Gatin left the meeting room quitely, after having heard all the informations he needed about the missions, he would left for his quarter to prepare himself for his next mission. Not that he need to pack anything. He has all his things ready and packed, if the mercs need to move out quickly. He sits down in the extra place he had prepared for his ritual the Kratur'hesh directly in front of him, packed in a red, silken rope, sticked directly into a piece of wood, on the ground. He would sit there for many hours, concentrating on nothing, meditating. Three hours before he need to go he would put his Kratur'hesh into the sheath, made in the colours of Ohn'tuh'Sa, a combination of black, gold and dark green. He gathers his few things up, that aren't already transported to the shuttle, graps his blade and move up to the Girdle.

Phil waits near the back of the room while Mel transmits the summons from her office. "I wish I were sticking around for that dressing down," he thought to himself, walking over to stand nearby when Mel returned to talk to Credo. When Credo paused to consider Mel's question, Phil interjected, "My things are mostly prepared, and waiting in a nearby hangar. I will coordinate with the transport pilot, and launch simultaneously." Phil points at his head, "If you need me just yell," and with a casual salute, he turns and proceeds to the door.

Ryuya was relieved that the meeting was over. He left for his personal quarters as soon as he had the chance. He entered and immediately sat down at the work bench he had set up. He tinkered with his latest project a bit. To the casual eye, it looked like little more than a metal sphere about a foot in diameter with some gears, wires, gizmos, and circuits on the inside, but it was in fact a utility robot, designed to hold various tools, perform certain tasks, and general serve as an assistant for Ryuya's hobby of building and tinkering with things. It was far from finished, but he worked on it for a bit and then carefully packed it up for transport, making sure it had no loose parts inside of it and it was well protected from any impacts it may encounter on its way to the ship. Everything else was carelessly thrown into a bag. He took a moment to stare out the window, losing himself in his thoughts. After several minutes, he decided to go out and wander the facility they were in, just to kill some time.

Kalifax stood up from the chair he was in. He bowed respectfully to everyone who was left in the room and took his leave. He roamed the halls for most of the time, since he didn't have any personal belongings, except for his tetsubo. But he carried that with him everywhere, so there was no need to go back to his room.

Sevick left from the meeting room and headed to his room. Sevick entered his room a flipped on the black lights. To him it was perfectly lit for his eyes used the dark night of his home world. Sevick packed his backpack with lockpicks and other rogue tools. Sevick then layed down for a good night's sleep.

Jade had only made it about half way down the hall before her data slate buzzed into her chest. She made an obligatory eye-roll before tapping it to confirm her suspicion that it was Mel ready to give her a stern talking to. Of course, Jade recognized that specific "no arguments" tone of voice Mel used over the comm so there was no real way to weasel out of it... especially not when she was still so close to the office.

"Understood," she answered levelly and turned around. This wasn't the first time she'd been in trouble... being difficult to read in combination with having something of a temper had made for some very interesting conversations with Mel. Really what it all came down to is that until she joined the company, differences in opinion were either solved with smart remarks or fists. This is where "papa" is the bad influence, having brought her up not to take crap from anyone, regardless of their stature. "Always have the last word, and never start the fight but always win it" were the wise words he imparted on her.

The first time she and Mel had one of these conversations it was when a she sent a 270 pound dock worker to the infirmary with a concussion and four broken bones for goosing her. "I only hit him with it once," was her solid excuse... any more than once would have been out of line, right? She took a moment to slide a data chip into the slate and download the ship schematic to her collection just in case she wasn't going along for the ride anymore. When it popped out, she replaced it in a camouflaged compartment on her belt and continued towards Mel's office. Jade had a large database of ship schematics on that chip. She had one for nearly every ship that had ever come through her station with all of the access ducts and weird spaces where there was supposed to be no access marked on them, as well as a detailed list of the cargo those ships commonly carried and trade routes that she'd hacked off their computers. There was always Plan B if this didn't work out.

