---

---

Ayame wasn't sure what to say for a moment, this wasn't the answer she expected. She has heard of Advanced humans, hell one of her teachers in the acadamy was one. She didn't expect to have one here in a young man like Sirius, but she also had heard tales from her parents about advanced humans younger then Sirius doing such things she could only dream of doing, but she was sure that most of the stories were fluffed.

"War huh? Never thought of the situation with the earthlings that way." she thought out load, sure she had a tussle with the earthling once or twice when they popped their head into space, but would what's going on be considered a war? She highly doubted it, but the earthlings were persistent to get into space.

"But its great to have pilots like you, not everyday I get an answers like yours. But when the call is made to fly out, It'll be nice to have you watching my back."

@BlackMaiden@Phoenix347

---

"General." Skye greeted shortly after entering, straightening her body and snapping a respectful salute. A small smile traced the girl's face as she sat down at the very front of the room, closest to the monitor and the ones speaking. An intense impatience still brimmed in Skye's chest, leaving her arms and legs restless the moment she planted herself in one of many uncomfortable plastic chairs filling the briefing room. Despite this Skye found the patience to sit still, or as still as she could muster. Seeing the General, and knowing the time of launch was soon at hand, Skye felt more at ease and even a little relaxed.

"Captain headphones over there can talk all he wants. As long as the General has my back I know I'll never get grounded, especially not over some noble sleezeball. At least not for long anyway. George hasn't had my back this long just to suddenly turn around now, he knows what I can do."

Skye adjusted her aviators as she leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms and slouching in her seat in a vain attempt to get more comfortable in the glorified iron maiden of a chair she found herself in. Despite her renewed patience however only a couple seconds passed before Skye straightened out in her chair, turning her legs so they went over the side as she looked around the room.

"Alright, who do I have to punch in the arm for holding up the damn briefing?" Skye muttered, making note of who had arrived and who was seeming absent.

Skye stopped and stared as she spotted someone leaning against one of the back walls. Flowing white hair going down to their shoulders and a purple, soccer-ball sized object held against their hip. The ace pilot blinked several times, actually taking off her aviators in order to make sure she wasn't seeing things. After a few seconds of questioning her eyesight Skye called out.

"Hey, kid!" Skye said, rapping one of her prosthetic legs against the metal leg of her chair to call attention to herself. "The soccer field is outside. This is a military meeting, for grownups. Take your purple soccer ball and skedaddle."

---

---

"This small collection of scouts with guns is the one that labelled me as a brute, they didn't ask for my input like you two. Tell em you came from one of the most conflicted times and you're nothing but a barbarian." Hanson clarified before sliding his bowl to the side, leaning back as the two discussed their positions in the machine that was the Colonies. "You're here because they hope to learn more about what makes you tick. Same with me, we're different than the rest of them, they want to know what makes us change. The government here already chose to make test tube babies, navigators or whatever you call them, not too long till they find the equation to the rest of us." Hanson gave an exaggerated shrug. "This war with the Earth is just a sideshow the way I see it. Not like they really have made it past some rockets, disappointing if you ask me. Sure we're fighting them each time they come up but we haven't made any progress down there either. Then again, maybe that's why we're searching the field ever other week. "

---

Port Alec

Briefing

Interacting with:Skye@Crosswire

---

Amaya examined the room from her point of view, seeing some anxious and others excited, along with some just being generally content, being in the room, waiting for the briefing to begin. She adjusted the ball in thought. Amaya didn't like crowds but was content just existing next to the door. She could leave without being noticed, or that was the plan till she heard someone speak to someone being a kid. Amaya looked around curiously, wondering who the possible 'kid' was. It took a few seconds before she realized who the pilot was speaking to; it was her. If Amaya could jump out of her skin, she probably would have.

