"I should have stayed to protect you, Val, my beloved," said Henry, looking sad.

Mila sensed Her Human's unhappiness and put her head on his leg, nudging gently.

I'm here she indicated, Pet me, you'll feel better

  Ellen giggled  and  Will nooded   as  they   did then next  couple fast dances.

  ...............

 Lyri  Smiled,see? there are guys on this boat that will offer  LAdies a dance...

 Shadow frowned, as Beth laughed,Yeah, thanks Lyri..but  i'm good , the pains  going away..but  i'll wait a bit for another slow  one...

.............

 Shade  was on the Floor   with MAria and  Brivet

Abby got  Higgins to  take her on the floor, though he was  wobbling

...........

  Roy and Lyri weren't  far  from  Lizzy, and Will and a few others, Nagy was feeling pretty good  about now  and   they heard...

 ..So?  this  Verian  Bastard  tries to  kill Beth.. shot her in the  Side.. Me Cora here  and Ellen jump on him  trying to hold him down... Beth  Comes over  , holding her  side.. swearing at him for shooting her, and drives her trench knife , right  through the   view slit and twists it  around!...

 Cora laughs and? while she walks away , Nagy looks at us and says,,,' just think what she would have done, if he had killed her!"

 people  started  laughing and Nagy ordered anothe rpitcher of beer.

Roy chuckled softly.  "They aren't wrong...I wouldn't say Beth scares me, but she does inspire a very healthy respect..."  It would be apparent, for anyone watching, that while there was definitely a connection of some sort between Roy and Lyri, it was (for his part, at least) not romantic.

 TRhe  songs  were over.  Lyri thanked  Roy as they  walked back to the table,Thanks Roy, no one will dacne   with  me  excepot you and Shadow...and you know how Shadow is?..Maybe..Shoey?

………………………..
 At The Table Beth  Nudged   Shadow with her foot,Roles will be alright?  heck?  he lasted this long!.. Maybe  we can see him when we reach Uden?

 A bit of  a smile,Yeah.. we have to go see him, I'm thinking  The Admiral will go to... he was like a Dad to both of us..

……………

 Ellen came  BAck with  Will they were chuckling about  somethign she had  said...here he is, SAafe  and sound.., might have some of  my perfume on his,m, but that's it.  she  smiled and  swayed  away tot eh table with Nagy and Cora , when  Simms  intercepted  her   and steered her to the dance floor.

................

 Hemsly and Brooks  made sure they  had a  rythum to the music... 2  fast  one slow..one fast..two slow..so folks  could  know when they wanted to be on the floor.

 it would be broken up by folks  who wanted to...or were dared to sing...

 slowly the pain and  began to drain from most folks


 Roll was  tryign to fast  dance,  doing the dance   that  Shadow and  Shade showed him on the Hnager dec.. Sneak was laughing  as she  did it with him, except her hips looked a lot better  doing it.

Sitting at their table Izzy had giggled at the mention of Suzie Meyers, with her leaning in to quietly talk to Lizzy "She was a cheerleader at my school, I was so desperate to be her friend and I did some pretty stupid things just so she would let me hang around her, In fact looking back on it I think I had a massive crush on her...well...up until she started dating this arsehole; Dan, he didn't like me so that was the end of that" she said with wistful sigh before getting up to join Lizzy on the dance floor.

Enjoying the feel of Lizzy's arms around her, including the one currently resting on her shapely rear, Izzy would dance along to the music finding Lizzy to be a far better dance partner than the last time they had danced together. When the song finally came to an end she would smile and whisper back "I love dancing with you too..." she had been about to make some kind of a comment but the kiss Lizzy gave her drove all thoughts from her mind "I love doing that with you too" she giggled when Lizzy broke off the kiss.

With Will going off to dance with Ellen for a bit, Harry would take a seat at their table and drink what was left of her milkshake as she watched the other dancers with a tiny smile coming to her face when she saw Lizzy and Izzy kissing, with the redhead treating the tiny reporter with a level of tenderness she'd never seen from her before wow...I guess she really does love her she thought to herself, quietly hoping that it would all work out for the pair of them.

When a chuckling Will returned to their table with Ellen, Harry would smile as she replied "That's ok, I'm sure I'll cope" before watching her heading off only to be whisked off her feet by one of the other members of SEC "so how was she? does she dance better than me?" Harry asked Will in a mischievous voice as she put her arms around him in an embrace. Curious to see what he thought of the other woman.

 Lizzy giggled and said," Well a cheerleader huh, I think you moved up to a Fighter Pilot. Well maybe that was your first crush, I hope I am your last."


