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Dante turned and stood attention as he spoke: “Yes Sir. Secondary Head of Engineering of the T.R.S. Chaos.” He cursed his hidden talent as he overheard Captain Hendlow. Dante was never told the whole truth when he was younger. To make up for this He had developed a good ear for gossip, and the older he got the better he needed to be. Now he can hear a pin drop in a crowded room and the close space they were in made it louder then a pin. He felt a little bad as he heard. Though he could tell it was a general statement, he still felt a little responsible for it. Then some guy had to stick his neck in it. Dante could tell it was only getting started. That could get you dishonorably discharged or at least court marshaled for silent insubordination. Dante kept his mouth shut but he wanted to tell the P2C to shut up. Not to be mean just to try to save his skin.

Kai looked back at his Datapad. "Says here you are a Hymn boy now. That patch on your shoulder needs changing after this mission. Now, you are critical to our mission. We need you to take over the Enemy base with the Help of Private Sehene. I must warn you, Somehow, I always get the suicide runs, since I have a knack of surviving them with most of my unit in tact. I plan on surviving this one with no casualties. You ever been in combat? a boarding action, maybe?"

For a short second he turned to the squabbling marines and uttered a quick, curt "Shut the hell up, both of you." Glaring at the men before returning to the Engineer.

***

Emma sat down and slurped at the coffee, a delighted grin on her face. Even though it was Black coffee and bitter as hell as was usually the case in the military, the roasted aroma and flavor were amazing to the girl. Chugging the caffeine, Emma's body perked up even more somehow, her senses becoming alert and the world slowing somehow. A fidget began in her foot, slowly spreading as more and more coffee entered her system. before she was completely gone to the coffee, however, she said to Steven "Sir, I haven't had coffee in five years. I feel funny." The fidget was quite obvious now.

Thomas grimaced. "Works for me," he grunted. Now was not the time to be working out personal issues. If personalities clashed, they could fix that some other day. He shook his head. Threatening him with rank? That was a new ploy. And he accused Thomas of being a kid.

But wait.

He had been being a kid.

Damn that realization hit fast and hard.

He turned to Garrett. Sincerely, he told him, "I'm sorry, sir. I overstepped my boundaries. I thought you just might... I don't know. Thought I could help."

Thomas chuckled. "What is that, some sort of 'don't grow up like me' cliche?" he joked, grinning again. That was indeed pretty fast.

"Captain Nakamura, how long do we have 'till we move out?" he asked, yet again checking his rifle.

Raji gave a somewhat disquieted look from Steven to Emma, and back to Steven. She gave a bit of distasteful grimace before saying, "Sir, I believe I will go to the hangar, as well." She gave a halfhearted nod before turning and going back the way she'd come.

Walking quickly up the hall, Raji had soon caught up with Arcadia. Coming up alongside her, she gave a curt smile. "Hi, I'm Raji."

Jack looked on uneasily as Garrett went through a very dour moment. Hendlow serious...? he thought to himself. The world must be coming to an end. At a loss for words, he was quickly forgotten in the 'conversation' (argument).

As Garrett chewed the kid out, Jack thought about what he'd said. A buried memory bubbled up to the surface, one that he hadn't thought about since this madness on the Hymn began. Subconsciously, he rubbed his shoulder, gently touching the spot where - on a shattered, broken piece of forsaken medical waste - a tattoo had been. A cold chill ran down his neck, and a blank, brooding stare crossed his face. He sat there for some time until the room was quiet once again. He looked over to Hendlow, muttering, "I gave up on that s**t a long time ago. The only place we can live is the present, and we can only do what little we f$@#ing can." He picked up his weapon, looking at it placidly. "I'm not here to babysit anyone. I'm just here to make sure that every single last one of those scum sucking snakes knows exactly what it means to suffer." He uttered these words with chilling effect. However, in the pit of his stomach, despite what he'd just said, right that moment he had absolutely no desire to kill.

Thomas leaned back. Hmm. That was what he had been trying to tell Garrett. Oh well. He'd screwed up his approach and gotten slapped down for it. He should've gone onto that debate team in high school.

Then again, it wasn't like he could debate with the lizards.

Anyway, this was more fun.

If it could be called fun.

Garrett lowered himself, sitting on his heels beside Jack. He offered an empathetic smirk and his half-used cigarette. "Smoke?"

Arcadia looked at Raji with a hint of surprise. "A shuttle pilot? Hm... Seems they're dragging in everyone they can, then. Must be something big, hm? My real wonder is if they're giving you Scimitar. I would imagine that to be rather... unorthodox and... lethal." She smirked.

Kai watched as two of his soldiers walked outside. He hadn't heard the whole conversation, but could tell that morale was not at 100 percent. Not much he could do, he decided, so he turned back to Dante. "The language skill could be useful, but that accuracy shows you've either used only a Bro, or need more practice with a Sugar. It should be fine enough, we've enough marksmen in the unit to make up for it. Just try not to get in over your head. If you feel threatened, make it known. we'll do waht we can to help." he patted the young engineer on the shoulder and asked "you almost ready? we head out at first light, about five standard hours from now if my information is correct."

****

Wordlessly, a Technician handed a ship roster to Acadia and Raji. while mostly full of names neither had ever seen, the section Labeled "Green squadron" held their own names, as well as the serial numbers of the fighters belonging to them. Arcadia was assigned FJ-XR-4281, and Raji FG-XR-5500. The indicated craft were sitting near the maintainence section of the bay, painted an a dull grey primer with their registration stenciled in black. while the ships could fight like this, most of the others had custom color schemes. The only reason Arcadia's was like this was because it was a bit old and the previous paint was a bit pockmarked with debris. the Hymn's Engineering crew, currently bored, had decided it needed re-surfacing. In any case, the two women would have to go and talk to said crew to get their ships in order.

***

Emma began shaking and hyperventilating, but she didn't seem to notice. "So.." she said rather quickly, "What is it that you want to know about me, Corporal, sir?" the young pilot looked up at him, shaking like some strange vibrating doll. Honestly, the girl had almost never had any caffeine, so the sudden addition of it to her system created a very profound reaction. Luckily for anyone nearby, the girl's metabolism would burn it of fairly soon. She waited as patiently as she could, looking from place to place as if she was extremely paranoid.