RP: SNV Gam'trosha [Prologue] The Gathering, and Launch?

Def'leor considered the commander's question trying to figure out if it was a sincere one, or some sort of psych test.

"Well for me the first two questions have a single answer. Opportunity. Its an opportunity to get skills and training that I would never have the chance at in the civilian life. Skills and training that will either open doors for me in the future, or at least let me kick a few of them open. Besides space is a whole new arena, those who are out there first, will see things no on else has and do things others haven't.

As for what I can contribute... I protect those that I am with much like our Marine. I have drive, I do not back down easily, and will always give my best. I've been trained to fly a starship, and as long as I'm on the Gam'trosha, I will continue to improve my skills as such to ensure we get to where we need to be when we need to be there." Def'leor decided she had said enough, so she picked up her drink and took a long haul on the cool liquid.

"For King and Country!" Tite'Yanus called out once Def'leor was done. Taking a quick chug to finish off his drink, he slammed the cup down onto the table. "There's no better motivator than gold, God, and glory by adventuring out to explore the new worlds! I mean, who knows what we can find out there? Alien species, weird new compounds to revolutionize technology? We're but a wave in the vast ocean that is the universe and it's about time that we take a crack at peeking around a bit."

He paused to motion to the bartender for a refill on his drink before looking back at the others. "After all, that's why the Gam'trosha was made - exploration, and I plan on being there for every new discovery to protect those that join me, and to be ready to research and combat any encountered foes that could threaten the Great Kingdom."

Shar pulled hand with ciggeretes back with shrug. Bad sense of taste eh? Shar had problems with her smell, which is probably why ciggaretes never got to her nerves. Some were put of by the smell, but she was not. That said she picked them up only after THAT happened. Another bad habit that could potentialy kill her. Shar sighed, she could really use a shot of Vodka. She frowned on her tomato juice and had another swig of the thing.

She listened to others talking. They all had some future, some dreams and something that pulled them forward. She lost all that years ago. She lived on automatic setting now. Wake up in the morning, train, breakfast, train, lunch, brood and train, evening meal, train, sleep. It was going on and on, until someone will end it for herself. She would do it, but she promised not to. She did not promise to stay at safe places though. For her being soldier was a mean to end it all, but she could not possibly say that. There is no offices in the whole world who would like to have suicidal person in her crew. That said Shar just could not go and get shot. She will still fight, because now she was again part of something and other marines and crew will depend on her too.

"Well what can I say," Shar started, looking into her glass searching for the words. "I just wanted to serve the kingdom again and Gam'trosha is just firs assignment. I will carry it on and be good marine. As to my capabilities, well you read my dossier, you know better what I can do."

"That I do, that I do..." said Sa'kira in response to Shar's comment as she tapped one of the dossiers that caused it to vanish, she was actually pretty happy with the responses, it told that she probably had a capable crew her - if she spent time and help to mold them, they'd probably become one of the best and that was what she was aiming to do. Hearing Shar's response gave her some insight into the Daur's mind, and listening to Tite'Yanus speak of King and Country made her happy, hearing what Def'leor had to say told her that she could rely on the aviator to help protect not only herself but the entire crew if and when combat happened, overall though she was happy.

She then looked over at the young one who hadn't yet spoken. "What about you young one? Other than this being your first assignment, and thus you were assigned to me by your superior, what goals or aspirations do you have and what do you feel you can bring to the team?"

As she waited, she continued to keep an eye on the message window that still showed 'on-hold', noticably she was a little frustrated at why the message - which was obviously from a military call-center given that the identification number on the lower left identified as such - was being delayed so long.

Then the bar-tender, along with one of her employees, walked over to the table and set down a tray of food for the crew. The restruant was already started to get a bit more activity, military marines who were coming in for breakfast or officers who were arriving for meetings, their little cornor of the place was reserved for Sa'kira and her crew.

There was a brief pause after Sa'kira queried the young kit, which Keri'cruen utilized to mentally formulate his reply. The adolescents blue-green gaze focused on each of his new crew-mates in turn as he made his response, speaking to the whole group.

"I joined the legion in the hopes that I could be be part of the Neshaten Kingdom's first steps into interstellar exploration -- there's nothing I want more than to expand the boundaries of my knowledge, and that of the Kingdom as well." The kit paused for a second, flashing the assembled group a hesitant grin, before he continued.

"As for what I can contribute... I'm a pretty good engineer and a passable scientist in a range of subjects -- mostly astrophysics, dimensional theory and the like. I'm rated to maintain and repair all the primary and secondary systems of the She’tanora-Class, from its Crena sub-light engines and contra-gravity impellers to its hyperspace fold drive, and life-support systems. Whenever the ships about to experience a reactor cascade or the weapon batteries go off-line in the middle of a fire-fight, you'll be glad to have me aboard to patch things up."

