The Mother of Invention was a big ship. Lizzy had been on other frigates, as a matter of course, but it was the near skeleton-crew feeling of the freelancer quarters that made the ship seem so much larger and so much more empty. Her booted footsteps echoed hollowly in the corridors where few other Invention personnel came. Someday that would change and the 50 rooms along the crew corridors would play host to others with skills equal to or superior to her own, but for now she was one of few uniquely treated to a feeling of utter loneliness. Those who did the grunt work for Project Freelancer generally only passed by this area through the main corridors. Due to that, Lizzy had been able to catch at least a quick glimpse of everyone who would be her new comrades over the last few days. There was hardly a double-handful of them yet.

Lizzy stepped into the lift that would take her up to the next level, nodding at the first personnel member she saw. There would be a briefing later for the current freelancers regarding the fitness tests that would be occurring the next day and the training that would commence at the end of the tests, but Lizzy wanted to take advantage of the training room now, while she still had the chance.

As she entered the room, the cheerful voice of Project Freelancer's AI greeted her. "Hello, Agent Massachusetts."

"Hello, FILSS," Lizzy replied just as cheerfully. So far, the AI was the only "person" aboard the ship with whom she had had consistent conversations. "Can you set me up with a sniper training simulation?"

"Of course. Preparing long-range weapons training. Would you like stationary or moving targets?"

"Stationary for now, FILSS. And a weapon with live ammo, please."

"Affirmative." Lizzy crossed the room as the floor opened to raise a table hosting an assortment of weapons. Lizzy took the sniper from the batch and loaded a clip in, palming two more before she turned away and allowed the table to sink into the floor behind her. As she turned, she used her helmet interface to activate her internal speakers. Music flooded her ears, just soft enough for her to be able to hear FILSS if she tried.

FILSS had been busy while Lizzy's back was turned and targets at a variety of placements and distances had been set up for her. Lizzy took them all in for a moment, then she readjusted her grip on her weapon. Behind the opaque visor of her helmet, Lizzy's face reflected her sudden focus.

"FILSS, start the timer."

"Timer in 3... 2... 1... Activated."

The first shot rang out in time with FILSS's last word and Lizzy's boots hammered into the floor as she ran forward two paces and then took to one knee. Three additional shots rang out, one after the other, finding homes in three separate targets, and Lizzy dropped the empty clip and replaced it in a few swift movements. With a sureness to her movements, Lizzy took aim, moving on before the echo of the bullet's rapport had faded away. The second clip fell to the floor and the final one went in.

Lizzy stood, slowly backing away from the targets as she took aim for her last round. There was a slightly longer hesitation between shots as she moved, but bullet after bullet found its place.

"Time!"

Lizzy lowered the weapon and the volume on her internal speakers. The cobalt-and-white ODST helmet turned toward the clock and she let out a brief, heavy sigh. Two seconds faster than last time. It still wasn't enough, but it was better.

"FILSS, how many bullets were bulls eyes?"

"11 of 12."

Lizzy's lips twisted into a grimace at herself, but she reserved her disappointment only to that. After a moment of dwelling on the one missed shot, she mentally shrugged it off and turned back to the already-present weapons table. She rolled her shoulders to loosen up as she went to get more ammunition.

"FILSS? We'll try it with moving targets this time. And more distance."

Until now, Laura had been occupying herself with simple exercises in her room; sit ups, push up, squats, and others of the like, but the urge to punch things hit her like a tidal wave, and those exercises weren't enough anymore. She quickly slipped into some loose clothes before unlocking her door and making her way to the locker room. The halls, were quiet, but she was fine with that, it just gave her time to think to herself a bit about the experiences she would have in this program they called "Project Freelancer".

She was slightly irritated that she had to wait for the lift to come down, though she figured she could just take that irritation out on the practice dummies. The door finally opened, and after stepping in, her ascent began to the locker room, another wait which only served to irritate her further.

