Kadushy Posts

Drone ops are heavily regulated, but of course not all of it is declassified (I'll tell you what isn't classified)

We can use drones for whatever is required for an operation, be it for escort or attacks on militant groups. I can't tell you of any specific operations or how they went, but I can tell you that we take great pains to ensure we have the right people before we are authorized to strike. In fact, it's often that we tell some commander no, or some commander tells us no, because there was not enough to get PID (positive identification) that it was a lawful combatant we were looking at.

Now that last bit of your sentence got me thinking a little more, and I want to make one thing very clear; the CIA does not have free reign over drone operations, we do not just point and click, America does not use drones as a toy nor wield them with lack of judgement. The United States, nor members of it's armed forces, do not, DO NOT, intentionally or purposefully engage civilians of any kind. Ever. Period. End of Story.

I think you might be confused on how a drone actually works.

Speaking as a member of the USAF and more specifically as a member of the career field that deals with the Pred/Reaper drones), you honestly have teams of people working with ONE drone. Fayte was right in his explanation; when you're working mission you aren't stuck in a desert 15000 miles from home, you're 10 minutes from the Wal-Mart just down main street. You've got a certain number of people each looking at the video feed who have gone through months of training on how to tell what is what when looking through a camera at 25000 feet. That analyst is calm, got a good nights sleep, and had a big ass meal before he got on shift.

All opposed to a pilot who's flying at the speed of sound, who has to concentrate not only on flying the plane, but also finding the target(s) and being sure not to hit friendlies. I'm not saying that a pilot is incapable of doing that job, we don't use UAV's for every little thing, but it's certainly much easier a job for the analyst team back home than the pilot there right now. As for calling them assassinations...well I can't really argue with that, but which would you rather risk to kill a group of terrorists? Ten soldiers with a family who loves them back home? Or a 50,000 dollar missile?

Of course, this is my job, so I may be a bit biased :P.

Oh.

Ok never mind, carry on with your t-shirts.

Your mom sucks my dick, didn't know that did you?

I'd like that PM too if you don't mind.

Avery had to keep himself from skipping down the halls of the ship. Whilst everyone else had gone to the meeting, he and Marian had been getting... reacquainted. It had been a lot longer than Avery had thought, but he'd be damned if he didn't still have it. And even though the addition of Alistar had not served to make his headache any better, having Marian hang around for a little would keep him chipper for as long as she stayed around.

All those calories he'd just burned off in the cockpit needed to get replaced somehow, and he could smell chicken coming from somewhere; spicy chicken. He checked his crates first, who knows what sort of bottle had been broken in there and was fooling the pilot into thinking someone had a bite to eat.

Nope, nothing broken in his crate. Not surprised really, it was mostly just alcohol in there anyway. The room nearest to the cargo bay was the med bay. Avery decided that since everyone else was probably still in the meeting room, he let loose a little bit and skipped along towards the infirmary. He even did a little waltz into the room, noticing only after a few twirls with his imaginary partner that the meeting was indeed over. Harris was staring at him with a chicken kebab in his hand. What could he do but smile?

"Well, you and I seem to find no end of awkward moments between us."

Harris took a bite of slow bite of his chicken and nodded. "That is a fact."

"Got any spare chicken? I could use a snack."

Another pause, and another nod. "Just one though, I haven't eaten for a while."

Avery made a victory pump with his fist and took the skewer Harris offered him. It was cold, but hey, he probably bought the things an hour or more ago. It doesn't stay warm forever, especially in the ship. He took a seat next to Harris and took a gander at the woman on the operating table.

"So -munch munch- what's the deal with our mystery patient? Looks like the bleeding has stopped -munch munch- and she's breathing normally. Hmmm! This chicken is great, even if it is cold."

He was about to take the last bit of chicken off the skewer and scarf it down, but being in such a good mood around someone who had probably come within micrometers of death, he couldn't help but try and alleviate what seemed to be like a gloomy mood in the med-bay. Maybe it was the caked blood all over the girls body. Avery walked over to the table.

He, with a jovial tone, offered her the last piece."Yoohoo, miss? Want this last bit of chicken? It's pretty good you know."

Harris chuckled at his antics. "Even if she could hear you, I doubt eating would be the best thing for her, she's so pumped up with pain killers she'd probably puke it back up before it ever reached her stomach."

