<br/><strong>Everett Yoshikawa<br/><em>Black Star</em> Dropship<br/>Callison System<br/>Republic Remnant<br/>21 January 3145</strong><br/><hr/><br/>Everett had been busy the last week and a half. After a bit of haggling and study of his schematics, Kari had approved the necessary expenditures for upgrading Butterfly to make it a bit more resilient in combat. She'd seconded the task to Dour Damien, who in enthusiastically humorless fashion had managed to scrounge up a Clan-manufacture Ultra AC/20 and a decent cache of spare/replacement parts to go with it. Installing the more powerful and less bulky weapon system into the Blitzkreig had freed just enough space and tonnage for the installation of a Light PPC Everett had found for cheap in a Galatea scrapyard. All-total, he'd walked away with a small but significant increase in main-gun firepower, and gotten the secondary/backup armament he desperately needed in the bargain. And just in time, by the sound of it.<br/><br/>"Crunchies and choppers? This'll be Recon's time to shine all right. I'm kinda hoping these pirates brought a real Mech or two to the party, though - popping hovertanks with heavy autocannon is like using your gold-plated sledgehammer to swat ants on the picnic table."<br/><br/>The newbie who'd asked a question was looking around at the others with a somewhat hesitant air, as if uncertain whether he'd get a rebuke or praise for asking an important - if somewhat obvious - question. That didn't speak well for the quality of his past berths, but the fact that he was here and not there spoke well for him personally.<br/><br/>"The locals need to hire us to swat crunchies and PBI, apparently. I wouldn't count on them having any Mechs worth including in our force estimates or tactical plans."<br/>