Once she arrived at her locker, which was one of the few with a nameplate on it, hers saying "California", she changed out of her clothes and into the under-suit for her armor, which she proceeded to put on after. The helmet was the hardest part, as she had to bundle her long hair up into it, a process that usually caused tangling and later pain when she attempted to straighten it again. If she was going to keep doing this, she needed to cut her hair. Now all suited up in her bulky armor, Laura made her way to the training room, her heavy footsteps thudding as she walked.

Upon entering the room, she found Agent Massachusetts training with her sniper, and a delightful prospect entered her mind: a spar. For now, Laura spoke softly, asking FILSS to bring up a punching bag in the corner, which Laura tried her best to demolish with her heaviest hits. When she heard the last shot fire, and the female ask for moving targets, Laura spoke up.

"Hey, Mass, how about you practice with me instead of those targets? Should be fun, I think."

Lizzy glanced up abruptly from the weapons table and gave California a quick once over. She hadn't even heard the woman enter between her music and the gunfire; she'd have to be more careful in the future. She turned off the music in her helmet completely.

You want me to shoot you instead of the targets? Lizzy thought humorously, but kept it to herself. She hadn't had time to determine which freelancers had senses of humor yet-- something that had been almost required of soldiers in her ODST squad-- but California, from the one brief conversation they'd had when they came aboard together, didn't appear to be one of those soldiers. As far as she could tell.

"Sure, California." Lizzy smiled, not that anyone could see, and called up, "FILSS, skip the targets for now, please. Can you give us an open sparring area?"

"Affirmative." The stationary targets sank back into the floors and walls from where they had been. No floating targets had even been set out. "When I saw Agent California enter, I had hoped this might occur. It is very exciting to see you already beginning to interact with one another. The Director would be most pleased."

"I'm sure he would, FILSS," Lizzy agreed, though privately she had her doubts. She knew nothing about the Director yet, but she wasn't entirely certain that was true. Still, practice couldn't hurt and it would give her an idea of her companion's skills in hand-to-hand. Lizzy set her sniper on the table and backed into the open area as it sank into the floor. "Well, Cali, what are the rules?" It was easy to abbreviate the longer state names without thought, so the new nicknames for one another didn't even register to Lizzy. "Time limit or first one down? I'd like to be in enough shape to make it to the debriefing later, but other than that, I'm fine with any tactics." She stretched her arms over her head. "Whatever you'd like."

"Should I punch something, shoot something, or pick a lock?" James sat in his room, feet up on a desk, talking to himself. "I think I'll shoot something. Something not human, preferably." He started to stand, and walk out the door, heading to the lift that would take him to the training room. "Something not important, either." James strolled along a corridor. He turned a corner, and walked straight to the lift. He pressed a button to call it down, and began to wait for it. After a while, the lift still hadn't arrived at James' floor. "The lift really is taking it's time. Must be some guy weighing it down." James stepped back to look at the indicator of which floor that the lift was on. It stopped a floor below him, then began to come up and past the floor that he was on, and to the floor above. "Oh come on! Is someone playing a trick on me?"

"Affirmative, agent Iowa," said a fairly cheerful voice. It was FILSS. "I knew it was you." James said, giving out a tiny chuckle. "Come on, just bring the lift down, FILSS. I've got training to do." He couldn't help but grin, though. The fact that FILSS had played a trick on him was quite funny. The lift came to James' floor, and he stepped in, pushing the button for the training room floor. As he was carried up the ship, he yawned, and began to sing. Well, it was more like James was 'attempting' to sing. "And then he shot me, and then I killed him. But no I didn't. He stepped back up!" He realized how horrible his singing sounded, and just kept quiet for the small remainder of the lift trip.

