Apr 05 12:26:39 108 PA - Post Mission Meal

From Chronicles

Apr 05 12:26:39 108 PA.

SILVER FORK

Lunchtime on a Thursday is a pretty nice time at the Silver Fork. Nice, but casual. Mostly families, but with a few businessmen and women around on official lunches. Gabriel is already seated, with two menus and a bottle of Donovan's Fizz, waiting to see if Erica arrives per his friendly and spontaneous invitation. He seems to have selected a specific table today. Very nice and well lit, but off in a location that they can talk about anything they want, and at full volume, but not have to worry about being eavesdropped upon.

Erica walks into the Silver Fork soon after dressed in her normal fatigues. She talks briefly with the hostess before making her way to Gabriel's booth. She gives him a nod of her head in greeting before sitting down at the table. As the waitress comes over she orders herself some iced tea before speaking to Gabriel. "Hey Gabriel."

He may address her as an equal soldier, but some habits are just really hard to break, and Gabriel stands as Erica approaches to sit, even though they're bench seats. "Erica, good to see you! You have a nice quiet day or two without me around to spoil the silence?" He's well seated again by the time tea is being ordered.

Erica shrugs her shoulders quickly before answering. "Sure I guess so. Haven't been up to a whole lot, but it has been a nice few days. What about you? How was being dumb enough to go on that operation?" She asks with a little laugh in her voice. She takes her iced tea and sips on it idly.

"That reminds me," Gabriel says, before doing his best to lean across the table and plant a kiss on Erica's cheek. "Those lessons really kept me out of trouble. Thanks." He dips his head, truly appreciative. Once he's seated again, and after a momentary glance at the menu, it's folded and returned to the tabletop. "Well, I actually didn't do too bad, myself. Total expenditures are basically just one magazine for that NTI rifle. So *if* I understood the reward, should be just under twenty grand. Possibly forty. Taz actually tried to capture one of 'em, but killed him after he almost got killed by his own prisoner." Gabriel then looks up and diagonally toward a random ceiling light. "Kind of odd, that. The attack looked far worse than what actually happened." Slight confusion written on his face.

Erica 's eyes widen slightly at the kiss on her cheek and her lips curl into an amused look. "You are welcome. Glad you didn't slam into the ground. Well sounds like you made some pretty good money. What are you going to do with those credits?" She asks while playing with the straw in her iced tea. "Well could have been more knights or who knows."

Gabriel seems to consider for a moment. "I'm going to save them. I'm not sure what I'm going to buy, but I definitely need to build up enough fluid cash that if something gets wasted, I can replace it, y'know?" The man's drawl is rather thick today. Then he chuckles. "For everything I did, I was mostly a taxi service. Flew Miss Valeriya around when she didn't think I was useful, then she started giving me orders.." he shrugs. "Air mobile cavalry, right? Get things where they gotta go. Others were dumb enough to stand in one place and plow away with cannons. Least she knew about moving, even if she isn't one of my favorite people." He then grins widely. "You have an idea on how to spend the creds? I don't think it's enough to buy ourselves a business yet."

"I don't know why you so easily take orders from people that don't know what they are doing. That will get you killed sooner or later." Erica says with a slight shake of her head before taking a small sip of her iced tea. "I haven't had a good paying job for a little while. So I've just been sitting on what I have saved up. Who knows when I'll get the next job."

The older man gives a little chuckle. "Oh, don't worry about me. I have both a good noggin for taking care of fellow soldiers - though that term is often pretty loose - *and* a healthy sense of self preservation. Believe me, I didn't take and put her anywhere that I wasn't damn sure that I wouldn't be safe, or at least a very good chance of being safe. There was only one time when I was even close enough for *anything* to hit me, save for one fellow with a cannon. But he was more interested in destroying Taz." Gabriel chuckles again and says, "Problem of being a tank is that you make yourself a big target - particularly if you're an idiot about bothering to move around or switching targets when they present themselves." Gabriel grins widely. "But I digress when it comes to certain people's personal issues with tactics."

