PHASE 1: War is not a game. (14th Fleet)

[Kavik Ryx]

Quickly, Dalos made his way to one of the walls and started typing away at his computer again. He stayed silent, though began observing, or more like studying, the other officers; starting with Stan who he noticed was also on the Manichi's duty roster.

He starred at him for a minute or two with a look of satisfaction on his face.

[Zangetsu]

As Zangetsu finished shaking hands he asked. "Is there a first name to go with that ensign? Sorry if I offend anyone but, I like to stay informal when it comes to names. But it appears when it comes to informal I'm out classed."

[SNT1]

--Turkle--

Mike acts very surprised when he finds out the girl that he talked to was an Ensign on this ship. Just acted. Of course he knew all along, plus the response has a familiar tone that he's heard quite a bit in his life, which made him put a genuine smile on his face.

Giving a chuckle, Mike says, "I guess we still don't know our crew members much. Ah well. Didn't expect us to have a bunch of weirdos. But we'll be fine, really. In the meantime," Mike pauses, pulls a cold bottle of beer, twist the cap open and drinks.

[Dark Duel]

"I, for one, am rather eager to enter combat myself." said a voice from the doorway. A tall, well-built man, dark-skinned and black-haired, entered.
His face was angular, his features sharp, and his keen brown eyes took in the scene before him with a mildly amused look.
The newcomer's jet-black hair was tied in a high ponytail, and while he wore the uniform of the Atlantic Federation, he wore it with the collar loosened and the top two buttons unfastened.

He snapped to attention and saluted, before introducing himself:
"Lieutenant Lukas O'Donnell, pilot aboard the Mancini."

[Gambit01]

The dark-haired youth who had spoken up before was getting more than a little upset with all the lack of formality. Finally, when he heard the man who entered late from the doorway talk about how eager he was for combat, he finally snapped.

"War isn't a game!" He snapped as he half rose out of his seat.

It was then he realized, with some embarrassment, that he had called attention to himself. So he did the only response he could do; snap at attention and give the captain a crisp salute.

"Pardon my rudeness. Lt. Hiroshi Nakamura, Leader of Squad One on the Turkle. A pleasure to work with you."

Perhaps no one noticed, but if they did they would have seen a gleaning eye from that of the silly admiral, sweeping the room and analyzing the lot of them, taking everything that he could in.

[Terrace]

Terrace sat up a little straighter in his seat. So this was his squad leader. Seemed like a bit of a cold fish, but some girls probably liked that.

"It should be a pleasure to work with you, too, sir.

[EZero8]

"You say that after calling the Rear Admiral an idiot?" Darrell thought to himself once the Japanese guy finally made his introduction. What was odd though was that he was actually the leader of Squad One... Darrell's team.

Leaning back on his chair, he merely watches as everyone else finishes up their introductions. Then they'll finally get to the meat of their briefing.

[Sume Gai]

Harken stood there looking over the wild group thinking to himself -this could be a lot harder than I thought- he sighed and began loudly "If we're done with jokes and commentary I think the Admiral is ready to give the scheduled briefing"

Harken stepped aside and took his seat to the left of the podium.

[Gambit01]

Indeed, the Admiral was ready to give his briefing. He stood up the podium and clapped his hands together several times.

"A-hem. Everyone! Welcome the 14th Fleet! We are the newest battle fleet assembled by the Earth Alliance, and we currently have one objective; can anyone tell me what that objective is?"

Nakamura immediately stood at attention. "Sir!"

The Admiral's reaction was...comical.

"Oh! Just like my adorable nephew; always ready with an answer! Well, go on, don't be shy in front of you're new teammates!"

One glance at the 'adorable nephew' and everyone could tell that his eyebrows were twitching. Nonetheless, he put up with the abuse and answered.

"The 14 Lunar Patrol Fleet is just as it sounds; we are charged with the defense of the Moon, and specifically Ptolemaeus Lunar Base."

The Admiral looked around, seeing if anyone would agree or disagree with his nephew's assessment of what their responsibilities entailed.

[Sume Gai]

A voice came from behind the Admiral "Sir; if you don't mind; I'll take it from here"

Harken had stood up and was now directly beside the Rear Admiral. 'I should have known he'd forget' Harken thought in exasperation. Harken had forgotten how the admiral could wear one's nerves.

Without receiving more than a surprised stare from the Rear Admiral; Harken reached over and pressed a switch on the podium, causing the lights to dim and a holographic representation of the moon to appear.

"Our first objective will be the Ptolemaeus Base which is in the process of reconstruction from the last war;"

A red line appeared in the hologram connecting the dot that was their current position and the base.

"once we reach that point we'll start a cyclical patrol with a period of 3 days"

Several lines appeared this time drawing a large rough circle around the base.

"if we're lucky this will be a standard patrol, with nothing more than a few training flights to keep you pilots busy; however, as with any operation no matter how routine, your full vigilance will be necessary"

Harken reached over and hit the switch again returning the lights to normal and deactivating the hologram. "your duty schedules are right there" he motions to several stacks of paper located on a table near the door. "take yours as you leave. Now then if you have no questions you are all dismissed"

[ScornMandark]

'Adorable nephew...?' Stan waited in his seat, still not quite sure he believed what was happening in front of him. The first question on his mind was, 'Did I get assigned to a loony bin?' closely followed by, 'What did I do to deserve this?' It seemed that there were a few more...normal? pilots in the room. Recalling from his assignment orders, he was under Lt. O'Donnel. Wasn't he the one who walked in, eager to fight? Well, hopefully it would still be a quiet assignment, even if he avoided the lead ship and their officers.

