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Rules are pic related, more information at
http://padlet.com/BoredofDirector/Macross_2054

>>34511756

>Build a proper mounting

>>34511756
>>Build a proper mounting

>>34511756
>start live testing

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Downing your drink, your next course of action was to get a proper mounting installed. After all, you didn’t have the money or the means to try turning the missile-based gun delivery idea in to a reality just yet. Maybe it could be the next. You popped down to the hangar to take a look at what you were working with. The only RVF-171 that was currently in use was part of Bravo Team, who flew an eclectic mix of machines. Jive flew a VF-19S, a whole generation older than the VF-171 while the last man flew a VF-5000 G Star Mirage, a veritable clunker from Zola.

Radome mounts weren’t exactly uncommon. In fact, people tended to stick on various thrusters, missile pods and other assorted extra equipment on Valkyries to perform a variety of roles. All you needed to do was tear out some of the extraneous wiring and make sure the gun pod fit perfectly. Unfortunately you’d have to modify two separate mounts if you wanted it to work with both a VF-22 and a VF-171. You wanted to be able to use your own creation after all. That meant ordering a fold booster for your VF-22. There weren’t many of those around that were cheap, given that General Galaxy had discontinued support for it. Thankfully Sergei came to the rescue with some options.

“Well we could always ask Spacy to lend us a fold booster,” he offered, “It’s not like we were going to use it or anything. We just want the mounting right?”

“Yeah but couldn’t we just go to General Galaxy for the blueprints?” you asked.

“They’ll ask for an arm, a leg and your first born child,” he shook his head, “There’s always the ‘free’ market but I’m not sure where we can squirrel that away in to the budget. We’re breaking even as it is given that bar you just built.”

Choose a supplier
>Spacy
>General Galaxy
>’Free’ Market
>Just focus on the RVF mounting

>>34512637
>>Spacy

>>34512637
>>’Free’ Market

>>34512637
>Just focus on the RVF mounting

Our main target audience is going to be Spacey and their VF-171s and varients. It's all that really matters, once it's sold for lots of money, we can buy the parts we need from General Galaxy, but before then, focus on the target audience.

>>34512637

>Just focus on the RVF mounting

>>34512901
Off by like, five seconds but I'll take it. Saves me the hassle of having to roll.

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Considering your target audience, which was primarily Spacy, or so the report went, it was more important to get the RVF mounting converted. They were flying mostly VF-171s and its variants after all. Buying a fold booster so that you could adapt a mounting for your own personal use could come later, especially after you’ve made enough of a profit to afford one. It was easier and you finished quicker that way. You’ve already had a pint at Jive’s Office so you just took a tube home.

Maliki was sitting in the kitchen area, picking at some eggs when you came back. Given the time, she probably woke up no less than ten minutes ago. Her yawn only reinforced your deduction.

“Morning Pecker,” she greeted.

“It’s evening, actually,” you corrected, “Going to be a long night?”

“Probably.”

Her vague answer had you worried. She was normally more chipper.

“You worried about something Maliki?” you asked.

“You’ve changed,” she said.

“People change,” you shrugged.

“It’s not bad or anything,” she explained, “I mean, the doctors said it’s normal for, um, you. Like, you used to be really expressive, I mean, you could really blow up at someone. Now you’re like, well more subdued?”

Her eggs seemed really interesting with the way she was staring at them.

“I don’t know. It’s a bit strange, seeing you so different,” she finished, “I guess it’s scary in a way?”

>”I’m still me, shoulda seen me at work”
>”A little change is nothing to be afraid of”
>Other (write-in)

>>34513656
>>”A little change is nothing to be afraid of”
"Maybe I'm growing up a bit."

>>34513656
>”I’m still me, shoulda seen me at work”

>>34513656

>”A little change is nothing to be afraid of”

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“It’s not really something to be afraid of,” you gave her a hug, “Maybe I’m actually growing up a bit.”

“Maybe,” she hugged back, “I just wish it didn’t need a life or death situation to get you to change.”

“I’ll try.”

“You were really angry when Aunty died too so I was worried,” she continued.

“Yeah I was,” you remembered, “Don’t worry though, I’ll be fine.”

Her mobile beeped.

“Ah I’m going to be late, I have to go Pecker,” she broke off, “Talk to you later.”

With one last look at her breakfast, or dinner, Maliki ran out the door. You just flopped down on the couch, head abuzz. It was easier now that people have pointed it out to you. Sergei had told you about it. Even Dr. Bouchard casually mentioned it without you being none the wiser. It didn’t really change anything, from your perspective but you suppose that it was a cause for concern to some. You sighed, wondering if tomorrow was going to be less complicated.