The doors opened, and James stepped out of the lift. He walked into the locker room, and began to put on his armour. After a little struggling, he got it onto him. He slid his head into the helmet, and smiled. He had always liked his armour. James walked past the observation area, and down to the door into the training room. As the door opened, he saw that Agents Massachusetts and California were already in the room. "Sorry, didn't realize that the ladies were in here. I'd better step out, they might bite me!" He chuckled, and stepped back through the door. He walked back up to the observation area, where he would have a clear view down and into the training room, and began to watch California and Massachusetts 'do whatever they wanted to do'.

Laura was about to speak when a male entered the room and made some remark about being bitten. After he left, she continued.

"Rules? First one to give in loses, other than that, no rules. FILSS, countdown to match."

"Yes, Agent California. Match start in three. Two. One. Begin."

Laura took a standard boxing stance and began to slowly circle her opponent, keeping a careful eye on her movements. After a short time, she lunged in, throwing a quick jab with her left hand while keeping her guard up with the right.

Like California, Lizzy gave the agent who entered a spare glance as he backed out. Between California's comments and the other man's entrance, her eyebrows were beginning to creep toward her hairline. Only the first "real day" for them and she'd had run-ins with two... coworkers? Companions? Partners? What did she call them?

Focus, she reminded herself, returning her attention to California as FILSS started the countdown for them. Her body settled into a comfortable fighting stance, and then she shifted into motion to counter California's movements, circling in the opposite direction from her foe. It was clear from California's equally focused stance that this was going to be a battle where Lizzy would have to watch her back. The freelancers for the program, she was led to understand, were picked specifically for their experience and talent with specific skills. Either California was excellent at faking talent, or she knew very well what she was doing.

And a lack of rules was going to show Lizzy that one way or the other.

Lizzy deflected the first jab and fired back as she did so with a right hook of her own. They were testing the waters now, but she knew it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Laura ducked under the hook, noticing her intentions almost as soon as she was starting to make her move. This was easy for her due to the years of hand to hand combat experience she had from the marine corp, and it would definitely give her an advantage, or at least, she thought it would. She knew almost nothing about the girl she was facing off against, except for being a good shot with a sniper, but of course that could have been balanced by some knowledge of close quarters combat as well. As she dropped, she planted her right hand on the floor, turning so her weight rested on her right arm and leg, then swinging her left leg towards the legs of her adversary, attempting to knock her down, or at least cause her to lose balance, which she would be able to use for a follow up attack.

Lizzy felt her legs go out from under her and hit the ground with a soft "oof." She immediately rolled to the side to avoid any attacks that would be aimed down at her in her prone position and swung up onto her hands and knees, bouncing back to her feet and immediately darting toward her opponent. She sent several blows toward the crouching California's head and then abruptly attempted to knee the woman in the face, throwing the force of her body fully behind it. Already she could feel herself resettling into the mindset of a soldier in the field and she was able to narrow her field of vision to California alone. It was one of the benefits of being in a training room, rather than on an actual battlefield.

Taking advantage of the awkward position Massachusetts had put herself into in the attempts to attack her head, which were still close to the floor, Laura turned onto her back and repositioned herself, sending both her feet towards the girl's stomach. The way she saw it, there would be little time to dodge an attack like this, and it would probably knock the wind out of her as well as send her back a ways, giving Laura the time she needed to get back to her feet while also doing a bit of damage to her opponent.

Lizzy felt Cali's feet impact and the ground disappear from under her as she was, yet again, knocked to the floor, this time by flying backward through the air slightly. Thankfully, she had been exhaling when the kick impacted her body, so although she felt herself gasp for air briefly, it wasn't nearly as debillitating as it would have been if she'd had a bellyful of air. The ground further took the wind from her, but Lizzy forced herself to roll and get back to her hands and knees. She lifted her head to watch California get up from the floor and ground her teeth together. Okay. No more fooling around. Her opponent was potentially-- likely-- better than she was. No hesitating.

Lizzy got to her feet and took advantage of the momentary lull to reposition her feet into a more stable stance. She raised her arms back into an offensive fighting stance and tilted her head at California.

"Your move."

"I was right, this is fun."