 Lizzy smiled and said," I love dancing with you so much."  After they kissed, and after Izzy said she liked kissing as well. Lizzy replied," I really enjoy that as well, and there is a lot more I also enjoy doing with you Izzy." Lizzy also grabbed Izzy's butt after she finished her sentence. Then Lizzy would ask Izzy," Do you want to keep dancing , or head back to the table, or.. ummm anything else you would like to do Izzy?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:49, Thu 30 Jan 2020.

  Will smiled,she's pretty nice. I wasn't sure about her   when she  came  aboard..considerign the  treansfer stuff..but she isn't afraid  to  put boarding armor  and  and Jump on a shuttle., Never  asks to trade off? Never hangs back... SM has   to  Tell hger to stay, or she'll be on that shuttle..guess she  should have always been ESN

 he motions his hand,its odd?.. we're all stuck on this ship.., on a station or a Planet, we can go almost anywhere, but most of  us hang out, with or with out  Delta Night..

 sipping his  shake and going back to eating his ..now cold..pasta. you can tell, almost right away..if a person is Hermes or not.

 Lookign at  HArry he says before another sip of shake,...looks like the LC promoted   three new  guys to a ride?... and you'll be  getting some  more green folks...

...................

 Abby was chatting  upo , the …pretty drunk , Higgins... she  was  pushing away  the beers, and  trying tio get him to drink soda or coffee,

 Lucky was sitting at a table, he had  Lona Lake talking to him and a Civie   woman

……………………………

 At shadow's table   girls  came  and went  as the sat to talk  and then got asked to dance  by someone.

When she finished her song, Nikki had wet shiny eyes, no tears, but definite that there was a deep emotion.  She gave her audience a soft smile, then nodded and left the stage.  She did receive a few claps from those there.  Still it was a song she felt she needed to sing.  Smiling at Helmsly she let him go back to picking music vids.  Back at her table she gave Haley a big and tight hug.

  Mitch  came on the Dec, he  found   Nikki and sat  down by her, he ordered a beer and  a BLT.

 He  kept his  Voice  down.I was  checkign the  contacts on  my torpedo release...and i heard the QM talking with  Rivets?...15  Ships  are beat up pretty Bad, not  counting The Harvester... at least 10  Transportbases  got hammered pretty hard  too....lots  of troops  killed  with out  even getting to  launch! This  was a damn bloody battle..

 Sitting back he  said,Me and  My trigger man got credit  for  one  Verian, knocked out  half its  thrusters, CAptain Morris said Troops   boarded it and took it over.

................

COMs  were lighting up now and again as  Fleet allowed  crew to  sent  COM Text to loved ones

............

 Flores  Claimed   Shadow for a  fast dance. Beth  was drinking  soda.  Larry's  eyes  rose above the table  as he scanned the food.. gregor  ran up his   Back, peering over his head

"It was a bloody one, that is for sure.  You heard about Dixie I'm assuming" she shook her head.  She ordered roasted chicken and potatoes for herself and Haley didn't care but did want some applesauce, Nikki ordered her the roasted chicken and fries plus some applesauce.  Also some bread rolls too.  Nikki tipped generously.  Knowing it would be a bit she let Haley go play with some of the civvie kids and Roll.
Once Haley was out playing again Nikki leaned her head on Mitch's shoulder "You missed my big solo.  Even made the SM get up and dance" under the table she wrapped her arm around his and held his hand for a bit.

Yeah.. i had to  go over  both  torpedo planes.. Captain Morris and  one of the pool pilots used it like a Dec gun  to  mess up  the  Boarding nTunnel launch from  a verian ship.. then The Captain ordered the boardsides  to Fire  as  fast as they could load  from ,like 500 yards away!.... I teh   the Boarding nTunnle  wouldhave   landed.. well... they's  still be  fighting Verians.

 They used to have 4  torpedo planes.. but   shipped two off   to make more  room  for shuttles and  Mechs he   squeezed her  hand  a Bit. He  nodded to Roll Dancing with Sneak.that little kid  seems to be no worse for wear..

"Sneak had Roll and Haley in a sealed hangar when the fighting in the main hangar started.  From what I gathered both kids sealed them selves in one of the crafts there and Sneak sat at a set of stairs ready to soot anything that came through the door unannounced....They are very resilient" she just kept her head on his shoulder for a bit.

Roy gave Lyri a wink.  "Funny, I seem to recall you dancing with Nilsson a time or two...or five or six," he retorted.  "Still, I'm here and he's over there talking shop with the shuttle pilots..."

He looked out at the dance floor.  "Looks like Lizzy's finally settled on someone," he observed, drily.  The fact that the 'someone' in question was another woman didn't appear to register as noteworthy in any way to him, although he was clearly amused at the situation.

