[@Xandrya][@Dark Light]

"Hold that thought, I wanna grab my personal rifle, was thinkin' of givin' her a tune-up once everything was squared away, this'll save me a trip" He dashed off to his quarters and fished the MAR's case out before returning to pick up the conversation "Now, as I was sayin' I don't let anyone touch my babies unless I really tolerate 'em. You've got a fair chance at that so far mate. Follow me"

Arex broke the silence on the way up the stairs "So how long is this first trip? And whadda ya suppose they will do with us after this? If we survive."

"I figure about 12 hours. Zargos is right on the edge of Alliance territory, so that's about a standard trip out that way. As for what come next, I dunno. Reckon they'll just keep sendin' us out 'til we outlive our usefulness, of course, they'll taunt us with freedom [i]'One more job, and you've worked off your sentence'[/i] and all that, but I don't think any of us will ever be free men again"

They arrived on the Command Deck and Grayson turned his head to ask "So, did anyone show you around or did they just shove ya aboa- OH, sorry!"
He'd bumped right into the other last-minute recruit.
"Sorry about that lass, wasn't payin' attention to where I was goin'"

-----

Stryker's research had turned up some interesting facts. Aside from an extra recruit that Dawson hadn't introduced, he'd also neglected to mention that the Alliance had provided a squadron of attack drones, expendable grunts to bolster the group's presence. They were in storage in the cargo bay at the moment, and according to the instructions in the database, needed a few hours active to bring their systems fully online, no time like the present he figured, so he stomped off, datapad in hand, towards the elevator, squeezing past a congregation of Maverick and the two newest recruits in the T-intersection of the deck without a word.

The robot, SAL, was just exiting the engine room as Stryker stepped out of the elevator.
"Just who I was looking for actually" the captain said to the 7-foot tall behemoth of steel.
"Commander Stryker" SAL nodded, curt and to the point "How may I assist you?"
"We got some drones in storage down here, think you can help me fish 'em out? And don't call me Commander, Stryker will do"
"Acknowledged, Stryker. I will provide whatever assistance I can"
Their combined strength made an easy job of clearing away the storage crates, strategically packed to conceal the tall, interlinked pods holding the drones. Stryker waved away SAL and muttered a thanks as he read the remaining instructions.
"Ok, up first... access code" he reached out to tap on the touch-pad of the framework's left side. There were 10 pods, and Stryker intended to use all of 'em if his plan was to work.
"Step 2- Designate lead platform, ok, let's go with lucky pod number 7. AP-772. Designating....." A small green bar filled up next to the assigned drone's number, and a light above its pod activated.
"Step 3, network drones to designated lead. How do I... oh ok, networking...... networking........ net-wor-king.... done. So far so good. Step 4, assign parameters. Ah, that one'll make it easy. Hold for commands. And lastly, step 5, activate in sequence. Simple enough"

By now, a small green light had begun flashing on the front panel of each pod, the drones were ready to be brought online. Stryker muttered the numbers under his breath as he tapped the touch pad to activate them.
"AP-116, AP-209, AP-361, AP-444, AP-529, AP-614, AP-772, AP-688, AP-900, AP-928, and here we go" He pressed in the access code as a final confirmation and then stepped back to watch the bots come to life.

[@BKburke]