It was probably too much to hope for. Today was the day you were going to do some live fire testing of the sniper pod. You were at the SMS hangars, overseeing the fitting of the gun to Soapbox’s VF-171. That was why you were surprised by and dreading Claudia’s approach. She was with Sergei.

“Pecker you ready to launch?” he asked.

“Just about, why?”

“Well Claudia here was wondering if you’d let her tag along while you did some field tests,” he said.

Well Sergei did say she was the long distance shooting expert. Then again you remember that she was slightly touched in the head and you weren’t sure you’d trust her with handling the one-off you built.

>Bring her with you
>Leave her behind

>>34514744
>Bring her with you

She knows sniping better than us.

>>34514744
Claudia maybe be fucking mental, but she shares my love for punching things while flying around in a giant space-ship-mecha.
She can come and be my daughteru

>>34514744
>>>Bring her with you
What could go wrong?

>>34514927
She might decide to space-punch us, you know, for giggles.
Thought that might count as going horribly right]/spoiler]

>>34514744
By-the-Way bored, you never gave us much of a physical description of Claudia, unless it's literally just "like Yukiji Katsura"

>>34515189
I guess it wouldn't be fair if I didn't huh?

>>34515215
well, we got a couple sentences on our MC's looks, and Maliki's, so one or two on Claudia wouldn't go amiss.
otherwise it's really hard to recreate her in 3d hentai games properly

>>34515267
Sure thing, I need to fill some spots in my class anyway.

>>34515325
I know, right? I had to arrange for Kyril to get arrested, and it just doesn't feel right having to take out Sagara and Asuka, but it doesn't feel right to keep them in either. Also, I promise I'm done now.[/spoiler ]

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As apprehensive as you were of bringing her along, you needed all the help you could get. The green haired Meltran looked so happy, no, eager, to try out your new gun. It was hard to tell given the bounce in her step, among other things. She was probably one of the few who you didn’t have to incline your neck too much to look at, being less than a head shorter than you helped. Of course, she probably wasn’t much different when macronised. It was surprising how she managed to make it to her Queadluun without anyone noticing. Maybe they were just used to it?

Along with Soapbox, the three of you were flown out to a familiar asteroid field. It was the same one you encountered an unknown space ship in. Thankfully, nothing showed up on the sensors, not even a tiny bit of interference out of the ordinary.

“Alright new guy, tell me,” Claudia spoke, “have you done any long distance shooting?”

You let Soapbox field this one as you started setting up some targets.

“Nope.”

“Good, let me show you how it’s done,” she said, “Pecker stay still.”

You didn’t see the shot approach but she managed to nail the plate-sized target in your Valkyrie’s hand. It blew off the top left, from her perspective, chunk.

“Did you just shoot me with your beam cannon?” you asked.

“How’d I do?”

“Top left of centre.”

“Right so that’s probably barrel drift from suit rotation,” she concluded, “newbie, grab a hold of an asteroid and try nailing Pecker like I did.”

“Hey, don’t shoot me, shoot the targets,” you protested.

“That’s what I did right?” she sounded confused.

“Uh okay,” Soapbox just did as he was instructed.

Thankfully he had the courtesy of letting you get out of the line of fire before pulling the trigger. Next up,

>You were going to give it a go
>Claudia was going to try her hand at it
Roll 1d100 either way

Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>34515975
>You were going to give it a go

Rolled 65 (1d100)

>>34515975
>Claudia was going to try her hand at it

Rolled 99 (1d100)

>>34515975
>Claudia was going to try her hand at it

Let her try, then explain what's right or wrong with it, then we try so we can understand

Rolled 34 (1d100)

>>34515975
>You were going to give it a go

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Soapbox didn’t have a problem firing the thing at all. The shot hit above centre. More specifically, it was off to the top by about four centimetres. You called it out and reset, letting Soapbox try a few more times with Claudia shouting instructions over the comms. It was a feat to get that kind of accuracy over the distance he was shooting from but Claudia didn’t seem impressed. Each shot was still hitting a bit above centre.

“Damn it new guy, I told you to stop compensating for bullet drop,” she repeated for the fifth time, “pass me the rifle, let me see if you’re just shit or there’s something wrong with the rifle.”

She took his place and squeezed off five more shots. One of them hit dead centre but the grouping was still within four centimetres though.