Erica chuckles softly to herself while she shakes her head slightly. "Well the problem with juicers are that they put a crap ton of stuff into their bodies, but it doesn't make them think any better." She says with a bit of a wry grin. "So what are your plans now? You have another job lined up?"

"Actually," Gabriel states with an as-yet-unused fork jabbing across the table, "Yeah, I have a job. Doesn't deal with people attacking us with magic, or anything like that, far as I know. Looks like a basic straight-up Coalition job out Whykin's direction. Can't say if there's any pay in it, though. Vixen's looking into that part. Interested? If not, I'll shut up instead of going off on one of my long, wind-blown statements that people laugh at." He laughs at that thought himself.

"Sure sounds interesting I guess. What is going on in Whykin? What is the actual job?" Erica says with a little chuckle in her voice. "You aren't giving me much in the way of details there." She shakes her head slightly before sipping on her iced tea.

Gabriel holds his hands to his sides. "Sorry. Some guy named General Rheevus has just been appointed to govern the entire Whyken Semi-Autonomous Zone. He's know to be a real mover, and Vixen, Sage, Leonard and myself went up to take a peek. Looks like they're expanding some kind of security perimeter. Not real far out, only five or ten miles. But there's one location where a larger base is being built - or at least, we think - and it's a good twenty-five miles out. Considering that we're only around eighty miles from Whykin, that's a big grab." He pauses a moment to sip from his drink before continuing. "Vixen put in the recon to the Council, but I haven't heard back from her. Don't know if they're supporting, ignoring, whatever. I would guess though, that it's the kind of thing that for the good of this city.. should disappear. But not much magic, far as I can tell."

Erica lifts an eyebrow while looking slightly confused. "You still need to tell me what the job is. Are you guys just looking on intel about the base or what? You guys trying to take the base out? Cause that sounds like a bad idea." She laughs again to herself as she sips on her iced tea. "I just don't get what the job actually is."

"Sorry, I thought I said that. We all went to Whykin to take a look, but they're really keeping things tight. We know that a bunch of new, large units have been brought in. Infantry, engineers, logistics. Vixen and I gathered some information about a couple of apparently interesting officers in the area. It was Sage and Leonard who saw the posts themselves." Gabriel shrug and frowns at that. "Unfortunately, they aren't exactly the military, and their information was very spotty. So that's where it sits right now. Vixen took all of that and gave it to the Council to see if they wanted to support us, or do something themselves, whatever. I haven't heard from Vixen, so I assume she hasn't heard from them." Blinking a few times across the table, he can only admit, "Without her coming and talking to us, I don't know. But the advantage we have about the base is that it's still under construction, and it's not a huge thing. I personally think that there may be a comm shadow that could work in our favor, but the others don't seem real interested in it. Maybe a second military person giving a similar opinion would help." He sips at his bottle, then finalizes, "Sage seems to think that there's a village of either psi or magic users who would be willing to help, but for some reason she never thought to ask, so we don't know."

"Ok so let me get this straight. You want us to act as covert agents that are acting on behalf of Kingsdale, if they want us to or not, and attack and destroy a Coalition base. Then you want us to come back to Kingsdale, and what? Wait for the nuclear weapons to drop on Kingsdale in retribution for our attack?" Erica says with a little laugh in her voice. "Let me think about that one." She shakes her head slightly and sips on her iced tea.

Gabriel shakes his head. "No, no, no. Recon is done. It's unlikely that there's much more to be learned. Likely we'll want to hit that base - it's really more of an outpost, barely even manned yet - and fade away. Honestly, I don't think that the Council will want to get involved, because it's still distant enough, and I don't think that the Coalition guys will want to make too much of a fuss about it as far as the city goes, either. You have to admit that everyone is walking on eggshells. MAD doctrine, every once in a while something bad happens to one side, no one retaliates for fear of all out war." He hoists his soda. "Not to say that people moving in to destroy such a thing wouldn't be looked upon with a negative eye. That's it. I have no further information for you. But if Vixen ever gets back to me, I can probably bring you in to whatever meeting happens, and you can listen to anything else she has to say, and before we all make up our minds about what to do. Maybe the others have more information. Dunno. Sorry." Shrug.

