Episode 17 - Star-crossed

[King Monkey]

It wasn't long before Jacob forgot all about the strange doctor who may or may not have been performing "repairs" to his Rick Dias that would end up risking his life. Soon enough, he was completely immersed in the replay of the last battle he participated in. His eyes flicked everywhere, watching the changing battlefield and analyzing it in a way that was impossible during the course of the actual battle. He silently berated himself each time he found a mistake and ran the footage back to watch it again.

The young pilot made it almost all the way through the footage before motion sickness set in. He didn't suffer from the affliction when actually piloting, but watching the jerking movements without having any control of them set his balance system completely out of whack. The strange nausea settled heavily in his stomach and he found himself vaguely depressed.

Pushing through to the end, he moved out of the cockpit and headed for Team 3's Ready Room to lie down for a while. Once his stomach settled, he returned to the hangar and started the footage again. This time, when his first mistake came, he switched over the system, taking "control" of his suit and running through the rest of the battle after correcting his error.

He did this again and again, getting a little deeper into the battle each time before taking control and fighting the rest of the way through, correcting each mistake in turn to hone his skills.

[ScornMandark]

Rem handed Dr. M the type A datalogger. "It's all set up, Dr. I just changed out the power cell, too, so you should be good for another 8 hours with it." Rem noticed the pilot head out from the cockpit and out of the bay. Hearing a few beeping noises from the cockpit still, he peered into the mech's seat to see what was left on. 'Simulation of a recorded battle, hm? Why would he leave it on?'

Shrugging to himself, he went back to the access panel by the shoulder. Shortly, Jacob returned to the suit and went back at the simulator. Rem leaned in to the doctor and murmured very quietly, "The pilot is running a simulation of a recorded battle. Do you want to record?"

[Gambit01]

Contrary to what one might think, Celeine didn't sit there on her bed and brood at what Michiko had said to her about Fritz and her behavior...

...She laid FLAT on her bed and brooded.

Who the hell does she think she is, uppity bitch?!

She'll show her, she had half a mind to...what the HELL was she doing in front of sick bay, looking like a slob!?!

And then she remembered who it was that was in there...

No...Celeste....oh my God, Celeste! I don't deserve to see you....

Fear and irrationality building in her mind, Celeine didn't even notice that she got close enough for the automatic doors to open wide...

"....Celeste?"

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Outside Side 2 -

- The Dervish -
- Ready Room 1 -

After a terse conversation with Capt. Abbey that tested Fritz’ patience and his promise to keep quiet and fall in line, he had confirmed the fleet’s new mission. Now he found himself back in Team 1’s ready room trying to figure out what the hell the AEUG was planning to do. Wisps of Pan Heyden’s cigarette smoke wafted past Fritz, who sat with his back against the wall. During a long lull in their conversation, Pan examined the cigarette in his hand and mused, "I really should quit. Ain't that right 'Ko? …We got enough things trying to kill us out there. It make sense to not suck on a stick of poison wouldn't it?"

Michiko, who was sitting cross-legged near the door, blushed slightly at the sudden attention and shrugged after a moment. “A man gets a smoke and a blindfold before he goes before the firing squad. A soldier does without the blindfold,” Fritz interjected impassively, saving Michiko from her nervous silence. “Insert PTSD episode from the war here,“ he added mentally in an equally humorless tone. He put his own cigarette out in the ashtray sitting to his right and leaned back with his hands behind his head. “So how do you two feel about this idea. Really feel, I mean,” he asked, steering them back to the fleet’s mission.

“…The Zeon destroyed my home during the war,” Michiko spoke up, looking Fritz and then Pan in the eye, “I’ll do what the captain orders, but I don’t have to like it. I don’t think this is such a good idea…”. She thought about going into more detail, but she didn’t want to become known for emotional outbursts, and especially not around Ltjg. Heyden. She still wasn’t sure what to think of him. He lacked tact, but he was certainly candid and seemed to know what he was doing in a cockpit. Then again, flying alongside him in combat wasn’t what bothered her.