He noticed Larry's head coming up above the table.  "Shadow, you should've named him Hoover, or Kirby, or Oreck...some kind of vacuum.  Or maybe named him after a black hole?"  He shook his head, and looked at the now-pair of largs.

"What, are you kidding me?  You've had, like, four times more steak than I have today, and all of it in the last five minutes.  You can't stop eyeballing someone else's food for a half an hour?" he said to the largs...but he was stifling laughter as he said it, and he waved Dana over to request more...anything, really, that was meat-based, for the pair.

--- Hanger Deck--->

Melia and Orria slipped onto the rec dec and joined Lizzy, Izzy, Harry and Will. Even doing the toast. Orria used apple juice.

I did help Beth and Izzy was there. She did good, but she needs more practice. I used to  be slower at the vidboards and screens then I practiced a lot and got better. Orria had been explaining as they walked in.

I saw the footage when Shade showed what he'd found the first time. It's very damming Melia added to Izzy's statement about the info.

When the drinking games were over the dancing began, Melia glanced over at Zob curious as to if he'd ask her to dance.

She orders a soda, and watches Orria who was watching Shade while sitting with the adults.

Hawkeye takes a turn dancing with Rolf then slides over to the table with Izzy, Lizzy Melia Orria, and that crew.

mind if I slide in? she asks leaving Rolf to decidecif he wishes to stay or join

  Shadow chuckled ,yeah?..  Hoover  the LArg?... Kirby the Larg..naw..Larry the LArg.. that sounds  good.. Superman would have loved it  with the LL thing going on..

 Gregor's  head  titled 90 degrees  as he looked at Roy.

 Dana?.. get something  for  Mila  too..Steak type thing...

 ..........................

 Mitch shook his head,all i can say, if the kids  can make it through  the Stem?  they should be  good to go on a ship.

...............

 Higgins  was  staggering  Over to Shadow's Abby was  rolling her   eyes   trying to stop him,  finally threw her  arms in the  arn and  crossed them  across her  chest.

 Mr Shadow, LC Sir... I'm..Drunk...

 Shadow noddedI know..i helped make you that way.. seems like you built on my foundation though.,,

 One of them Lady Pilots.. MAra?..she.. she... he looked around  and tried to  remember what he was   saying, then snapped  his finger,..yeah.. she  said.. you haffta know how your engine works... but.. it don't matter ? right?.. I mean.. if   it gets  crashed up..I can't fix it..

 Shadow  Put  an arm around the  drunken pilot and said,I haven't  read the armorer's report..but I'll get 1000 creds, that Argie  will find at least  two holes in my Lub tubes... one of them going right into  the   Cannon chain mechinism....

 well see?.. there ya go?..ya  couldn't...could..n't... fix it  right?

 he did a stage  whisper  as he looked around the table , with his arm around the  pilot..Beth was giggling,think, in basics... you saw pics..animations  all that crap of how a  gatling Cannon works  right?... now?.. what happens if the  barrels  don't  spin

 Higgin's euebrows    furrowed  he tried to Focus on Roy  then said...um...um.. the....barrels  stop  moving and the  Gun...um..jams?

 Yep..and what happens  if   rounds   keep wanting to go into barrels  that aren't turning?

 Higgin's  head  swung to  Lyri , looking more  are the   zipper area of her Tunic.. I guess? they Bunch up....huh?

 well..yeah..if you're a dumbass and  keep firing...but..sooner  or later one of those bunched up mrounds  are Going off, and so  are the others..... and you don't have a nose on your fighter..if you are  really unlucky.. you don't have the front of your Pod..or ..you know... your legs..

 Now I knew when, and how many times i could get away with  flicking the  Hyro switches  so i could fire without blowing myself up....and I knew that...why?

 Higgins stuck a  Hand in the  air with one finger raised....cause.. you  studied!...

 ..very Good..now  carry....

 there was a  thud as Higgins laid on the floor.. beth, LArry  and His  'Gregor hat"   leaned and looked at the fallen  pilot...

 Ok  ALC... take your  buddy home..make sure you get his folder too... Rogar  came over  to help, they got the pilot  up on thier shoulders  , dragging him to  the  elevator, Abby grabbing his folder  as  she did.

 Turning to the table,..he might just live  1 or  2 more  sorties...

 Dana  and a waiter  came  with  Bowls. a big one  with  somekind of steak for LArry..Gregor got a  smaller  bowl filled  with meat bits , bones and fat with lots of gravy… Mila got a  steak on a  metal plate   with gravy on it.

