Bunny attracted more than a few glances as she made her way through the base.  Her bright pink suit clinging tightly to her body frayed the already questionable professionalism some of the more base-bound personnel had.  Still, she caught more bemused smiles and waves than anything like stolen lurid glances.  The ground crew who noticed her mostly just waved and cheered.  They always saw pilots suited up.  Even for those somewhat excited by the uniforms, it lost its special allure at some point--though Bunny's bright pink one stuck out against the normal fair.<br/><br/>The suit seemed to tingle a little around her legs whenever someone knew saw her.  Small ripples of electricity, surely coincidental--the suit's wet circuits trickle-charged off movement to no particular end as a consequence of its design.  Even if she were sitting still it would gather some currents just from her breathing.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>"Don't let it hold you up, but we're running a little low on wine in the 'crew fridge,"</strong>Suzy told her with a wink.<br/><br/><strong>"Just watch yourself, we don't know who's behind the bomb threat--but if it's serious enough to hold up shipping... they might have some serious hardware from who-knows-where."</strong>Suzy let a hint of concern slip into her eyes.  Her smile never broke, though.  No point in hurting morale.<strong>"You'll do great!"</strong>she added over her shoulder as she turned her attention to ushering ground grew to<em>hurry up</em>getting out of the way.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The hangar doors finished sliding open to let a beam of sunlight pierce the cavernous ferrocrete space.  The ground crew waved her ahead as the screen received a series of forward arrows overlaid atop reality--pointing her outwards.<br/><br/><strong>"Warrior Cotton, Launch!"</strong>came Suzy's cheery reply.  The Bent Frequency Wave (BFW) transmitter that came standard-issue with every mech allowed easy audio and visual communication.  It was mostly useful with unbroken sight lines at sea or in the air, but had a limited ability to transmit around obstacles--hence the "Bent."  The tech was cumbersome, but the mechs had room.  It allowed for more than simple radio and hardline comms from within the cockpit.  Soon, was receiving a video message:<br/><br/><strong>"Lieutenant Fox to Warrior Cotton,"</strong><div class="floatright">(https://www.anime-planet.com/images/characters/sandle-alarcon-42487.jpg)</div>the message cleared until she had a clear video feed to Fox, who was sitting in the commander's seat of an APC.<strong>"The convoy is fueled and ready to ride, take point on the azimuth I'm sending you."</strong><br/><br/>The video link winked out after her reply, the connection still there for her to respond.  She could not refuse a call from the command network, but would have to elect to answer anyone else.  This could lead to some awkward intrusions--Lieutenant Fox had seen her in the cockpit in her suit after all--but it was deemed useful to ascertain the condition of incapacitated pilots or those otherwise rendered incapable of audible response.  Being seen by her commander was just part of the job, though, and Fox had always made maintained eye contact and behaved with the utmost professionalism in the past.<br/><br/>Beyond the hangar was the base, walls and fences and guard posts sprawling around a series of structures near the mech hangar.  The garrison of Aleph Base was not considerable, but it was not without infantry other land vehicles.  The runway was clear before her, save for streaming sunlight and the cloudless day ahead.  The road ahead was paved and wide, at least for the initial passage, but cracked and littered with pushed aside husks here and there.  There was bound to be some ground traffic, but she could see no other vehicles save the convoy after emerging.<br/><br/>The convoy was four trucks, flanked by two MG-mounted jeeps, with one APC in the lead and another taking up the rear.  Civilian drivers in the trucks, the rest full of personnel from Aleph Base.  Lieutenant Fox surely rode in the lead APC.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Once the convoy was formed up, they proceeded south to their objective.  The lush green mountainsides around Aleph Base gave way to lower forests and plains with dying grass.  Occasionally ruins towered out of the background, sometimes teeming with people.  There were a handful of prefabbed homes deployed in circular fashion to create crudely walled compounds.  People living where they worked, in some form of resource extraction or other.  The expanse between properly defended settlements was not much for sight seeing if one was not inclined to dead skyscrapers or natural views.<br/><br/>After two hours of travel, they entered a ruined city along the remains of an twelve lane highway.  There was a time when hovercraft and flyers could easily bypass the need for such formalities, but these expensive and finicky technologies could not be reliably procured by civilians anymore.  