Fritz nodded appreciatively and pointed out, “These Axis guys are big time Zabiists too, from what I’ve heard. Zeon vets are one thing, zealot holdouts are another,”. Not too long ago he would have lumped them all together.

- Bridge -

Abbey watched the debris drifting out from Side 2’s shoal thicken slightly as their path came as close to Hatte as they would be during their trip. He noticed a twisted chunk of a long-dead Musai’s bridge pass by the Dervish and his mouth thinned into a line as his thoughts drifted back to 0079. Beside him Lt. Barrique murmured his own reflections on this place. The captain removed his hat and rubbed his temples where his own hair was rapidly graying. “I would never come back to this place if I didn’t have to,” he said with a dry chuckle. Jane turned from her station and got the captain’s attention. “Sir, it’s Capt. Dombrowski,” she said, indicating an incoming call. Abbey nodded and picked up his handset.

“Nathan, I know exactly what you’re thinking and I agree,” Abbey said as soon as the connection went through. “Oh?” Dombrowski humphed, “Well, then put through the paperwork for my promotion at your earliest convenience,” he said solemnly in one of his rare moments of humor. Abbey smiled at the sign of normality from the Chikov’s captain and continued, “We need a mobile suit unit out there as scouts and to help us with some of this light debris that’s starting to crop up,”. “Not to mention to serve as some security. This isn’t exactly friendly territory,” Dombrowski added. “Yes…” Abbey agreed, pausing for a moment, “Go ahead and launch your Nemo team and have them keep ahead of us,”.

- Hangar -

"It's all set up, Dr. I just changed out the power cell, too, so you should be good for another 8 hours with it,” Rem said as he handed Merkwürdigliebe a data logger. The doctor nodded in thanks and began to set it up to begin getting actual hard data from Markado’s mobile suit. Just as he finished, Banner noticed Jacob returning to work on his sim again and asked, "The pilot is running a simulation of a recorded battle. Do you want to record?".

“Attention all pilots: your status has been upgraded to yellow alert. Please stand by for launch orders.”

Dr. M listened to Filmore's PA message and then chuckled, “It seems our werk here will have to be delayed again, Mr. Banner. We can’t have our instruments plugged in to a mobile suit if they have to launch at a moment’s notice. We’ll have plenty of time with their equipment while they’re meeting with Axis,”. He took his glasses off to clean them and suggested, “Why don’t we head back to the mess hall and have a drink in the meantime,”.

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

"Careful, there’s plenty of shifting debris to both our port and starboard and also below us. It's fairly light ahead, though that may change. I'll keep you posted,” Trask announced from his spot at the radar station. The helmsman laughed and responded, “Kid, this is nothing. Shoulda seen the last time we were out here,”. Loweno smiled and piped up, “Thank you, Ens. Trask. You seem to be getting the hang of your new job.”

[Ascension]

-Dervish, Ready Room 1

Jim leaned casually against a wall with his arms folded before him.

"Come on, if they were all that zealous they would have died with the Zabis. They have at least enough self restraint to tell when it's time to run away."

He had to bite his tongue to keep from adding, "Besides, what's so bad about the Zabis, anyway?"

-Chuikov, Bridge

"You heard Abbey, scramble the Nemos! And be quick about it... who knows what's lurking out there?"

-Chuikov, Mess Hall

Caroline was surprised and more than a little annoyed to find her meal interrupted by a launch order. The fleet was on a diplomatic mission, right? Why were the mobile suits having to launch? Still, she had a duty to perform, so she trashed the remnants of her half-eaten supper and hurried to the hangar.

[Sume Gai]

Chuikov
Hanger

Rick had just finished a sim run when the Scramble order came though

he was only a backup pilot so he left the Nemo he was in and headed for the suit room so as not to be in the way

[Cybaster]

Salamis Kai-class Chuikov

Another Nemo away, Julian Meighan was mulling over the same things as Jonas for different reasons.

