Jul 13 16:08:32 108 PA - Making Friends, or at Least Meeting Someone

From Chronicles

Jul 13 16:08:32 108 PA.

PLAZA PARK

Erica has asked to meet Gabriel and Sasha at the park on this warm summer day. She is waiting over by a bench, dressed in her urban fatigues. The only thing that doesn't match her military dress is a large straw hat, possibly to keep the sun away from her fair skin. She has a digital disc player plugged into a jack at the base of her skull so she can listen to music while she waits.

Sasha walks into the park from the graveyard, a cigarette held between her lips and her hands loosely held in her pockets. A fragrant tobacco smoke wafts from the tip of her cigarette as she walks from the graveyard over towards the meeting spot she'd been informed about. She turns with an easy grace to direct over towards Erica where she waits and offers a polite nod, offering coolly, "Erica."

Gabriel walks in off of Main Street, whistling happily to himself, hands in his hip pockets. As for clothing, the man is fairly boring, the same getup every day, when it isn't out somewhere else more interesting. There's some distance before he'd really be in a place to notice much more than that he seems to be enjoying himself.

Erica turns off her disc player, and she takes the jack out of the base of her skull. She turns a warm smile towards Sasha, despite the other woman's cool greeting. "Hey Sasha. Nice to see you again." She says while giving a quick nod in greeting. Her attention is turned to Gabriel as he comes in, and she gives him a quick little smile. "Hey Gabe. This is the person I wanted you to meet. You might have seen her before, but I thought we could sit down and talk. She seems to have some experience. I thought we might use her on that one outpost job you were talking about."

"The Coalition raid." Sasha says simply and without any curiosity as if just stating a fact. She looks over towards Gabriel, studying him a few moments before she looks back to Erica, "Guess his desire to be a soldier doesn't carry him that far." A faint smile touches the corners of her lips around the hand rolled cigarette there and she reaches up to take the lit tip out between two metal fingers before she slips the remains into a small silver case. "I am Sasharelle Lunicost." She says simply in introduction, while looking mostly to Gabriel.

The older fellow smiles and inclines his head forward while extending a hand toward the woman he doesn't know. "Gabriel Blaze, it's nice to meet you, ma'am. Do you always go by that name? As opposed to something shorter, I mean. Very exotic." Erica receives a smile and a question. "I suppose you've spoken about things already?"

"I haven't given her any details. Just a basic target. I wanted you to meet her before I told her anything important." Erica says with a brief shrug of her shoulders. "She seems competent. A little too serious, but I guess I can't fault her too much for that." She chuckles a bit as she takes out a bottle of water from her side. "I thought you could brief her if you approve."

Sasha lifts her metal shoulder in a slight shrug, "Call me Sasha, if you want something shorter, but that is my name." She states matter-of-factly. "To put it bluntly, I am a hunter. I usually hunt demons, vampires, werebeasts, and others which prey on the innocent but I defend all who are innocent." She looks at her metal hand a moment, flexing her fingers then continues, "You realize that raiding an outpost will make the Coalition increase their strength in the area. They will not want to appear weak while fighting on two other massive fronts. What is the goal of this raid." She looks over towards Gabriel then for an answer, "Before I know that, I am not so bloodthirsty as to commit to anything."

Gabriel nods and listens as Erica speaks. "Good, thanks, Erica. Perfect recruiting job, I do appreciate it," is said with a smile. He then stands and explains, retrieving his unused hand. "The Coalition is already increasing their strength in the area, that's the entire issue in question. My intent is not to confront their might head on; there's nothing that any of us can do about that right now. Just one unique target. Because of where it is, I don't believe that the Coalition, General Rheevus, or anyone else would push back if it were destroyed. Kingsdale doesn't want a war, and at the moment neither does Whykin. Prosek doesn't want open a third front, after all." The elf is offered a warm smile. "There's more detail of course, and I'm not asking anyone to commit to anything. It's dangerous, and if someone doesn't want to get in the way of danger, that's clearly their right." Any flashy resumes, barely veiled insults and obvious statements regarding military procedure seem to slide right off of his back, and in a real way, not a fake anti-emotion where people wander off and scream into a pillow when they're alone.