"I'm pretty sure that Coalition isn't afraid of war. As shown by the two wars they are currently involved with. Sure they don't want to fight Kingsdale at the moment, but after the wars who know where they are going to turn next. Giving the Coalition excuses to hit Kingsdale would be very bad." Erica says with a grim tone. "Look I'll help out, but hitting a Coalition base is very very dangerous. Anyways keep me up to date. I can get more intel if need be."

"Will do. Really have to wait to see what Vixen hears from the Council before I can tell you more - because I don't know." Gabriel shrugs. "I think if we're smart though, it could be done. Long as the Council isn't afraid of it being an excuse, I'll take the chance. Particularly if Sage is right about that village." Gabriel shrugs. "She was kind of vague about them, but to be fair, I'm not sure that she really understands what they're about either. But.. I'll let it go." As he returns to peering at his menu, he changes subject and says, "You know little Miss Monique? I'm teaching her how to read and write - if she keeps up with her lessons, of course. A little amusing though, she'll still be at a minor disadvantage. My twentieth-century English isn't quite the same as the 108 PA American language." He looks up and smirks a bit.

"Well I'm looking forward to more news. I could always use the credits after all. Yes I know Monique. I have met her a few times. She seems nice, quiet but nice." Erica finishes off her iced tea and gestures to the waitress for a refill. "Well languages change over time. Nice of you to teach her how to read. Comes in useful a lot of times."

Gabriel nods. "They say that it was the monks continuing a written language was what brought Europe out of the fall of ancient empires, through the Dark Ages, and into modern times. Without the written word, much would have been lost. Almost like starting over from scratch, y'know?" As he pauses for a moment to contemplate his menu, a waitress comes around, a very professional girl probably in her early twenties. The man orders a hamburger, medium-rare, wheat bun, lettuce, two kinds of cheese, onions, and guacamole. And another soda. He hands his menu over to the girl - who doesn't apparently even need a notepad - and nods his chin in Erica's direction. "What're you having tonight? My treat for those lessons you gave me. I insist."

Gabriel nods. "They say that it was the monks continuing a written language that brought Europe out of the fall of ancient empires, through the Dark Ages, and into modern times. Without the written word, much would have been lost. Almost like starting over from scratch, y'know?" As he pauses for a moment to contemplate his menu, a waitress comes around, a very professional girl probably in her early twenties. The man orders a hamburger, medium-rare, wheat bun, lettuce, two kinds of cheese, onions, and guacamole. And another soda." He hands his menu over to the girl - who doesn't apparently even need a notepad - and nods his chin in Erica's direction. "What're you having tonight? My treat for those lessons you gave me. I insist."

Erica chuckles softly while shaking her head. "I'll have the pasta special of the day please." She says to the waitress and hands over her own menu. "Thank you for lunch. Yes well sadly their are not a lot of places that educate people to read. I was lucky that I grew up in Lazlo. They have a great school system."

"Oh? That is unique," is Gabriel's response to Erica's comment about education. He then smirks a little as the waitress moves off. "Kind of a burning soul thing, though. I feel really *good* about myself helping out little Miss Monique. Obviously I'm not charging her a dime for it, a girl needs to know how to read - after all, her grasp of *spoken* American isn't that great. But there's a chance that Miss Valeriya would be happy to pay me oodles of money - probably about ten grand - to teach her how an old man fires what qualifies as a common rifle, even if it is a magical one. So -" he cringes in humor "- good for your soul versus cash that you need to live. It's tough choice on one hand, an easy one on the other." Wink.

"She is pretty attractive which I am sure doesn't bother you much at all." Erica says with a laugh and a sly grin. "Why does Valeriya want her to learn how to fire a rifle? She wanting to make sure all the magical people are well armed?" She chuckles to herself again while shaking her head. "That is nice money though even if the source sucks."