Amaya let the woman's words sink in. Kid? Soccer field? Amaya shook her head, formulating a decent and calm response before taking a light breath to calm her nerves before responding, "Oh, I do believe that should be considered an insult to most. However, I am pretty flattered at the compliment, if I am to be honest. Though, if I must say, I am not truly as young as I look, so let me introduce myself. I am Amaya Yashia, Or Dr. Amaya Yashia. It is quite nice to make your acquaintance."She spoke in a gentle but sweet tone pushing off the wall before bowing low in respect. She may not understand much of the world she had awoken to, but Amaya was determined and excited to learn all this empire would have to offer, even if it lets pilots and others judge her by her looks. Their looks and questions were nothing she hadn't handled before.

---

---

Listening in on his Centurion's informal meeting was somewhat underwhelming. Roose had thought that military officers would immediately go into sharing war stories, like the hired guns out on the Empire's outer border would when he used to operate around Armen. The complaints about mediocre food did make him want to interrupt and point out how the countryside was just filled with wild boars roaming the forests, waiting to be hunted and made to delicious pork steaks. Yet, Roose metaphorically bit his tongue and leaned back on his chair. Interjecting into his superior's personal conversation was probably not the smartest thing to do.

As he was settling in, Roose could not help but notice Skye's loud prompt at someone over in the back. In fact, half the room probably noticed. While the irony of her calling someone a kid was definitely not lost on Roose, he knew that she would most definitely be an authority on knowing who belongs to a military briefing, civilian or otherwise. However, as Amaya introduced herself as a doctor, Roose figured that they might be essential to the operation as a consulting operator or in another supporting position. It took quite a brave effort to actively invite Skye's contempt though. And perhaps it takes that, boredom, and stupidity to get in between both of them as Roose would do. Making his way towards Skye's side, he had this to say.

"Now, now Skye. Obviously Doc Yashia here is gonna take our blood pressure or something before we head off to space. Carius Tadmoore, by the way." he would state, extending his hand out to shake the doctor's.

---

---

Ayame thought on Sirius's question, why are we fighting them? To take over the Earth? If so what for? Resources? Control? She was a soldier and the reason why she would be fighting them were above her paygrade, and station. But she was interested in the reasoning on how this all started. Something to ask later, but she wondered if she could get more out of Hanson. This is the most she found out about him so far and they were having an okay conversation.

"Were were you from Hanson? Honestly from the most conflicted times doesn't narrow it down. My parents are from two different points of the U.C. time period and both talked about how they were in brutal conflicts." Ayame asked very curious about this man she has known very little "And what was is like besides constant fighting. My parents talked about Earth during their time, I wanna know what Earth was like from your time period. That is if you were even on the planet."

---

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Hanson took a deep breath at the thought process of you teen in front of him, and the girl next to him, some spoke about her being something of an idol, not that he ever cared for music. He leaned back and folded out his hands, cracking them in doing so. "It looks like this really is the first war for you two. I've lived through two of them after all. I was conceived way back in uc63, before the first major war of the Earth and colonies we know of. When I was just a kid these same colonies dropped the remains of dead ones onto the Earth and damaged it worse than ever before, and even when it came to more civilized fighting it wracked the world completely by the end. I joined up with the same side as my father, the winning side, Earth. They called it peace, while small cells still fought on like the war never ended. Soon a special forces section was made, and I was scouted when they detected I had newtype potential. Sound familiar to you two?"

The technically old veteran looked between the two, one was another pod person brought out and taken advantage of by the colonies, the other's parents probably had the same situation to a point. "That 'peace' fell quite fast and the world was wrapped in another war, the Grypps War some of us called it. I can't remember the ending, I just know we fucked up the world twice over with little to show for it except a few genocides, and the remains of stability. I know I was sent away by the end, to where? Don't ask, I couldn't say. Can't even recall why I was in the pod, but now I'm here in the very situation. These soldiers don't even know a proper war unless they came from the fridge." Hanson looked around at the cafeteria, seeing a couple other notable pod survivors, dealing with their new times differently while still standing out amongst the other pilots. How many of them were even on his 'side' back then? How many would have been his sworn enemy? The changes of a few centuries were complicated.