"Do I look like someone who is afraid of danger?" Sasha asks lightly curious, though her voice still distant and cool. Another faint smile touches her lips at that. "If the target is of such a quality that it will not increase Coalition Aggression towards the innocent people in the area then I have no complaints with raiding, or destroying it. After all, they certainly would not hesitate to kill me if given a chance to pull the trigger." She lifts her shoulders in another faint shrug as if talking about the weather. "I am no non-combatant, Mr. Blaze. My whole life is devoted to a... less than healthy endeavor. Most run away from the evils which plague the world, while I run towards them to face them down."

"What he says is correct. The Coalition can't afford to help Whykin expand their holdings if they face serious push back." Erica says supporting what Gabriel is saying. "It is a good target of opportunity. I think it is worth hitting. Hopefully it will help show Whykin some sense."

"I'm sorry, Sasha, I wasn't suggesting that you were afraid of danger in any way. Only saying that I'm not forcing anyone into the job." Gabriel holds a hand out, palm up as he says the words. Only a small smile had crept to his lips on the issue of running toward danger. He remains polite as his mother would be proud, though his Kentucky accent remains thick. "What exactly is it that you do, as a non-non-combatant? Do you have a specialty? Powers beyond those of mine that are simply mundane? I need to get a better hand on what people might bring to the table, so that I know where the weak spots are. Of course, I'm sure that you must be the complete package, so to speak, from what you've said." A hand sneaks up and scratches at the back of his neck.

Sasha looks towards Erica and nods to what she says before she cocks her head to the side, "I am not in the practice of giving out any weaknesses to people I have just met." She says simply, and pointedly while turning her attention back to Gabriel, "I am no mage, I am no soupy. I use knowledge and tactics to bring down that which would otherwise easily destroy me." She gestures emphatically with her metal arm, "I have guns, both energy and physical, I have swords, knives, sharp sticks, and even a little magic for those that need it to be destroyed." She lifts her metal hand and taps her temple, "But this is my greatest weapon of all." She smiles at that, an actual honest to goodness smile that lights up her face and makes her all the more beautiful for it. Pity she doesn't use it very often, and that it doesn't last before it fades into her usual calm and cool expression. "My specialty isn't of much use when fighting the Coalition, but I am trained in hand to hand and ranged combat. Are you familiar with Headhunters?" She asks curiously, then before she can get a response, "Think of me as one of those. A well rounded operative when facing conventional opponents."

Erica tilts her head slightly as she listens to Sasha. She nods her head briefly in agreement. "Weapons are pretty predictable. A lot of times reliable beat the hell out of crazy ass powers." Erica offers before shrugging her shoulders. As Sasha smiles her own lips curve into a slight smile. "So Gabriel what do you think? Couldn't hurt, and a bigger team could sure as hell help out."

The older Gabriel chuckles and lowers his eyes briefly. "I wasn't asking for you to divulge your Achilles' Heel. I only asked for your benefits, so that I can fill in the other gaps. Clearly, you could bring in some significant benefits, and yes, brains are best. But you mentioned all of those supernatural beasts, I'll assume that it translates to confronting large units as well?" He allows himself to pause for a moment, but then moves on, nodding to Erica in assent. But he speaks to the other woman. "If you're still interested, Sasha, I'll contact you when I arrange for a meeting of all parties involved."

