Maxwell couldn't help it: he chuckled. He chuckled because he couldn't argue with much the woman said. It was surprising that she had such a good grasp of the situation, at least to him it was: he didn't get that wise about things until he was in his thirties. She seemed to already grasp the implications of everything involved in the event.

"Glad to know there's at least one good head on someone's shoulders around here," he said, looking away from Sabrina and over at the other FRAMEs in the bay. The whole lot of them looked to be in shabby condition. It wouldn't take much for the XCD to dispose of the mercenaries in whatever way they wanted. Sabrina's caution was good advice.

"One thing stands out," he thought aloud. "Seems the one - Kat - thinks the fighting's always been about more than money. Seems to think there's something wrong with soldierly discipline, too. Might help if an actual soldier on the team helped ease her into the setting, hm?" Maxwell tapped his PADD to check the time. He nodded to himself, then looked over at the woman working on her FRAME. He'd talked entirely too much.

I must sound presumptuous, he thought to himself, or pushy, or both.

"Time until arrival is close. Best get yourself cleaned up within a couple hours." Maxwell took one last look at Sabrina's handiwork, then nodded approvingly. "FRAME looks spiffy."

With that, the middle aged man started packing up the cleaning supplies he'd borrowed. The only thing he thought would be difficult to put away was the ladder, but he was surprised with how lightweight it was and how ingenious the collapsing mechanisms were. Probably some new, cheap alloy, he thought to himself as he put it away. Before long, he was out of the FRAME bay.

---

It didn't take Silver long to prepare himself for the next meeting with the XCD military. He took a quick shower, did his usual morning shave, then got into his pilot's gear. He took his time cleaning his personal weapons, had a good breakfast, and then started reading all the data the Panthers had on the XCD military's protocol. He wanted to be ready.

The hour was getting closer and closer to the time when the ship would dock in XCD territory. Despite everything, Silver didn't feel nervous. He felt...

Well, frankly, he didn't feel much. It was just another job, one more wave of missions before he could get to doing what really mattered.

The Samigina dropped its hatch, having closed to a crawl and eventual halt on the grounds of Fort Huangdao. The Panthers were lined up along the edge, unit jackets on and dancing in the wind kicked up by the landcruiser's turbines. Cecilia stood tall, eyes on the XCD flag atop the fort. A small contingent of XCD FRAMEs were arrayed like chess pieces before the landcruiser, firearms held at parade rest. Richard whistled. When they'd come to a stop, the Panthers were led down the ramp and greeted by a lanky officer, who corralled them down the path of FRAMEs.

After a brief security clearance, the Panthers shuffled into a hall, where a sunglasses-toting colonel awaited them. She regarded them only with a slight turn of her body as they entered the portal. The woman was solid, broad-shouldered and short. The Panthers deposited themselves in the rows of metal chairs and given the low-down on how things were going to be.

An hour or so, and the Panthers were back on-board the Samigigna. They'd use their landcruiser as their own barracks, but assemble within the fort daily for the day-today operations and procedures. Tomorrow, they'd begin their first joint-exercise with the pilots of the 26th, under the supervision of Colonel Wang, the bodybuilder of an officer that'd given them their briefing. They'd also be assigned new, XCD FRAMEs - for those who wanted to switch, anyway. Bentz had recommended they trade-in. He knew plenty wouldn't.

Cecilia was pacing the hallways of the landcruiser, shooting orders left and right to the support personnel on-board. Richard had instructed her to make the rounds, keep the Samigina and her crew in shape. He wanted to look good for their hosts, and so did she. Their job had taken them all over the globe, and now she was back home. There was some innate patriotic duty Cecilia found in their new assignment, and she'd be damned to let this one go sour.

Tabe struggled to hide his growing frustration as he, and the vehicle hauling "Rascal" were pulled over for a "Random" check. The rent-a-cop guards taking their time to sweep the two vehicles, and double checking his credentials.

"Why are you here, Mr. Tabe" the guard in front of him asked, flipping Tabe's I.D. over repeatedly, as if the hologram field would suddenly peel away.

"I was hired, likely by someone superior to the ones that hired you" Tabe growled. He had been at the rear gate for at least 20 mins as these jackoffs kept checking the contents of his gear. They didn't like the fact that he had his firearms, nor the fact that he had a fully functional FRAME. "Now, in running late due to your incompetence, can we hurry this up?"

The guard bristled. "Hey James! double check the undercarriage!, can’t be too safe!"

"Yes, flex your muscles at the mercenary with an operational combat FRAME, I'm sure that won’t backfire." Tabe said flatly, as he leaned against his vehicle. After a few more minutes of chest puffing and arguing, Tabe entered the base, and once greeted by a small escort, lead to the Samigigna where he left Rascal to the technicians, and climbed aboard with his gear. Making a bee-line to the C.O.s office. He was late.

