"Never heard of that, where is it?" Lee Jay asked as she got another coffee. She clearly wasn't feeling like going back to medical.

"Romania, at one time it was the capitol of Transylvania. What of you I detect a Australian accent."

<<<<<<<<<<  shadow from Conference

    he enters ,  his eyes  taking the room in at a sweep without visibly doing  so. Grabbing a  'sandwhich' Type   thing and a   Coffee.. he  picks  out  a  palce, near enough to the pilots, but far enough  not to intrude... they were  all Mates who worked together, this was their  chance to catch up.

   Mean while, he    send  a message to   LT  Maxwell....

Seeing Shadow enter the pilots immediately move over to allow him a seat at the table. For them it seems only normal that a member of their squadron, even one they hardly know yet, sits with them. The Frenchman waves him over, indicating for Shadow to come sit next to him.

"Bonjour Shadow," he begins with a grin, the pirate hat resting crooked on his head. "I am Quatorze, Henri Quatorze. Fourteen I believe it is in English. But you can call me HQ like the others do. I lead flight two. I hear Timochev has given you the three flight. Who will be your wingmen? Or has that not been discussed yet? Stay away from our Belgian and Dutch friends here, they are mine."

He points at the two pilots opposite him. A rather young belgian man and a decidedly butch dutch female both greet him with a half smile.
"Not that we had any say in it," lieutenant Van Abdijen, the dutch pilot, immediately replies.

"Oh come now mon cheri," Quatorze laughs, "You know you love me."

From across the table Lieutenant Hagen nearly chokes in his sandwich.
"You see what we have to put up with leutnant? Earth's finest, what a bunch we are right?"
All of them laugh, exchanging casuals and jokes.
If they feel any resentment or reserve towards Shadow, they clearly don't show.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:09, Fri 19 May 2017.

"Transylvania? Where those vampire stories come from?" a slight smile shines through on Lee Jay's face. "I'm from Australia indee. Katherine Australia. Although in all honestly I had been living in England when I applied for the Polo. Now I'm not so sure what place is worst."

   He smiles, feeling a bit better, Well , Herni....HQ.... I was   looking  over the  names  as i did  Preflight on the fighters..... tried to remember Names?

   Shrugging, he takes  a   bite of the sandwhich thing, Bloody well embarrassed  meself though, Saw the   Name Kelly Wallace, American.. and  here it turns out  this  Kelly is a shelia!.... But Yuri says she's a s good as the   Guy Wallace?

  ..I remembered Steffan from  the Balkan Games?..don't know  who will fill the flight out? I'd  rather  just have   you blokes step up, then, maybe stick dome one in 3, who dunna wanna  be there?

  There is a bit of a chuckle from Shadow as Hagan speaks,Well?... I'll tell ya  all this?  If  we weren't the  Best when  we left... were the Best now....

 Then to change the subject,..I took  My  fighter and the Pool fighters out... got to fly a bloody shuttle ,fer the  Engineer types  ta fix  some  damage... The Hellcats fly good  enough out here... .

 .. so   other then meself?..who's the best pilot  the Marco has? he grins, and sips his coffee.

Drago laughs lightly, "Yes that's the place, Transylvania has quite a few legends about such things. I traveled some before leaving Earth but never managed to visit Australia. What was it like there?"

"It sucked. Katherine is a small town in the middle of nowhere. I was glad I got a british scholarship, never looked back. Untill now. Stuck here katherine suddenly seems like heaven."

Looking over at the group of that had recently arrived, "Well it looks like a growing number of individuals are being awakened. Hopefully things will improve."

"Seems so," she agreed. "Mostly pilots it seems. More military... joy..."

"I take it you are not, shall we say, enthusiastic about the military being in charge?"

"The whole idea of the program was that all humans had equal chance, and now we see military people leading the mission, and all civilians still asleep." She sipped some more coffee. "Where's the equality in that?"

"I see your point, though to play the devils advocate I can also see their reasons. I am guessing that the captain believes by awakening the military personnel that he will have less trouble and will hopefully find a habitable planet to start a colony. If finding a habitable world takes longer than expected waking up a few as necessary to keep the ship functioning as existing crew die off or become infirm. Of course that is just conjecture and could be the farthest thing from the actual reasons." Drago sighed and smiled slightly, "Well enough of the gloomy talk, surely there is something on such a large ship we can find to occupy our time and brighten our days."

  As the pilots  talk and Banter, Shadow  takes  time to try to  put faces to names... no worse then getting signed by a  new footie club...trying to get all the blokes names.

  any of you run distance? I found a damn nice track, Marco showed me...no one in the way, so you can through some speed work too!