"No." Sasha answers bluntly, "Facing a Bal'Rog is nothing like facing a large unit. Facing a pack of vampires is nothing like facing soldiers in conventional armor." she shrugs, "But, that does not mean I don't know how to face a large unit. For a raid, your best bet is to either use robots and missiles as artillery to soften them up while fast moving cyborgs and power armor swoop in and strike to harry and harass, so their forces do not get centered enough to focus fire. With less firepower one must surround and strike, hit and run, from every direction if possible. Infiltrate behind the unit and carefully coordinate who strikes when and where, use their size and lack of mobility against them. The key is to avoid protracted engagements where their numbers matter. Another key point is knowing when and where to fight. Even using night optics most humans are uncomfortable at night for example, it is a foreign time for them, the body doesn't -want- to be out. Play on their fears, make them jump and expect attack from anywhere you -aren't- going to strike from. Separate individual soldiers and pick them off, use focus fire at all opportunities so every soldier knows that they could be the next to die. Everyone breaks eventually." She rattles all this off like she was announcing chess moves or the like.

Erica chuckles softly to herself but she nods her head in agreement as Sasha goes through tactics. "I don't think he was asking for a thesis, but that works. You didn't say though if you were still interested in the job. It does sound like you know what you are doing, but I think that is already established." She hops up on the park bench, and perches on the top of it.

Gabriel just listens pleasantly as a battle plan is formed for him. "Yes, thank you for that, Sasha. Perhaps when we all get together, everyone brings what they have, and perhaps if I'm able to provide everyone with the information that we have from our reconnaissance before anyone or any group blindly offering out a cliché, knee-jerk reaction that any first year cadet from West Point could have rattled off had he simply attended class twice a week, then we'll have a better idea as to how to tackle the problem." The oddity of the whole thing is that it's still very calm and pleasant by tone. Erica receives another nod of acknowledgment. "Instead of trying to impress me, why don't you just tell me if I should contact you, leave you alone, or give you time to think about it."

Sasha tilts her head to the side, "You asked if I had knowledge of how to face conventional armies in a large unit, Mr. Blaze. I have no idea what this 'westpoint' thing is you are spouting off about. I was offering general information, that is all." She says completely non-flustered, "Nor did my general appraisal take into account such variables as size of the enemy force, location, environment, weather, or anything else." She lifts her shoulders in a shrug, "I was not trying to impress anyone, least of all you, Mr. Blaze. You were concerned, that is all." Her voice still the same cool tone as usual. "I think I made myself perfectly clear, so long as the target does not induce risk to innocents, as you have assured me it does not, then I have no qualms about attacking, raiding, or destroying this Coalition outpost as I said before."

Erica claps her hands together once. "Good that should be settled then. I am sure you will be a good asset to have around Sasha." She says with a little smile curling her lips. "I think that we can all agree that the briefing will give us a lot more details we need before planning an attack."

The man smiles and allows, "Okay, if that's what you were saying, I was in the wrong. However, and allow me to be perfectly clear about this - one thing that you left out of your equation, one thing that is very important to the kind of unit cohesion necessary for the mission, comes down quite simply to whether or not people agree that they can get along, personalities meshing. We aren't looking at a bunch of soldiers. In fact, the three of us here are basically it. The others? Civilians who can offer some things that I need." Gabriel looks to Erica, then back to the elf. "Don't get me wrong, you sound like quite the partner to go into battle. But if you don't fit?" He makes a popping sound with his lips. "You're out. Now, I'll be contacting both of you as soon as I have what we need." He smiles and inclines his head toward Sasha again. "It was very interesting meeting you. Erica, we might be heading south now." Then turns and departs, whistling.

Sasha nods towards Erica, then simply says, "I am a professional Mr. Blaze. I do not go out of my way to start altercations that have no purpose. However, one should be careful when taking civilians into a fight as no plan survives first engagement with the enemy intact as it is." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her silver case again, retaking her half-smoked cigarette out and lighting it with a simple lighter so fragrant smoke wafts about her more like incense than actual tobacco as she doesn't seem to be inhaling any of it. "I am sure we'll meet again, Erica, regardless of the choice your apparent commander makes." She nods her head politely to the woman then turns and heads back for the graveyard with an easy casual step.

"We will be careful with any civilians for sure." Erica then returns Sasha's nod with a warm smile. "I look forward to it." She says before nodding her head at Sasha. Turning her head to Gabriel she gets up from the bench. "Alright Gabe. I'll meet you down there in a bit."