Shar finished her ciggarete and put it off in the ashtray. She reached for the ciggarete pack, but then pulled the hand back deciding to wait before lighting another one. Instead she played with her lighter. Flicking the top off and back. She looked at others and listened.

The youngster was engineeer. That was honorable thing and Shar respected it. She herself was dumb and had problems even getting through complementary schooling. She always had some sort of respect to inteligent people. She never understood how they could stuff so much stuff in their head and keep it in for so long. She herself got almost kicked from Guard academy when she struggled with Neshaten laws. So it was good he was engineer, but was he also good soldier?

"And how is you sword-arm youngster?" Shar asked the small Daur. He was visibily young, it was pretty plaing to see that Shar was one of the oldest there and her scars made her appear even older.

Tite'Yanus was wondering the same things as Shar, she simply got to the topic first. He knew that almost every Neshaten learned rudimentary unarmed combat, and that almost every Naval member learned some basic weapons fighting beyond that, but that didn't mean they were any good at it.

"I would have to beg the same question as the lady. And of course, there's only one way to discover the potential of someone's fencing abilities. What do you say? Up for a little sparring later today?"

More people started entering the restaurant, some were engineering looking like they just had a rough shift, coming in and mentioning the problems they were having with their repair work, and wanting to drown their sorrows in booze - a thing that the bar-tender apparently had no problems letting them do as he grabbed a bottle and poured the engineers a glass.

Sa'kira couldn't help but shake her head in disagreement, she never agreed with drinking your problems away as they never solved a thing. Turning her attention away from the bar she could hear the sound of the rain outside getting ever louder, it was pattering against the windows. Since the restruant only had dim lighting on, it was easy for the lightning outside to light up the place.

With a slight smile she looked back at the group, she was eager to hear the kits response as well. Being a master of a particular style meant she could recognize talent easily, and it was a style she hoped to pass onto her crew - to turn them into a force that the military could potentially rely upon at a later date.

"I've trained in a few different styles and tend to use a mixture of Curan, Vrete and Guikane sword-forms -- but I'm no sword-master. I've done fairly well in competition and in sparring with my teachers but I've never been in a real life-or-death fight before."

Keri'cruen's gaze centered the the My'leke, Tite'Yanus. He'd sparred with My'leke in competition before and it was always a challenging experience as he was more used to practicing with Daur and Laibe -- it was harder for Keri to pick up on the visual cues My'leke display during duels in order to predict their actions.

"I'm game if you are..." Keri said with a pleased grin. "It's been a while since my last sparring match and practicing by myself tends to get a little tedious after a while."

Def'leor sat and watched the banter between the two males talking about their sword ability. She could not help but be reminded of the jockeying for dominance in the locker rooms of the Home.

Leaning forward in her chair, "Boys, boys, this is a restaurant and we are here for a social gathering, it's not a locker room to see whose is bigger." she said with a grin.

"As for sword fighting, I have completed the compulsory training in the military. That is the extent of my training with long pointy objects." she leaned back in her chair and finished her bottle of drink.

"It's a deal then," came the response from Tite'Yanus. He always enjoyed a good duel. He hadn't intended it as a competition, but as a genuine learning experience. However, when Def'leor brought up the locker room analogy, he couldn't help but grin.

"But I am bigger."

Shar finished her glass and picked it up and waved at barmaid for refill. If she could not have vodka in it, she at least wanted to drink a lot of it. Index finger of her left hand was tapping on the table as she listened to others.

"Cool it boys," She then said. "There will be plenty chances for dueling on the ship." She said, waiting for her drink. She personally prefered firearms, since if you kills someone before he gets too close you better your chances of survival. If you shoot someone in the back, he won't stab you or your comrades later on.

Def'leor listened to the byplay of her new crew mates, while she considered her next drink. She walked over to the bar, and ordered a glass of unsweetened juice. Once she received it she returned to her seat.

"U'Cetrinal, how long do you think it will be before the ship and crew will be ready to head out into the unknown? And if I may be so bold, what are you hoping to get out of this assignment?" she inquired

The response the kit gave was what she was hoping he'd give, now she'd have to make certain the cargohold had a clear enough space for such an event to take place. With a satisfied smile, she listened to the questions pointed at her.

Sa'kira rubbed her chin for a moment. "Shouldn't be too much longer, about another thirty mitura's before we head to the ceremony for launch, after that we'll have our shakedown cruise to get rid of any bugs in the system," she gave the soldiers next question a bit of thought though and was silent for almost a full ten seconds before responding to it.

"Honestly though, what I am hoping to get out of this assignment is a better understanding of the universe and reveal what lives out there. Our history books don't tell us very much, at least, it doesn't explain anything about any other sentient life out there. Our ancestors found no one but themselves in their cornor of the universe with the exception of old ruins and structures dating back hundreds or thousands of years, at least that's based off the history that survived the Exodus, as some call it, but for all we know the history books we lost might've contained information about other life, we'll never know though sadly." Much of our written history was lost... the books that survived, enshrined to protect them from time, are all that remains... to bad though that the information we don't have relates to astrological charts amongst other important things.

