after breakfast the crew breaks up into it's work teams. the technical and tactical minds head off to plan the exploration of the dreadnought. While the 'hands on' folks head down to the cargo bay and weapons locker to sort and inventory the weapons captured then train the local militia on the use of the heavier weapons.

Balkiir saw to the kitchen moving around a bit stiffly once everyone was gone. setting down and quickly popping a couple of painkillers while he had the chance to do so without an audience.
  Part of the mystique of being Valkiir was that everyone saw you bleed but no one saw you hurting. and no one saw you scratching at the millions of ants crawling under your skin as the nano did their work.
   he packed lunch kits, made sure M'kira's had enough protein and carbs to fuel two women her size and added antibiotics, mineral supplements and enough water to keep the rest going in the arid heat of the planet. He wasn't a doctor but marine training always included a hellish amount of survival and preparedness training.
     Azia took it too far but Wodin knew what bugs the people that had taken hits had picked up from their wounds. everyone had nano meds and boosted immune systems just to get off world. but stumping around an alien world getting bruised scraped and occasionally shot required standard precautions.
    He never went for the mans/womans work thing other than in his kitchen but he did have a few habits from taking care of his sisters over the years. the others were just part of the job, but when he started Packing Elspeth's day pack he stopped smiled and slipped a few treats into her lunch pail. real ice cream and a container of strawberry preserves from his stash went into a chill-pac under the rest of the food pack.

 He thought everyone was gone, but that wasn't so. She frowned as she saw he was in pain, but stayed where she was, out of sight, out of mind, that was how she found things out. In the chaos of everyone leaving, she'd slipped under the table and sat with her knees drawn up, keeping quiet. She'd sensed everything wasn't as right as he'd tried to show, but she wasn't one to tell secrets not hers to tell. She'd just pretend she hadn't noticed his discomfort unless he let her see it deliberately.

 When he was done doing what he was doing and had everyone taken care of, she "sneezed" then crawled out from under the table. She stood up and dusted off her knees. She looked around then acted if she was surprised to see him there.
"Oh, I thought everyone was gone! Hey, can I help you cook some time? I can wash dishes too if you need me to help out. I like to cook but I don't know how to cook that much. Mostly eggs and french toast and easy stuff."

  " hey kiddo," Balkiir laughed as he spoke." Yo sure You want to be in here?"
   " I got a lot of work to do for dinner and I can be a little bossy in the kitchen. It's a guy thing..well a valkiir guy thing."

    " Hmm If ya want I need some of those veggies peeled and sliced about this big." Balkiir held up his fingers about an inch apart. " And once your done with that you can help me pick some grass, turns out that stuff Aziza grows in the halls is pretty good for seasoning." Balkiir motioned to a pile of vegetables from the fresh stores and then handed Maran a knife.he didn't show any outward discomfort or any hint he had spied her before she made herself know, if he had at all.

"Grass? Are you sure? Isn't grass for horses and cows and rabbits? Ok, sure, but you got to show me what grass. I might get the wrong one. Oh, is it like lemon grass? Of course I'll help. I ain't here as a guest am I? I want to do my share of helping out. I know I'm just a kid but there's things I can do to help isn't there? That leaves you guys to do stuff I can't do, right? And maybe you can teach me some of that stuff so I can get better at helping out."
 She looked at him wistfully, really wanting to help people out, and not just be pushed aside like some pesty little child. She was old enough to want to contribute. Sure, she wanted to relax and have some fun too, but she didn't feel like she could do that yet. She felt like she was on probation or something, and they might just decide to dump her into some backwoods orphanage or something and she'd never see her home planet or any of her friends again, or even have any opportunities to get away from this planet, let alone do anything worth anything.
 "I promise, I can do it! See?"
 She grabbed a knife and carefully started cleaning then chopping the carrots into chunks roughly the size he'd demonstrated, doing her best not to make a huge mess in the process.
 "So, what are we makin?"

During a quick break from weapons inventory, Elsbeth had stopped by to grab her day pack from the galley.  She gave Balkiir's hand a squeeze and leaned in to giving him a long kiss.  "Promissory note." she noted softly.

Only after they separated did she notice that Maran was there helping him.  She gave the young lady a slightly lopsided smile and with flushed cheeks made her way out to do her assigned duties for the day.  It promised to be a long, busy day.  And in many ways, Elsbeth preferred it that way - never ending grunt work.