"Like I said, I should get to work. But thanks for the offer," Musashi gets up, downing the last of her coffee. "It was nice talking to you Drago, thank you."

"Running? Is that something one does for fun?" The Frenchman laughs. Several of the others shake their head at his remark, the zulu then stating he does some if he has time.
"Ofcourse we run to train and work on ourselves, but I think I'm the only one that actually does it for fun. I should check out this route of yours tomorrow."

  Yeah.. for  me its  fun....had to stay in shape fer  footie, and  the Navy had a few ideas  fer me too... now? its  a Habit. Helps me get to sleep on some of those   nerve wrackin' days...

"Then we must certainly do some running tomorrow," the black pilot replies. "My name is Mpinkulu, Mfikelele Mpinkulu."
"Just call him Shaka, we all do," Quatorze interferes. Immediately he is treated to a slap on the head by the dutch woman next to him.

"Shaka was a great man," Mpinkulu states, "It is an honor to be named after him. Most certainly it is better than to have a number for a last name, no?"
"Are you making fun of me now Shaka?" The frenchman raises himself from his seat, his face a grimace of anger. A look in his direction by the belgian captain Groen quickly shuts him up though.

"So shall we run at say 0600 tomorrow Lieutenant?"

  aye....0600 sounds good, get the blood   flowing and all that bloody hash,,eh?

  ..Why not just call you 3 M?..it  fits, and  is easy enough to say! he watched how the others   acted  and rected with each other. The French Fellow  seemed a wee bit  on edge.


   He watched  Kelly and a few others, Unless  Yuri filled out the   rest of the flight for him, he would need to try and pick those who might  fit in with his style, as he would have to adjust to thiers.

"Well, Shaka is his callsign, so it works," the dutch pilot remarked as she ate the last of a stale sandwich. "I've seen footage of you. You have a very distinct style. On the edge of what the jet can handle. And one of the few who gave Yuri a run for his money every time. That move you pulled on him in India... a dozen feet closer to the ground and you would have been minced meat... Daring to say the least."

"That was him?" HQ looked up in disbelief. "You pulled that inverted loop on him? I'm sure the RAN reprimanded you for that, no? That was not daring, that was plain reckless."

"Coming from Frenchie here thats actually a compliment," Mfikelele laughed.

Meanwhile Timochev had joined the crew at the long table, listening in on the conversation. He didn't reply, he just observed, content his men and women were bonding as they should.

"That was no compliment Shaka," the pirate lookalike replied, leaning in to emphasise his words, "I know I am reckless at times, but that move had been way too aggressive. A little sidewind, a small airpocket, and SPLAT! No more ozzy flyboy. Thats not on the edge, thats way over it. Tell me Shadow, how many colors of shit were in your flightsuit after that move?"

   There was a grin as they talked... his cocky half smile  came up,well..to be quite honest, HQ?  I had a case of Melbourne Rum sitting in my quarters  after that.  During the  films of the  action, the CAptain made issue of that very thing.... but... also gave me a 24 hour pass as a reward.......

 and  fer my part Mate... he looked  at HQ,.. Us blokes  down under  only have  one  color?... I suppose..Frenchies  have...tri-color? he winks and laughs.

 then he looks  over the  Pilots   and shrugs, still having his smile,..good pilots have  control of thier aircraft.... we have to understand  our  surroundings... the  Hills to the east.... he put up on hand for the Hill......an me fighter, flying that low... well... there  weren't gonna be a side wind....BUT.... 10 feet higher..i would have   had the wind  coming off the top....

 he shrugs,...its  alot like playing  Aussie Ball..or even soccor... your eyes  must see the fileld....

 After  a sips of his coffee , he adds,..i didn't see too many  hills out there fer me ta run into , when i was shakin' down the figthers..so?..I guess i'll be safe!

Drago stood as Lee got up to leave, "It has been a pleasure Miss Musashi, hope the rest of your day goes well."

after Lee left Drago gathered the cups and replaced them on the counter where they could be taken for cleaning, Then walked out into the hallway stopping by a terminal Drago brought up the ships layout and started looking for a observation deck where he could view the stars. "Marco is Col. Genassi still in medical?"

Affirmative Drago

"Tri-color? Tri color?" The pirate laughs out loud. "Monsieur, if I got that close to the ground, it would be technicolor!"

   Shadow almost  choked on his coffee at HQ's  words,.... well...  we had some Blokes in training that got a wee bit too close to the ground...and they ended up..Technicolor!

  He  gets a  napkin to  wipe his  lips,..it isn't that bloody scarey though, as Long as you look straight ahead?... you look to the left at right and see  trees, rocks and Gohphers  zipping by...that might make ya a bit off yer game!