Jade slipped into Mel's office quietly and found a place to sit that was out of sight from the hallway to listen for her approach.

OOC: I'm going to give Wizard_and_Glass some time to respond for Credo. Probably til I get up tomorrow. I should have given him a heads up by PM about my plains to stall his character. Another lesson learned.

Raising a hand slowly, the albino at the back of the room brushed his paw over his braids slowly, preparing himself to go now that all the questions seemed to have puttered out. He’d had his question answered, was satisfied with the answer, and had listened to the questions of the others. The lizard…thing’s question had brought him pause. He didn’t know what the thing was, truly, but his question had applied to him, seeing as he himself was one of the newest members, if not the newest. One reason Credo had been bounced around so much before was that he was so big. He was built for heavy labor and hard fighting, so he’d often been a combination of goods mover and bodyguard. With long reach and thick muscles, Credo personified strength, his power and presence undeniable, though one did have to take into account his slightly slower speed.

The human’s outburst had caught him a bit off guard, again bringing pause to the giant of a creature. His free paw scratched idly at his chest, making a quiet rasping noise as his claws scraped his skin through the shaggy fur. His feet shifted, bringing his broad back up and away from the wall he’d leaned on, turning his head to look towards the door. This time, however, he was brought to an actual pause instead of a mental pause, one lower paw hovering over the floor. Those huge pink orbs he called eyes turned towards Mel when motioned to, swallowing once and bobbing his head in a quick nod. With nary a protest, he turned and plodded towards her, his footsteps heavy, but then again, so was his whole body. He paused near where she had stood before, bringing himself to kneel for the moment…he knew some disliked having to look so far up to speak with him and look him in the face.

Though he could have listened in on Mel as she departed for the empty office, the Gigant instead chose to swivel his ears down, blocking out most sound around him for a moment. His long tail flicked against the floor, one of his paws down between his legs, resting palm down on the floor to keep his balance. His head tilted back again, looking up as Mel re-entered the room, waiting for her to speak as she sits on the edge of the table. He listened quietly, as always, then bobs his head again, a slow nod that caused all of his somewhat messy braids to sway. His mane was thick and his paws were large, two factors that conspired against him in the sense of braiding them in any fashion to make them appealing to anyone aside from himself. His pink tongue slid out, brushing his muzzle, then slipping back inside to speak again, though cut off by the words of the male he did not recognize. After he had spoken, the Gigant once more tried to speak.

“Well…I admit, I have wanted armor before. I’ve asked for armor before, but not since joining here. Everyone is not so organized as this and the last four places I was bounced to told me I was too big. They just told me I’ve got enough reach over everyone, that I can keep them at bay even if I can’t hit them. I took it for granted that I’d be told the same here, too, and I feel a bit foolish now for not asking. This is a far more organized operation and it would be good to have something other than a skirt to protect myself. It’s just hard to find armor when just your leg is thicker than most people you meet. Though there isn’t time to get any before I ship out, I will do as you say and see the purser in the morning. I…before I go, I only have one last question. I understand that the ship is large enough that I can walk without fear of knocking my head like I did on the last five ships, but…will I be sleeping on the floor again? I’m sure there are bunks, as everyone needs sleep eventually, but my question is, are they rated for a being of my size? I understand that some are around my height, but things like me are rare, or so I’ve seen in my travels. I’ve yet to meet another like me. I wouldn’t want to wind up breaking the bunk like I did the last one. It’s also why I prefer not to sit…I tend to break chairs under me. That's all I really want to ask since I forgot earlier...I won't keep you long.”

