Money for Nothing [Day 0]

[Hadrian Martikova]

Hadrian sighed, "That's a half answer professor, but no. Apart from the basics I gleaned hanging out with crop dusters I haven't any proficiency to speak of. Nor would I trust my ability to figure it out."

He quirks an eyebrow at Laila. "And you honey?"

[Laila Bridger]

"Didn't see me grabbing the controls back on Caladan, huh? Yeah, there's a reason for that... I haven't touched thopter controls since basic."

[Kannon]

"There's a weak spot then. We'll have to accept help. I am not good at it either." Xard turned thoughtful.

[Hadrian Martikova]

"There are several I'm afraid. I also fear we do not have an infiltrator." Which in truth worried Hadrian more than the idea of needing to charter lifts. "But these are little more than inconveniences, and I'm quite sure we can find both. Assuming Hawat's man hasn't already left us a pilot we can trust."

He takes another sip of wine in thought.

"Accept a pilot to go with the thopter, but I'll try on my end to locate an alternative. Simultaneously, I'm going to be pulling some rather dangerous threads in the hope of being recruited as an agent by the Harkonnen."

[Cuyler Gray]

"Unfortunately, I think there will be much we will need to improvise." Cuyler said. "We may need to fill unexpected roles."

[Laila Bridger]

Every sense you have is an instrument for responding to change.

Laila blinked at the unbidden thought.

It wasn't one of hers. She didn't think like that, in neat, quotable epigrams. She also didn't think in such formal sentences, however much they applied to the team's circumstances.

Fuck ailar and fuck the Tleilaxu

That was more like her. As was the way her mind moved on to the skill gaps and extremely vague nature of their assigned mission.

Maybe Hawat sent us out here to tie up loose ends. An Ecazi mercenary who hardly performed brilliantly on the one job he had anything to do with, a Mutelli chef who's seen too much, an Imperial whose family came to grief on Atreides territory, and an Atreides vassal only kept on the payroll via blackmail. No irreplaceable skills, no one important to his chosen batch of nobles... makes a great deal of sense of this 'no time to prepare' mission he has us on.

I am really fucking tired of being considered expendable.

Unfortunately, no way out of that particular snare presented itself as viable.

Can't go to the Harkonnens. Whatever I might have against the Atreides, the Harkonnens are truly despicable.
The local House? Hardly an option. What I've seen is a culture that openly treats people as things.
The Imperials? Possible. It's possible. But Xard being my friend is like Duncan being my friend- personal, not an institutional loyalty, and House Corrino wouldn't find me any more inherently valuable than any other organization in my life has.
The Bene Gesserit?

Oh, that was scary. She knewdidn'tknowunderstooddidn'tunderstand almost everythingnothing about what was going on there.

I wish Kiran was here.

Kiran was way better at the Bene Gesserit stuff.

But they find everyone expendable. Even their own.

The frosty conversation with Wanna came back.

They do not let their operatives live as human beings, whatever they may say about defining humanity.

All of this passed in an instant.

Laila shrugged at Cuyler's words.

"Almost all of my roles have been unexpected."

[Kannon]

Another feed came up, sports highlights of the past week. From multiple angles, suspensor-mounted cameras shot spacious insides of an indoor arena in which quasi-gladiatorial fights were taking place. The grandstands were packed and abuzz with feral excitement, a honoured spot reserved for the Archon, identifiable easiest by the ornamental headpiece.

A spectacular zoom-in on the sand in the arena's midst and the familiar physique of a blonde demigod with metallic eyes was presented in slo-mo during a dramatic coup de gras. Metaphorically speaking, because the outcome was neither too bloody nor lethal, with the bulky opponent simply thoroughly kocked out into a mewling heap, even as the appetite of the crowd was probably for something more grotesque.

Still, they thunderously cheered the triumphant warrior. "PANKRATOS! PANKRATOS!" and the Archon clapped in approval, visibly pleased.

Simultaneous realisations dawned.

He fights like Dorian, thought Cuyler.
He fights like Duncan, thought Laila.

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler stared. "I've not met many who fight like that..."

[Laila Bridger]

"Only one, really."

Laila cocked her head to the side.

"And I've seen plenty of fighters."

[Cuyler Gray]

"I have not." Cuyler admitted. 'But, that man reminds me of a friend, a swordmaster."

[Kannon]

[Education at Average for the willing.]

[Laila Bridger]

Whatever it was, Laila missed it.

[Pregame Education check, average difficulty, this is gonna suck!: 2eA+2eD 0 successes
]

[Cuyler Gray]

Drake was a Swordmaster of Ginaz, as Cuyler recalled.


- - -
Money for Nothing [Day 0], Average Education

Net Successes: 2; Net Advantages: 0

[Kannon]

And she also recalled that since the destruction of the Swordmaster School on Ginaz about two decades ago by House Moritani no new swordmasters could be trained. Both Duncan and Dorian were among the last ones.The man in the arena was... young.

[Cuyler Gray]

"That man is too young to be a Swordmaster of Ginaz." Cuyler shook her head. "He should not have that training."

[Hadrian Martikova]

"Keeping our cover should the time come," Hadrian said continuing the thopter discussion, "you could say that we became well acquainted on our trip over from Caladan. That would get us in the thopter as passengers at least. And it shouldn't arouse too much suspicion."

Another feed came up, sports highlights of the past week.

Hadrian took another sip of wine. The fascination of a blood sport completely lost to him, along with whatever sports talk they were having at that time. He was instead running over places where they could coordinate.

"I'm thinking we talk over our short-range comms in... say, the market, or possibly the arena stands to coordinate." He thinks out loud. "It's in the open, there should be sufficient noise cover. And no one will think twice about what's being written down as we take and compare notes. I believe we have the ear piece comms, I'd have to go and take a look." He nods. "But yeah, one of those could be our first rally point I think. Until I can scout out something more secure." Another sip of wine. "Thoughts?"

[Laila Bridger]

"That man is too young to be a Swordmaster of Ginaz." Cuyler shook her head. "He should not have that training."

"Well, he picked it up somewhere. Not a guy I'd care to fight fairly."

Not that she fought anyone fairly if she could avoid it.

At Hadrian's comments on maintaining their cover, she shrugged, bobbing the zero-G.

"I'm a mercenary. It's pretty easy to justify my presence with anyone of even minor importance. It also keeps me from having to maintain any particularly elaborate cover."

[Kannon]

"I wouldn't assume Ginaz training is just something you pick up." Xard commented. "The school is gone, the masters are dead, the infrastructure is in ruins. This man is quite a mystery."

[Hadrian Martikova]

"I'm confused, what's significant about Ginaz training?"

Hadrian asks slightly concerned that sports talk should take precedent at this time.

[Laila Bridger]

"The Swordmasters of Ginaz. The guys who trained, among others, Duncan Idaho. They're... incredibly dangerous in a toe to toe fight. That guy? No one wandering into these games is likely to have a chance in hell against him, and, as Xard says, young as he is, he shouldn't have been able to get the training he's displaying."