"Bah, what a killjoy you are. Fine then. Has she even moved since you put her on that thing? I know you've got her strapped down and all, but...you know what I mean?"

((hope you don't mind Harris))

Sorry sleep, but I wont need you for a few days. Boner, that goes for you too.

My name is

It took another minute for Avery and Jill to catch up to Teal. He had heard the commotion over the comm set, and it didn't sound very good. As Avery rounded the corner he saw Teal. She didn't look hurt too much, but her shirt was gone and she was stumbling back out of the alley they had come down. And who else in the alley but the man from that bar. With the shirt on the ground and Alistar with his knife out, Avery thought it was a pretty open and shut case, and it did not make him too happy.

Avery and Jill were both approaching from behind Alistar, who had apparently not noticed them yet. He took a few steps forward as if to follow her, but Avery wasn't having it. He took out his pistol and fired a warning shot at the wall next to him. He almost wished he hadn't, that gun shot was pretty loud and his headache wasn't quite gone yet.

"NOT ONE STEP FURTHER OR I'LL PLASTER THE WALLS WITH YOUR BRAINS."


Avery whispered to Marian;

"Follow Teal if you can, make sure she's ok, and try and bring someone back here to help me out. Then meet me back at the ship, tell them you're with me and you shouldn't have any problems."

She nodded and went back out the way they came, trying to find where the alley exited. That left just Avery and Alistar. Alistar had turned around to face whoever had shot at him, his hands held out instead of up to avoid making things worse for him.

"You're that fool from the bar and grill. Got any good reason to be out trying to rape my friend? Or are you just looking for thrills?"

Since Avery seemed willing to talk, Alistar put his hands down a little bit and took a few steps forward. He was greeted by another pistol shot, this one aimed over his shoulder. The two weren't that far apart, maybe 15 or 20 meters. Even with a small hangover, Avery couldn't miss at this distance.

"Not one foot closer, got me? Make another move and the next bullet goes in an arm, and that's a promise. Now, answer the questions if you please."

It's so true!

"....ohhhhhhhh god damn turn off the lights, please."

"Hey there lover boy, welcome to the waking world."

Avery slowly sat himself up, keeping his hand over his eyes to keep the headache from getting worse. He'd woken up in worse places, and had worse headaches, but the familiar voice wasn't something he'd woken up to in a long time.

"...Now if I didn't know better I'd say I was better off passed out under this musty old blanket. Where the hell am I?"

"You're in your ship mein fuhrer, apparently crewed up with someone who has a good sense of humour."

"Mein fuhrer? Wh...what?"

A soft giggle and gentle hands answered his question, peeling his hands away from his face.

"Oh fuck fuck, lights-"

"Oh don't be such a baby, shut up and take it like a man"

A damp cloth smothered his face and vigorously rubbed it clean.

"You can thank me later Avery, I wouldn't have gone into public looking like that without being piss drunk either"

It was starting to come back to him now; that bottle of water he had picked up must not have been water. He didn't think he'd drunk that much, it was only a little bottle. Must've been more potent than usual.

"Ahhghhh, soju."

"Must've been a bad night if you passed out like you did, another few months with no one to talk to again?"

The cloth finished it's business, and Avery managed to get a quick glimpse of her before the light got the better of him again. He really needed some sunglasses if he was gonna have to be awake for this one.

"Urrrghh, hello Marian. Good to see you after all this time. Hey co-could you hand m-"

"Already ahead of you lover boy, here. It's still Jill in public company though, so don't go introducing me to your friends with Marian."

She handed Avery a set of shades and sat down next to him. Marian; known as Jill in polite company. The first woman Avery had seen after drifting through space, alone, for three months. She'd taken an initial shine to Avery when he first walked in to the Bravado Club when she managed to coax the story of how he got New Britannia out of him. The shine sort of waned a bit after his first week there, after he spent most of his money on drinks, women, and gambling. But when some woman of a mob boss put the moves on her perpetually drunk and far too trusting friend, who nearly lost his life when her husband found the two of them together...well who didn't deserve a second chance right? She (and five 6'7 giants) kindly escorted the mobster and his woman towards the back alley trash dumps, and slowly the staff of the Bravado weaned him off the alcohol and eventually got him back out the door of the club.

