Kylar had been third to enter the room, not counting Hai'taell'i. But it was impossible to get to a meeting before Hai'teall'i. He'd tried it once, showing up thirty minutes early. The Echani was there. That's why he liked him. You can be a quick thinker, you can be a great shot, but it's organization and dedication that make a great leader on those missions. And so far, he hadn't been disappointed with Hai'teall'i. The memo didn't say much, as usual, but it did mention there would be non-SORT operatives with them. And none of them was here yet, while most of the squad was in the room. He didn't much like to go on a mission with civilians. There were often not very good at obeying orders. He started doing what he always did when he was getting bored and started fidgeting with a knife, but a quick look from Hai'taell'i reminded him those civilians might freak out if they saw a live blade out in the room when they came in. So he sighed heavily and made it disappear, and started on the second thing he always did when he was bored: Annoying people, in this case his neighbor.
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Ztaka burst through the door. She saw the SORT squad. They weren't in armor, but they did have a military look to them. She started, then asked one SORT operative that was near the door: "I'm sorry, is this the meeting with some O'rayen Hai-something guy? I think I'm at the wrong place...' The soldier grunted: "It's Hai'taell'i. Yes, it's here."
So much warmth, I hope I don't get burned, Ztaka thought ironically. She moved silently to a chair as far from the SORT team as possible, and sat there without a sound. What am I doing here?

Ztaka looked up, and a smile broke on her face when she found someone that looked sympathetic.
"Yes, Adessa, I remember you!" That was partially true. She did remember her, but she was very bad at names. "I'm Ztaka. You in on this one, too?"

Ztaka shrugged: "Not sure... I was just instructed to come here ready to go off-world on a mission. I can tell you I'm not sure it's not a mistake..." she finished, nodding in the general direction of the SORT squad.

"Maybe it was for your good looks, Twi'lek. Maybe those we're up against have a fetish for stained shapeless clothes! As for you, Arkanian, you even drove something other than a hover barge before?" Kylar had had enough of his neighbor and decided he would pick on the new arrivals instead. It should prove more fun, because they would not know him and therefore were not as likely to ignore him.

Dr. Ubbit wrote:

"Am I in the right room?" he asked, looking from the paper to those inside. "Because, wow, this would be awkward if I weren't. But you don't really look like a book club, so I assume we're good?"He coughed awkwardly, then nervously ran a hand through his lack-of-hair on the front of his head.

O'rayen looked up and grinned slightly though he tried to contain it while saying, "You are in the right place doctor.  Please make yourself comfortable, we're about to start the briefing."   Just then Rett came jogging back into the room his arms full of flimsiplast charts and maps.  "Here you are, sir."  Rett set the items down on the large command console at the front of the room, "Thank you.  Alright everyone. I think we can get started now.  If you all don't mind moving in close we can go through these charts.  Unfortunately the Holoprojector in here is still broken."

"Maybe it was for your good looks, Twi'lek. Maybe those we're up against have a fetish for stained shapeless clothes! As for you, Arkanian, you even drove something other than a hover barge before?

Adessa was trying to think of a good comeback when Dr. Ubbit entered and provided a much needed distraction. She remembered him from Petes, a few nights before.'Guess he wasn't a street performer after all,' she mused, hoping that the doctor's skills included more than comic relief.
Then the briefing started and all chance of chitchat or backhanded remarks was gone, for now. She leaned in with the others to get a closer look at the charts.

Adessa just nodded. O'rayen had briefed her on most of this already, when he'd asked her to be part of the team.

Dr. Ubbit wrote:

Then he paused, and raised a finger, looking somewhat concerned. "We're not flying in? We're doing a...a WHAT drop?"

O'rayen looked up, "HATI drop Doctor. It stands for High Altitude Tactical Insertion."  He took a few steps and inspected the Doctor's exoskeletal suit then commented, "It looks like your suit could easily be modified to integrate the propulsion system that slows your decent."  Then with a grin and a wink he looked over at Adessa and said, "[bAnd, with our new pilot here I don't think we'll have to worry about anyone's propulsion units burning up again and them making a splash landing on solid ground.[/b]"   The rest of the SORT team grinned at the joke but their eyes, including O'rayen's, showed a bit of pain at the comment as well.

