"Late again, Sven" Troike chastised him, Sven's eyes sealing shut as the words played over in his head, his fingers curling as a touch of rage blossomed in the back of his mind. Troike made no effort to so much as look at him either, that is until the door slid open once again and Ralen came through, taking the opposite side of the door from Sven. She seemed to be hiding something behind her arm, probably some of her usual witchcraft or whatever it was. Sven would've been money she was keeping it hidden to try to surprise some of the new blood once the meeting either warpped up or we got into introductions. Though, Sven's introduction had already gotten started and he was in no mood for Troike's typical shit. The fucking cunt doesn't even have the gall to look me in he eyes. "Oi, Troike", Sven spat out, the words rolling off his tongue as his accent turned Troike to Troy-keh, "Perhaps you're confused again. I'm here for Orion. Not you, you fjolla." He knew Troike didn't speak his birth language, not many did after Terran Common replaced all native languages in the largest cultural and linguistic genocide seen to the known galaxy circa 3300's.

Sven was now halfway across the room, his bright blue eyes almost glowing, "Orion. I'll be in the bay getting prepped. Send..." He paused as his eyes scanned the room, "Ralen and, I guess, one of the greenhorns to give me a briefer brief on whatever it is we're doing." Sven spun on his heels and made his way to the door, fully aware of how he now appeared to the fresh meat. Not that it particularly mattered. They'd probably lose on of them this mission. Razlo piped up now, calling out to Ralen about beauty sleep or something equally stupid. "Find another room to stroke yourself off," Sven shot over his shoulder, looking toward Ralen then. "Get your gear before you come to the bay. I put together a new way for you to get deeper into the battlefield undetected. We're testing it today since there shouldn't be risk." The door slid open no more than half way before Sven was through. By the time it had slid closed he had already rounded the corner on due course for his room.

His room was a testament to his spartan lifestyle, a metal box of a room with a bed, a cabinet for clothes and amenities, and a deck of playing cards. All the booze, smokes, and other gear was holed away in his workshop, sharing a drawer with the tools that rarely needed to be used. He stripped, grabbed a handful of clothes and crossed out into the hallway, completely in the buff, and slipped into the communal shower giving himself a two minute scrub down and wash before throwing on his clothes without bothering to dry off with anymore than a few jumps and a shake of the head. Typically he'd dry off in Mjolnir. It tended to get in the low 110's in there and operated more like an oven than a sauna.

Sven now in the mechanics bay wasted to time getting everything up and ready for whatever shit was on the menu today. He grabbed onto the crane operator and put the Ichaival into position, dead center of the bay, three meters off the ground, and moved a dolly with nine large cylindrical canisters underneath Ichaival. Eight of the canisters contained enough explosives to turn the entire ship into a blazing inferno. The ninth canister was rigged with advanced suspension, heat dispersion, and force distribution technologies, as well as a seat, a harness, and a communications system. The ninth canister was how Sven wanted to get their teams not-so-friendly little ghost Ralen deep into enemy territory. Hope she's good at dealing with vertigo.

Sven checked the clock, guesstimating that he probably had another ten or so minutes before the meeting wrapped up and his debriefers were sent over. That would give him enough time to do some last minute changes to the Ichaival. Another recent innovation he had made; he was to swap out part of Ichaival's cockpit with Gungnir so that he wouldn't have to fly back to the cruiser to get into one of his mechs. If the option we available Sven would've rigged Mjolnir into the Ichaival, but there was no way to do that without making Ichaival so front heavy that she could only fly downward.

A bit of work and a few burns later, Gungnir was hooked up to Ichaival and the canisters were already for loading. His current get up, baggy gray fatigues, boots, and a gray t-shirt with a small hole in its side from a recent torch-related incident wasn't the most 'hardened mercenary' look, but it'd have to do since he didn't have the time nor care to change one more.

Jordan

Jordan disregarded Sven's tantrum in an attempt to shorten the already drawn out interruption in the briefing. That, and he didn't feel as though it was necessary to respond to Sven's tantrum. This was the way things usually went, actually. Despite ill feelings toward each other, it was Jordan's job to point out that Sven was late in hopes that he did better next time. Of course that wasn't how Sven took it, and each time Jordan said something, he could feel the gap between the widen.