“Hmmm, not bad, who’d you get to program the targeting computer?” Claudia finally asked, “Had to jerk the trigger to get it to hit right on.”

“Jive.”

“Oh no wonder this thing’s over compensating like a chipmunk on a sugar high. He keeps flying that POS of his and never thinks that some of us don’t need that much help keeping a gun stable.”

“Sounds like it’s a matter of preference,” you said.

“I’ll tell you what’s a matter of preference; me wanting to punch things than shooting them,” she retort, “Get over here so you can see for yourself.”

You came over to try a few shots as Soapbox went out to reset the targets. The targeting overlay wasn’t terrible but it could use some more work to get a better sight of the target in your VF-22. The first shot hit, still not dead centre but it hit, which was enough in your opinion but Claudia kept shouting at you to keep shooting. It wasn’t like you were going to get better results given the problem she pointed out but you might as well wear the barrel a bit to see how it handled.

[1/2]

>>34517610
A couple hours and several hundred rounds later, the three of you returned to the Avalon to try and get the problems hammered out. Problems like how the barrel came close to deforming when all shots in a magazine were exhausted as fast as possible. You remember that the original gun pod had revolving barrels to prevent this from being an issue. It seemed your modifications needed to remedy the issue, if it was an issue at all.

Claudia had considered the rifle fine for sporting use. With the kind of accuracy it had right now, she suggested you increased the size of the projectile and go full anti-material. Which, in this case, meant that it should be able to take out star ships. You weren’t sure how to do that. Soapbox on the other hand was rather enamoured by how accurate it was, even if it was only a semi-automatic. He did not have much criticism on account of not actually being experienced to tell. At least it was user friendly, you supposed. Now all you needed was a pitch for the presentation in a few days.

There were several points to consider, and emphasising some points over others could sway opinions. It was a cheap conversion all told, needing very few custom parts to turn a regular old gun pod in to a sniper rifle. The aforementioned user-friendliness was also another point. Then again your one-off prototype hadn’t gone through the rigorous processes most other weapon designs had. If you played that angle, it’d give you more leeway for potential investors or buyers.

>Emphasise the low cost
>Focus on user friendliness
>Play the prototype angle
>Pitch something else (write-in)

>>34517802
>Pitch something else (write-in)
The tactical advantages of a sniper pod. Tell people WHY we need this. The rest will follow.

>>34517802

I agree with
>>34517856

Although this is a good alternate maybe:
>>Focus on user friendliness

>>34517802
>>34517856
I agree with this also, but also combine these.
>Emphasise the low cost
>Focus on user friendliness
Point it out these why it could be a good mass produced model.

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You don’t think there was a better way to convince the attendees of the need to adopt your design than you tell them why you designed it in the first place. There was a tactical need for a long distance rifle at the scale of a Variable Fighter. Avalon’s current forces didn’t have one after all. Spacy hadn’t deemed it important and while that was their prerogative you had already experienced a scenario where you wished you had a long distance rifle at your disposal. You were sure there would be other pilots who had thought the same. Well if that didn’t convince them, then you’d at least point to its low cost of adoption and the user friendliness.

A few days later, it was time to present and Sergei had provided you a list of important attendees. There was obvious a representative from the Council, Timothy Garnet. While he looked like an ordinary suit, his reflective and shiny eyes gave away that he was obviously augmented and serving as the eyes and ears of the Council in real time. Spacy was represented by two people, Brigadier General William McIntyre and surprisingly enough, First Lieutenant Irina Kudo. Rounding out the end of the list were corporate reps from Shinsei Industry, L.A.I. and General Galaxy to name a few industry giants. The last name had you scratching your head though. Grace O’Connor, a representative of an independent research institution from the Macross Galaxy. Then again it wasn’t too strange given that an SMS pilot from the Macross Frontier was also in attendance, a guy called Gilliam.

Before the actual demonstration started the various guests were milling about. If there was a time to make a good first impression on one of the assembled parties now was the time. That is of course assuming you wanted to approach them at all.

>Proceed straight to the demonstration
>Go say hello to First Lieutenant Kudo
>Strike up conversation with Ms. O’Connor
>Hobnob with industry giants
>Talk to someone (specify)

>>34519279
>>Go say hello to First Lieutenant Kudo

Let's see how screwed we are.

>>34519279
>Go say hello to First Lieutenant Kudo
We could ask how the current Spacey forces are doing under the new requirement.

>>34519279
>>>Go say hello to First Lieutenant Kudo

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Of course it wouldn’t do to at least say hello to an acquaintance. The First Lieutenant was silent as ever as the Brigadier General chatted with some official or another. It was because of this that the General was the one who greeted you first.