Kylar who happened to be standing next to the Doc gave him a hearty slap on the back.  "Yea Doc, no point in getting all dressed up if you're not going to go to the dance right?" The whole SORT team broke up into chuckles at the dig towards the Doctor showing up to the briefing in full armor.

Katz wrote:

"So, Adessa's the pilot, and I'm assuming all those sesk'vatis are the SORT team. Why are the doc and I here?"

O'rayen let the grin disappear and said, "The Doctor is here to find and verify the research we're after.  Apparently it's in his field of study and he's really the only one that would understand it.  I'm not sure why you're here to be honest.  All I know is that your name showed up on my list of people along for the ride.  Apparently whatever your particular skills are they'll be more apparent once we get where we're going."  He reached back and grabbed two datacards from his bag then turning he offered one to both Ztaka and the Doctor. "I was told however that these were for you and they would include any other information you might need."

After a moments pause he turned back to the charts on the Command Console, "Now then, to make things clear. You and the Doctor won't actually be making the HATI drop with us, unless of course you really want to.  The first couple of drops are tricky so going into an Op we tend to not like to have people that have never done it before try.  Once my team has the facility secure enough to put in a call over official frequencies, Adessa will bring you all down and we can go from there."  Without a pause to see if there were any more questions he continued on, "Doc, do you have any experience with hacking computer terminals? We may have to try and locate the objective using a terminal, we don't actually know where they have it in the facility.  That brings me to my next schematic here."  O'rayen reaches down and moves the planetary map out of the way and pulls a map of the facility on top.  "I'm not sure how we have it but this is, from what I'm told, a full schematic of the facility.  All of these schematics are loaded on datacards I'll hand out to everyone at the end."   He then points out several buildings and spots on the maps,  "Chalks two, three, and four, you'll secure these locations which we have been able to identify as the comms room, security office, and hangar bay respecitvely.  My chalk, the doctor, and Ms. Ztaka, will then move into the facility itself to try and locate the objective.  We don't anticipate much resistance.  At the same time, they called in a SORT team so I'm sure there's a good reason.  Everything clear?"

The SORT operators gave a resounding HAROOH, and nodded.  As far as they were concerned it was fairly straightforward, and they knew their purpose.  Any anomalies or changes they'd face as they got to them.  O'rayen looked to the three not on his team, "Any other questions before we head out?  Doc, you got everything you need?"

Ubbit immediately stopped listening as soon as he was handed his datacard, turning his attention fully to whatever was on it. He paused for a moment, staring, as if running through something in his mind, then looked up when he heard himself being addressed again.

"Hacking? Not my specialty, but I can work my way around a terminal. So long as it's not too loaded up with unexpected safeguards I should be able to get in," he responded airily. He went back to staring at the card. After a few more moments, he finally stowed it away in his coat. "I will also take you up on the offer to not join the initial drop. Though the notion of adding personalized engines to allow propulsion and flight manipulation is intriguing, the style is a bit too..." he scratched his chin, as if fishing around for the right word, "Bounty Hunter-y."

Kylar, like the other squad members, went to the SORT supply room, where he had stashed his equipment. It was all packed-up, and he only had to grab it and move to the hangar bay with the others.
Ztaka, on the other hand, headed straight to the spaceport, ran into the Crow, and began packing stuff she thought she might need haphazardly. At least I'm pretty sure I won't need a dress in this one!
Ten minutes later, she arrived at the hangar bay, out of breath, a canvas bag over her shoulder.

"I already brought all my things with me," Ubbit said, reaching behind him to make sure his blaster was still there - it was, awkwardly jutting out from behind his coat. He reached into various deep pockets within his garb, locating backup ammo, field-appropriate healing supplies, and a few other tools and gadgets, sorted throughout his person with no particular rhyme or reason. "Should've seen the looks I got walking here. I thought heavy armor was 'in' this season. Hmph."

With that, he began to follow the crowd toward their destination.

"Oh, what's the rush?" Ubbit mused. "We're about to have an adventure together, might as well get to know each other, yes? I say we go around the ship and share one interesting fact about ourselves each. I'll go first: I may, in fact, have the most regular bowel movements in the galaxy. Seriously, it's like a force power, I can more or less expel waste on command! Isn't that fascinating?"

He looked around the room for affirmation on how fascinating this was.