did anything wrong."
"Beats me," said Gerald as he shrugged his shoulders.
Letting out a discontent sigh, Nadia began to walk towards the DoR's office located somewhere within the confines of the giant asteroid fortress.
~
"Smetana. A fine choice. Die Moldau, was it?" asked a rather young officer as he paced around the room.
"Yes," Nadia replied curtly, looking away from the video feed of yesterday's testing.
"Yes sir, you mean," corrected the director.
Nadia shot a sharp look at the well groomed officer, but she eventually complied and repeated, "Yes sir."
"I understand that this is all new to you, and that it may be a bit inconvenient, but I'm doing this to help you," he continued, sensing the rebellious tendencies that were brewing inside the seated woman, "others may not display the same amount of tolerance that I do, you know."
"I understand, sir," responded the woman.
"Now do you know why I brought you in here?"
"No sir."
"Any idea at all, Seaman Adelaide?"
"None whatsoever, sir."
"Haha, that's very good! You're getting the hang of it," exclaimed the director while laughing. "Anyways, I brought you in here because of your recent experimental tests."
Nadia looked up at the officer and met his sharp green eyes that weren't unlike her own. "What about them, sir?" she inquired.
"Your methods are a bit unorthodox. I'm not saying they're ineffective; oh no, they are by far that, but," he replied, stopping mid sentence to search for a few words. "They don't conform to the SAF's SOP; you do know what SOP stands for, right?" he finished.
"Yes sir, I know what SOP stands for," said Nadia, "but I don't quite understand what you mean by your last statement."
Sighing, the officer pinched the bridge of his nose unsure of how to answer the woman's question. "How should I say this," he began, "I understand that at the Zeonic Company, you all have your ways of doing things, but here at the SAF's R&D department, we have different ways of doing things."
The Earth native began to suspect the worst and averted her gaze downward to her feet, preparing her mind for a criticism. If anything, Nadia abhorred criticism above all else. Seeing his subordinate in this state, the director of research walked up to Nadia and placed a curled finger under her chin. He raised her head to attract her attention, but Nadia's eyes looked away from the director's face as soon as he did so, frustrating the young officer.
"You do know how revealing that space suit of yours is, right? I mean, the space suit of Zeonic Company pilots as a whole," he said.
Nadia still refused to look at her superior, though she was certainly becoming aware of the man's cologne; the heat from his body only furthered to fluster her.
"You mean to tell me that you don't notice all the males staring at your figure, Specialist Adelaide? I read your file, I'll have you know. I was on the committee with your 'friend' Dr. Lampmann and I know of your history. Not a single relationship in your life, right?" said the officer, obviously ratcheting up the rhetoric.
By now, Nadia's heart rate and blood pressure had increased in response with what seemed to be a personal attack on her. No matter how humiliating, however, she knew that she had to maintain her composure, though the Zeon officer was clearly pushing her closer to the edge.
Maintaining his accusatory tone, the director said, "One would think that by now you'd be feeling rather deprived. I know I would, but you, Ms. Adelaide, you've survived thirty one years without a single man in your life. Yet you're constantly surrounded by males by nature of your profession. You mean to tell me you don't take interest in any of them?"
His words were obviously cutting into Nadia's emotions as he could see her fingernails dig into where her hands were holding her knees. It would only be a matter of time before she would come around.
"For a thirty one year old, I must say that you have aged gracefully. You are still extremely attractive by any standard, Ms. Adelaide. Perhaps I could help y-"
In that split second, Nadia's resolve had broken and a cascade of emotions began to manifest themselves into physical actions. Immediately, her eyes caught that of the offending male and her right hand went up to slap the man. When her attack was swiftly blocked by the young officer, she went to knee him in between his legs, but this too was expertly countered and she soon found herself pinned to the ground.
Laughing out loud, the officer said, "Bold actions, Ms. Adelaide! Assaulting a superior officer! Why, that could have serious implications should others know about this!"
By now, Nadia's head was clouded in a mix of emotions while her face began to shed tears onto the blood red carpet. She refused to believe the director's words, but she knew that he was right about the consequences of her recent actions. She couldn't believe how foolish she had been by acting stubborn, and she would now regret it. However, the officer had other ideas.
Kneeling down closer to Nadia so he could whisper, the director said, "Don't worry, I have absolutely no interest in you or in having you get into any trouble for this. But please, try to be more compliant with your superior officers next time, because, like I said, you might not be so lucky with someone else."
The director stood up and tugged down on his tunic to straighten it before grabbing his visor cap and reaching for the door.
Before heading out however, he stopped and added, "Oh, and please familiarize yourself with the SAF's SOP. That means no more music, classical or not, when on duty, Specialist Adelaide."
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