____"Excellent finish!", I called out to the lance as they loaded back aboard the Leopard.
____Darius nodded. "That's the last contract. I'll debrief the pilots and then meet you back here?"
____"Yes. I want to visit Viribium next for some easy contracts, but haven't looked at the store yet."
____Heading to Viribium should give Yang enough time to fully repair the Orion, and I wanted to have him come up with some options for mech refits that would let us take down bigger targets. With the number of LRMs we've had lobbed at us, I figured that would be a good approach.
____Darius returned to the bridge as I was looking at the mechwarrior profiles in the hiring hall. Peering over my shoulder, he said "She's taking us seriously, now that our MRB rating is high enough. Seems like a good background - started as a commoner in the Draconis Combine, then got into corporate work and made it all the way up to vice-president before going freelance. We do have one space left - want me to make an offer?"
____"I do, but with one request. See if she'd be willing to change her callsign in exchange for a small signing bonus - try to spin it as a sort of promotion."
____"I can work with that. In the meantime, here's some items of interest on the market." Darius handed me a datapad.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
New Hire: President 3/4/3/8, Sensor Lock & Master Tactician
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
____After adding too many things to the To Buy list so that we couldn't even afford the jump fee out of the system, I started cutting back. In the end, some upgraded arm and leg actuators (bulkier, but no heavier than normal) made the cut, as did some mech salvage for an ON1-K and a MAD-3R. Darius quite rightly pointed out that we'd be bankrupt by the end of the month if nothing changed, but I was certain that Viribium would let us make enough money to pay our bills. Our MRB score was improving, and once we secured an Urbanmech we'd have all of the light mechs needed to complete that category.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Days Remaining: 1158 ____ Career Points: 93,026 ____ Career Rating: Green
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
____By the time we arrived in Viribium's airless orbit, Yang had fully rebuilt the structure of the Orion (it was still missing several weapons), completely repaired the Quickdraw, and made a minor refit to the Shadow Hawk to swap the LRM5 for another Medium Laser, a heat sink, and some more armor. Sugar was also cleared for duty. There was, however, a personnel issue.
Minor Infraction Event: Scrub had complaints about Jingle slacking off, which she turned back around at him being overbearing and bookish. They were both right about each other, and they needed to sort that out together. After some choice words to put things in perspective, I left them to it. Turns out, that was exactly what they needed to hear.
Result: Scrub gains Dependable, Jingle loses Rebellious.
____Hoping to boost morale a bit more and keep the infighting to a minimum, I asked Farah to focus her engineering crew on crafting a lounge area now that Yang had his automation working. I didn't mention the fact that we didn't have enough c-bills on hand to start the expansion of the mech bay area yet.
____The contracts available made for an interesting story. The Free Worlds League and the Magistracy of Canopus were both vying for position with four contracts from House Marik and a pair of contracts from the Canopians. Every single contract was being run against the local pirate forces, with the single exception of the last contract available, which was working
for the pirates to run an attack and defend mission against the Canopians. We'd take that mission first, get as much salvage and intel as possible, and then pound the pirates into pulp for the rest of our stay here. I'd rather have had good connections to the black market first, but that just wasn't going to happen.