RP: United Outer Colonies [Prelude] Beyond these crowded shores...

Ai slid, in her seat, as far away from Kenoki as possible, weary of any pinching. "This mission? It's interesting to say the least. I'm just curious as to why we're suddenly in officer positions." Her mind, still stuck in pessimistic mode, once again thought of possible goof-ups.

Ashlyn arrived on the Kibou, and went straight for the bridge, looking for everyone else as she got a look at all the new systems. "HI!" The ship smelled new, no one had died in it so that was good, even if they didn't get much done the first mission. "Kibou reporting, I'm here!" The soldier tapped at the communication station without sitting down, then wandered around to get a look at everything.

Throughout the entire briefing, Tesuro stayed completely silent--listening but finding no need to offer any thoughts or questions of his own. Everything was fairly clear and concise. Although he found it curious how so many people, himself included, had been shuffled around so much in such a short period of time...but after pondering the thought, he realized that the United Outer Colonies, as a relatively new nation was likely to have some disorder amongst their ranks and thus there would likely be even more shuffling in the future. I'd best not get too comfortable. At the rate of things, I could easily be moved yet again... Tesuro thought in a very passive and uncaring mood.

He saw Xanatos shipped off and Caine brought in. The only person he 'sort-of' knew replaced with another person he 'sort-of' knew. It wasn't a total surprise to see that his old Yugumo crew was still around, but regardless he found himself completely unable to care. He had to concentrate on himself right now--and his mission--to re-evaluate his life and make sense of things. To him, this wasn't a time to make new friends. He just wanted to see things through and move on; reason being the last time he grew to close to someone so fast it backfired on him.

Upon being ordered off to his team's alloted ship, he headed off sometime after Ashlyn. The teams were even now that Xanatos had left, the two remaining aside from himself being Ashlyn and Jason. Watching Ashlyn he could tell she was definitely an eccentric. It wasn't a bad thing to him, but being the quiet introvert that he was, he wasn't sure how he would get along with her. Probably better not to test things out too much. he thought.

Of course.

Jason however had not exercised much activity, certainly not as much as his other teammate. But he couldn't blame him, as he himself was not one to draw attention.

He arrived at the bridge shortly after Ashlyn, keeping some distance behind her. "Tesuro Urameshi, reporting." he said short and simply to the ship's AI.

“There you go with that again.” Kenoki said making a pinching motion with her two fingers. “You two were part of the 17th right? So don’t worry. I heard you guys were good. I was…” She hesitated, was it too soon to open up to these two? No, they all were a team now, come good or bad. Better to have out with it, “I was so exited when I got the orders saying I would join you. Even though things changed pretty fast, I’m still glad. I mean, it doesn’t matter if we’re not in the 17th now, you’re both the same people.”

“When we’re done with this training, we’ll probably all be assigned to different places, so…” Why was it so hard for her to just say it? She’d thought she’d gotten better at opening up to people, “Damn it all,” She muttered before continuing, “So that’s why I think we should all be friends now, that way when we part ways we’ll have no regrets about it.”

Natsuko turned back to the controls when Kenoki suggested that they should be friends. Friends will only die, or leave ya kid. Natsuko thought bitterly as she guided the shuttle into the armor bay in the UCS Jizen. "We're here." Natsuko said, trying to fake her enthusiasm again. The back doors to the shuttle opened up, revealing the glossy dark purple floor of the Armor Bay. "Let's explore our new ship."

“Ah… Yeah.” Maybe it was too soon to open up to Natsuko? Or maybe Natsuko didn’t want anyone to open up to her… Well, I’ve never been one to give up, so I won’t give up on you Natsuko. I’ll get through that shell of yours… Kenoki smiled and followed along.

Ai tried to scoot further away from Kenoki again. "No pinchy," she whimpered quietly.

"It's kind of hard to just force being friends. It takes time to build up a friendship no?" Ai was a bit... reluctant to be getting into another friendship since she felt as if anyone that got close to her seemed to vanish.

Natsuko stepped out of the shuttle, and into the Jizen's armor bay. I guess this is home for a little while. Natsuko thought as she took in the view. The armor bay felt small and slightly cramped with the shuttle inside it, but it was clearly well stocked. In each of the six alcoves that lined the walls, a Tenshi could be seen, ready to be used in case a situation should arise that require it. "Jizen, Cadet Hiragi Natsuko reporting in. Is there anything we'll need to do immediatly? Also, I am unfamiliar with this class of ship as well as the Tenshi power armor, would it be possible to get information about them sent to me?" Natsuko asked the ship, hoping that she was referring to it correctly. "Saa, Ai-chan, Hirahara-san. What do you think?" Natsuko asked as she glanced over the armor bay.

Kenoki appraised the Tenshi’s, they were impressive but something was missing… Realizing what it was, she said, “I want a bigger gun for mine.”

Kenoki was getting the strong impression that her team-mates were not going to be as fun as she had hoped. Making friends wasn’t hard, just stay away from the people you don’t like and the ones you have left are your friends, right? Both Natsuko and Ai seemed like thy didn’t want any friends at all. Doesn’t that mean they need them all the more? Kenoki glanced at Ai, who seemed the best place to start. A mischievous grin passed across her face for a moment. Her plans were forming…

"Hm, what do I think about what? The ship or the armors?" Ai questioned. She had gotten 'aquainted' with a Tenshi back on the Akuro III, though it was in her grief-stricken mind. She quietly chuckled to herself about how stupid it seemed, her talking to an armor, though she let out a depressed sigh after.