This had resulted in a neglect towards the roads when they still could've been future-proofed in some cities, most of which were abandoned now in favour of the further thinking ones.  If there were any civilians in this city--it's possible the water supply was poisoned, or based on the many clusters of rubble, the buildings were prone to collapse.  The skyline was a boneyard of concrete and steel, a handful of ultramodern glistening towers resplendent with hexagons of untarnished glass sticking out like sore thumbs.  Their entrances and balconies showed extensive signs of looting, most of the guts inside the pretty shells having been ripped out long ago.<br/><br/>They were dead in the center of the ruined metropolis when Lieutenant Fox again opened the call.<br/><br/><strong>"Warrior Cotton, we've got visual on irregular combatants.  Be advised, they are closing on us."</strong>Fox's look betrayed no concern, but this could be an engagement.  Someone behind him spoke, and Fox's eyes lit up.<strong>"Warrior Cotton, eyes south!  Unknown mech approaching!"</strong><br/><br/>Bunny at that moment received an incoming video-call from an unknown source.  It was using an old military frequency.  Which made sense--given what had just stepped out of the rubble to face her to the south.<br/><br/>It was an AKEMA Mk. IV, from the Last War.  It was far from well repaired or state-of-the-art, but aside from its shoulder mounter<strong>Small Sidewinder</strong>it was wielding a MSR--<strong>Mecha Support Rifle</strong>.  Like a Gatling with better range, it was not to be trifled with.<br/><br/><div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_u">Encounter 1, Turn 0</span></strong><br/>(https://i.imgur.com/H4IMaXv.png)<br/>Bunny is receiving a video call from the unknown mech, she may answer it as a <strong>free action</strong>.<br/><br/><strong>"Warrior Cotton, this is an ambush--engage that mech!"</strong> Lieutenant Fox <strong>"requests."</strong></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">AKEMA Mk. IV</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong><span class="bbc_u">AKEMA Mk. IV</span></strong><br/><strong>Stability</strong>:  14 / 18<br/><strong>Power</strong>:  3 / 3<br/><strong>CPU</strong>:  1 / 1<br/><strong>Move</strong>:  4 / 4<br/><strong>K-Armour</strong>:  1<br/><strong>E-Armour</strong>:  1<br/><strong>X-Armour</strong>:  1<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Condition</span></strong><br/>[R-Arm]: 5 / 5<br/>[L-Arm]: 5 / 5<br/>[R-Leg]: 4 / 4<br/>[L-Leg]: 4 / 4<br/><pre><br/>         [H1][H2]<br/>[RA1]  [T1][T2][T3]  [LA1]<br/>[RA2]  [T4][T5][T6]  [LA2]<br/>       [RL1]  [LL1]<br/>       [RL2]  [LL2]</pre><br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Modules</span></strong><br/>???<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Weapons</span></strong><br/><strong>Mecha Support Rifle</strong><br/><span class="bbc_u">WIELDED</span>?: y<br/><span class="bbc_u">POWER USE</span>: 0<br/><span class="bbc_u">DAMAGE</span>:  6 (+/-2)<br/><span class="bbc_u">RANGE</span>: 6 (-2)<br/><span class="bbc_u">SUPPRESSING</span>:  Attacking enemies within effective range causes 1 Stress even on a miss.<br/><span class="bbc_u">TYPE</span>:  KINETIC<br/><br/><strong>Small Sidewinder</strong><br/><span class="bbc_u">Installed</span>:  T1<br/><span class="bbc_u">Power Usage</span>:  1<br/><span class="bbc_u">Damage</span>:  10 (+/- 3)<br/><span class="bbc_u">Range</span>:  10 (-3)<br/><span class="bbc_u">Missile</span>:  Every degree-of-failure introduces another "degree of uncertainty" that pushes the missile off course.  Adjacent hexes take half damage.  Can fire without LoS, imposes -2 on attack roll.<br/><span class="bbc_u">Ammo (4)</span>:  Small Sidewinders come with a preloaded 4 missile compliment, and may thus only be shot four times per deployment.<br/><span class="bbc_u">Type</span>:  Explosive<br/>[/quote]<br/><br/></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Legend</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/4GLIaNP.png)</div> <strong>Building</strong>:  Full Cover\-1 incoming Attacks, Destructible; Impassable<br/><strong>Rubble</strong>:  -1 incoming Attacks, Destructible; -1 Movement<br/><strong>Ultramod</strong>:  Full Cover\-2 incoming Attacks, Indestructible; Impassable<br/><strong>Highway</strong>:  +1 Movement<br/><br/>If a map feature lists <strong>Full Cover</strong>, it means along certain facings the enemy will not be able to attack you with weapons that require a direct line of sight; if the feature is only partially between you and the enemy or they have non-LoS weapons, they take the penalty listed after the \.<br/><br/>If a map feature lists <strong>Movement</strong>, it confers any bonus for starting on the map feature (cannot stack from same type) and incurs any penalty when attempting to enter a map feature (i.e. costs 2 movement to enter rubble).<br/></div></div>