Laura ran at her opponent, smirking under her visor. As she got within ten feet, she dashed to the left and then towards the girl again, sending another jab, this time a right, throwing the weight of her body into the punch so as to mae it more difficult to block or deflect. She was beginning to get into the mood she always did when she took interest in a fight, which meant that her stance would start to loosen from here on, and her movements more fluid. She didn't even plan on this punch connecting, seeing as she telegraphed it very clearly, but if it did connect it would be devastating, knocking some sense out of her opponent.

Lizzy didn't need to deflect the first attack; Cali had been a fan of direct assault thus far. As Cali's body began to turn into the punch, Lizzy twisted aside and, as the punch sailed by, she grabbed Cali's shoulder and slammed a punch of her own into the woman's side. Keeping a tight grip on her opponent's shoulder, Lizzy attempted to haul California forward so that she could drive her knee into the woman's stomach.

As soon as her shoulder had been grabbed, Laura knew she was in for a hit. She tensed up her body so as to take the hit better, and after that blow landed on her ribs, she made her move, grabbing at the girl's wrist and ducking down, then moving forward while turning her body slightly, causing the knee to miss its mark, pushing her shoulder toward the girl's stomach as she pulled her arm into the shoulder bash, tipping the leverage of her opponent as she began rising up again, in an attempt to lift the girl off the ground and onto her shoulder.

Oh, I have had enough of this! Lizzy thought frantically as she felt California's shoulder collide with her gut and attempt to lift her even higher. Her wrist was trapped in the woman's hold, but rather than try to free it, Lizzy twisted her body, stomped hard on California's foot, and slammed her head forward unexpectedly. Her helmet cracked resoundingly against Cali's and Lizzy again attempted to drive her fist into California's side. She was not going back on the floor.

Laura barely noticed the stomp on her foot, and paid more attention to the headbut against the back of her helmet. Lucky for her, her long hair came into play, acting as a cushion under the helmet.

Maybe I won't cut my hair...

Taking those attacks in stride, Laura continued with her own attack, lifting Mass off the ground and onto her shoulder, then hooking her arm around the girl's legs at the knees, locking them in place and essentially eliminating her legs as a problem.

"Last chance to give up, Mass."

Ah, fuck.

Lizzy could tell she couldn't break the hold on her legs and the almost fireman's carry she was in was going to leave her in trouble. Take the hit, get back up, keep swinging. Only option.

"Thanks all the same!" she sing-songed, pulling her knife from her chest piece and slamming the hilt into the side of California's helmet in the hopes of disorienting her slightly.

The knife hilt to the head caught her off guard, but Laura wouldn't let that cause her opponent to get away. She recovered from the hit shortly after it connected, then almost instantly pulled down on Mass's knees, pushing her off of her shoulder, and letting her body drop to the ground while still holding her legs. After the drop, she twisted her legs so as to flip her onto her stomach, then locked her ankles under her armpit, holding her at the knees with her left arm, raising her up again and once more allowing her body to drop without releasing her legs, which would slam her head against the ground if she didn't stop the fall.

Lizzy's arms snapped out instinctively as she felt the lift and her wrists cried out in protest as they took the brunt of the drop. Her arms bent at the elbows, bringing her visor right to the floor, and then she twisted her body, rotating her legs in California's grasp before jerking them sideways and barely breaking free of the freelancer's grip. Lizzy thrust roughly off of the floor as she did so, succeeding in bouncing back, away from the freelancer, and landing unsteadily on her feet.

She slid her knife back into its sheath and, as she stepped forward to help her regain a more steady balance, she used her now-free hand to aim three sharp blows at Cali's visor. One of her hands snapped out to stop Cali's arm from coming up to block the shots so that at least one of them would connect. Even if they were blocked, Lizzy was ready for that. California was good. Very good. Lizzy had divided her skills between close quarters battle and distance so as to have a wider variety of skills, but that was going to leave her at a disadvantage here. If California didn't train exclusively in CQB, Lizzy would be very surprised.