Gabriel taps his free fork against the table with a little bit of irritation. "She grabbed a magic weapon that was sitting at my feet. I could have used it to sell but somehow, I don't know, apparently I was standing over the body of it and its dead owner and didn't notice. Maybe because I was busy keeping people alive while they fucked around." He doesn't say it as a brag, just as a 'that's what was happening.' "But, it's done. Apparently it works like an old-fashioned rifle, even though it's a magic-loader." He chuckles and holds his hands to his sides. "Don't ask me, I don't get magic. I know that they need hands to cast spells, and I know that I have no aptitude for it. She asks me to train her and she'll pay good money? Hell, I'll earn good money. I agree with you though, I don't see how a magic weapon needs the knowledge of old hunting and assault rifles."

"Did you try saying 'Hey I want that rifle.'? Cause then maybe you would have gotten it. If you keep letting her walk all over you it is going to be a habit." Erica chuckles again as she leans back in her chair. "Don't ask me I don't know anything about magic either. No real reason for me to learn much."

"Pff. Please, if it had been that easy, you think I'd let it go, even with a warrior bitch like her? No, no." Gabriel rolls his eyes. "No, the knights were down, but the town was still burning and exploding, so I took off to help. Apparently.. not noticing a magical weapon at my feet. She nabbed it while I was in the air. Not much good trying to go back and declare, 'Hey, mine!' like a little kid after that. I guess it's just the people that care about other people who get the shaft." The then laughs quite heartily. "Even Sebastien, who claims to be this high-and-mighty Cyber-Knight - he actually expected to ride into town and have people immediately respect him because of that – but in combat I took down the knight, blew his hands off, and what does Seb do? Does he run to fight the one that was currently killing the other three?" He pauses for an answer to the rhetorical question. "No, he comes running at me, all pissed-off that I'd opened up two bleeding points, because he wanted to save him and keep him alive. Yeah. Fuck that. Just put the bastard down. Cyber-Knights. Heh. Far as I've see, a bunch of egotistical, self-righteous pricks."

Erica laughs loudly in her little voice. "Yes well that is why I don't hang out with those guys. You sure did pick them. I don't think you have much right to complain since you knew exactly the people you were getting in with." She giggles again to herself while she idly stirs her iced tea. "I know few enough people that I don't think are pompous."

Gabriel shrugs. "Eh, well I couldn't just leave that town out there to be slaughtered, which honestly is probably what would have happened if I hadn't been there. I'm not screwing with you, either. It would have been much worse, I guarantee. Town and people killed right and left, maybe even Sebastien and Taz laying around dead and bleeding. Bart somewhere trying to hide in the trees." He makes a funny face. "If you'd had a proper weapon, you'd have gone for the same reasons, wouldn't you?"

"I am sure that the rest of the group would have been fine without you. And from what you said the town was already destroyed by the time you got there. So looks like you were already too late." Erica says with a shrug of her shoulders. "I would love to help, but sometimes you can't help because of the giant assholes that go on ops."

Another shrug. "No, the town was intact when we arrived. Only after I'd been talking with the - I dunno call them the town council - about the problem, and started back on our way did the town start to go up." Gabriel then states, "There were two ugly turtle-looking things in town that would never have been run down without my pack and firepower. Seb and Taz would have been dead, stuck in some kind of sticky magic carpet if I hadn't been able to deliver Val and myself up to fight the two knights. They were - down. That's it. Without me, it would have only been Bart there, and his weapon kept malfunctioning. Plus, he took a major hit to the chest, and did the bright thing - he ran." The fellow from Kentucky looks over and smirks at himself. "I know that I'll never get credit, though. Next time something comes around, I'll just be the short guy with a relatively tiny weapon, and no one will listen to me. I admit, it's annoying. Oh yeah, let's all jumble together in one place to fight from. Fucking brilliant." He glances around quickly to see if he'd just disturbed any nearby tables with his language.

Erica chuckles softly to herself. "So sounds like your team almost got you killed. And then what good would you have been? You might have good intentions, but if you get screwed over by your team mates then you don't get to save anyone." She says with a slight frown. "But glad things sort of worked out for you. You managed to make some money, and save some people."