 "I'll take you up on it. Balkiir whispered a broad smile on his face. He looked a bit embarrassed as he glanced toward Maran. " Ignore us adults for a second, we promise to behave ourselves later."" Balkiir wrapped both arms around Elspeth's shoulders and kissed her in return, letting her into his mind to feel the warm satisfied sensation her presence brought. He couldn't hide the amusement her blush gave hims although there was nothing mocking in his mind.

 <blue>"Lunch is packed, It took some effort not to stock you up like I should. But you'd probably only eat half of it...Maran here has volunteered to be my assistant chef for the day.
   I plan on teaching her my Marine Special, It ain't fancy, It ain't complicated but it gets the job done."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:59, Sun 20 Mar 2011.

He got up and moved to gather his gear for the day. HE would start helping with the inventory but in the end he knew he would end out on some lonesome point rifle in hand. HE gave the big guy a nod for breakfast and then headed out the door. He stopped in his room and grabbed his backpack and his rifle before heading down to the hold.

He looked around before cracking a slight smile, yes the tools of slaughter gave him pleasure. The tools to ends the lives of the unjust and wicked. He still thought about talking to T'risa about his idea. He would take it up with her later.

Trey, still not quite certain where he fit in in all the hubbub - not to mention still getting vertigo everytime he looked at the horizon (It DISAPPEARS!) - had retreated back to his room after the meal to slap on his 'borrowed' clothes and tool belt. Then go looking for his miserly old space suit, grinning for all the world like he'd won the lottery.

Which, considering circumstances, he might just have.

He swings into the kitchen once more, lifting a hand "Ey mon. Any-one know where de suit I an' I was wearin' be at? She some-thang special, ya knowin'. And, uh.. where I an' I being off to next, nao?"

In reply to Balkiir Kovul (msg #7):
"I'm a sou chef, hehe. I like that! Dad was the cook at home but mom cooked some great soups and stews. I liked helping them make stuff."
 She blushed slightly as they kissed but grinned at them because it reminded her of the way her parents were, and it wasn't anything to be ashamed of was it? Loving somebody was something special as far as she could tell. It was nice to see them happy. It made her feel happier somehow.

M'kira goes about her business making sure her fighter is in top form. She also checks her battle armor doing required maintenance. She also practices if there is time to do so. Aside from that M'kira helps around the ship and in other areas as she can.

Eventually she ends up where some of the crew seems to have gathered. Seeing trey She listens to what he said then shakes her head slightly. "I don't have any idea. Hopefully Aziza didn't get her hands on it. She might have had it vaporized to avoid contamination. It's possible T'risa might know what happened to it. I am not really sure about what's next aside from preparing Camp hope for trouble. Most likely we will probably try to find this queen and put a end to her. She does seem to be in the middle of this mess. Thoug the fact that the Marduke are here really bothers me. That's probably why we saw Chronos earlier. It's not often you see something like that. Chronos is a AI dreadnought in case you don't know."

Elsbeth grabbed the package that Balkiir had earmarked for her and headed down to the hold where the first set of weapons were to be reviewed.  She nodded to Victor and put down her lunch on a convenient, nearby table and started to wander about the stacks and boxes of weapons to get a general overview.  As well as noting types and numbers to make sure that when it came to checking and cleaning each one, they would have the proper supplies.

Once the initial review was done, she started pulling cleaning supplies.  Armed with what thought they would need to set the supplies down on one of the makeshift work benches.  "Are you cleaning or counting, Mr. Victor Grym?"  And she set to work separating, categorizing and cleaning working quietly and efficiently.

Conrad finished his breakfast and gave thanks to Balkiir for the nice meal.  Conrad then headed off from the mess hall, "If you need me, I'll be working on both mecha's finishing up whatever needs to be done., and made is way to the mecha's to make sure all repairs were finished up and wrap up any unfinished business.  Though he was still curious what was going to happen next but he know he would soon find out.

" Oooo Guns my favorite." Poppy cooed happily as she entered the weapons locker.' Big guns little guns, fancy guns, ugh...not so fancy guns... And guns that kill really big scary things that want to do mean scary things to poor defenseless love bots turned interplanetary bounty hunter slash gunslinger....<blue>" Poppy picked up an assault rifle out of the stack and eyed it critically field stripping it, checking springs and eying the firing mechanism. <blue>" Might as well make these with  cookie cutter..."

    Hmmm ya know between the two of you I could right a symphony in silent sharp... if ya make me do all the talking by the end of the day you are going to know more about Cyberoid fashions and how to pick out a nice pair of legs than you ever wanted to..... now if we want to talk guns though I can probably learn something from you two... I cut Grymmy I probably get a nice glass of ice water.... I hear marines bleed gun oil though."