Too bad Cali wasn't a man. There was a quicker and easier way to send them to their knees in a fight. On women the same move worked, but not nearly as well.

Using the grip she had on Cali's arm, Lizzy turned to the side, twisting the limb as she went and quickly stepping forward so that the arm would be pulled backwards, behind California. The hold alone would be painful, but if she had an additional second, Lizzy could make it much worse.

Laura was dissapointed in herself for not being able to hold onto the girl, but she wasn't about to let that hold her back. She watched as the girl got away, waiting for the girl's attack, and when it came, to her surprise, Laura was unable to block it. she took the full force of the first punch, but managed to tilt her head back for the second two, causing them to glance off her visor. Then another surprise. Mass had managed to get her arm behind her back. This was unfortunate, but not impossible for her to escape. She raised her leg up and brought it back down and backwards, kicking at Mass's knee. from her position, it would be hard for Mass to see this attack, thus near impossible to avoid it, and with any luck, the pain would be enough to cause her to lose her grip as Laura pulled away and turned around. If it didn't, then this manuever would be a lot more painful, but still possible. After managing to turn around, Laura threw her heaviest punch, aiming to hit Mass in the side of her helmet, hopefully disorienting her and doing enough damage to force her to give up.

The kick caught Lizzy by surprise, but when her knee threatened to buckle she forced it-- and the grip on California's arm-- to hold. Allowing pain to get the best of you in battle was a death sentence; she had to treat it the same way on the practice court, especially since they would all be going through intensive training soon. It was an even greater surprise to Lizzy when California ignored that her arm was still behind her back and turned so that she could hail off and punch Lizzy square in the head. The blue-armored freelancer staggered back, releasing California as her head briefly spun. That had been some hit.

She staggered back another step, blinking at California as her eyes came back into focus. Her fists were raised to defend against the next attack, but she was breathing heavily and she could feel where bruises might be starting. After taking a moment to calculate the odds, Lizzy nodded at California.

"All right. I concede the fight. I yield. Hell, if I don't, were going to miss the debriefing for sure." Lizzy grinned, as much at herself as at California, a bit disappointed in herself but not so much that she looked forward to a continuing beating. "Do you accept my surrender?"

"Heh, yeah, I accept. Good match."

She extended her arm to Mass, opening her palm in the gesture of a handshake.

"I hope we can do this again sometime."

Lizzy dropped her guard and slapped her hand into Cali's for a firm handshake.

"Absolutely," she said, clearly out of breath. "I can always stand to learn something new. Maybe one of these days you can teach me some of those fancy maneuvers. I'm not used to too many soldiers who can literally ground me more than once in a fight."

When they released the shake, Lizzy turned and looked up at the observation room where the man from earlier was still watching them. "We'd better head up to the meeting room. Debriefing is going to start soon."

Aware that the freelancer in observation couldn't hear her, she held up her arm and tapped a finger to her wrist to indicate time. No sense in letting him be late if he'd forgotten that they had other obligations today.

"Yeah, maybe I will."

With that, Laura left the training room and headed to the meeting room, not bothering to change out of her armor.

"Wow, their fighting like somebody broke one of their nails or something." James smiled as he watched the two Freelancers fight. It was quite entertaining. He crosses his arms, and whispers to himself, "I honestly can't tell if that is a training fight or a real fight. They're acting like it's a real fight, but they wouldn't have an organised fight in the training room, would they?"

"It's a training fight." James sighed, grinning. "Thanks for answering the rhetorical question, FILSS." James couldn't help but have a small laugh at the fact that the AI could hop in anytime to answer something, then hop back out again. As he watched the fight finish, he whistled. "I don't wanna have a fist fight with them anytime soon." As the two Freelancers shook hands, James finally uncrossed his arms. "Well, I guess I'll walk down there and start to practice some holographic locks. I can't be bothered to shoot anything right now." He noticed one of the freelancers indicating 'time' to him. Time? Am I late for something? Oh, yeah, the debriefing. I guess I'll start heading there. James turned and started to stroll his way toward the meeting room, not bothering to remove his armour. After all, what was the point of putting it on, if he was just going to take it off again a while later. He may as well give it a walk. He grinned inside his helmet, strolling through the ship's corridors to the meeting room.

