Calri raised his arm and took a glance at his watch. It had been almost an hour since he had called for the pilots to meet in the common room of their barrack and the last of his squad had only just arrived. “You’re late again, Gonzalez. Get serious,” Calri grumbled.

“Sorry Sarge.”

Calri rolled his eyes and looked down at the half empty mug of coffee in his hand. He strolled over to the kitchenette and sidled up to the sink, half hidden behind a somewhat thin divider. “So, they’re expecting another dispute over that new mine along Tunnel Thirty-three…command’s sending us in and pulling Keen out .” He took one last sip of his coffee and dumped the rest of it into the sink. He stepped back out into the main room with the empty mug in his hand and, having forgotten he had just emptied it, made to take another sip. “Apparently, a couple of squads managed to destroy a bridge and lost their walkers to it. The terraces were not nice to them.” He hooked the thumb of his free hand around the inside of his belt and let his weight rest on his left foot. “So, pack your things, our train leaves in three hours.”

Sarah Feryana nodded, and said "Yes sir." She walked out of the room. She wondered what she could do for three hours, then decided that she would spend some time with Zariana. Sarah walked out of the barracks, and toward where her walker was. "Hey, girl." Sarah said, walking up to the walker. She leaned on the leg of Zariana, almost like it was a wall. Sarah liked to spend time with her walker. It was a machine, but she loved it like a sister. Sarah patted the leg, looked at the side of the walker, then circled the entire walker once. She climbed onto the top of the walker, and sat on the hatch. Three hours, The young pilot thought. Three hours, to sit and wait. Well, unless someone decides they wanna have a talk. She smiled, giggled, and stared into the sky.

Jinry was sat on one of the threadbare armchairs in the common room. The 'roo had a chocolate bar in one hand, which she was diligently and eagerly polishing off as she listened to the Sergeant speak. Her long ears twitched as she took in the words, glancing around at her fellow pilots. The sortie sounded straightforward enough, but she had enough experience to know that that was no guarantee that it would be straightforward, of course.
At the dismissal, she scoffed down the last few morsels of the bar, and hopped to her feet, Sarge had said to pack, and pack she would. She wasn't anticipating needing to pack a huge bunch of stuff, this wasn't likely to be a residential billet, it was a tactical operation. All the same, he hadn't said how long things would take, so she loaded up a backpack with the essentials she'd need to survive a few days in the field.

Slinging the bag over one shoulder. She tapped a toe in thought. She'd spent the better part of an hour on readying her gear, and there was time enough to spend getting ready. With a sigh, she realized that this was probably the last chance she'd have for a decent (or at least, almost decent) cooked meal, and a warm shower. Not to mention a sensible bed, she thought with a loving glance at her own bed.

A short while later, she arranged the cutlery on her plate and gave a slight sigh of remorse as she looked down at the empty tray. She'd chosen the best that was on offer, and had been pleased to see the mess had been serving out the toffee-cream pie that was a favourite. Now though, there wasn't any further time to spend on getting ready beyond the bare essentials.
She reported to the quartermaster to gather her personal issue gear; her normal operational vest and its' pouch contents, and signed out her sidearm. After that, she was ready as she'd be.
She strapped into her vest, and stowed the pistol in its' holster, before shrugging the heavily laden backpack onto her shoulder, and heading for the area where the walkers were stored and maintained. The place was a busy hive of activity as the maintenance crew readied the machines for roll out onto the train and onward. She exchanged waves and good-natured jibes with the crews as she passed, before climbing up the access ladder to her Walkers' cockpit. Throwing the bag inside, she whistled over to where she could see Feryana atop her walkers' hull.
"Yo, Feryana! Ready to go?"

Sarah, after looking at the sky for a while, heard a whistle. Sarah looked around, and spotted Jinry at her own walker. Even though the higher ranked crew occasionally gave her lectures, she preferred to refer to people by their first names, rather than their surnames.
"Yep, Jinry. I haven't got much personal items on me, and I normally carry my sidearm around with me." Sarah said. "Other than that, I got a few tools in the walker's cockpit." The young pilot heard a few clicking noises, and looked down to see a member of the maintenance crew checking a something out on Zariana's leg. Sarah watched as the crew member took out a rusty looking object from the walker's leg, and replaced it with a non-rusty one. The man smiled, and walked off, causing Sarah to smile, as she looked back to Jinry.
"I certainly hope these maintenance boys know what they are doing. Don't wanna have to hurt 'em for damaging my little sister." Sarah rubbed the top of Zariana. It was clear that by little sister, the pilot had meant Zariana.

Mike leaned against a support post and listened to the sergeant. Apparently moss was replacing a downed walker squad. Without any real questions mike waited out the briefing and dismissal, 3hours till maneuvers.

“Aye Sergeant” mike said, heading for the chow hall, if they had more time he would have snuck into the kitchen to cook, himself. Instead he settled for grabbing an order of stroganoff, a salad, and a large bottle of orange/pineapple juice. He made the meal last a bit, before finally standing and placing his tray in the scullery window.
Content for the most part, he went to his room, gathered his gear, took a quick shower, and headed to the armory signing off for his pistol, and his loaded TAC-vest, stowing the unloaded pistol in a thigh holster. With nothing left to do, mike wandered to the walker bay, booting up his E-reader and waiting in an unobtrusive corner until it was time to go.

The remaining wait went by quickly, his watch beeping at 15 minutes till; he looked up to see Jinry and Sarah already loading into their walkers. Mike shut down the reader and walked over to Lucky and waved over to the lead tech, briefly talking about the maintenance provided before hopping up the ladder and climbing into the cockpit. Starting up the pre-operational check mike slipped on his helmet and tested systems, keying team COMs.

“Nawlin here, system check, everyone good?”

Sarah looked over to see Mike climbing into his walker's cockpit, and decided she would do the same. She opened the hatch, climbed in, and started the pre-op check. Sarah put on her helmet, and heard Mike over the team-COM. Taking a glance at the pre-op check's status, she nodded her head.
"Feryana here. My walker is green, clean and extremely mean. Over." Sarah chuckled at her own report. It was her favored way of saying her status, instead of just saying 'I'm good'. She smiled, and waited for the rest of the reports.

"I certainly hope these maintenance boys know what they are doing. Don't wanna have to hurt 'em for damaging my little sister."

"Well, I dunno what I'd do without 'em" replied the 'roo with a smile of her own. "Reckon they've probably spent as much time learning to fix our walkers as we've spent learning to pilot them! Just glad they can keep 'em running. Your tech is probably as attached to your 'little sister' as you are".
Just after that, Mike arrived. He didn't acknowledge the pair of women atop their walkers, and slipped into his cockpit without so much as a hello or a nod. Raising an eyebrow to Sarah in amusement, she stuck her tongue out in the direction of his machine, before following suit in climbing into her cockpit and donning her helmet as she powered up. Once the comm system came alive, she clicked the transmit button to reply.
"Hello to you too, Nawlin. All my systems are green, ready to move out when we're ordered".