Julian was no fool, and he was very well aware of the rumor mill regarding Axis and the AEUG; News travels quickly, and even on such a broken-down ship as the Chuikov, the crew were already abuzz with the various implications of an alliance between the AEUG and Axis Zeons. And the people around him had all too many opinions about it. Positive mostly from the small AEUG minority of former Zeons and Zeon wannabes, and negative from the majority that belonged to former Federal Forces members. Well, of course the former Feds were going to be against it, Julian remembered frowning to himself. They wouldn't want to beat the Titans only to lose the One Year War all over again.

Julian himself, however, not only knew from his various sources that Axis' return would be a certainty...he welcomed it. Why shouldn't he? It was about time Zeon officially returned and made its voice about the AEUG vs. Titans conflict known; Up until now, it was mainly Feddies speaking on both sides. Even if the AEUG won, the Federal voice in the AEUG would win out, and the Spacenoids would be right back to the status quo. What good was a war against a corrupt bureaucracy if absolutely nothing at all changes?

But unlike Jonas, what concerned Julian was what he'd end up doing if Axis decided to take a side. If Axis sided with the AEUG, all was good; If Axis did otherwise, however --- in the unlikely event that they sided with the Titans instead --- things change drastically. In either case, Julian knew what he had to do...but in the latter case, the aftermath would be quite messy.

Either way, what Julian was sure of was that if the rumors really were true, one way or another...his time on the Chuikov was surely coming to an end. It would only be a little while longer before the deranged Chuikov trio --- Jonas, Nathan and especially Caroline --- would be out of his life, perhaps for good. And that made this patrol mission and Caroline's angst all the more tolerable.

Inwardly smiling to himself, Julian went back to his Nemo's preflight checks and eyed the other Nemos around him, wondering what they were thinking about Axis in general.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Earlier, Kirov Mess Hall

"Not even Doonesbury?" Gilliarme smiled lightheartedly at Sam in response, trying to look charming and unintrusive. "I kind of like the comics section in the Londenion Times, myself, if you're looking for plain laughs without political edge (to be honest, it's the only section I used to read in the whole paper when I was young; I still like Dilbert). It's certainly easier to read than these thousand-page epics, I certainly agree."

With that, Gilliarme stood up and nodded/bowed to Samantha.

"Well, I'm going to check on those new Barzams for a bit, Sam. I'll be in the hanger if you need me. By your leave..."

[Lans]

- The Hamburg -

Emington tried to assist the mechanics as best as he could but there's too many jobs to do. In the end just before the Hamburg leaving port they managed to fully checked 2 Nemos. That two, Korbel's unit and Alfred's are now in ready status, loaded and fueled while the other 2 are lagging behind in a way. Right now the hangar crew are emptying propellant from the other 2 Nemos, while the mechanics are waiting for their job. Away from the buzzling activity, Randy was looking at the porthole and gazed as the Hamburg leaving their way from the dock and into the space. He saw several other of the same Salamis Kai class with AEUG color schemes, he was searching for the Irish class but he found none, probably already rolled out before Hamburg.

Just earlier, somehow his order to fully loaded the propellant an hour before leaving port cause some havoc between the crew and the mechanics. It seems that the generator haven't been tested properly and that couldn't be done with the propellant on board. Hearing that Randy put his own unit and Jeriden's into ready status although their generator aren't tested. In his own oppinion, Randy wasn't sure if the test was actually needed. There's nothing fancy could come out from an factory tuned new generator, he believed that the AE guys won't give them a broken Nemo to fight a war. It's just the ship's mechanics are having an unhealthy obsession about these new MS, probably Hatte give them some more motivation.