With his helmet in hand, a fully armored Avis briskly made his way through the Invention, mentally taking count of each of his strides as he made his way towards the nearest lift. As he walked, he simply ignored the few crew members who actively scuttled about the ship. While he admittedly had never made an attempt to initiate an conversation with even one of them, most of them only seemed to stare whenever he passed by. He had assumed it was because they found his appearance, without his helm, to be unsettling. Hence why he usually kept it on. However, every once in a while he found it to be stifling. As was currently the present the case now.

Having at last arrival at the lift, after his long march from his quarters, Avis had finally ceased his counting and placed his Steel and Gold Recon helmet back upon his head. "That's F-" He was about to recite the results when a familiar voice cut him off.

"Four-hundred and sixty paces, Agent Alaska." He only nodded in gratitude before loosing a "FILSS." Issuing a sort of informal greeting to the A.I. as he began to wait for the lift. As he waited, he glanced at his wrist, check the data pad built into his suit for the time. He'd have to make his way to the meeting room immediately if he wished to be there on time.

Donovan strode through one of the many hallways of the Mother of Invention. He passed a technician, who he greeted with a hearty "good morning!". Donovan was taking his time one his way through area of the ship. Though he was glad to be working with the crew of the Mother of Invention, and his new comrades in arms, he found the atmosphere of the ship a little unnerving. It wasn't at all like the military vessels he had served on for so long, and there were as many scientists and administrators as there were soldiers aboard. The other freelancers were also far from the most sociable bunch, and of the little contact he had with them, it was clear that he would have trouble ingratiating himself with them.

Donovan approached the elevator that would take him to the meeting room where he was to briefed; there was no use being late. With a jab, he summoned the vessel, and boarded it. He hummed quietly along to the elevator music. The doors dinged softly to notify him that he had arrived, and he stepped out of the elevator.

Once again, Donovan was meandering down nearly empty halls, greeting any who crossed his path. When he finally reached the briefing room, he found it more empty than the hallways he wandered moments ago. He took a seat, and sighed. Donovan didn't like being alone for very long.

Lizzy turned back around to find that California was leaving without her and just shook her head. She jogged casually after the other woman, more so that she wouldn't be the last one to the briefing than to have someone to walk with. When she caught up to Cali, she fell into step beside her and brightly struck up a conversation. The maroon-and-gold freelancer's actions said she wasn't exactly interested in idle chatter, but Lizzy was nothing if not cheerfully persistent. She'd never had an assignment where she didn't make some kind of friend or ally before; Project Freelancer couldn't be any different.

"I haven't spoken to most of the others, yet. This'll be a first. Have you managed to chat with anyone else, yet? Get a feel for what our peers are going to be like?"

With the brisk pace California was keeping up, the two women caught sight of the sage-and-violet armored freelancer from the observation room soon enough. Lizzy lifted a hand to her helmet, as if that would somehow amplify her voice. Habits.

"Hey! Hey! Green guy! Wait up!"

Ignore this.

James was continuing his quiet stroll, his brain trying to think of ways of easily decrypting a holographic lock. "Twist it, press it twice," He muttered to himself, as he walked. "Then you would-"

"Hey! Hey! Green guy! Wait up!"

James was slightly startled by the sudden voice, but turned to face the person who owned it. The voice appeared to belong to one of the two freelancers that were in the training room, and were now walking behind him. A bit of shyness took over, but went away, as James stopped walking. "Hello there, ladies," he said, bowing a little. "Hope neither of you broke a nail in that fight, or it's going to be a really moody debrief." James chuckled.