Gabriel finally shrugs it off. "Yeah, whatever and whyever things happened, that's end of it, as far as I know. I get the feeling that Bennet has more in mind for us later, but that could just be a false instinct." He raises his bottle slightly. "Miss Valeriya's going to be taking lessons from me on how to fire that magic rifle she picked up. Not going to be the same kind of money I could have gotten from selling it, but at least I'm charging her back to the last dime the absurd price she charged me to learn how to swing a sword."

"Well I guess that is good. For someone who says they don't like some people you sure go out of your way to help them. I guess your just a sucker for credits." Erica says with a little laugh in her voice. "Have fun teaching her. I'm sure it will be lots of fun for you." She stirs her iced tea for a moment. "Anyways nice of you to tell me all about your Op."

The older man smiles. "She's not my favorite person, but I do like to share what I know, as long as I don't think there's a significant chance that it's going to come back and bite me on the ass." Gabriel shrugs and leaves it at that. "What've you been doing around town? You must be doing more than just living off your bank account and hitting clubs." Gabriel grins at the concept.

"Nope not doing shit. Just hanging about waiting for the next job. If such a job comes about." Erica says with a little smile on her face. "Don't have anything to do. I guess I'm a pretty boring person. Just waiting in between jobs."

Gabriel offers a grinning smirk. "Wow. Quite the femme fatale, aren't you? I have to admit that I'm really not very good at finding this kind of mercenary work. I *always* had a strong, legitimate government backing me up, no matter what I happened to be doing. I think I'd go out of my mind if I had to poke around the Caribbean with a sloop and a Letter of Marque from France just waiting to be hired."

"Uh huh. Whatever." Erica says with a shake of her head. "Well luckily you don't have to do either of those. You can instead go help people you can't stand after they ripped you off. Sounds crazy to me." She chuckles softly to herself. "I guess you'll just do whatever people ask of you." She says with a teasing voice.

Gabriel smiles and glances down at the table, blushing ever-so-slightly. "I *don't* do whatever people ask of me. But when someone brings to my attention that innocent people need help? Then, yeah, I'm a sucker. I'm sure I've told you, I got into this whole job in '38 because I decided that innocent and helpless people were going to need help. I wish I'd been wrong." He looks and taps the table with a single finger. "But I wasn't. Call me gullible if you want. Maybe it seems odd that I'll follow a man and peer into his life if I don't trust him, put a bullet in that same man's head when he's helpless, and then run off and put my life in danger for free. I guess that's just my odd personal philosophy." He chuckles rather loudly. "I'm sure that Sebastien has his own strange 'code' despite what he claims to follow as a Cyber-Knight. And you have yours."

"Yah and when some person asks you to teach them the rifle you do that. No you do just about anything people ask of you. You are a sucker for anyone asking you to do something. I'm not talking about the towns people. I am talking about everyone else about town. And you are just trying to deflect." Erica says with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head. "I bet you'll do just about anything."

"That's actually... kind of offensive. Of course I wouldn't do 'just about anything.' I do what's the right thing to do. There's a hell of a lot that I'd never do. Just because I have the *opportunity* to do things doesn't mean that I do everything. Have I done anything yet since my arrival that can't be looked on with respect?" Gabriel shoots a questioning eye across the table. "I really don't have any idea what you're talking about as per people around town. Is it really such a horrible sin to do your best for your fellow man? Not to sound preachy, but doesn't it sound fair?"

"Alright well go around and help out Val. Do whatever she tells you to. Even if she'll screw you over time and time again. See how that works out for you." Erica says with a chuckle in her voice. "Watch out for all the people that will take advantage of you and screw you over." She finishes up her iced tea and sets it down on the table. "Nice talking to you Gabriel." She says while she scoots out from the booth and stands up.

Gabriel stands up politely and dips his head. With a smile, he asks, "Perhaps you can be my conscience against gullibility in the future. Take care, Erica. Be safe." By the look on his face and tone of his voice, most people would probably conclude that whatever enmity had been there has already passed. Hopefully, it's going to be a good meal.