His pink eyes scanned over the smaller being, his free paw not bracing himself to keep his balance brushing over his head once more. It was a nervous habit, ensuring that his braids were all flowing down the back of his skull, but it was one he couldn’t rid himself of. He liked to talk when he got the chance, though only talking around people he trusted. He had no specific reason for letting everyone think him dumb aside from superiors, though it should have been the other way around, for the superiors were the ones who assigned responsibilities. They were the only ones aware of his intellect, or so he thought, keeping to himself for the most part. His tongue flicked out over his muzzle one last time, this time accompanied by a rumbling deep in his gut…he was hungry and there was no way he was going to hide it when his stomach’s growls were that loud.

Mel looked Credo straight in the eye. "We've already sent beds and other furniture designed for larger creatures up to the ship. They should be properly installed by the time you get there. Properly rested soldiers perform better and have a much longer projected lifespan." She smiles, "Credo, I'm glad you think we're so well organized. We would have had a set ready, but we didn't have any armor in your size and body shape. It should have been taken care of sooner, but apparently somebody misplaced the forms."

Mel is silent for a moment, then get's a funny look on her face. "Don't tell me you haven't been getting enough to eat. I won't stand for my employees starving. I've seen your placement scores and I know how smart you really are, but you're trying too hard to be inoffensive and unobtrusive. You are a Mercenary, and you look like a giant predator. Use that. Speak your mind, and make sure your basic needs are filled, food, armor, and beds that fit you. You have a lot of potential value to the company and I'd hate to see it go to waste."

She reaches out to shake Credo's hand. "Good luck. Now go eat your dinner soldier."

Mel shakes Credo's enormous paw of a hand, nods and walks out of the room. She pauses in the hallway to check her slate. She taps the icon for her office security system, sees Jade waiting for her and puts her slate away. Mel calmly walks into her office ignoring Jade and sits in the chair behind her desk.

Mel waits a moment and then in a quiet, rigidly controlled voice begins. "What the hell did you think you were doing leaving an official briefing? I don't recall dismissing you or anyone else. You've been with us a year so you must know the rules on these briefings. The only answer I can come up with is that you don't give a damn what your boss thinks of you. I'm your boss, and I'm not too happy with you right now. I didn't put you on probation for defending yourself from that dockworker, and I don't plan on changing my judgement there, but you need to toe the line and at least look like you give a shit about the rules. We may be an outfit that tries to stick to an informal process, but we're all still soldiers and I expect you to act that way. Eikou Mochi means 'Honor for Profit' there is no profit in bashing a molester in the face. There is no profit in pissing off your superiors. Get it straight, even if most of the time you're faking it." She pauses and breathes in and out once. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Kalifax made his way to the ship they were to be using. He entered the ship, and looked around. The woman had said she'd be here, but the place was empty. He sighed and began looking around. Once he found the sleeping area, he laughed. There were bunks of various sizes, and they all looked somewhat comfortable. He shook his head and sat on the floor, wrapping his tail and wings around him. "I never sleep in these... beds," he said to himself. "I thought they knew that. Oh well." He closed his eyes and dozed off.

A thought had dawned on Jade while she waited: If ships didn't need to go through the gates, they wouldn't need to conform to a shape that fit through them. The possibilities of ship design would be endless... Jade was idly shifting the modules marked on the baby dreadnought's schematic around to what she thought would be more efficient when Mel walked in. She had moved the bridge so that it could overlook the whole ship, and arranged the engineering and crew decks along a spine so that the ship almost looked like a long talon. Jade was just starting to think about where she would place the guns when Mel began to speak, causing Jade's crimson gaze to turn towards her.

Jade's expression didn't change while she listened, making it difficult to read exactly what she was thinking. The whole human social structure was a difficult thing to grasp for her in general. Jade was brought up by a Saurran: large reptilian Xenos that resembled Earth salamanders. Saurrans valued strength and that was how one asserted authority, though it wasn't strength in the traditional sense. It was the strongest wit, intellect, and words in addition to one's physical strength that determined where on the pecking order you placed. They constantly dueled with words and pit themselves against one another in games of strategy... and if that wasn't enough to resolve a conflict, a fight broke out. Strength and Honor was a lot different than Honor for Profit, especially considering she grew up in a culture where the female lets the male know she's interested in him by walking up and punching him in the face. There was a short pause after Mel stopped talking while Jade considered what she would say.