Back to his duty he ordered the crew to look for Korbel and Alfred and tell them to ready for a possible sortie. They should be in pilot suit right now, if Loweno permitted he would like the two to have a shakedown cruise with their brand new Nemo, a patrol are also likely. He headed for the hangar's intercom, keyed for the bridge he waited for reply and said, "Emington here, is the skipper busy? Sir, I.. We just fully prepared two Nemos, my apologize for lagging behind the schedule. I assure you that the crew are working their best to prepare the other two. For now, if you permitted I would like to have Korbel and Alfred into a patrol as well as a shakedown cruise for their Nemos." Randy also added, "There's also some concern about a particular issue around the crews, I might voiced them out that we're concerned about the issue about rendezvous with the Axis. I'll await for further instruction."

[Cardi Doorl]

- Salamis Kai-class Chuikov -
- Ready Room -

He actually wasn't as late as he thought he was, but the point is Ryu Takeda thought he was late, and thus he was rushing.

Zipping up his pilot suit, then snapping on the helmet (but leaving the visor open for now), Ryu dashed out only to crash shoulders with someone - a female in a uniform indicating she was a pilot.

"Uh,sorry," he blurted, then ran off without another word, gritting his teeth as he remembered that, in spite of having been aboard this ship for some hours, he hadn't met any of his current teammates.

- Mobile Suit Bay -

Jonas wasn't surprised by an order to launch immediately. It made sense in a colonial Side, where hidden enemies could lurk around any corner. The 4th had seen the truth in that the hard way over a month ago.

He was already in his Nemo's cockpit, so all Jonas had to do was snap on his helmet and get his Nemo moving to the elevator.

"CIC, inform my team to meet up at the bow end of the ship and await further orders. Jonas Anderson, Nemo launching."

-

Ryu burst into the suit bay just as Jonas' Nemo was being sent up to the launch catapult. Breathlessly, the young pilot scrambled into his Nemo and started up the systems.

As soon as he started moving, the CIC operator was on the line, chewing him out for not getting launch clearance before he started moving. Feeling his face grow hot but trying to look confident in spite of it, Ryu responded, "I know that! I was getting to that! Ryu Takeda, requesting launch clearance."

Aside from that little episode, Ryu's launch proceeded smoothly, and he moved to rendezvous with his team's commanding officer.

[mcred23]

-The Dervish-
-Ready Room 2-

-An Hour An A Half Earlier-

"Helllloooo beautiful!" Eddie nearly yelled from his perch on the couch as Jane had walked in, quickly earning a grin for his effort while the other two pilots continued to focus on their card game.

"Hello Eddie." She said sweetly, waving to the other pilots, "Hi guys." Both men merely nodded as a particularly interesting hand was played.

Jane was about to say something else when it clicked in Eddie's mind that he'd wanted to ask her something. "Oh-dah." Eddie shook his head, "You go ahead."

The sweet smile flashed again, "Please."

Eddie's grin flashed. "Alright." It faded, "What was it you had said before about where were going?"

Before Jane could start speaking, a groan came from Ian as he'd finally lost a hand that had taken him and Marvin nearly twenty minutes to fully play. Marvin grinned as a smile mountain of chips became his. Jane grinned at that, she knew Marvin was still a bit on edge and... simply different, after their previous ambush. "Well, we're going to meeting up with the Argama and escort them to a meeting with some group called the 'Axis Zeons'."

Ian twisted in his seat at that. "What?", he asked, half a bark, half dubious.

Eddie cocked an eyebrow, "Never heard of them. Should I have?" Ian shook his head.

"Not really, unless you are a huge lover of minor parts of Zeonic history. Hell, I even asked some friends of mine in high places and they could never confirm how true any of this is." Ian sighed, "Anyway, just after the war ended, supposedly a huge group of ships, loaded up with soldiers and a lot of their families and weapons, left Side 3 and headed off toward Axis, which is some rock out near the asteroid belt past Mars."