She only needed to turn her head slightly to see Mass jogging up to her, the extra field of view being one of the reasons she took the helmet she did. She turned her head back and continued walking as the girl caught up, not stopping since she didn't want to be late for the first meeting.

"Unfortunately, I haven't had the... privilege to talk to any of the others yet. I've been too preoccupied with my training to chat, and I haven't even seen most of them. Honestly, you're the first once I've even been in the same room with. Only way I knew of any of the others was because I've been keeping tabs on the roster updates."

Upon seeing then male who had entered and exited the training room earlier, Laura turned on her heel and began running backwards, saying "I'll leave you two to talk. I'm gonna get to that meeting room, don't wanna keep anyone waiting." She turned again and began running normally, making her way to the meeting room. Soon enough, she was there, slowing to a walk as she entered and posting up right next to the door, leaning her back against the wall as she looked at the others in the room.

Lizzy waved California off, looking forward to meeting someone else, only to be distracted by the sexism the cheerful man directed their way. Lizzy glanced after California. Either the woman had heard and decided not to deign the sage-armored freelancer with a response or she had, thankfully, missed the comment. A wave of her hand indicated that Lizzy wanted the man to follow her and she continued down the hall at a brisk pace. She was used to soldiers who were either unaware that their comments should, technically, be offensive, or tested the females in their outfits with those kind of comments just to see what buttons they could press. Lizzy had long ago learned to take it in stride.

"You know, you seem to have a real fear of women," she replied amiably. "Sounds like a subconscious reaction to some kind of trauma. You're going to want to get that checked." She held out a hand to him as she walked, not at all daunted by his opening line. "Lizzy Sky. Massachusetts now, I guess. What's your new designation and how long have you been aboard? Cali and I got transported together; been here about a week waiting for the numbers to rise enough to get to this briefing."

Donovan heard several voices down the hall, and he recognized one as a freelancer had spoken to once before. She was the one in the blue armor. A different freelancer walked in, the woman in the the red armor. Donovan waved in greeting.

"Good morning!"

He got up from his seat, and approached the armored woman. He smiled as he removed his helmet, and offered his hand to her.

"I'm Donovan, or Illinois, I guess. Explosives expert, and ambush specialist. Who're you?"

James listened to the woman as they started to walk. "Not fearful. Just a bit shy." He explained. When 'Lizzy' held her hand out to him, he shook it. "Nice to meet you, Lizzy. I'm James Feryana. They assigned me as Iowa. I hack things, code things, basically do things to do with electronics and computers." He grinned behind his helmet. "I've been here a while, probably like five days." James realized he was still holding Lizzy's hand from the shake, and let go of it with a small blush behind his helmet. "We should hurry. I think we might be a little late for the briefing. Wouldn't want to get beheaded for arriving late, would we." He joked slightly, starting to walk at a brisk pace.

Zaccar had been one of the first to reach the briefing room, a rare moment of actually obeying orders. Better to make a good impression early before causing trouble but he was attempting to follow orders better, even if it grind his gears at times when he thought his superiors were wrong but there was no point in missing the first briefing, especially when he would have to be working with the rest of these Freelancers he would have to call teammates to some extent. This would be the first time he would meet anyone, he had kept to himself since he had gotten onto the frigate, training on his own and just being silent. Perhaps someone might of seen him at one point or another, he doubted he had been unnoticed since it was tough to just remain a ghost for six days. He knew most by there codename, mostly by looking at the rosters that were posted. He might of acted like a ghost but he was curious about his fellow Freelancers, what were there strengths? How did they get chosen? Among other things.
His helmet resided under his arm as he waited at the far end of the briefing room from the door, waiting patiently for the briefing to begin.

By the time he had arrived, the briefing room was already full of Spartans. As one of the last one's to arrive, he didn't waste any time attending to the pleasantries a few of the others seemed to crave. As far as he was concerned, they were just soldiers. Tools in the shed. All that had mattered was that they did their jobs. After all, as far as anyone knew, that was the sole reason that they were here.