But none of that mattered to Jordan though. Whether Sven had legitimately had enough or if he was trying to establish himself as the team's loose cannon- he didn't care. Most of the rookies were not actually rookies when it came to anything besides being part of the company, and that meant that they were here to get things done. Establishing yourself as a rebel probably wasn't a plus around here.

In either case, Jordan held fast and simply allowed the maverick to leave without a word. Sometimes, you just had to let things happen.

June

June found herself standing next to Weiss, oddly enough. She watched the blatantly translated feud between the veteran merc and this Sven guy. She didn't know what to think, and frankly Sven was lucky that the guy wasn't looking at him, she thought. The look on Sven's face translated to one thing, and that was near-pure hatred.

Weiss apparently saw the look on June's face as the whole thing concluded. She smiled sweetly at June and reassured her, "Oh, that happens all the time. You don't need to worry about anything. Just guys being guys, y'know?" She giggled and bumped June with her elbow. June was far from familiar with these behaviors of the outsiders. Back home, everyone treated each other with at least sone inkling of mutual respect.

June also had no clue what the elbow-bumping meant, so she faked a soft laugh and bumped her back. She faked it pretty well, too. Weiss didn't give her any strange looks as a respinse, so she thought she had guessed right. Then she remembered overhearing Weiss talking to the purple haired girl about being unsure about most race's cultures or something, so they were probably in the same boat.

Well, at least I have a pretty good idea of who I'll probably confide in first.

Ralen grimaced as Sven started his tirade. The guy hadn't gotten along with many of the crew since he had come aboard. A lot of it might have been because he didn't try he preferred to be in his lab working. Luckily she hadn't got the brunt side of his anger yet and even now as he explained what he needed from her she didn't feel he'd been upset at all with her. She only nodded but he was already gone and around the corner.
She sighed and turned back to the gathered group deciding it was in her best interest to play dumb to Razalo's blatant attempt at flirting. She still wasn't sure how she felt about him, the way he carried himself and the way he acted gave him an air of cockiness that more than once had grated on her nerves.
"Actually, I wasn't sleeping." She brought her arm around and extended it out uncurling her fingers in her process. A feat that,though the power was fading, would probably cost her later in deep bruises and painful cramps in the muscle and bone. The crystal wasn't supposed to move.
"As you can see I was working, and I'm not making excuses," Her blue eyes glanced in the senior members direction, "But I believe that Sven was working all night as well, I walked past the garage bay last night and saw him tinkering around with those mechs of his." In reality she didn't know if that was true, but everyone needed a break once in a while right?
"And besides that Razalo, were you not late as well?"

"CUT THE CHATTER ALREADY." said the already annoyed enough Jett with a stern voice. "You're mercenaries not children, I'll deal with Sven later but for now let's continue, shall we?" His face as close to annoyance as possible with going into anger. He cared for these people but they always get on his nerves, they were like his own children at times, annoying the complete crap out of him, but at times make him proud and respect their decisions on what they do with their lives.
'I guess that's what happens when you live with a bunch of people for a long time. Jett almost smiled at the thought, but he didn't.
"Orion?"

Orion:
The squabling was quite entertaining to Orion, but when Jett asked to continue he did so promptly.
"Now all of you look to the data pads you have, every detail of the mission is there. The team of archeologists are looking through caves to find some ruins, if there are any, The planet has recently become charted and will most likely have some hostile creatures, or if this ruin is found, may have some sort of security measure. Now i believe this is everyone's favourite part, the pay. The archaeologists have said that any small carriable artifacts are ours to sell, keep or or do what we want with them. And a two million Gio reward, this will be split equally among you as always, but one million will be put towards supplies, repairs and fuel costs. And yes I ment your repairs to. Now with that I want everyone geared up and at the dropship in ten minutes. Let the ninety-ninth mission begin now." As Orion said that he watched as the crew filed out of the control room.
'Now new recruits, it's time to show me what you can do...'

Jett:

As Orion finished Jett proceeded to his quarters for a brief moment to grab his cloak and helmet, and then made his way to the dropship, and then suddenly he felt something, more than likely nerves but it was unatural. He ignored it for now as the elevator arrived and he stepped in.