Jane nodded, again taking her informal roles of intel and rumor officer. "I checked the datafiles we have and I know Axis is a real place, the Energy Fleet used it as a way station at one point. But for the Zeons fleeing there, not much other than that they're the ones who built the place fifteen years ago."

Ian snorted. "Yeah, not much of a shock. I heard a bunch of rumors about them after the war ended. Some said that only two thousand people were going, others said two hundred thousand, but the only people who really know are the ones who went there."

"S***..." Eddie observed.

And that was as far as that discussion went. The subject quickly shifted to other areas while Jane took her quick break with the team.


-Present Time-

The card game finally came to an end not long after they heard, via a call from Jane, that they were near Side 2, and that the odds of action were growing, something they all knew.

Ian put the last of the cards back in the box they came from. The game had been a good way to get away from it, so to speak, even though Marvin had taken him for most of the money he had brought to the table today. Ian stood and was about to proclaim his plan to get back to his room when the PA system squaked.

“Attention all pilots: your status has been upgraded to yellow alert. Please stand by for launch orders.”

Eddie let out a string of curses while Ian slumped back into his chair. Marvin got up, grabbed three tubes of coffee and gave one to each of the pilots. There were already several empties in the trash cans in the room, and more just floating around. All three men were as ready as they could be without actually being inside their mobile suits.

[ScornMandark]

Dervish
- Mobile Suit Hangar -

Rem looked up as the yellow alert announcement came over the shipwide PA. Dr. M listened to Filmore's PA message and then chuckled, “It seems our werk here will have to be delayed again, Mr. Banner. We can’t have our instruments plugged in to a mobile suit if they have to launch at a moment’s notice. We’ll have plenty of time with their equipment while they’re meeting with Axis,”. He took his glasses off to clean them and suggested, “Why don’t we head back to the mess hall and have a drink in the meantime."

Rem nodded and grabbed his bag. "One thing after another... Sure, I could definitely use a break, anyways. I haven't been on a ship during this kind of situation before. What's our role if this escalates to combat? Stay out of the way and hold on? Or can we offer Mr. Sager an extra pair of hands?" They started heading towards the mess hall while talking.

Rem was starting to feel...thwarted. For some reason, he had not been able to access the equipment properly since he'd been here. The Nemo issue was one of himself not paying enough attention, and he and the doctor had not had much time in the bay with the Dias suits. Maybe he just needed to wait it out. Certainly during the meeting with Axis there wouldn't be a need to launch, so they'd be able to get time in then.

[Ascension]

-Chuikov, Hallway Outside Ready Room

As Caroline approached the door to the ready room, she was quite shocked to be on the receiving end of a midair collision. The fellow who crashed into her was obviously a pilot, but he was apparently one of the replacements they had picked up on their last stop. He barely bothered to apologize (much less introduce himself) before rushing off towards the hangar.

She didn't know whether to be happy that she might not be the clumsiest person on board anymore or angry at the man's rudeness. After a few moments of confusion, she decided to settle on angry. It seemed more appropriate, and besides, she didn't get many chances to be mad at people. Well, other than Julian.

She suited up quickly and headed to her Nemo with similar haste. While she couldn't imagine what threat they might be about to encounter, she didn't want to be caught with her proverbial pants down, either, just in case.

Seeing the bulk of the team already gone from the hangar, she mounted the catapult.

"Caroline Tucker, ready to launch!"

[King Monkey]

Dervish
Hangar

Jacob doesn't stay in the cockpit of his suit when the Yellow alert is called. On the contrary, he looks up in surprise as though he can see the person speaking before scrambling out of his Rick Dias.

The reason is obvious enough as he's dressed in his day to day clothes and doesn't even have his helmet handy. The pilot is not at all prepared to be a pilot just yet.

Scrambling out of the cockpit, he scans the area with a frown on his face. It takes a few seconds to spot who he's looking for but then he pushes off, drifting quickly towards Sager.

