Taela watched the proceedings carefully, noting who her partner was, her current mecha, and what weapons were available. Turning to her new comrade, she greeted, "Welcome, Mr. Vinctropolis. I am Taela. You are apparently my co-pilot."

Somewhat turning to Kelly, she half-demanded, "And we are getting a Hyper Rifle and a spear for our Kirin. I want to keep any possible enemies more than an arm's length away from us."

Kelly rubbed the short stubble on his chin as he thought. "I'm guessing most combat will take place within the large mining tunnels, and perhaps on the surface of the moon if we're making a hasty getaway." the dark Nepleslian replied. His hands reached out and moved across the volumetric displays. "I think we can be sure we'll encounter Demon and Crooked Demon power armors, plus a few other random models thrown in." He paused to look at them all, an enigmatic emotion barely visible as it briefly passed his face. "This moon base is primarily inhabited by the Reds; we're on good terms with them, but the general impression is that something else is breathing down their necks in their own home. They don't like that and want us to clean house. Chances are, whatever it is has to have substantial military forces to do this to them in the first place. Since that's the case, just try not to get swamped with all of them, and you should all be fine."

Async's rapid fire tech talk made him loose his proverbial footing for a moment, and along with the embarrassment of the unintended pun, unsettled him well. He rubbed the back of his head and looked away for a moment. "Uh, well, I suppose we could just request for those, since we're still here at Dawn Station." he spoke uneasily. "Didn't mean to make that stupid pun." he muttered under his breath. He considered for a moment just what the Freespacer was asking for though. "Wait. Isn't all that excessive?"

He nodded to Taela's substantially easier request though. "Still, would you also like a sword too? We're going to be in close quarters, and a spear might get stuck on corners."

From he life on Neplesila Viki remembered that Demon is somek ind of power armour that those red nepleslians use. Power armors shouldn't be very tough in comparion to Frame. But like they say back home, too many Höhlewulfen can bring down a Tyrani. Better be careful. Especially when it is goin to be her first time in acrion with frame.

She then turned back to her new boss. "Sir I think, that if the spear is the right length it is very good weapone when used with partner with sword. If we moved in couples I can very well imagine me with a sword and the miss here behind me with spear. But it depends on how narrow the tunnels are. Anyway I will take one of the Hyper rifles and chain sword. Or two chainswords." She said. Viki hoped that chainsword can attached to mecha's back or somewhere so she can take two of them. After all she was used to slashing weapon and chain could hold only so much damage.

"Oh and enshuldigen mich. I am private Viktoria Ritter. I am looking forward to working along you." She then said to rest of the team.

Lucien seemed to take a speak-easy attitude to the meeting. All he knew is that something needed a missile in its face, and he was happy to oblige. When a weapon selection came up on screen, he tilted his head and pointed to the biggest thing there.

"I wont that one," He said as he pointed to the OI-M1-W3204, also known as the Heavy Pulse Laser Cannon. Or, to Lucien as the 'Big Laser Shootin' Thingy.'.

"Looks like oi'm takin' point, so I'll 'ave the heavy weap'ns jus' if they don' agree t' hand the goods over," He stated jovially, folding his arms with a grin, "An' methinks the guys 'oo took these ain't the talky sorts."

He then snapped his fingers as he forgot an important detail in his loadout, "Oh, 'n a chain-straight, too."

"I'll admit, the carbines and pistol are something of a redundancy, but if unforeseeable circumstances occur, it will be useful to have a small cache of arms with a greater endurance and maneuverability, if not as great a range, than..." Async sniffed, though it wasn't clear if from attitude or her recent recovery from a normally deadly common cold "an anti-ship laser."

Kelly moved his fingers about and quickly checked off Viktoria's weapons of choice. "Alright. That was easy. You'll be able to carry one sword on each side of the hip easy enough anyways." The ensign looked at Lucien next. "Ok, one BFG for Lucien...check." And then it was Async speaking up next. She was picking several small arms, which was fine, but what was up with that passive aggressive stance? Kelly narrowed one of his eyes ever so slightly before relaxing and letting a slight smirk come onto his face.

Unlike Yoshiko, who loved big guns, Async was perhaps the opposite. 'I'll play along then.' Kelly thought. He pretended to be thinking for a moment furrowing his brow and looking at the assignment sheet. "Hmm. I'm not exactly happy with using the Oban in this operation, even if it is in need of testing. It was supposed to be a civilian model. Are you sure you wouldn't want one of the Ashigaru instead? We still have some in stock."