Weiss

"Let the ninety-ninth mission begin now." Orion stated, and Weiss was instantly ecstatic. If this was the 99th mission, then it was her own 24th with the company. It was a mile marker for the group, but a landmark for her. She planned on putting all of her money that shed saved up toward an honorable cause, and became incredibly impatient. She darted out of the room before anyone even got close to the door.

Jordan

Jordan stood up when they were dismissed and looked at the data pad as instructed. He skimmed it briefly, then chuckled and looked up at Jett. He humorously remarked, "We may not be children, Jett, but it seems like you're taking us on a field trip." He chuckled and put his data pad away. "I just hope this ruin gives us something to show us what the fresh meat's capable of."

June

June stepped quickly out of the way as Weiss darted past her and out the door. "Oookay then," she muttered. "Let's go see how I can be useful." She walked over to Ralen and said bluntly, "Sven asked for you and a rookie to come along, so I'll go with. If you don't mind, that is." June wanted to figure this girl out as well, of course, so she had at least one ulterior motive. Still, this Sven guy was also pretty intriguing, and she wanted to show a bit of gusto. If this was going to be her new life, then she had to show willingness to get things done. It was, after all, more than a job.

---

Razlo just smirked when Sven started into his pissy invective, his lips pursed and his eyebrow cocked. As the surly Norseman took his leave, Raz gave the man a dainty wave with wiggling fingers and mouthed silently 'toodaloo'. The whole exchange seemed pretty standard fair for how things usually went between the pair.

It didn't seem like Ralen was going to play along with Raz' today, instead opting to back up her story. He didn't know her very well, but she seemed like a pretty straight and narrow sort of girl; he hadn't seriously entertained the idea that she'd overslept. Still, the crystal arm caught him a little by surprised. He still wasn't used to that. When she turned a question back on Razlo, there was a twinkle in his eye. He had a great tall tale trumped up for the occasion, but Jett cut in with a call for quiet that took the wind right out of Razlo's sails.

So, a little miffed, Raz sat through the briefing attentively. It took him up to the terms of pay to get over it. The sparkle in his eyes returned full force, a low chuckle at the back of his throat building to an excited laugh. They had free reign to fill their pockets with loot? Seriously? He wet his lips and beamed at the prospect, burying his hands deep in his coat pockets and pivoting on his heel. "Ta, boss." he said as left the room.

It didn't take him long to reach the dropship, he pretty well wore his whole kit around the clock. As mum always said, it's better to have a grenade when you don't need one than to need a grenade when you don't have one. Sweet old girl, rest her soul. Ready to go, he leaned against a storage crate in the hangar, waiting for the rest of the team to make their ways there.

Ralen stepped back and tucked her arm back behind her back and proceeded to look properly chastised as Jett's stern tone echoed through the room. It'd been a while since he'd had to use that tone but every time Ralen had heard it she always felt like a small child. That in turn brought back memories she'd tried so hard to forget.

A younger version of herself stood in a similar manner before an older Rhelom. A glitter of elaborate tattoos covered the elders skin, that along with the fine robes told that the man was both well respected and a leader. His face held a stern look as he reached out and tilted Ralen's face for examination. The skin around her eye was darkening as a bruise formed. Her nose dripped blood and her lip was split.
"Ralen, what have I told you before? You are a part of The Elite, why do you continue to act out in this manner and disgrace the name?" The words may have been harsh from anyone else, but his was a tone of someone who'd had this conversation before.
"As I told the others Master, they called Shaianni a freak. We are all like her. So in naming her so they did so to all of us. I was only defending our honor and more importantly that of Shaianni."
The Master sighed and let her go, "You didn't hurt them too badly did you? And you used none of your abilities?"
Ralen shook her head, "No sir, of that I am not so stupid. They got as good as I did."
The elder watched her a moment, "Fine, go get cleaned up and I want you at all of your classes today."

Ralen curled her left hand letting the pain of doing so bring her back to the present. Now was not the time to get sentimental. She listened to the rest of the meeting, Noting the important parts, New planet, archaeologists, pocket change and 2 million gio, 1 mil for supplies and their personal repairs. All in all it sounded like an easy mission. Good for getting the new recruits settled in.

