Happy New Year

Log Title: Happy New Year Characters: Cookie, Natalie Poole, Sgt Sideswipe Location: Mess Hall - The Pit Date: January 1, 2019 TP: King of Cats TP Summary: Cookie's cooking a special dinner for New Year's. A guest stops to eat before heading home. As logged by  Cookie

Log session starting at 17:07:20 on Tuesday, 1 January 2019.

'''Cookie is down in the Mess Hall. She's spent the holidays so far at the Pit, part of the minimal crew while everybody else gets a chance to go home for a few days. The SeaBee has been occupying herself during this slow time either planning things for later.. or cooking up some food to keep morale up here. Today, it's corned beef and cabbage, with some sweet cornbread baking in the oven. Traditional foods for a prosperous new year.'''

'''The Pit may be down to a skeleton crew for the holiday, but that doesn't mean they're not entertaining any high-profile foreign visitors. Colour Sergeant NATALIE POOLE, covert operations specialist for the SAF (Special Action Force) team, saunters into the mess hall in her formal British Army uniform. She looks around the area with an arched expression. She takes in the delicious scent of corned beef and cabbage and smiles, heading in Cookie's direction.'''

GAME: Cookie PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of Average difficulty.

'''Cookie washes some new red potatoes, humming slightly to herself. But when some foreign brass walks into the galley, she sets her work down to salute. "Evening, sergeant."'''

'''"Colour Sergeant," POOLE corrects with a relaxed smile. "Or just Colour. Although you can call me Natalie. Are you a Seebee?" she asks, eyes flicking over Cookie's manner and uniform. "The food smells delicious. Should I have brought salt, coal and bread?" she laughs.'''

'''Cookie nods in reply. "I am. Doing what Seabees do. Name's Cookie." She grins and goes back to scrubbing vegetables. "I think there's plenty of grub here already," she says. "But I appreciate the offer."'''

'''"Hmmmm..." Poole smiles. "Maybe, if you don't mind, I'll avail myself of some food before I head back home. I have a long flight back to England!" she laughs.'''

'''Cookie chuckles and lifts the lid on the corned beef, filling the area with the smell of spiced meat as she adds the potatoes and some carrots she'd prepared earlier. "The more, the merrier! It does a cook good to see people enjoy the food." There's a ding on a timer and Cookie goes to retrieve cornbread from the oven, setting the pans out to cool. "Are you heading back tonight?"'''

'''Sudden hunger flashes in Poole's eyes at the delicious scent of dinner. "Heading directly back, yes. We'd had some problems with one of our security systems in the UK, and I wanted to come out personally and make sure if anyone tried the same thing here, we'd queer their pitch," she chuckles.'''

'''Cookie hehs. "Yeah, there's attacks on all sides these days, aren't there?" she puts the lid back on the corned beef. "Well, twenty minutes at a simmer, and then it'll all be ready to eat. You can get the first share."'''

'''"Brilliant!" Colour Poole exclaims. "Certainly worth the wait."'''

'''Cookie pulls up a stool to perch on while she waits, all the prep work done until the vegetables finish cooking. "How are things on the other side of the pond?" she asks conversationally.'''

'''"Well spiffing!" Colour Poole reports. "Except the problem with our biometric sensors. Someone - we suspect Cobra, of course, or SKAR - got into our biometric database. Diabolical, right? So any ID we checked against it could be compromised. Well, as soon as we detected the problem, we blocked access and I head here straight away. I understand the Pit has had some problems with infiltration in the past," she understates politely.'''

'''Cookie shakes her head. "You could say that. There was some weird alien... being.. pretending to be one of our captains. While it was pretending to be human, it got past everything."'''

'''"Crikey!" Poole exclaims. "Aliens, too? Most we have to deal with mostly is Red Shadows in bad wigs."'''

'''Cookie gives Natalie a rueful smile. "Aliens who get shot at by giant robots. Never a dull moment, right?"'''

'''Natalie shakes her head. "Gor blimey!" she exclaims. "Not to rub it in, but we are so lucky those robots landed in your country and not ours. We have enough problems without adding giant robots into the mix. Is there any way Action Force can help?"'''

'''Cookie chuckles. "Probably, but it's not really my department." She grins. "I've been working out how to get Cobra out of our cities. The giant robots are mostly behaving themselves right now, so the snakes are a bigger problem."'''

'''Natalie Poole is a visiting British officer from UK's Action Force. She's in uniform and talking with Cookie. She frowns. "I heard Cobra's been attacking your East Coast. Maybe I can try to redirect some of our Q Forces..."'''

'''The kitchen smells of fresh baked cornbread and simmering meat and veggies, namely corned beef and cabbage. Cookie's waiting for the last timer to go off and chatting with the visiting officer in the meantime. "They've run through a lot of the coast, yeah. We stopped 'em at Norfolk, though. Wet Down's handling the offense from there, so he'd be the one to talk to about coordinating efforts."'''

'''Sgt. Sideswipe finishes one of his runs. The still-in-training Joe decided he'd 'give' himself a 12-mile run today for his New Year's gift. He definitely relishes the bit of exercise, given the patient he's been treating. The Joes will always be a beacon for good to Sgt. Sideswipe, but seeing how they treat some of their most dangerous criminals have caused him to be a bit queasy of ALL of the things the Joes do.'''

'''Natalie Poole nods. "Excellent. I might talk to him, then. You Yanks have certainly helped us out against the Red Shadows when we needed it - I'm sure our Q Force can help you defend your coasts as well." Poole's gaze flicks over towards the cooking food, hunger apparent in her eyes.'''

'''A timer goes off, and Cookie grabs a fork to go check the potatoes. Pleased with the results, she extracts the corned beef with a pair of meat forks to place it on a large platter, then scoops up potatoes, carrots, and cabbage to lie alongside. "Soup's on!" she says cheerfully, and sets to carving the meat into fat slices.'''

'''"Brilliant!" Natalie exclaims. "I could do with a good nosh up!" She moves to get a plate, not waiting on Sgt. Sideswipe - rank does have its privileges. She takes generous helpings - her looks like an MMA fighter under her uniform, and apparently eats like one as well.'''

'''Cookie snitches a bite of meat as she carves, a privilege of being the chef, but makes sure everything is sliced before she settles in with a plate for herself. "I imagine people will trickle in and out for the next hour," she says. "No formal dining hours around here."'''

'''Natalie takes her plate and smiles. "Well, I certainly appreciate your efforts, Cookie. This looks and smells delicious." She sits down and takes a bite, mmming and nodding in approval. She eats efficiently, taking time to enjoy each bite but engaging in no more small talk until she's finished off her meal. After turning in her tray and getting some to-go coffee, Natalie stops by to say goodbye to Cookie. "Thank you for the excellent nosh," she says sincerely. "Have an excellent new year."'''

'''Cookie grins. "You're welcome. Happy New Year, and have a good flight home."'''

"Thank you, Cookie," Poole replies, and heads out of the base.

Log session ending at 20:20:24 on Tuesday, 1 January 2019.