"Nobody ended up in the infirmary this time," she answered, in that I-don't-see-what-the-problem-is tone of voice. "I believe you also said that: 'if I can't keep my mouth shut I should walk away before the situation escalates into violence.'" Jade's head canted to one side slightly as she gauged Mel's reaction.

"Are you retracting that?"

Phil takes the next lift up to the girdle, and checks out the shuttle quickly before returning to his drop ship. After a thorough inspection of all core functions, sub-systems, and stowed equipment, Phil anchors everything down in preparation for launch. He then rests until the comms catch his attention.

Mel sits forward and laces her fingers palms down on the desk in front of her, "So you honestly expected what you said to escalate to violence? I keep forgetting you weren't raised with humans and you aren't used to letting authority smooth things over. What you said shouldn't have been nearly enough to set off a fight, at least if my psych people are doing their jobs right. The people in that room are professionals, if they can't keep their tempers in a briefing when someone insults them I don't want to be the one signing their paychecks." Mel sits back in her chair and sighs, "I am not going to retract what I said before, but walking out isn't always an option. And anyway, why would you think we expect you to 'babysit' on this mission? It's true that you'll be expected to share expertise but everyone here knows shipboard discipline."

"This is all very confusing," she answered genuinely, and a frown tugged at the corners of her lips. "That isn't why you asked for me on this mission? To keep the ship running and in one piece? Make sure nobody gets it blown up? If that isn't babysitting..." She gave a shrug. "I'm not sure what else you expect me to do."

She gave a quiet sigh of exasperation... other humans looked a lot like she did, and spoke all the same words... but damned if all of those words meant something completely different to them! Jade resisted the urge to throw her hands up in the air and instead quickly sketched some rail gun emplacements on her ship while she thought about what to do with the drive modules. Humans frustrated her, plain and simple. Just when was it okay to fight with someone? How was she supposed to tell that attractive male at the bar she was interested if it was inappropriate to punch him in the face? It was almost enough to make her pull out her hair.

Sometimes she wished she were back on the Saurran station where things were normal... though she had a sneaking suspicion that her "father" was no longer there. From the way he was regarded by the other inhabitants of the station, she always guessed that his residence on such an out of the way place was influenced by another choice. Even though there wasn't a whole lot of money to go around, they were never left in need or want of anything which seemed unusual. Also how when she told Cecil she wanted to learn how to fence, the proper equipment and a trainer materialized as though it were requisitioned. These things all lead her to believe that the choice in question that kept Cecil at that particular station was her, though she could never pin down any hard evidence... and until recently she never had a reason to want to.

All that papa needed to do to alleviate her suspicion was to reply to her messages. Yet with no word from him she was left feeling like her existence was part of some phenomenal cosmic joke whose punchline had yet to be delivered. The frustration of the whole situation showed in her eyes for a brief moment as she looked up to meet Mel's gaze once again in wait for her response.

(Actually, I based my last post off of what Kalifax thought. He has no idea it's not the actual ship. He actually payed very little attention during the meeting. I just wanted to clear that up. It only works if someone comes to talk to him though.)

Ryuya was till wandering the halls. He noticed a ship and thought he might board it and have a look around. He noticed Kalifax sleeping in one of the quarters. He poked him. "Hey, you're going to miss the launch if you keep sleeping. You DO know this isn't the right ship, right?"

"I asked you on this mission so that we would have someone other than Phil on board who understood ships." Mel frowned, "CPL has supplied an engineering and maintenance crew, but my people haven't had a chance to check them out so I wanted one of our own. I know you'll be intimately familiar with the ship by the time it's signed over to us." Mel grinned wickedly, "It's not ours yet, but when it is you'll probably be permanent crew aboard her."