'Now that I think about it, Yoshiko is on probation. I guess I could take that route too if the other pilot's aren't to pleased with the idea of just merely swapping.'

'He- he doesn't pay attention all that well,' Async thought gloomily to herself.

"The Oban is fine for this mission, Commander... in fact," she noted, dropping into her thoughtful monotone "it is preferable for the tight conditions we should be facing, the lack of binders to hold those carbines might be a problem... your mecha can utilize rifle slings, correct?"

Mark slid into a chair at the table and slipped his hand into a coat pocket to recover his DataJockey. With just few button presses, he had begun taking notes on the briefing. Each line was meticulously typed in a concise, grammatically correct manner. When Taela spoke to him, Mark turned with an assuring grin.

"I'll be a good copilot, baby. I got more knowledge about the equipment in that section than anything else I know. I've been working with communication and digital equipment since i was the size of a bump on your forehead, and I'm damn good at it. But, I'd like some more information about the motive of this mission. When was this stuff stolen, by whom, why, how, and what kind of sleazebags are we meeting to get it back. 'Contact' is a very popular word, but it's nonspecific as hell. I ain't sayin' I don't wanna go. But I'd like to learn more about the gig.

Others could see how Viki's hand moved to both her hips as if she was checking out how easy it would be to take sword both from left and right hip. She then nodded for herself.

She then got back into conversation. Raised her head and looked at Kelly. "Yes that is true, we newcomers could use some more information about the mission and what happened before." She said to Kelly.

'Async taking that Oban worries me.' Kelly thought to himself.

It was a civilian frame, but in the end, orders were orders. The crew was going to outfit themselves with whatever they wanted for this mission in specific. Even if the commanding officer believed something else was better suited, if the crew wanted to attack frames with nothing but their uniforms, jetpacks and small arms, then they would do just that. The Nepleslian waved the thought away. It was an ugly and terrifying thought, and there was no room for that.

"Yes, the M1 series and their weapons are capable of using slings. I'll requisition the ones you'll need for these weapons." Kelly replied. He then turned his gaze onto one of the new personnel transferred aboard the Atuan and gauged his attitude. It was a bit coarse, much like Lucien's, but chances were, was no gauge of pilot quality much like in Lucien's case as well. And being asked to recant the entire experience was pretty much wearing away any happy-feel-good feelings he got from the Onsen. Kelly inwardly shrugged. It probably wasn't meant to last anyways.

"During the unveiling of the M1 Ashigaru at Hinoki Pagoda, two of the Ashigaru frames attempted to...simply leave the vicinity." He spoke, no longer relishing the moment. "A fight between the frames quickly broke out in front of the audience. One frame was subdued with the pilot inside committing suicide, and the other frame absconded with." Dark skinned hands moved across the volumetric display, putting forth the images of a planet and scrap pile. "We managed to obtain the fleeing ship's pile of scrap, obviously taken apart and sold to hide tracks. However, it did not succeed and we still traced it's cargo drop-off to Kennewes."

Kelly's face soured as Yoshiko drew her legs up the chair and into her chest. "We lost one pilot as he obtained information on the next location the stolen frame was sent to, which is where we are heading now." The dark skinned Nepleslian turned to Shinji and Meena.

"And what's with the quiet coming out of you two?" he half snapped at them.

Inwardly, Kelly was bothered by what he considered slightly lackluster performance. True, they were in new and untried models going against tough odds and came out victorious. But it was also true that they lost someone under HIS command, and brought back an infestation. The station was still reeling from that. Kelly was surprised that anyone hadn't been called up to the chopping block yet.

And then there were the Reds. He had friends there at Halna who deserved some rest. They'd been through enough already.

*****

'It wasn't my fault.' Yoshiko reasoned to herself. 'There was nothing I could do to help him anyways they said. He stepped out of his Ashigaru. And, and I was fighting hard, I really was!' Yoshiko's memory flashed back to how she playfully snatched away the Zesuanium claws of the wrecked Render for herself. 'NO!' She screamed inside her head.

'At least, at least this time, there's definitely nothing I can do, since I'm on probation! Yeah! It won't be my fault at all it all goes to hell.' An inkling feeling in Yoshiko's gut tugged at her.

That still wasn't right. She sighed outwardly and relaxed in the chair. 'I'll think about it more later. They said I shouldn't be thinking about it anyways...'