“Ah, First Lieutenant, a pleasure to finally meet you,” he offered a hand.

It was a struggle trying to resist the urge to salute.

“I’m retired sir,” you shook, “But likewise. You can call me,”

“Pecker,” the only actual First Lieutenant in attendance greeted.

“Hello to you as well, Irina,” you replied with an even tone.

“Ah, so you know each other huh?” the general stroked his chin, “I see what’s going on here.”

Irina remained silent on the matter.

“Honestly I didn’t think you’d have to go that far to avoid fraternisation regs,” he commented, “Then again I was never really a glasses guy.”

“That is sexual harassment sir,” Irina noted.

“Right, right, forget I said anything,” he whined.

“Well actually sir I left due to that new bill,” you clarified.

The General’s face fell.

“I was afraid that was the case,” he sighed, gesturing vaguely towards the Council rep, “The need to augment pilots and personnel is going to turn away potential recruits, not to mention the costs of it in the first place. Makes me sad we’re losing good pilots to the private sector, especially one as creative as you.”

Irina nodded shallowly.

“Looking forward to the demonstration then?”

“Very much so,” he turned to Irina, “how much do we stand to benefit First Lieutenant?”

“Up to 50% savings in procurement sir.”

That was a lot.

“Which is why I’m hoping your demo will show the penny pinchers how cost effective your new, er, what's it called again?”

“He has not named it sir.”

“If mass production is feasible we might give it a name,” you answered.

“Then let us hope that it does eh?”

[1/2]

Having chatted with Spacy, you tweaked your presentation a bit as the demonstration finally went underway. Soapbox flew his VF-171 and used it to knock out targets the size of dinner plates that were progressively farther and farther away, up until the twenty kilometre mark. They had been hits, not the most accurate hits but still hits. You spoke of the tactical need that you found your weapon fulfilling and how it could easily be manufactured and made ready for use at low cost.

There was some polite applause and you scanned the crowd for reactions. The Council representative remained stoic and emotionless. General McIntyre had a shallow smile forming on his face, along with Irina. The various industry representatives had looks ranging from grim to neutral. Ms. O’Connor was looking straight at you, meeting your gaze eye to eye. Though that lasted a brief moment before she turned away, pretending to focus on the slideshow behind you. You weren’t sure what was going to happen with your project but you tried to best. Or at least you thought so. At the end of the day you,

>polished off a beer at Jive’s Office
>were messaged by Ms. O’Connor
>got a call from your father

>>34520894
>were messaged by Ms. O’Connor
I wonder what she wants.

>>34520894
>>were messaged by Ms. O’Connor

Sure why not.

>>34520846
>were messaged by Ms. O’Connor

>>34520894

>were messaged by Ms. O’Connor
might as well!

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You were curious about Ms. O’Connor. Waving off Sergei and the rest of SMS, you met up with her at a hotel on Deck 7. You assumed it was the hotel she was staying at, given that she was waiting for you at the restaurant. It wasn’t too fancy. You weren’t sure why she wanted to see you but at least now you could find out. It helped that she was rather easy on the eyes, like a blue-haired Irina that smiled a bit more.

“Mr. Astronomov?” she greeted.

“Oh no, that’s my dad, Pecker is fine,” you returned with a smile.

“Then please, call me Grace.”

The both of you took a seat.

“So, Grace, may I know why you wished to have dinner with me? Not that I don’t enjoy the company.”

“Certainly, I think it’s only fair though a bit embarrassing on my part,” she shifted in her seat, “You see I am a great fan of your work on the Sound Energy Matter Destabiliser.”

That was your Master Thesis, so you had some idea of where this was headed. She must have sensed your thoughts as she continued,

“This isn’t a proposition of any kind of course. I simply wished to get to know you and maybe talk about comparing notes every once in a while, in the future.”

“Well, inviting me to dinner is certainly the way to do it,” you assured.

“I like the Avalon,” she continued, “it’s quite similar to the Galaxy in many ways yet also quite different.”

“Well I certainly hope you’ll be staying long enough to enjoy some of what the Avalon has to offer.”

“It is unfortunate but my return flight is tomorrow morning,” she then apologised.

“Then I suppose we have all night,” you replied.

“Yes, I suppose.”

>>34522014
Episode 6 End. See you next week.
https://twitter.com/BoredofDirector
Next Episode: Clarification

>>34522043
thanks for running

>>34523152
Had to go out part way through, but still fun.

Thanks for the show