Jace was true to his word... or more specifically, to his XO's word, as Deuce had been the one to tell the squad that they should expect a mission briefing within the next day.  The four pilots were awoken at the crack of dawn, or the closest equivalent when it came to space-time.  0700 hours according to the local clock, just enough time to get a night's rest even if some had chosen not to actually sleep until much later.

The four, wherever they were found by Deuce, were given an hour to prep and make it to the briefing room... which was a rather generous allotment of time, they were told.  Normally, Jace was pretty punctual according to Deuce, however this morning, he seemed to have been a bit tied up.

All the same, by the time the pilots began to arrive in the Aquila's briefing room, hot caf would be waiting for them, brewed by the XO himself.



(GM: Bring yourselves in however you like, and after a round of posts, I'll get the actual briefing up, rather than force you to wait even longer while I get the details right!)

The first time Deuce had come by and knocked had woken Gates up, but she'd done no more than crack open her eyes to peer at the door from beneath the overhang formed by the bedcovers and her pillow.  When the door didn't open in the wake of that knock, she had rolled over and buried her face in the warmth of the body next to her - that seemed as equally loathe to acknowledge the knocking on the door.  It had been a long night.

...and far too short of a morning, as not ten minutes later, Deuce's fist was once again banging on the door, his voice louder this time, as he announced the - now in less than an hour - morning briefing.  With a groan, Gates had shoved a hand over her face and through the disheveled mess of her hair, tossing a glare and a universal hand gesture in the direction of the back of the door, before she turned back to her now-awake bedmate and smirked, "He's right, that is a generous amount of time. Hate to waste it."

Not quite an hour later, Gates strolled in to the briefing room, cutting it close enough to the start time that it was, in fact, a good bet that she hadn't wasted the time between then and Deuce's wakeup call at all.  Her hair was still wet, the freshly-washed strands falling into her face and tickling at her nose, and on this morning she wore a standard-issue pair of fatigue pants tucked into her combat boots, and a black tanktop that stopped an inch short of her waist, around which rode the gunbelt that held the massive blaster strapped to her hip.

"Sweet, delicious nectar of the gods that is caf, come to momma," she called out to the brew, praising it even as she crossed the room to where the pot was, and started to pour herself a cup. Once she had one in hand, and had taken a sip or three of the dark liquid, she looked to Deuce, "So what've you got for us?"

Huu was came in rather soon after Gates, how much had he slept? Not very much, but then he didn't need it. After all he was a Jedi and proper meditation had meant he'd had more than enough time to spend practicing his forms, focusing his mind and contemplating the greater secrets of the Universe...or at least that was what the rest of the world thought Jedi did and they weren't far wrong with Huu at least.

Walking in his black robes fluttering around him he made his way over and moved to a seat, it was a difficult thing with his breather and eye mask, the sort of casual drinking and eating most people involved themselves in became a very careful song and dance...not to mention most things that the others drank or ate would kill him rather messily.

With a sigh he settled his robes and sat back, fingers drumming on the table surface lightly once before slipping into his lap. Metal on metal before he trapped the more nervous cybernetic hand in his fleshy one, letting the cyber hand run through it's pressure diagnostic while he held it.

Hector awoke with a clear head, sober, well rested and alone...it was terrible. Rising from his blankets, his muscles, tattoos and scars on display to the empty room he spent a moment reflecting on the emptiness that was his heart.

His sister was dead, but his training kept his feelings mostly in check, that didn't make it hurt less, it didn't make him miss her any less. Fingers ran through thick auburn hair and he sighed...

A few moments later he was getting into his clothing, hair still moist from the too hot shower he slid into his armour and strapped on his weapons. Once he was ready he picked up the much abused helmet and slowly, slowly made his way to the meeting room.

It felt strange not to be at least mildly hungover and dog tired, it felt strange not to have the smell of someone else on his skin and the memories, scratches and marks from a night filled rather busily and he didn't know why it felt as bad as it did.

It wasn't his first night to wake alone, but it was all different with one less family member in the world and he hated it.

It was a very grumpy Hex he stomped into the room and grabbed himself a cup of caf, and even grumpier one that pushed himself into the chair as far away from the others as he could before taking a long pull of the strong, strong plain black coffee he preferred and pushed his sunglasses up his broken nose and decided that it was time to keep quite or find himself saying things he'd regret.

Beyn awoke with a large yawn, exposing teeth that were more lion than man as he stretched in the middle of the mess of bedcovers and sheets that he had turned into a nest for sleeping purposes. As a Jedi, he didn't have to sleep, but the feline side of his nature enjoyed it. A lot. So he did, whenever it was possible.

