[color=teal][center][h1]Agatha Smith[/h1][b]Mess Hall, New Anchorage[/b][/center][/color]
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It was with no miniscule amount of effort that Agatha refrained from snatching the cigarette's from out of Tahlia and Graham's lips. They had already had established preconceptions about her being an old codger, there was no reason to validate that concern by forcing her own beliefs upon them like a senile grandmother. That didn't mean she had to like it, and she had rather hoped that such an upright and stern commander wouldn't be so susceptible to lesser vices. Give it decade or two and he'd be paying the piper for imbibing in the weaknesses of the flesh. 

Arriving at the mess hall saw them introduced to the what remained of the old guard of New Anchorage. The first of there lot to introduce themselves being that of Stein Kalfox.  Prompt, courteous, and with a good deal of experience under her belt. Agatha got the impression she was Ace of the pilots here If she was right, and on matters like this she usually was, then she could see herself spending a good deal of time training with the woman a third her age. Most of these types were usually prodigies who just had a talent for piloting, but more often then people think t were hard workers who had some traits worth emulating. 

Eli seemed a quiet sort with her apparent fondness for heavy garments and scarves. Generally they were reliable...or incredibly unstable. Given that she was here under Graham Agatha was leaning towards the former.

She couldn't really get a read on Jan and Joe,  on account of being distracted by the last two pilots, or to be precise, the [i] children[/i] they had brought with them. Agatha had attempted to keep her features schooled, but at the moment anyone so inclined to look her way would see confusion evident. Anyone could take a cursory glance and see that this was not a civilian dining area unless New Anchorage had some very lax standards which had yet to be corrected under Graham's administration.

More than that, these were pilots being followed around by children, one who was clearly the child of the pilot while the other seemed more like an orphan taken in or close friend. Didn't they realize how dangerous being a pilot, let alone a soldier, was? How easy it would be to leave their charges alone in the world, or worse, put them in harms way when someone eventually comes after this military installation? Word had reached her that New Anchorage had been attacked back when it was Smith's Rest, so they couldn't deny the very real possibility of being attacked again.

Why would they take the risk? How could they live with themselves if they left them in harms way while they were gallivanting across the globe?  

Distant, hazy images of a sortie long since past. Towards the end of a life once lived and loved, there was a job. A group of independents based out of South America where on a job for Magen that saw the majority of their NCs deployed overseas towards the Middle East where Magen power was centralized. They were already in transit when word came through a competitor was going to sack their home in retribution for stealing the Magen job. Time wasn't on there side, and none of their own would have made it back in time, so they put out the call for aid. Agatha and her own outfit heard it and answered . 

They didn't need to bother. Time favored no one that day. Not a one. What she found that day was oh so much ash, black as tar and cascading like a light snowfall. The defenders had been desperate. The raiders had been ruthless. There wasn't a better recipe for a scorched earth scenario in Agatha's experience. Hell, what else could one say was the cause of the Nuclear Apocalypse? 

And amidst the ash and the ruins was a titan that had been laid low, huddled around some structure as though in a final act of desperation to shield something precious. The NC, she recalled was piloted by a charming [i] bon vivant[/i] with cheeky sense of humor, wasn't even worth salvaging. Reduced to a molten pile of slag speckled with the drifting ash, it was a miserable sight. It wasn't till after the fact that Agatha had learned it had attempted to shield the civilian housing.

The bitter irony was they had all been crushed by the NC trying to shield them. 

Graham may have thought he was the one who ended her career, but that ball had already started rolling a year prior.

So when Eli swept across the new pilots, daring anyone to question the presence of a child among them, Agatha glared right back. She had made her choice to protect her family over her pride, and while she pines for her glory days she won't regret choosing to stay with them. 

Could Eli say she would be there when Vera needed her?