Wasn't Ai a neko? Weren't nekovalkyrjas famous, or something, from moving from one partnet to another? This thought of being a failure of even her being drove her further into depression. But, she still tried to put on at least a seemingly good frame of mind externally if only for the others.

"Ah... uh...." Ai noticed Kenoki's grin. "Can I help you?" The cadet's hands instantly went back to cover her rear. "No pinchy! I didn't do anything wrong!!" she squeaked out. Unless of course Kenoki-chan is a mind reader....

Natsuko shrugged. "The ship so far I guess." the neko said passively. Natsuko looked toward the isolation doors which slid open as she approached. "Welcome aboard Cadet Hiragi. Requested material has been sent to your communicator and is available for download at your convenience. There is currently nothing requiring your attention." Jizen replied telepathically.

That's good. Natsuko thought as she entered into the uniquely designed airlock system. "You guys coming?" Natsuko asked as she looked back at the pair still in the launch bay.

Kenoki looked at Ai, her mischievous grin blossoming into a big smile. She gestured towards the Airlock, “After you.”

David's shuttle landed on the deck of the Kibou and he stepped out. He adjusted his jacket sighed. It was going to be a bit too much for the crew to be split up on this mission so Caine and himself had decided to consolidate they trainees onto one ship for the time being.

"Kibou I would like you to send a Message to all the Trainees under My supervision: Please report to the Kibou and meet me and Commander Caine on the bridge upon arrival."

David continued quickly onto the bridge with little delay where he awaited the others' arrival.

Sukai sat in the troop transport counting bolts in the wall, counting lights on the ceiling, doing anything to keep his mind off the anxiety, wringing his hands all the while.

This is it, the first assignment. After this, there's no turning back for a while.

His eyes darted around, noting again the plainness of the ship, the stale air, the faces of the others with him (all either similarly anxious or trying to look nonchalant), and wished his guitar wasn't currently stowed away for the moment.

From the nearby cockpit, Sukai heard a muffled "Ah, shit," followed by the transport taking a sharp turn away from the ship they were approaching, instead angling toward another of the same design. Over the ship's speakers came the voice of the pilot: "Changing course for the UCS Kibou, trainees are to report to the bridge. Get yourselves together."

Sukai checked to see that he had all the equipment he needed on hand, and then picked up the rest of his gear as the transport settled down onto the Kibou. He stepped out with the rest, pack in hand, guitar case on his back, and headed for the bridge, gulping back a surge of fear and loathing.

Natsuko blinked when she received the message. So much....shifting. the neko thought with a mild amount of annoyance. "Looks like we gotta get back to the Kibou." Natsuko said as she left the air lock that she was in, "We should probably hurry." Natsuko said flatly as she re-entered the shuttle that they had just arrived in.

Kenoki narrowed her eyes, She felt distinctly like a card being shuffled around in a deck with some quick handed street swindler’s fast talking to a crowd of onlookers. “Place your bets; the hand is quicker than the eye…”

She turned about on her heal and started back for the shuttle. “If we don’t start going somewhere important soon…” she grumbled. “I’m sick of all this marching back and forth like a parade square, we’re here to DO SOMETHING right? Not be pulled this way and that until somebody figures out what to do with us!” Her grumbling descended into occasional guttural sounds of annoyance as she re-entered the shuttle.

Natsuko looked back at Kenoki, "Well, it appears that the something that we're doing is being pulled this way and that. Unfortunately we signed up to be here, so that's what we're going to do." Natsuko spoke the last sentence with a small amount of force, trying to vent her frustration as she worked with the shuttle controls. "Ai-chan, we need to get going." Natsuko said telepathically to Ai before refocusing her attention on making sure the shuttle could take off.

"Hai hai," Ai replied, having slightly spaced off. She reentered the shuttle. At least this move back to the main ship would save her from any chance of messing up the mission, though she didn't voice her opinion on that from fear of pinches.

"Any ideas why we're heading back to the Kibou?" Ai asked before sighing.

Natsuko shook her head, "No, though something had to have changed during that meeting that Stryker-Juni...." Natsuko made a tcht sound right after she spoke David's rank. "Lieutenant Stryker and Commander Ionoche had with Vice-Admiral Richter, for them to be moving us around." Natsuko said. Again. the Neko thought as she lifted off of the bottom of the shuttle bay and began moving the shuttle back to the Kibou. Minutes later, the crew of the Jizen landed gently on the glossy deck of the Kibou's hangar. Once the shuttle was landed, the hatch opened up and Natsuko turned to her companions. "Let's go." she said rather unenthusiastically before heading for the exit of the shuttle.

Kenoki followed, still muttering darkly to herself. If her two companions had known her better, they might have known that this quiet seething anger could very well boil over into a raging tempest at the exact wrong moment. Once again, it seemed Kenoki’s passion might get the better of her and cause her to do and say something very stupid to the wrong person…