Being the only one that could actually understand what Avery was saying after beeing drunk for two weeks, Marian was the one who had to get him back to the ship and keep an eye on him for the exceptionally long recovery from the initial nightmare of a hangover and the worst case of alcohol poisoning she'd ever seen. All through that month, Marian eventually was able to get almost his whole life story out of him. From the first time he piloted a shitty little shuttle, to the piece-de-resistance of stealing the Infinity right from under the noses of a GUA unit guarding the ship yards the state of the art vehicle was made at, and the drastic measures he went through to keep it in his possession.

She in turn confided in him; Marian was a bit of a convict herself. She had been a bit of an assassin in her younger days. Opting to go for a more sly modus operandi of poisoning certain people who frequented the bar she worked, definitely paying her bills and then some. Of course it didn't take long for the authorities to catch on to her game; criminal groups as well. With the help of a previous employer, Marian underwent physical surgery to alter her appearance, took the name Jill, took a more honest job as a professional bar tender on New Britannia.

The two seemed to think they hit it off with each other pretty well, and spent quite a few nights in steamy pleasantries. Avery left New Britannia a month later, to make the last few of months of his silent journey home. Marian quickly offered to make the journey with him, but Avery refused, insisting that if she was caught with him it would be a death sentence for her too. So in her stead, the two worked on a virtual intelligence program that had her voice and personality imprints to keep him company. They named her 'Fi', an abbreviation of the Infinity. Between teary goodbyes and one more night of steamy pleasantries, Avery promised he would come back to New Britannia as soon as possible.

That had been a little under 4 years ago.

"Introduce my friends?"

"Yeah, there's a big commotion going on outside that steak place down the street from Bravado, and that group of mercs who came off your ship was seen not too far off. Gunshots from what I could hear, you should probably get down there."

"Well I don't know if you noticed, but I can barely stand, what with the state I'm in."

"Yeah I can tell. Here drink this, should get you on your feet."

"What, it's poisoned?"

"Just cyanide."

"Oh, good."

Marian handed him a small glass that had a funny smelling dark purple liquid in it. If he could have smelled what was in it, he might not have been so quick to gulp it down. It probably tasted just as bad too, because Avery nearly puked it back up.

"Oh god what the shit is this?"

"Just shut up and let it work ya pansy. It takes a few minutes though, so come over here and lay down."

Avery complied with as much sarcasm as he could muster, but it wasn't convincing. He shuffled over with some difficulty. Marian helped him over, and gently lay him down back on the blanket, using her lap as a pillow for him.

It was not something Avery had done for a very, very long time.

"So..."

"So."

That was pretty much the only talking they did for the 10 minutes it took for the concoction Avery had downed to take full effect. And effect it did. Already Avery's headache was not worth mentioning, and his sensitivity to light was minimal. He kept the sunglasses on regardless. It was an awkward 10 minutes. Finally after Avery felt like he was feeling as good as he was going to...

"Marian I-"

She cut him off before he could even start, her finger pushed to his lips.

"You can tell me another life story after we go see if your friends need help. Come on and get up"

With his comfortable lap pillow no longer up for grabs, Avery supposed he had no choice but to get up and off the ship. He followed Marian out the door.

"Let's go, it's not too far from here"

"Just one question."

"What is it Mr. Hangover?"

"Yeah yeah very funny. How'd you even get on the ship?"

"It was easy. You still have the same access code you had 4 years ago!"

Oh, right. He knew that.

The grill was only a few minutes jog away from the Infinity, and Avery had managed to shake most of the hangover with the jog there. A crowd had gathered outside. Avery didn't recognize anyone but Teal and Bohr were following the apparent instigator of it all, Bohr looking bewildered and a little bit offended, and Teal with her face as red as the sun. He worked his way through the crowd, but was having trouble catching up.

"So, are those the only two people you keep company with? Who's the kid? His daughter?"

"No, there are two others elsewhere. This is Bohr, our engineer, and Teal, our...well general ass kicker really. The guy who 'paid' for the ship is Richard, and he's with the Doc, Harris."

"You SOLD Infinity?!?"

"In a manner of speaking, look it's a long story I can tell you about later. Where are they going?"

Avery was having no luck at all trying to catch up; Teal seemed dead set on catching up to whoever it was had started the ruckus. He and Jill followed after her as best they could.

Where's my wincest damn you!