As the meeting came to an end she glanced around trying to decide which of the newbies she would take with her. One that wouldn't be to intimidated by Sven as they would be the ones to relay the information to him. Though as it turned out she wouldn't have to choose.
"Sven asked for a rookie to come with you, so I'll go with. If you don't mind, that is." The frank comment brought Ralen's attention to the red haired woman that stood before her. They were almost the same height and appeared to be around the same age, though the way that the woman held herself Ralen guessed she might be a bit older.

"I don't mind, I was actually wondering which of you to choose, you just made the decision easier. I am Ralen Alakar." She held out her right hand, it was something she'd seen some of the other crew do and though she couldn't quite figure out why, shaking hands was an obvious introductory response. "I have to return to my quarters to gather my things first, If you need anything I suggest you do the same. If not you may accompany me or head on to Sven, I would like for you to bring him up to date on the mission parameters. I hope that is alright with you."

Ten minutes? Well, that didn't leave her much time to change. What was the point of having a briefing if the people getting it were getting nearly zero time to prepare with the information given? Oh well.

Having listened to the briefing, Isabel thought of her options. "Guarding some archaeological ruins" equated to "the most useless information ever" to her. True, she had been more accustomed to militarily structured mercenary units that had more discipline and proper protocol which absolutely insisted on keeping up to date on equipment and preparation - much like actual militaries. However, this was just a remote band of mercenaries. She couldn't ask for everything.

The pay was of no concern to her - all she was interested in was the adrenaline rush of battle. Unfortunately, she was already under the impression that there wouldn't be that much of it.

Being given ten minutes to prepare, Isabel returned to her room to grab any gear she deemed necessary. Looking at her two mainstay weapons - the X-90 Kinetic LMG and the X-A5 Plasma Shotgun, she thought for a moment. They were going to be in ruins, which most likely meant cramped quarters. That was... just about the most information she could get. Doing the best she could with the very limited information, she picked up the X-A5 Plasma Shotgun and gave it a quick check before slinging it over her shoulder. Opting not to wear her combat armour for this time, she instead strapped on her ammunition belt which had a number of flashbang and fragmentation grenades, as well as her combat knife. This wasn't going to be a massive battle; it was just guarding. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. Everything could go wrong. If she could bring her LMG with her, she would have, but she only had the room for one weapon at the moment - and in the close quarters of the ruins, that meant the shotgun would fare better than the LMG. Satisfied with her gear, she made her way to the dropship, ready to head onto another adventure - however boring it seemed it would be.

June

Thank you, Weiss. That was the first thing that came to her mind as Ralen held out her hand. Weiss shook her hand when they first met, so this was a formality that she had recognized. June accepted the handshake and briefly introduced herself. "June Winter." She said with the obligatory smile. This woman seemed to be analyzing her very closely, and that made June feel slightly uncomfortable. At this point, it'd be rather easy for a trained eye to tell that she wasn't what she appeared to be.

"Yes, I think I'll let you do that. I'll get started toward Sven. That way, maybe we all have a chance at getting to the dropship in the next nine minutes." She said with a slight chuckle, then simply turned and made her way toward Sven's place.

If she had to be completely honest with anyone, Sven didn't intimidate her. He was simply the "stick it to the man" kind of guy, and they had plenty of those where she was from. She walked through the door and made her way down to what she believed was Sven's quarters. She knocked on the door then opened it. "You in here, Sven?"

[typed on my mobile, please excuse typos]

"Ja," Sven barked out from behind the pallet of canisters, poking his head up over it to confirm which rookie had been sent. "Ah, you." Sven said before ducking back behind the canisters. He slid on a glove which was loaded with micro torches at the fingertips, a device that gave him the ability to do miniscule welds in a fraction of the time. "Well, don't just stand there. Come in and debrief me." He paused as his hands glided along the base of one of the canisters, sealing the det-caps, "and don't touch anything. If these went off we'd lose the whole ship."

Sven stood up from behind the bombs, peeling off the glove and tossing it to the side, it landing among a pile of tools. As the girl would explain, he moved throughout the bay, making final adjustments to the Ichaival's auto-pilot. Once he dropped from Ichaival it would return to the cruiser and dock until Sven called it back in via Gungnir. Satisfied with his work, he then took a moment to disable the co-pilot's controls.