"Now you talked about a dialogue, there wasn't any." Hanson looked straight into the young mans' eyes like he was telling him the meaning of life. "If you want to know how this all started, these people in their floating cans wanted to go back home, thinking they earned it having lived out here for so long, living off fumes for so long until that Hydrogen Fleet was started. I read their notes, they didn't do much until that collection was sent adrift, calculated to reach the giant for fuel. Back here, they started their own little militia, ready to step back on the ground like the people wanted them there. Only when they established a place just past the debris field and found out that looking down, people were fine. They didn't need the colonies to come down for them. A few rockets already came up and the brass figured, 'Why should we go down and settle? They are barbarians down there, brutes and maniacs left over from the people of old. We need to civilize them first.'

"So collect the guns, collect the ships, prepare for war. The first to fire? That wasn't them. They sent up a rocket that stayed up here longer than most, long enough a mobile suit team was sent out. Comms have never been great up here, but we were told not to bother. No negotiation, intimidation. I came up to that rocket and slashed at it till it tumbled back down. It worked for a while, some time to breath, thinking they might just have been lucky with the rocket. The next time they flew up? They responded in kind and the first time in a long time, mobile suits clashed in space. You're looking right at the one who kicked off the latest of Earth's global wars kid."

---

---

Teras nodded and looked to Ulesses for confirmation as well before they walked with the Lion to the front, and introduced the man code named Otter to him, only to sit down next to him along with Nathaniel. They looked at the stage, expecting the 'fish' to come down and join them when the general turned away and made a whistle, loud even over the chatter about as the doors were closed and the general took center stage. "Attention!" The general slammed his heel into the stage, the sound of which sent the trained personnel to their feet in a salute. "Sit." The small crowd lowered themselves to the chairs as the general grabbed their attention. "Let us begin. As a first order of business Team Delta will be moving leadership from Centurion Orgs unto Centurion Fin." The general motioned over to the newest centurion who gave another salute. "Along with this we have a new compatriot joining the operation, Gabriel Smith. Him and his men will be assisting in the operation within their respective field." The general held out his hand to present the man in the crowd, to which some heads looked over. With that the general looked to Tyr and turned away, walking to the side and observing.

"One week ago intelligence isolated a section of the debris belt revealing the remains of four vessels." Tyr walked up and immediately began the briefing, using a hand remote to activate the screen behind him, revealing the first of the images showing the blurred view of the ships. "Four vessels have been identified in the debris, we have identified two of the vessels from the universal century while the last two remain undetermined." The screen showed a profile of the two known ships, the Alexander class and Marilyn class, while the other two showed a highlighted section of the exposed ships. "We've determined the larger vessel to be a freighter, and as such is one of the prime targets for our operation. The other will be the Marylin class, and the remaining two will be examined last as time allows it. The colonies response times have been improving with each launch, so we are racing against the clock to inspect the craft and transfer cargo. Should any craft be worthy of recovery, Gabriel's team will signal with the appropriate flares and be given priority for protection."

Tyr changed the screen again showing the code names across the screen and directing them to a vessel, the middle of the field and one to the side labelled as 'Defense'. Among the code names in the middle were Kraken and Small Sky, the ones to the unknown freighter included Seth, Lion and Roc. "The Defense group will be in charge of rocket guard duty should the colonies wish to intercept our transports while the units sent to each vessel will be tasked with investigation and scouting of the ships. Utilize your flares appropriately, red to indicate any dolls reacting, blue for non valuable cargo or bust, and orange for a possible salvage. All units remaining will be tasked with observing for any colonist actions and mobile suit units. They hold the advantage in space so remain within range of allies should contact be made. We are tasked with staving off the can-colonists until all teams are able to retreat with their cargo. As usual we will only have one hour for a complete orbit, any longer and we risk our re-entry."

---

---

Ayame was silent, the amount of knowledge about this man that was dropped onto her was overwhelming to say the least. Her Parents never talked about their pasts often, and when they did it was never about happy times. Conflict, conflict of deferent ideologies, how people were being treated, how to be governed. She heard of the One Year from her Parents and how bloody it was, half of the human population was lost in that war. Then the Grypps Conflict where the Titians the Earth Federation's attack dogs decided to commit untold atrocities to keep the colonies in line. What they were she never found out, her mother never liked to talk about her time in the AEUG.