He looked around at the other officers here, catching the eye of Dalos and raising an eyebrow. He shook his head and stood. Stopping briefly by the Rear Admiral and the Captain, he saluted smartly. Crazy or not, they were still the ranking officers here.

[Terrace]

Terrace gulped. The Admiral was completely nuts. Terrace could only hope that the man's eccentricies only applied to his standard of dress.

If he starts wearing a bunny suit on duty, I'm outta here.

Terrace grabbed his copy of the duty schedules, then walked up to Nakamura and saluted.

"Sir, is there anything you would like me to do?"

[EZero8]

Darrell was a nosy one, so he had actually grabbed an assignment sheet from the stack of papers when he first came into the room. That's how he knew who he'd be working with from the get go. And now that everyone's been introduced, he finds the place definately odd.

"Nothing worse than a duo of crazy higher-ups working together..." Darrell thought to himself, walking over to his squad group. It included the Nakamura kid and the newbie Terrace.

"So now what?" he asked almost nonchalantly towards his squadmates.

[Zangetsu]

James picked up his sheet and looked over his team. Lt. Lukas O’Donnell, guess he is the team leader, Ltjg. Stan Loonis, ah the one who insulted Ensing Bruist, and Ens. Dalos McAllister, the tech geek.

Zangetsu walked over to Lukas. "Not sure if we were properly introduced. My name is James Russel, I belive you are Lukas. Am I right?"

[Wedge14]

The admiral was a little bit weird....the captain seemed a little bit pushy too. But what the hell was with all the pony tails in the room? Some of these guys might actually be semi decent looking, but not with the ponytail. Like seriously it was annoying her and completly distracting herself from the current topic. The only thing that could get her mind off it was the admiral's footwear.

Waiting till the meeting came to some sort of a close she struck.

"Excuse me Sir?" She said directing her question to the admiral.

"But where did you get those slippers?? They are sooooooooooooo cute!!?" She said with a giggle.

[Kavik Ryx]

Dalos looked up at the ditsy pilot and gave her a quick smirk. A soldier like that is just fascinating to watch. Even so, he felt relieved that he was assigned to a different vessel. The crew of the Turkle just seemed insane and unreliable. He just hoped that his comrades would be a little more reserved.

[Dark Duel]

"Not sure if we were properly introduced. My name is James Russel, I belive you are Lukas. Am I right?"

"You are." Lukas replied, looking over at the other. "I'm Lt. Lukas O'Donnell."
The young man he was speaking to had blond hair and blue eyes, and wore a custom red uniform.
"It's good to meet you, Russell."
Just then he heard a female voice ask the Admiral about those ridiculous slippers, in a high-pitched giggle, which Lukas by and large ignored. A bad point for that pilot, her attitude was, in Lukas's view, childish in the extreme.
He felt somewhat relieved at his assignent aboard the Mancini, rather than here on the Turkle.

[Gambit01]

The Admiral threw a very, very, VERY annoyed glance at the Captain.

"Yes, thank you Captain, I was going to get to that," he muttered darkly; it was at that moment, pushing his glasses up his face that the Admiral seemed to grow larger, taller, more...intimidating. As if the fires of hell were surrounding him...

"I was GOING to make a minor, philosophical point that would have made me look extremely COOL! I was going to have them think that I'm more than just a weirdo...."

It was at that moment that the Admiral, seemingly out of nowhere, produced a rolled up newspaper.

"SOMEONE is going to be punished!!!"

Laughing manically, Admiral Hiroshi raised the paper when....

"But where did you get those slippers?? They are sooooooooooooo cute!!?"

The change in demeanor was physically impossible...but in nonetheless happened.

The Admiral immediately turned around, and practically slid on one foot towards Erin, the maniacal laugh replaced with a bright grin.

"Why thank you! They're not nearly as cute as you though! As for where I got them, why they were a present from my precious...


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Nakamura was determined to thank Captain Harken for ending the foolishness when he did; knowing his uncle, he'd probably say something supposedly profound that was actually quite obvious and didn't need to be said.

With that, he turned to his two subordinates, both questioning, in their own ways, what they should do next. Nakamura opened his mouth to answer when...

"Why, they were a present from my precious, adorable nephew! This was back when he wasn't a stick-in-the-mud, you understand; young enough to think cartoons were still cool! Old enough to know not to wet the bed though. Oh, but he always was a slow learner. But once he learned he..."

"First thing we're going to do is get out of this nut-house," a reddening Nakamura replied, while I still pretend to have some shred of dignity left.

"To the hangar; at the very least we should make sure our mobile suits have been maintenanced to our liking; I'll ask questions regarding you two on the way."

So saying, he turned on his heel and walked out, expecting the other two to follow up behind him.

[ScornMandark]

Stan walked over to Lt. O'Donnel and the other pilots from the Mancini. He saluted and said quietly, "Lt. J.G. Loonis, sir. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He shifted a bit and continued, "Not to be rude, sir, but...When are we heading back to the Mancini?"

[Terrace]

Terrace straightened.

"Sir!"

He then followed Nakamura towards the hangar.

"Sir, you don't mind me asking, is the Admiral always that...interesting?"