"Don't worry about catching the dropship. You and Ralen are riding with me. We're leaving after the dropship and getting their first." Sven dropped down from Ichaival and made his way across the bay, grabbing his jacket and helmet. He kept the helmet tucked under his arm and pulled a cigarette out from his jacket's pocket, popping it into his mouth before using a torch to ignite it. "Any questions?" He said as he made his way over to the dolly sat down by the canisters, taking a long slow drag from his coffin nail.

June

June stepped in once Sven confirmed he was there. She closed the door behind her and went to lean on canister of who-knows-what. "- Don't touch anything. If these went off we'd lose the whole ship." She quickly retracted her hand and stumbled slightly to catch her balance, but was already standing casually by the time Sven turned to her.

She gave him a detailed explanation of the mission. Or at least as detailed an explanation as she could with what little info they had. When she finished talking, she finally took a moment to look at her surroundings. The place was filled with all sorts of random gadgets. The best way to describe it would be to call it a miniature modern day Da Vinci's Workshop. "Don't worry about catching the dropship. You and Ralen are riding with me. We're leaving after the dropship and getting their first." Sven remarked, just as she was going to mention heading for the dropship. She was starting to think that this guy may have been a bit of a telepath as well as an expert mechanic. She was extremely tempted to ask him if there was anything he couldn't do, but something entirely different came out.

"Alright, I'm game. No questions here." She said. And with that, all that was left to do was watch the guy inhale smoke. That was another thing she couldn't understand about other races. What was so amazing that so many would fall back into the act of doing drugs or inhaling carbon monoxide? She guessed she would never know, but things were getting pretty awkward now so she asked a quick question to kill the silence. "What was with you and the other guy back there? Friendly feud, or...?"

Jordan

Jordan reached the dropship after having talked with Jett briefly in the control room. He climbed inside and was about to head to the cockpit when he heard a voice behind him. "Ready!" Came the rather enthusiastic voice. He turned to see Weiss already strapped in and ready to go. He chuckled and shook his head at her.

"Someone's ready today, huh?"

"Yep!"

"Big deal?"

"More than you know!"

He ended the conversation with another chuckle and climbed up into the pilot's seat. Jordan cracked his knuckles and powered up the vehicle's internal functions, then fired up the engine. "Let's get crackin', boys and girls." He said with a charismatically confident tone. "Let's show the competition why Tesera rules the roost."

Ralen quickly made her way back to her quarters and gathered her things. Her laser pistol fitted snugly into a holster strapped to her thigh, several small throwing knives disappeared into creases and folds of her clothing, then a belt snapped around her waist carrying ammo and her own combat knife. Next she checked her sword making sure the three small capsules of blue liquid were full and ready for use. Even if they weren't this was a fairly easy sounding mission and she doubted she would even use them. Last but most defiantly not least she swung her cloak over her shoulders letting the weight of it settle.

She turned on her heel and walked towards the door, glancing around for a double check before making her way down to the bay. She arrived just in time to hear the question of Sven's and Jordan's rivalry. "Well," she said, rounding the corner, "If you ask everyone else they believe it's an all out war. We still aren't sure why one or the other of them aren't dead yet." She gave Sven a disapproving look as the smell of the cigarette, "Though one of them might succeed in killing himself before anyone has a chance to."

Excellent. No questions. I could get used to this new girl. If she was a girl. You can never tell these days. Transgenders, hybrid human-whatevers, androgynous humanoids, mimics; Gender is too much of a fucking minefield today. Same with race. Age. Christ, what isn't a minefield? Silence, I suppose. Yes, silence was a good non-minefield topic. I can just enjoy my cigarette and wait for Ralen to-. "What was with you and the other guy back there? Friend feud, or...?" And she found a minefield anyhow. Won-der-ful. Sven removed the coffin nail from between his lips and let out a long slow breath, letting his chest sloly compress until every touch of air and smoke was expelled, leaving him for want of breath and only when he was dying for a taste of air did he indulge himself. "Now..." He exhaled after several moments of silence, his eyes flickering from her to the cigarette, to Ralen, and back again, "She's not exactly wrong in that. You know, typically when I let a newbie ask any question, I hear things like 'What do you do here' or that type of thing. Usually newbies aren't too hard pressed to get into the personal lives of folks they've known for only a few minutes and if I hadn't given you the go ahead to ask away, I'd have told you to get out of my sight."