…………………………………………

 McCloud  gives  Cat a pat on the BackI'm gonna get  some eats  and   sit on that upper  tier  by the  port holes.. see if i kin see  any of the fleet ..., I'll be there ifin ye  need me..
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:40, Thu 30 Jan 2020.

"I feel like singing again... want to sing with me?  It's sorta country" She got up and looked at him.  "I think its in the Vid log.  If not...you dance" She looked at him with an almost evil grin "It's a fun one..Promise" She dragged him towards the stage.  If he came up was fine, if not it was fine too.  "Helmsly, he either sings or dances." she pointed to mitch then tells Helmsly which vid to play "I'm gonna do both.  anyone else wants to join..I'm good with it" When it came time she got up no guitar and waited for the vid to start and began the dance part and then singing it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyvkiZV0Ous

Henry absently stroked Mila's head as he continued to talk with Val.

”I know what you mean, if it checks out as genuine it’s going to be huge!” Izzy replied excitedly to Melia as she mentioned the footage that had been recovered by Roy and his team ” I’m trying to keep it quiet at the moment just in case but it should make up for me missing the Maris story” she’d said before heading out onto the dance floor with Lizzy.

There was a startled squeak followed by a great deal of giggling as Lizzy gave her bum a playful squeeze ”We’ll have plenty of time for that later, for now I want to keep dancing” she said swaying her hips in time with the music as her eyes roved across her girlfriend’s body. Gently taking her hands in her own Izzy would then pull her in close to her and begin to dance.

Melia nodded, "don't sit on it too long. I suspect the brass will want it to break sooner than later, and if I had to wager I'd bet Hack will release it if he thinks things are taking too long... well unless he's presented with a compelling case to wait."

Melia sent a smile Zob's way, as Orria tapped her. "Mom, I'm going to hangout with Shade." Orria says taking off. Melia kinda waves her on allowing her to go.

Orria runs over to Shade, "Hey Shade!!" She calls out as a greeting.

 (Semi-Flex with Orria and Melia)

 Lizzy smiled at Orria and said," Great I am glad she helped, and I heard you are amazing as always."

 Lizzy would listen to Melia talk to Izzy about her story, Izzy brought up missing on her Father's story and the Neutron. Lizzy felt so bad about that, now she wishes she would have told Izzy to bring Tali. Lizzy wondered how big this news was when Melia said it would be very damming.

(Real time)


 When Izzy said it could be huge, Lizzy wondered what it was, but she just enjoyed dancing with Izzy. After Lizzy grabbed Izzy's butt and she said we had plenty of time for that and she wanted to dance more. Lizzy smiled and held Izzy close as they danced to a slow song, she held Izzy like someone in love not like she was just looking for sex, the passion, caring and feelings she sent to Izzy without even realizing it was evident on everyone but Lizzy if they watched the two woman dance.

 When the song ended Lizzy said," Oh that is awesome it could be such a big story for you, also since maybe you heard some things while you where working with Beth, have you heard anything about what happened to my traitorous bastard of a sperm donor. Shadow told me he was sent to Adem by Lilith and she was very mad, do you know anymore?" Lizzy really didn't care but honestly she wanted to know he was dead and she didn't have to worry about the asshole anymore. She would zone out for a second as she thought of her Mother's message and how she died and the others on the Neutron, and he lived.

  Shade Blleped a  'hello'  to Orria .  Roll waved at her  as well.  a fast  song   came on and    Shade offered    to Orria tom dance.

 Beth  Chuckled  at  that, Telling  Shadow,..he's getting to be   more popular then you...

 A grin grew,yeah? he's easier  to like, i guess..nut   just as  easy  to get angry, so?  folks   who have  good in them shouldn't   have too much porblems.

 Lyri spoke up,..speakign of people's kids?  Higgins   Father  got  blwon up on Calimite, see3ms he   tried to 'advance to the rear' and was blown up by a stray  verian artillary  round, took out the Mess Tent he was jidning in and  about  14 other  ESN 'beachhead' people...

 she picks up a slice of  pizza,how  bad  do you have to be, for Col  Cummings   to have to come down and 'save the day'

.....................

   people moved  around the  Dec, alot of them talkign to people  they didn't get to see, ground folks with piltos  all of them  with civies. more then a few  'took the long way around' Izzy and whomever was with her at the time.

 Will finished  his pasta,I don't know  if i should have some pie..or  quit while i'm ahead!

 Sam from her quarters on the Cold Stone sent Izzy a comm text message: " Hey Izzy how is it going, I hope you are okay and doing well. Hope you got a great story, and I am dying to hear how you and your beautiful fighter pilot are getting along. I might be coming on board the Hermes not sure yet, if I do we will have to meet and I would love to get to know Lizzy better as well. Take care my friend hope to see you soon. Sam"