What Ayame found Ironic was that they were acting like they were Earth Federation, some of what Hanson said she heard from her mother, how they were treated like second class citizens, barbarians, uncultured and now we are doing the same this time to the Earthlings. The irony was not lost on her, or she thinks she sees the irony.

'Here we are keeping the Earthlings locked up on Terra Firma while we are acting like Earth is some old dwelling that has an infestation and we are deciding how to exterminate said infestation before remodeling it to our liking'

She was lost in thought when she heard Sirius's Reply, the kid did have a funny way of talking. He wasn't appalled in the mans actions, he was interested and in awe like a child learning something cool. For her hearing this man had a hand in the current conflict, she hated him... or she wanted to as she knows full well he was only following orders. The colonies decided that the Earthlings were not worth contacting and opening a dialogue to form some kind of relationship with Earth. But that wasn't her problem, she didn't decide that course of action. No, she was a simple cog in the machine with her own dreams and asperations, one she found a nice middle ground where her dreams never interfered with her work, well mostly anyways.

Contemplating the new info she let out a long yawn, her night catching up top her now, "Sorry, had a long night last night... You've also gave me a lot of info the digest, and while Sirius seemed to process that all very quickly I might need a moment to let it all sink in." She honestly could think about this stuff for hours and not have it be properly digested, best to let it simmer in the back of mind then let this be on the forefront.

---

---

"You're welcome to try and complain to them, not often you get a response outside of vulgarity or national banter. Whatever the case of us soldiers, old men start wars and young men fight them as the saying goes. Why this all started may be pointless by the time it ends, it's not our concern though. We'll be fighting it, and we just have to survive until the end. Just don't become anything less than a soldier, a cog in the machine can do more harm than any bullet. Now if you two need to take the time to digest all that, your bed is always welcoming." Hanson grinned as he stood up, grabbing his tray and moving to the disposal, emptying the contents before pushing the bowl inside the chute and being taken away for cleaning. His business concluded, with the bonus of scaring a couple of young bloods, Hanson moved over to the exit of the cafeteria and proceeded back towards the hangar, now wanting to find the young scientist in charge of processing funds, since his tickets were just recently confiscated...

---

---

Giving them some time to observe the screen, Tyr switched to the image of the smallest vessel. "This is the smallest vessel, and from its dimensions we expect it to be either a small freighter or a shuttle, possibly capable of carrying a mobile suit. We don't expect much from it so a two mobile suit search should suffice the craft with support personnel in EVA gear. Its origins are unknown as well, forced entry may be required but it appears otherwise intact so retain is possible integrity for retrieval." The screen changed again to the Alexandria-Class, with a noticeably darker sheen than any recognizable ships to those familiar with UC spacecraft. "Judging from the forward section of the ship we've determined this one is an Alexandria class from the early Universal Century era, although its darker coloring is concerning we expect it could contain some useful suits or supplies. We are all away of how plentiful the militaries of the Universal century were. As such, the possibility of suits with the doll program are high so Otter will be taking the lead into the ship." The man's codename lit up at the selection along with the others listed.

"This next vessel is another from the Universal century, although much later from our estimates." The large and elaborate Marilyn class appeared on the screen with plenty of damage along the two protrusions at the front. "While not a warship, this is a resupply ship from all related records. If it has been lucky to survive until now, it could contain plenty of parts and weapons for our campaigns. There are no records we can find of carrying mobile suits, but be prepared for any dolls nevertheless. Onto the final vessel..." The screen showed no more than a large side of a ship, even without a full view the size was very generous compared to the others. "From the ports along the side of this, we expect it to be some shipping or supply vessel. We can't tell the era nor the originator but its structure appears to be intact from our view. As such it will be the second focus. If it is possibly a mobile suit transport, then the utmost care shall be taken to investigate all suits and determine their value before retrieval. This container is where the head of the scavengers team now employed directly by the General will be headed to, and guarded."