Moments later Tabe ran into Cecilia, noticing the insignia on her lapels, he stopped and set his bags into a nearby alcove. “Excuse me ma’am, Tabe Nawlin reporting as ordered, I was held up by the security checkpoint.”

Sabrina, having been given the tour, felt sickeningly at home. The show of force, the sparkling uniforms, even the no-nonsense Colonel who's fuse was probably about as short as she was. Sabrina was never one to consider herself conceited enough to be prideful of her appearance, but she knew that she wasn't like the other girls. The short, stocky commander would probably have it out for her in some kind of way or another. It was just the nature of things. After all, she was from the EC, where the image of beauty was a well-figured person with blonde hair and blue eyes. The EC wasn't the only country with that philosophy, but in her homeland it applied to both sexes.

For now, Sabrina had hit up the firing range to practice with her sidearm and also had sent a requisition for a personal defense weapon small enough to store in her FRAME cockpit without it hampering her operation, chambered in a high-caliber cartridge. What she got was an integrally suppressed assault carbine manufactured by the NSU chambered for 7.62 by 35mm. They called it the "wolverine", and even had a silhouette of the animal's face bearing it's teeth on the lower part of the receiver. It would be here within the week thanks to a little greasing of the quartmaster's palms. She felt such a need only because of her old days back in the jungle where she was very naked, outnumbered, and had to make do with the bare basics. If she hadn't gone through Kommando training, she would likely have died.

The night-test of some of the larger ordnance had left Marlene tired and a bit groggy as she rolled out of bed and caught a glance of Sarah still tucked-in beside her for a power-nap. A few thoughts drifted to whether or not Kat would be alright after they replaced her bowl of spoiled cereal with a pillow, blanket, and small squadron of assorted granola-bars. She was sure they could have tried to do more for her, that girl was working herself to an early-grave even by mercenary-standards.

Putting on her 'uniform' of an weathered old bomber-jacket over the clothes she'd slept in, she managed to make a presentation on the decks as they were greeted and given a few last-second pamphlets by a not-so-forgiving colonel Wang to remind them of how they were expected to conduct themselves. Even when her back was turned, she could feel the disdain the officer felt for her. There was the slight chance that they didn't recognize each other -even if they would have- simply because they did not want to recognize each other. The Perizian civil war had caused quite a few international repercussions, no doubt one of them had managed to be felt even within the Cooperative Dialogue.

The other 'exie' in the Panthers seemed to regard herself better-kept, better preserved in the reserved military-style of conduct that was being flaunted in their faces as though discipline and appearances alone would sell their untested mechs. Marlene was still skeptical.

Afterwards, she brought her old folding-stock ex-Kamdeshi rifle to the range, and set it down on the bench as she made sure to wind the 75 round drum of 7.62x39mm ammunition. The rifle was kitted-out with all sorts of things, an iFAK wedged into the skeletonized folding-stock and held in place with a constriction-band, mounting a scope that not only could see in the dark but also take video for remote-operations, and a laser-illuminator for marking targets were some of the more obvious novelties on the weapon of stamped sheet-metal and a tiny weathered wooden handguard... aside from the drum that nearly doubled the weapon's weight. It wasn't pretty, she never meant it to be... felt that if she was ever seen using it the situation she'd be in wasn't likely to be pretty either; just as long as it helped her get out of the ugly situation alive, she'd be more than happy to have the world's ugliest rifle made uglier-still.

Once again Sarah had burned every second of her sugar reserves. Having quite happily and simply crawled in beside Marlene. It didn't even cross her mind to ask. Having quickly appropriated a pillow it was cuddled into submission as she simply crashed out. It was nearly half an hour after Marlene had left that she got out of bed. She didn't even flinch as she simply got up. Her mind was in a dream sequence still but she was more than awake. Yawning loudly she began to stumble to the shower. After a good scrub, she was solid once more and made her way to get breakfast. By that, she meant popping half a dozen food drinks and drinking them together. Calmly she walked back to her room and put on her "uniform" god damn..... That thing was a hunk of crap and she hated it. Bog standard panthers garb so colourless and drab. Though for once, it seemed to look right. Finally she looked out the window. "Crap....Late...", Throwing her backpack on she moved to the ramp to see the last panther make his way in. With a sigh, she moved forwards and made her way to the security clearance got herself confirmed and made her way into the building. Good god it was depressing, Osbania didn't have anything near this kind of clean professional and cool equipment. Sarah moved into the meeting and sat down quietly. They really were just dogs weren't they. Not so different then. Mind you she was about to get a nice shiny new mech. Whether or not she had any intention whatsoever to use it wasn't the question. Those were some nice damn parts Mr. B would be plenty happy to have.

She sent an open pulse the moment that they were dismissed, just happening to forget to pulse Cecilia too. -You guys, I took one of their offered replacements. I'm going to the engineering department to take it apart, let me know if you are interested in what I find, LONG LIVE OSBANIA!-