"Chief," he says, attracting the man's attention as things suddenly get very busy in the hangar. No matter how prepared people are and how much maintenance has been done it seems there is always a long list of things to do at the last moment.

"Would you mind having someone check out the shoulder of my Dias?" he asks. "That strange doctor was poking around in there. I know he's supposed to be some kind of expert but...he's just weird. I'd feel better is someone made sure he didn't do anything unusual to it."

[Xvlai]

- Alexandria Class-Kirov -
- Ready Room -

Sven lounged about in one of the chairs in the ready room. He was in his flight suit with his helmet on his lap. In a short time he was expected to fly patrol, he was actually looking forward to it. This would be the first time he would fly with his new team. I wonder where Wolf is? And this other pilot, I should have met him by now.

He had been in the ready room for quite some time, he always felt it was best to be early and not late. Without much to do, or someone to talk to, he thought back to the two other pilots at the mess hall. He was now fairly certain they were dating, only a couple could bicker like that. And even if they were a couple they had best learn what to not talk about in public and when it was best to talk about those subjects.

Sven did not like the current leadership of the Titans, but he didn't go talking about it in public areas where people who might object could hear. Well if they haven't learned to keep their mouths shut by now, I guess there is little hope for them. I just hope the reason they are still here is their piloting skills. Banishing them from his mind Sven turned to what little he knew about the task forces current location. Taskforce Echo was nearing side 2, and when they entered its space Sven would join the patroling forces. From what it seemed the last fight Taskforce Echo had gone through, had happened in this neck of the woods and loses had been high. That worried Sven little he relished the chance at combat.

Sitting there Sven waited for the orders for his team to move out.

[wonton bob]

-Alexandria-class Kirov
- Mobile Suit Bay (Delta Section)-

Jason pops out of the middle Barzam's cockpit. After prying around in there for the past hour he seems a little mixed about what the new suit has to offer.

"two beam sabers, big deal...a good hit and this suckers toast." Jason moves aside and motions Patrick inside.

"go ahead and have a look.. prob' your only chance. If this is where R&D is sinking all their money then we're in trouble...I wonder who they conned into taking this thing out."

[Cardi Doorl]

~Earlier

- Alexandria-class Kirov -
- Mess Hall -

Poor Gilliarme. He tried so very hard to impress, didn't he?

With a nod of her head, Sam humored him enough to give him leave.

~Currently

- Alexandria-class Kirov
- Mobile Suit Bay -

Since Delta Team was up next to launch for patrol, Sam, clad in pilot suit, with her helmet under her arm, floated to their section of the MS bay. She looked up at the new Barzams and saw someone stepping out of Gill's. She expected the man to be Gill himself, but saw it was instead a stranger. Next to him was another stranger, this one an enormous ogre of a man.

Furrowing her brow, Sam kicked lightly off the deck to propel herself toward the open cockpit hatch and, on the way up, called up to men, "Hey, you two aren't mechanics or technicians, so what the hell are you doing in Lt. Lasalle's mobile suit?"

- Beta Team Ready Room -

Wolf Ritter pulled himself into the ready room to find Sven Haksson already there, in his pilot suit. With only a nod of acknowledgement, Wolf set about changing into his own pilot suit.

After zipping it up and snapping the helmet on, Wolf made his way for the door.

"No use waiting, Sven," he called back, "Let's get moving."

- Main Bridge -

"An odd choice, Andrewson," commented the Commodore soberly, "When given clearance to resume autonomous operations, your first choice is to come right back to where you last fought Abbey. I don't take you for an irrational man, Commander, but still I wonder what your reasoning might be."

"It's simple, sir," responded Trent evenly, "The Federal government may not have made any official recognition that an asteroid full of Zeon holdouts just appeared within the Earth sphere, and even the Titans, no matter how gung-ho Bask Om tends to be, has done likewise, but even still, someone has to expect the other shoe to drop before long. If anything, we need to increase activities in the area around which these Zeons appeared, so we can be ready for whatever move they make."

