Welcome to Gaia! ::

Isaac stayed silent, fiddling with his hands and puffing steam in small increments out of nervousness. He had nothing to add, really.

"Yeah, that would... probably be about everything," Carlyle agreed, since it seemed Cassandra had summarized everything worth knowing.

For the most part, people are defined by a variety of aspects, and the largest is typically their interests, their skills, their beliefs. These are the traits that bring people together or repel them from each other, that are variable between people and even family members.

For Isaac, it was machinery. In terms of interest, that was his biggest hobby; he built, repaired, tinkered and yes, he destroyed. He was very skilled; perhaps the most skilled of anyone he had met - other than his parents, and Madame Geargrind. And his teachers...though sometimes Isaac doubted. No, no - they were better, they must have been, right? But it was his belief that really shaped him.

Isaac knew, deep down, that it was machinery that defined culture. It was a simple task to track the evolution of life through its technological movements; the Mundane Humans were the perfect example. By devoting his life to the knowledge and application of machines, Isaac was serving the advancement of his people. It was a personal choice, but it was one he made happily.

As with anything, however, there was a moral aspect, and it was one that perhaps had deeper ramifications than the obvious. It was the decisions made by men and women like Isaac that could literally shape the world. If he and his kind chose to make weapons, war machines...then the world would be moved in that direction. If he chose to make machines of peace, then it was possible that he could stop the spreading infection that was conflict. Isaac would forever pursue his goals of ending the wars of their times with the mechanical efficiency that he was creating.

Of course, there were those that had different ideas. These Tyrg, they were the ones that wanted to keep waging war. And this creation of theirs was the most despicable of all: a machine that could think, but only what they wanted it to think? He wouldn't stand for this. Isaac would break this factory free from their tainted grip, would make it his personal project to keep anyone from trying to completely control it.

"We'll do it," he said without a hint of a waver in his voice. "And I'll key it in myself. Is there anything else we should know?"

"Great," Cassandra muttered. "Straight from the frying pan into the fire." 'Fish out of water' still seemed an apt description of her own situation, and Cassandra tried to remember exactly why she had volunteered for this. Boot camp was every bit as awful as anyone had ever told her it would be, and she wasn't entirely sure it had even accomplished what it was supposed to. She was still a damned coward.

She didn't have any real questions to ask anymore; if there was something to ask, it wasn't important enough to come to mind. Instead her mind ran bitter channels, wondering what the hell she had been thinking to join the armed forces.

Isaac nodded resolutely. "I agree. Director, is the entire crew of the Triumphant coming along? If so, I'd like to get underway immediately."

"Don't count on information from that factory. And it's Tyrgani, not Cabal. That said, I am hoping for something valuable," Paul said. "And - yes, the Triumphant and all its crew will be involved in this particular operation. For the Captain's sake, I'll let you know that the name we've given this operation is Operation Outreach. You'll be getting on the move immediately.

"A few last words. Isaac, don't forget your REF. I'm not sure you'll be able to key in at all. Keep on your toes. There's always, always, the possibility this thing isn't actually rogue and it's just a clever trap. Analysis says unlikely, Zero Sum says impossible, my gut says watch yourselves." Paul's gut was a good gut. A soldierly gut.

"I, uh," Paul said, suddenly looking over his shoulder. An explosion sounded through the screen's speakers, maxing them out noisily. The blackness was lit up for a split second, but not long enough to identify the terrain behind him. What looked like a flaming piece of wreckage screamed past his ear and he twitched to dodge it. "I have something to take care of here." He reached out to the screen, and just before it deactivated, they heard him shout "JOE!"

An awkward silence filled the room.

Isaac, still fired up about their new mission, eagerly led the way back to the ship. They reboarded and after making sure that everything was still in place and ready in their quarters, the group met up with Triton.

"When will we be underway?" Isaac asked, somewhat pushier than usual. "And do we have any new equipment that might help?"

"Hmmmmmm..." Ty mused as he strode along towards the ship with others. He was talking mostly to himself, in a way that offered a thread of conversation to anyone who cared to listen, but wasn't overtly concerned with whether anyone did. "I guess I need to be competent at long range eventually. I pretty much can't do anything unless I'm up close... maybe I could get like those claws from those old Japanese shows! You know, where they have a claw on a chain? Dude, I'll bet I could learn to use one pretty fast! That'd be awesome!"

He made his way over to Cassandra and tapped her shoulder. "Hey, who should we go to if we want stuff? Or do we even have time? I don't even know... Man, I'm pumped! Isaac, are you pumped?!"