Tyr looked over to the man sitting down in the auditorium, with no one nearby and receiving some looks from others as an outsider to the military and this unit. "Inside sir Seth will be in charge of determining any items worth collecting and any junk to leave behind. Time is limited as you know, and any seconds wasted questioning a rational order from him means more time for the canners to come for us. All precaution inside against dolls or, pray tell, awaiting alarms will be taken and dealt with swiftly by all parties. The rest of us not assigned to the vessels will act as look outs and guards. There will always be something floating out there, if it catches your eye you may collect but remain vigilant. The canners have always had the first strike against us on their battlefield. Any questions."

---

---

Ayame let out a laugh with a added scoff "Whatever, See you around Seuclid" she yelled on his way out of the Cafeteria. Once he left she let out a sigh as she went back to eating her breakfast, "Damn, that was some rough info he just dropped onto us. But that wasn't a bad conversation, and I'm surprised Hanson was so civil and insightful... He has a bit of a rep here as a Brute, as he explained."

Now she wasn't gonna stick up for the man but she isn't going to take any rumors seriously, well any of the current ones. But she isn't afraid to interact with him in the future, maybe help with him in the field?'Nah, he is a grown man... And he seems to work best alone. But enough thinking about the man, how am I gonna survive the next twelve hours?' she thought to her self as she finished up her breakfast. She would hope today is quiet and head to bed early to catch up on her rest. But if the Earthlings decide to come up today she will figure out how she can handle combat half awake as she let out a long yawn.

@BlackMaiden@Phoenix347@WXer

---

"Yeah, yeah, sure kid. It's nice to meet you too, I guess." Skye muttered in response, staring in disbelief at the girl before pushing up her aviators. Behind their obscuring lenses Skye rolled her eyes, not believing the claims of the so called 'doctor' for a second. Yet as she turned to face the front of the room, she found Roose coming to her side and speaking at her. Brows knit in irritation Skye crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes in irritation as she leaned back in her seat and tilted her heat up to look at Roose from her sitting position.

"Wait, so that kid is a doctor?" Skye asked, her face hardening as one of her hands wandered and ran down one of her prosthetic legs. "In that case Doctor Kid should stay out of our way. Unless she's going to be doing something actually useful, like fighting, scavenging, or fixing our suits, then I don't really see a need to have her around."

The ace pilot shook her head dismissively as she turned her gaze to the front of the room as the presentation began.

The first few seconds had Skye gripped with an eagerness to hear what they would be doing. Within seconds however Skye could feel her eyes begin to glaze over as soon as it became clear that this would be a 'defensive' mission. The potential for new parts and better supplies was normally an interesting prospect. But Skye wasn't going to be rooting around in a dust old ship filled with skeletons and pissed off ghosts, she was going to be stuck waiting around with her thumb up her ass with Captain Headphones. Her first mission back in space needed to be marked by drawing blood from at least one Canner, otherwise what was the point. With a bored expression Skye leaned back in her seat, baring through the brunt of the briefing before questions came up.

Skye was the first to raise her hand, speaking immediately as she did so.

"With all due respect sir, shouldn't we have someone on the offensive?" Skye asked bluntly."You said it yourself, the canners have gotten faster with their response times. Its not a matter of if they'll show it, it's a matter of when. Sitting around outside the ships and waiting for them to come to us is only going to waste manpower. But if one of us was sent out, then we could intercept the canners in the debris field. It's big, but there's only so many routes you can take without getting torn apart. Plus an interception could help delay the dirty Canners and buy the salvage time to get more materials to bring back."

---

---

After giving the opening, George stood behind and to the side of Tyr, giving him a good view at both the centurion and the rest of the personnel. He watched as it began more bluntly than his own, the Centurion pouring out the information like a faucet on full. He could see some in the audience were skeptical already of his ability, despite many performing plenty of missions with him before. At the first chance, immediately he saw the one person in the room to question any action not related to fighting. He let out a mental sigh, expecting the flight won't be as smooth as George hoped. "An interception would be running head first into full mobile suit teams whose pilots have trained all their lives in the absence of gravity. How many the colonists deploy and where they come from is not something we can predict accurately, spreading ourselves too thin can lead to us being isolated and eliminated. We will not make the situation easier for the enemy at all, not to mention the possibility of a full ship of dolls activating, forcing the few mobile suits to engage them without support. Each team will play their role, the defense team to protect the shuttles for the retreat and provide guidance, the search teams to collect supplies and the middle team to string each section together while busying the colonists."