It could be said that Avery was a well coordinated drunk, but that isn't really saying much. He at least managed to make it back to the loading bay without tripping over anything or bumping into a wall. He spotted the Doc and Teal, and being in a good mood decided to find himself some company. He walked up behind them and wrapped his arms around their shoulders. He didn't smell too much like booze, since soju has no smell, but it was kind of obvious that he was drunk

"Hey hey! If it isn't Harris M.D. and the young lady with the beautiful singing voice!"

He let both of them go and shuffled over to his crate, using it as a seat.

"I'll tell you, you're gonna love this rock. Britannia was the first place I stopped off after my jaunt through deep space for a few months. I'll tell you, after not talking to an actual person for three months...AHHH shit, that's depressing old crap you don't wanna hear about."

He hoped off his crate with great gusto, and began emphasizing his descriptions with not too coordinated arm gestures. He loved telling this story.

"First place I walked into was a seedy little club called Bravado. Great name right? Now I say little, but you could probably fit my ship here into that hole a couple times over. You could get lost in a place like that...as a matter of fact I did! Spent a whole two weeks in that place before I found the door again. I even sobered up two days later!"

He went back towards the two and wrapped an arm around Harris. Walking him around the bay as if he were actually there. Chances are Avery might have thought they were.

"You'd 've loved the place Doc, the scene there was crazier than you! Haha! Right over there to the right; that was the bar. Beautiful little thing by the name of Jill worked there. Now not having much in the way of conversation for a few months makes it kind of hard to hold one you know? Precious thing gave me my first three shots for free when I finally managed to tell her what I did, that loosened my tongue up it did! Loved that brandy she used to make, never would share the recipe with me."

He dragged him around the cargo bay, gesturing left and right and everywhere in between. Avery let Harris go and waltzed up to Teal, and gave her the same tour.

"Oh and right down this hall was where I won my first poker game. 200,000 on the line! Almost had my johnson cut off when some mob boss caught me with his woman later that night! God that was crazy; lucky for me Jill heard all the commotion and threw him and the woman out...such a shame really. I of course spent every penny from that game before I ever found the door, even might have even made a few kids by the time I got out of there."

Avery let Teal go as well, and sat himself back down on the crate.

"Worst hangover a man ever had on New Britannia, I promise that. Man what a trip; we should hit the place up if we get a chance!"

((Can I write a post, or can I write a post?))

Having mistaken soju for water, Avery was now more than a little drunk and did his best to hide it when Richard had come to check on him. Luckily he left as quickly as he had came. Fi quipped in after Richard was gone.

"You knew you didn't have any water in that damn thing, why would you drink the whole damn bottle thinking it was?"

"You do-don't judge me missy prissy pants-."

Avery chuckled to himself; it was funny because she didn't have any pants.

"If I dun wanna deal with almost...you know...the dead part sober, I WON'T DO IT SOBER!"

As with most people who are drunk, Avery didn't play things quite so close to the chest. He also emphasized a lot of what he said by shouting at the end. It didn't seem like an angry shout, but more like when you think someone can't hear you. Setting down the ship wouldn't be a problem, Avery could land or dock anywhere with his eyes closed swimming in a pool of mud. What Avery could not do, however, was keep himself in check if he started talking; whatever came to mind went right out his mouth. No questions asked.

"Fucking twat that Richard, giving every lady who comes his way a good Dicking -hah! get it? Cause his name is Dick and all -gives them his shaft, then gives them the shaft-heheh, and then asks me to crash MY SHIP?"

Avery was out of drink, but he took an imaginary swig and threw the bottle to the ground, it didn't break.

"Fuck it allllllllll, can't even break a damn bottle..."

No matter how happy or pissed Avery would start off when he got drunk, he would inevitably become quiet and a little bit depressed. Everything reminded him of space, especially when actually flying through space.

"It all reminds me of space...[size=10]I hate space[/h]."

And so Avery sat, watching New Britannia coming into view, and hating his time in space. He stayed that way for a few minutes more, until the ship arrived at New Britannia. No sooner had the planet loomed into view than his mood quickly improved, time on planet meant time not in space.

It was a perfect landing, even with Avery seeing double of the flight console. Three months alone in the cockpit drifting through space tends to have it burned into ones memory. He wasted no time in getting out of the cockpit, he didn't want to be around the ship for a little while.

"I need to get off this shit for a little while...be back later Fi"

"If you spend even one minute with those wenches at-"

Avery didn't hear it, he was already out of earshot.

"...Sad old bastard"

funniest Dumbest shit I have ever read