"It is somewhat troubling that Admiral Jamitov hasn't even pretended to make any changes to Titans operations in the face of this development," muttered the Commodore, "It must have caught even that schemer off-guard. At the moment, he must be mustering all the information he can get, trying to figure out how best to take advantage of the situation, how to turn it to his favor. At the moment, we know next to nothing about these Zeons, not even what kind of numbers they possess or if they have any significant military assets. They could prove a force to be reckoned with, but they could just as easily be little more than a rock full of starving fanatics. If anything, being on guard and ready for whatever move these Zeons make is the only sensible course of action we have."

"Exactly," nodded Trent, "So Jamitov's unwillingness to acknowledge them is worrying me. Either he really doesn't know what to do - which strikes me as unlikely - or he has something else up his sleeve, something we won't expect. Neither possibility strikes me as appealing."

[ORegan]

Kirov mobile suit hangar

Patrick was quite facisnated with the blue mobile suit that looked like a pretty parrot. When Jason told him he could have a look, he face lit up with glee like a child in a candy store. He took his time though, and peered into the cockpit filled with pretty lights in delight. He just didn't know which button to look at first.

Then he heard the voice of some unkown person asking him what he was doing. Patrick did an about face and looked at her.

"Oh..uh..I was just looking at the pretty Polly parrot."

[wonton bob]

-Alexandria-class Kirov
- Mobile Suit Bay (Delta Section)-

Jason was keeping a weary eye on Patrick in case he accidentally hit the Barzam's controls and moved it all over the hanger. Also upset that he left his helmet near his Marasai.

.. wouldn't even have a chance to get to safety..

Out of the corner of his eye, Jason notices someone approaching in full gear. Great. More new faces.

"Hey, you two aren't mechanics or technicians, so what the hell are you doing in Lt. Lasalle's mobile suit?" a female's voice crys out.

"Relax--" Jason retorts but then freezes in mid speech as his eyes focus on the female pilot. His eyes quickly scan the pilot, checking to see if she was an officer, while Miller made his impressive introduction.

"Oh..uh..I was just looking at the pretty Polly parrot."

Jeez man, ...still I wonder who she is

Taken aback by this belle in a Titan uniform, Jason smiles and stands at attention to show respect. Jason can sense the chip on her shoulder. He's pretty good at spotting anger. His dad helped with that.

"Ltjg. Jason Drossel, Gamma team. And over there is Ace pilot #1 of the entire fleet. Didn't mean to trespass. Just checking out the new rides. From what the manual tries to imply is that these babies are based on a Gundam...well, I hope so."

Jason disappointingly looks over at Miller. "Patrick. Might want to clean up the drool on the console there. Don't wanna electrocute the pilot now do we?"

Jason returns his focus on the female pilot. Even though she appears miffed, she has a natural grace about her. Whatever caused that hard shell to grow around her Jason believes is what is probably holding her back. Noticing that she is still an Ensign at her age. (no offense ;P)
Extending his hand he hopes to start a connection.

"Nice to meet you. I wonder if you can help me out?--oh, I'm sorry I didn't catch your name."

[Gambit01]

Nick was floating down the hallways when he realized that he quite literally had nothing to do.

No paper work, no corporate ass to kiss, no corporate ass to kick...nadda, zip, ziltch; ZERO.

What he DIDN'T realize, however, was that he was right in front of the Beta team ready room. As in, right in front of the door when it opened, revealing Wolf Ritter calling over his shoulder.

Reach over, rip the helmet off his skimpy little neck, twist it, snap it, drink his blood....

A swift chewing of his upper lip probably saved both Ritter's and his own life. Quietly, the Berserker retreated to the dark corners of his mind.

Unfortunately, that meant that Wolf would get the first pot-shot.