Disentangling himself, he rolled out of the bed after a pause on his back for a second stretch, and in short order had collected his clothes and dressed, shrugging into his robes as he slipped into the hallway. In no time at all, Beyn was in the briefing room with the others, looking bright eyed and wide awake, compared to the rest... even though he didn't help himself to the caf before he took a seat. "Good morning, everyone."

Deuce, after dutifully pouring a cup for himself, and leaving out four others for Beyn, Huu, Hex, and Jace when they arrived, glanced across from his position at the podium to Gates, his expression mostly unreadable behind the shades he almost constantly wore.  "We have a mission," he said at first, punctuating it with a long sip from his cup as the Kel-Dor made his entrance.  "For now, just a single assignment, but Jace and I are working on something a little more long term that will allow you to operate independently.  As was said yesterday, the Republic is going to need all the help it can get, but we're low on resources, which is why this squadron was formed... or reformed, depending on how you look at it."

Deuce waited until the last two members of the small squadron had arrived, before he addressed them more properly, and began the briefing. "We have an assignment for you.  Should be a fairly simple affair given your skills - a task to whet your appetites so to speak, and test your ability to work in the field.  First off, Jace and I will not be joining you on this one.  We'll be working on acquiring some assets that will allow Aquila to operate independently of the fleet.  If you find yourselves in need of our help on this run... then it may be that you're not ready for it to begin with," he said.  It was, perhaps, a harsh statement... but that was the reality of the situation.  Deuce paused there for a moment, and as he opened his mouth to speak again, the door to the briefing room slid open to reveal Jace, who had arrived late as expected.

"Ah, you showed up." The hint of a smirk appeared on Deuce's face, before he nodded. "We were just getting into it.  Care to take over?"

Jace stepped in through the door without much of a pause, looking awake... but still in his usual disheveled state.  He, too, had been in the shower recently, although it was far from noticeable in his case, unlike with Gates, due in a large part to his regulation-length hair.  The clues were there though, in the way his loose shirt clung to parts of his chest, and so on.  Deuce, of course, could tell... but made no indication as he stepped away from the podium.  Jace nodded to him in thanks, and stepped forward.

"You guys are going to Tatooine," he announced, putting as much enthusiasm into the statement as possible.  Tatooine was, of course, nobody's version of a picnic. "Specifically, you'll be going there in search of Havoc Squad, whom you may know as one of the 7th's premier Commando Units.  More recently, they've specialized in hunting down and eliminating various Sith that have gone into hiding.  They tracked one to Tatooine, and have been out of touch for two days now, and you four are going to find out what happened."  He lifted a datapad off the podium and tapped it for emphasis.  "Details regarding their mission have been forwarded to each of your pads.  There ain't much, so I'll summarize."

"They tracked a Sith who called himself Darth Mutari to the planet.  He was, formerly, in charge of one of the Empire's R&D departments specializing in Droids and Mechanized Warfare, although reports say he went insane not long before the Empire was defeated.  He is described as having skills on par with an above-average Sith Apprentice, so he shouldn't be too much trouble on his own.  And he should be alone, too - no known associates or allies.  Supposedly, once he tipped over the edge, he slaughtered his entire crew and disappeared, leaving a bread-crumb trail along the way.  Took Havoc a solid month to track this one down after they caught his trail."  Jace shrugged, and looked around the room, before glancing down at the datapad. "You guys already know the rest.  Havoc tracked him to Tatooine, and we haven't heard from them since.  Could be equipment malfunction, could be worse, so be on your guard.  You'll be taking your Aureks - we managed to acquire three more for our new pilots here - plus whatever equipment you can fit in their storage compartments.  Any questions?"

Hector's head rose when Duece spoke, his eyes slitting slightly as he listened, it was one thing he had learned to listen to. Briefings could be terribly important once you were on the ground, even if it was just to know how much you had to swear at your CO for screwing things up beyond any hope of redemption.

His head tilted to flick up and look at Jace when he walked in, and a small smile crooked his lips as the younger commanding officer took over smoothly mid briefing, this was something that happened more than a few times. Shaking his head he listened carefully, a small crease in his brow growing as he focused on details and the smile vanishing.

Finally he spoke,"Oh, sounds like fun...how much equipment can an Aurek hold and what can we get from the armoury? Or is that just wishful thinking?" He smirked and added,"And do we get paid?"

Jace smirked, turning his attention more directly towards Hex.  "You should be able to fit in the cockpit with your armor - we moved the seat as far back as it would go for ya.  Might be uncomfortable, but it should work.  As for the storage though... you won't be fitting any heavy repeaters or long-barrel rifles in there, lets just say that much.  You can visit the armory if you like, its all standard-issue stuff so get what you need and what you can fit." He then shrugged, and glanced to Deuce before continuing. "And yeah, you'll get paid.  Once we're sure there's going to be a Republic after this is all done."