"On another subject, the head-shrinkers gave me a couple books for you to read. They're purely optional, but they said you might find them helpful when dealing with other Humans. They're studies of Human etiquette and interaction, one of them is even written by a Saurran." She unlaced her fingers and sat back, opening a draw on her desk. Mel picked up 2 datacards and handed them to Jade. "These are yours, read them if you want to. I'm sure you have things to prepare for this mission. Good Luck."


OOC: @ Zarian: Ah, that explains it. And with Hydrostar's post now the sleeping quarters are explained.

Kalifax's eyes shot open and he jumped up, grabbing the human by the throat. He growled at him, his eyes a very deep red color. He finally noticed who it was, and dropped the human. (You should have some nasty bruise there later on...) "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I guess I should have mentioned to someone not to try and rouse me from sleep any other way than with loud noises. I have been trained to kill, and, as you can see, will do so even while I wake."

The surprise of being attacked had taken a large amount of breath out of Ryuya to begin with, and the choking on top of that left him desperate for air. He stood hunched over, with his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. "I'm...I'm fine..." He took a few more deep breaths before he rose to a normal posture and continued. "Anyway, you looked like you were planning on staying here for a while, but this isn't our ship." He awaited Kalifax's response, rubbing his throat and breathing heavily.

"Head-shrinkers..." Jade gave Mel a very dubious look before accepting the data cards and examining them closely. She slipped the cards into one of her pockets and got to her feet.

"Yes... I still have to finish packing. I also estimate I will have thirty seven new crevices to explore once I reach the ship based on the orientation of the new drive module and my experiences with other ships of the same class."

Jade waited for a good long moment as if to make sure it was really okay to leave this time before she bid Mel good night and turned down the hall. She walked back to her quarters with her slate cradled in her arms, thankfully avoiding any more confrontations with humans along the way. When she arrived, she finished packing the few things that she owned into a small duffel bag and laid down on her bed with the intention of falling asleep... though for a long time all she could do was stare at the darkened ceiling.

When Jade finally did drift off into a restless sleep, it seemed that almost immediately her eyes were open once again. It was difficult to pinpoint what she was seeing, as her vision seemed warped and blurred. She felt as though she were floating in some kind of liquid, and when she tried to pry the object covering her face free, she found that her arms would not move. There were figures huddled around the glass in front of her, but she couldn't make any distinction between them. A spindly metal limb moved through the fluid and jabbed her sharply in the arm, sending a burning sensation slowly spreading beneath her skin. Jade squirmed as the sensation ran along her arm to her fingertips and slowly stretched fiery tendrils into her chest.

Finally the burning tendrils grasped her heart and all at once her whole body was alight with pain. Jade tried to cry out but she couldn't breathe, and her vision began to swim with dark spots. Just when the last bit of light was fading out of her vision she awoke with a start, staring once again at the darkened ceiling of her quarters.

It was that same dream again... the one she'd been having for as long as she could remember. She tried to grasp the details of the dream, but as she reached out for them, they were lost in the fog of waking. Jade pulled herself up into a sitting position and pressed her face into her knees, staring into the fabric of her pants for a long time before she pushed herself to her feet. A sigh escaped her when she glanced at her chrono and saw that it read 04:30... she had only slept for a couple of hours.

Jade pulled her clothes off and threw them into a heap on the floor before stepping into the shower where she sat and let the hot water beat down upon her back for a long while. She tried to relax under the heat and recall her dream with no more success than she'd had before. Finally she gave up on it for the day and dried herself, dressing in fresh clothes (remembering to fish the data cards Mel had given her out of her old pair of pants) and making sure she had everything else she needed packed.

It was a short trip to the proper elevator, and even after the long ride to the top and being hassled at customs about her tool kit and not, oddly enough, about her energy blade she arrived at the ship's landing area quite early. Jade found a place somewhat out of the way to wait and loaded one of the books Mel had given her into her slate.