Upon entering the room, Avis shot the woman in maroon and gold armor an passing glance. He moved within inches of her as he silently went on to weave his way around the others. Without so much as an attempt at greeting any one of the Freelancers, Alaska meandered to the back of the room. Where he subsequently leapt up onto a large crate before crouching upon. Like and bird upon a perch, the Spartan idly let his eyes scan over the room's inhabitants from beneath his Recon helm.

"Well, if shy is what you are, you're going to want to watch the girly comments around the female soldiers." Lizzy tipped her helmet in the equivalent of an acknowledgement of her own words and entered the meeting room ahead of him. "Might end up beheaded anyway." Although her grin was hidden behind her visor, the teasing tone was evident in her voice. As Lizzy and Iowa entered the room, she nodded at California by the door and then added another one for the mammoth of a soldier talking to her. This one she'd bumped into once before in the locker room, so codenames and basic personality were known there at least.

"Morning, Illinois," she greeted the older solder. He'd been pleasant the last time she had seen him; she hoped he would be the same in front of people as he was in private. "Better get a seat. Looks like we might be the last and I'm sure the Director will be here soon enough." Lizzy scanned the room, taking note of the distant attitudes of some of the soldiers and tallying them up in her mind to see if they were all accounted for. She tapped Iowa's arm with the back of her hand and nodded at an empty row of seats. "Couple spare over there. One blessing to there being so few of us yet."

"Do not get used to there being so few, Agent Massachusetts."

Lizzy's head snapped around as the Director and the man who had interviewed her-- the Counselor, she recalled-- entered the room from a door toward the front of the room by the board.

"Of not course, sir." Lizzy recognized the tone in her boss' voice. She immediately moved to take a seat in the empty row, second from the front, and settled quietly into her seat so as to avoid further attention from the Director.

"Project Freelancer is designed to be a program of many skilled and experienced individuals from all branches of the UNSC." He stopped in the front of the room and linked his hands behind his back as his eyes scoured the soldiers before him. "Do not forget, any of you, that we are fighting a war. Project Freelancer will be the front line in that war. You will be the soldiers contributing the most to the defense of the entire human race. This is a role you were all specifically selected for and you will be outfitted and trained accordingly. 'Few' will not be the standard with our mission as important, nay, as pivotal, as it is. 'Idle' will also not be a word with which any of you are familiar."

((For the record: Since Nevada's bio isn't finished yet, I'm going to assume she has not yet been recruited/is still on her way to the Invention. Also, Carolina is sitting in the background somewhere, quietly observing. She will not be a character we can interact with, but she was one of the first recruited to the program, so we will assume she is around.))

She watched as one of the men in the room got out of his seat and moved towards her, taking off his helmet and extending his arm to her. She shook his hand, but didn't bother to remove her own helmet, seeing as it would be too much of a hassle to put it back on afterwards, nor did she bother to even stand up straight, though that was more due to her own laziness.

"California, close quarters specialist. Nice to meet you, Illinois, and all the rest of you in here as well, I suppose."

Her hand dropped back to her side as the others began entering, watching them, then turning her head again as someone entered from a different door; the Counselor and the Director. She paid close attention to both of them, more to the Director, as he spoke to Massachusetts and began his speech.

It seemed the floodgates were open, and a stream of freelancers filed into the room. They all took separate positions in the room. Donovan grinned in greeting to the blue clad freelancer. "Morning to you too Massachusetts! Hope you're morning is going well." He then gestured toward California. "You met California yet?" he was about to continue speaking when two men entered the room. One was the man that interviewed him, and the other seemed to be in charge. He spoke authoritatively as he admonished Massachusetts.

Donovan quickly made his way back to his seat. It would seem he was sitting alone for now, as it would seem most of the freelancers had taken residence in the back most portion of the room. Donovan placed his helmet down on the table, and listened to the man in charge as he spoke.