The Centurion replied directly to the girl, looking to the remote and switching the images to those of past encounters, with colonists suits attacking allied mobile suits and mobile workers. "We are not cleared for an assault mission yet by the general, only a scavenging operation. That is our objective, and anyone failing to follow their role will be disciplined appropriately. That said, we will not be sitting in the open, those of us on the middle team with me will be taking up hidden positions around the area where you can find cover. You are clear to fire upon any mobile weapon without an Imperial marking on its armor but confirm any symbols first. They have been seen with similar weapons to us, and friendly fire is just as much a possibility as it was against the Gols." Murmurs began from those who had experienced incidents of the Gols using guerilla tactics and fallen suits in ambushes, either utilizing captured mobile suits and parts or painstakingly copying the symbol onto their units in a false flag effort. "Still, by the time they have arrived the scavenging teams should have identified whether the contents of the vessels are worth recovering or not. We will also attempt to secure a vessel should any prove viable, so prepare to gather and guard whichever we may reclaim for the Empire's use."

---

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"What the hell do you mean I've missed a quota? You don't even look like you know what that is!" The voice of the Brute could be heard through the hangar as he shouted at the young girl, who had to adjust her glasses while floating up and away from the head of the Kallisto. "Of course I do! You just don't listen to our requests! You need to start bringing things back, you leave with stuff and come back empty handed. At least bring back some rifles or beam sabers, you can even get them from the earthlings." As she reached the scaffolding of the mobile suit racks, Celeste steadied herself and pushed off towards the taller man. While short, she didn't care about sizes between the soldiers of the colonies. "Don't start spouting off like the rest of the stiffs running this place. If I want to bring shit back I'll bring shit back, but this suit is all I need." Hanson pounded his hand on the nanolaminate armor of his mobile suit, forcing him to float away from the useless catwalk.

"Then do it for the tickets." Celeste somersaulted and pushed against the shoulder arm of the suit to redirect her body towards the man, passing by him and gripping the railing of the catwalk as the man adjusted himself, vectoring towards the arm of the suit again. "You never know what we'll find out there that you might want, and this beauty isn't easy to maintain, we have no reliable supply of nano laminate armor after all. What you get is whatever they are willing to give you, but if you bring us some good toys, I can always sweet talk them into opening up the paint cans. Like I suggested, you don't have to scrounge for them just pick them up from the enemy if you can and fly on back to the ship, they'll take note of anything you bring to them. Sound like a deal?" The girl gave a big smile as she looked to the ancient man who sigh and waved off his hand to her. " Whatever, just don't touch my suit again."

He turned away and grabbed onto the arm of the mobile suit, moving over to the head to check if she had indeed opened any panel like he suspected. "Good, I'll take that as an affirmative Corporal Seuclid!" The girl said with a giddy voice before pulling along the rail towards the next suit. Of course she performed a quick inspection of the suit but saw that it was still in working condition. Considering it was a custom suit from their knowledge of the post calamity suits, Hanson had been taking car of it quite well with minimum support from the rest of the staff. Still, Celeste still needed him to pitch in to stock up on her armory for the distribution of tickets.

---

---

Ayame thought about his offer, and figured that a good training session in the simulators wouldn't be too bad, might get her to wake up, or she might crash and fall, metaphorically of course.

"Yeah you can stay. Also I'm down for some some training, You keep talking about how great you are so how can I not see for myself?" she was curious about this young mans abilities, he was boasting about breaking records which she thought was a riot of laughter as those that set those records were veterans of there timeframe and she didn't think this kid had broken any of them. She on the other hand was no good fighter but she can hold her own, but if this kid was as good as he says he is then she might have a rough fight on her hand, if not then maybe her win loss ratio might be less depressing.

Finishing up her food she grabbed her own plate to take to disposal chute for her dish to be cleaned. "Ready whenever you are Sirius" she was heading out of the Cafeteria towards the simulators, she hid another yawn while in the hallway, she hoped that this tiredness didn't get the better of her today.