Sven took another drag and held it for awhile, thinking of what he wanted to say, what would answer her question without giving her ammunition to use against either him or Troike. He frowned slightly, sending a stream of gray smoke from his flared nostrils, holding onto whatever thoughts he had until the smoke had drained from him. "Troike and I have a fundamental, philosophical difference in action, lifestyle, ethics, etc, etc," Sven said with a wave of his hand, sending lingering smoke away from him, only for it to be blown back to him by a floor vent. "Mostly, he doesn't approve of my lifestyle and I think it grates on him that I live the way I do while Orion looks the other way. He also voiced against my being added to the team after my training mission; I had been on something at the time, Cyrogen? Yeah, Cyrogen. Rubbed him the wrong way." Sven didn't bother to go into what Cyrogen was, not bothering to explain to her that it was a backwoods adaptation to the coolant used in cryogenic freezing. If it weren't for the regenerative nature of Sven's body, he would be missing most of his teeth, be mostly blind, and bald, probably would've swallowed his tongue by now. That's what happened to most Cryogen addicts, and an addiction it was. Sven nearly clawed out his own eyes after quitting cold turkey and locking himself inside Mjolnir for a week and a half with a bottle of supplements, and barely enough food and water to make it through the ordeal. That all was part of a story for another day or, preferably, never.

Sven scratched at the back of his neck and looked around his bay, biting his bottom lip, "He might also be under the impression that my talent is wasted on me." Sven shrugged and went back to his cigarette, done with the topic. I can't exactly blame Troike for thinking that. It's the only thing I'd ever agree with him on. He scowled as he remembered that he called Ralen there for a reason and her comment was playing back in his head. "I'd have expected you of all people to know that something like this lacks the... fire power to kill me," Sven groaned as he forced himself to his feet, flicking the cigarette onto the floor before grinding it under his heel, "Anyhow, what I called you here for..." Sven put his back to them and took a moment to find the proper capsule, it opening up at the touch of his fingertips. "I want to drop you once we reach the lower atmosphere and have you do a sweep of the area before the rest of us arrive. This is the dry run and we can't risk tearing apart the ruins so I'll only be dropping you. I've already tested it myself a few weeks back and you should land with nothing more than a few bruises." Sven then stepped back from the capsule, allowing her to get a full view of it. Like the other capsules, it was six feet in height, though it was loaded with the basic necessities to ensure she'd survive the drop, as well as a two-way comm between the capsule and Ichaival.

Sven rapped his knuckles on the capsule next to it, a muted thump echoing back. "These are a variety of bombs, mostly my adaptation of neutron bombs. It's a bit more complicated than that and given that time is short, I'll explain it later, but in a normal situation I'd be dropping these with you to make your drop less conspicuous. From what the newbie says, I don't see any threats too pressing to put off testing any longer." He smirked for the first time since that day, his unusually white teeth visible between his parted lips, "You game?"

---

From the crate he was resting against, Razlo watched as people streamed in, counting off on his fingers absentmindedly. Jett, one of the new recruits, Weiss, and Jordan all trickled in. With Sven and the two ladies he had pulled for his tea party, that only left Jake and two other new recruits. Tick tock. Raz thought, as he walked up the metal catwalk and boarded the ship. Wouldn't that be a laugh, if they missed the shuttle on their first mission?

Raz took a seat in the dropship and made sure he was thoroughly strapped in. He wasn't terribly fond of 1G, but reentry is something else entirely. He loathed it. Felt like having his skeleton pulled out of his back with cables and hooks. Not that he let it show, though. 'Grin and bear it' and whatnot. If there was one thing he had a solid confidence in, it was his poker face.

June

June listened to Sven very intently. When he made the remark about newbies asking questions, she felt the need to justify herself. "I'm only curious because whenever teammates have such frequent altercations, I usually get caught in the crossfire. Wanna do my best to make sure that doesn't happen here." She gave an obligatory smile, then responded again when he was done. "Okay, that's all I needed to know. Don't want to pry too much- just want to make sure I know about what may affect me."

She didn't think too much about it, and only continued to listen while he explained Ralen's role to her. When she finished, she couldn't help but notice he hadn't assigned a role for her. Maybe she was just backup. Who knew? Well, who knew except Sven. She shrugged it off and decided not to ask about her surprise.