She stopped and thought again for a brief moment. Then again, I'd tell them this, but I don't want them to lose faith in the command structure. Most in high command doesn't think that there are any intelligent life out there except ourselves. There's been no evidence so far, but I want to believe that there 'is' other life out there, we just haven't had the luck of actually finding it. I hope it's friendly though...

Glancing at her crew, she pondered whether anyone else had questions.

Shar dragged another ciggaret from the packet, placing it between her lips and lighting it with her lighter. She made mental note to buy a load of cigs later. They will be important. She might ask her Brother to send her some if needed. She listened to Shipmistress who was also enthusiast about the universe and what not. Shar herself kinda hoped they meet no other intelligent life. She was one of the people who often though that if they meet strange aliens and what not, those aliens do not have to be exactly friendly.

"I got question Ma'am?" Shar then asked, putting the cigarette away for a while. "Is this ceremony-thing mandatory? I really hate things like that. I do not want to offend you, but it is just.... something I cannot really explain."

"It is, the event is part of a ships history and must be done, there is no way around it." Sa'kira grabbed her empty cup for a moment and looked inside in thought, "but if your worried about the brass, don't be, all you need to do is stand at attention while the Q'Abrenal gives their ceremonial lecture. Then, after which we'll board the ship and take her up."

She looked around at the other crew. "Don't hesitate to ask me more questions," she smiled curiously. Glancing back at the terminal, she was starting to get more and more annoyed at how the message was still on-hold and she had no idea what it was about yet, though she was hiding her frustration behind a wall of professionalism.

Tite'Yanus sat there, staring at his empty glass for a little bit, simply listening to the conversation. At the mention of the ceremony and taking the ship up another thought popped into his head. "Ma'am, while in standard flight, what are the duties of the marines? I should hope there is some sort of standardized work for us to do other than clean our weapons."

Sa'kira was partly surprised at the question, but then she had to remember that as a Shipmaster she was actually fully allowed to tell her marines what they can and can't do, she knew most shipmasters preferred to keep the marines in the barracks or in a small area of the ship for one reason or another, some were just to paranoid that a marine might screw something up beecause they were only trained in killing and protecting.

"Patrol the ship, because of our problems with bombings, even on military vessels - myself and the other crew onboard can't keep our eyes on everything. So it'll be up to you and your fellow marines to patrol the ship, looking for things that are out of ordinary, such as bombs that are planted to cause us havoc, this also includs searching the cargobay and any cargo we have onboard."

Stopping for a moment in thought, she rubbed her chin and turned to her side, glancing out the window and into the dark sky that was dimly lit by the base. "This also means you inspect any shuttles and vehicles we have onboard, the only area of the ship you are not permitted to enter is the bridge."

"You may search through the maintenance conduits as well, that also means that if you find anything that is broken or malfunctioning you inform engineering so that they can repair it. Now, other than what I've said, if we ever get into a situation where there is combat and the enemy is trying to board us. We'll need one marine on the bridge just in case we are boarded, while the rest of the marines will patrol the ship for intruders, however we've yet to have any raiders or pirates actually try and board a military vessel but you never know," she said as if they were expecting more marines to be assigned but she honestly wasn't to certain how many more crewmen she'd get. She already had a list that was quite small for a ship the size of the Gam'trosha, but she was determined to make certain that the crew size wouldn't be a problem.

Tite'Yanus nodded a little, considering all of the information. He was about to ask about entering the bridge during a boarding, but it seemed that Kira was one step ahead of him. However, the last parts of what she said did give him some thoughts.

"You or..." he paused as he tried to remember Shar's name, but nothing came up, so he instead pointed at her with his tail, "her may have some different opinions ma'am, but my recommendation would be to put her on the bridge in the event of a boarding. Since I'm a Heavy Marine I will tend to use bigger toys, and my guess is that you would prefer I'm not firing heavy weapons on your bridge."

Shar was quite happy hearing that Shipmistress wanted to use marines for something else then dumb guard duty and sitting on their hands, until anything happens. Shar knew a bit about searching for contraband from her guard-days.

"Well I do personally thing I would be in much more use in the corridors, while heavy marine is better of for keeping single doorway covered. On the other hand, I assume there will be rotation on guard duty." Shar commented and exhaled thick cloud of smoke towards the ceiling. "I also hopes that if we are supposed to look fo bombs and other threats, that personal belongings of the crew will be searched too. Especially things owned by Laibe's." Shar hoped she won't have to explain that small fact to anyone. If there will be anyone dangerous, it will certainly be a Laibe.