Oh well; I was bored anyway.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Outside Side 2 -

- The Dervish -
- Ready Room 1 -

"Come on, if they were all that zealous they would have died with the Zabis. They have at least enough self restraint to tell when it's time to run away,” Jim said from his spot against the wall near Michiko. Fritz nodded but added after a moment, “Those Delaz punks didn’t die with Ghiren and we had to pay for it,”. He gestured at Pan and suggested, “Heyden probably knows about that sheiße better than I do,”.

“Attention all pilots: your status has been upgraded to yellow alert. Please stand by for launch orders.”

Fritz rose from his seat and stretched. “Sounds like we’re getting close to actually doing something. Get suited up and then we can get back to loafing,” he instructed as he walked over to his locker to change. Michiko got up and moved to her locker, but turned her back to the others (and specifically Pan Heyden) before she started to take her pink uniform off. Even though she was wearing bike shorts and a tank top underneath, it was still hard for her to get used to being in what felt like a “men’s” locker room.

She thought she had gotten used to pilot’s ready rooms before her stint began with the AEUG back when she was with the EFSF, but since Pan arrived that awkward feeling had slowly returned. By the time she turned around and began to zip up her normal suit, Fritz had already grabbed his helmet and returned to his seat. “Maybe all we’ll have to do is fly security and get a look at Axis’ hardware,” she said as she sat her helmet on the table in the center of the room. Fritz’ response to that was a short, thoroughly unconvinced laugh.

- Hallway -

Rem grabbed his bag and followed Dr. M out of the hangar. "One thing after another…,” he griped, “Sure, I could definitely use a break, anyways. I haven't been on a ship during this kind of situation before. What's our role if this escalates to combat? Stay out of the way and hold on? Or can we offer Mr. Sager an extra pair of hands?". Merkwürdigliebe was certainly a strange character, but he had worked with Rem long enough to pick up on his deepened disappointment at their lack of productive activity.

“Do not worry, Mr. Banner. I was never one for combat; I assure you that at the first sign of danger I will be the one stuffing myself into a normal suit,” the doctor said with a smile. In fact, he had survived the war by stuffing himself into a normal suit and evacuating a certain Zeon asteroid, but he didn’t feel like going into detail. He loosened his collar a bit and added, “I wouldn’t mind assisting the mechanical crew here though, as long as things are not too dangerous in the hangar,”. He frowned slightly and clarified, “The company isn’t giving us any hazard pay,” as they reached the mess hall.

- Bridge -

“The Chuikov has launched her Nemo team,” Jungst announced. Even before he finished talking their thruster flares became visible to the Dervish’s bridge as the friendly MS advanced out in front of their ship and the rest of the fleet. Abbey exhaled slowly and grunted an affirmative. “After we reach the far side of Hatte, Capt. Guanche’s pilots can take over until we reach the rendezvous point,” he said. He glanced over at Lt. Barrique and then dropped his vision to his hands folded in his lap. He hoped more than anything this mission wouldn’t end with more men and women wounded and with no ship like Richard had been, or worse yet, dead.

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

"Emington here, is the skipper busy? Sir, I.. We just fully prepared two Nemos, my apologize for lagging behind the schedule. I assure you that the crew are working their best to prepare the other two. For now, if you permitted I would like to have Korbel and Alfred into a patrol as well as a shakedown cruise for their Nemos… There's also some concern about a particular issue around the crews, I might voiced them out that we're concerned about the issue about rendezvous with the Axis. I'll await for further instruction."

Loweno smacked away the crewman who was trying to talk to him at the same time as he was listening to Emington on his handset and plugged his left ear with an index finger to drown out the noise on the bridge. “I’ll talk to Capt. Abbey about bumping us to the top of the patrol list after Dombrowski’s goons. In the meantime get those other two suits ready for combat,” the captain responded. He mulled over the last part of Randy’s call for a bit before answering, “About our mission… as long as the crew of this ship follows my orders and the orders of Capt. Abbey, we don’t have a problem, yes?”