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Once the frogs were taken care of, Thomas relaxed, switching on the safety at long last and hanging his rifle over his back. At Garrett's comment, however, a strangely gleeful grin spread across his face and he turned towards Garrett. The grin spread and turned from gleeful to absolutely hideously malicious. At this point, he started sprinting towards Hendlow, bootfalls enough to inspire a little bit of fear, a full-on charge worse.

At the last moment he stopped himself (halfway) and dropped on Garrett like an over-sized steel plated brick, his grin again shifting from malicious to just plain silly.

Still sitting on (and basically hiding) Garrett, Thomas looked to Kai. "So... what did we accomplish here, precisely, again? I mean, we're in control of the ship, but I heard you guys saying something about what it was. And I have no idea what any of that means." History was not Thomas' strong suit, even though some of it was really fascinating. "So what is this ship, when does it come from, and what's it's huge significance?"

[[ AUW MAN. Bayer, you totally ignored my prank post where I threw the decapitated head at you. I'm not continuing until I get a response to that. I'm just not. xD ]]

Jack let out a bit of a cackle at Hendlow's naming skills. "Speaking of pretty names, I've got a better one fer ya. Call 'em ******** ugly." He then delivered a clear 'WTF' expression at seeing Thomas pounce on Garrett like a horny pilot chick on shore leave. He laughed a bit to himself as he glanced over at Arcadia, but quickly went back to his original 'WTF' train of thought.

"Ah, come on. It wasn't like you had much of a choice for most of that," Thomas told him with a grin. He stayed in the seated position on the ground. "Oh, and you can have this," he added, tossing the head from his arm to Garrett's lap. "It might be female," he finished cheerily.

"Oh, inanity keeps you sane, actually," Thomas told Arcadia happily. "War is, ya know, prone to get you down, what with the people dying and everything. A healthy dose of insanity prevents you from thinking about any one dead person too long and so you're fine. Work for you?"

He meanwhile decided that the fighting was probably pretty much over and now was as good as any time to start cleaning up his rifle.

CH. 6: Shore Leave 2, Conquered Sands; Begin!

Two days after the Artemis battle, The Hymn finally recalled it's marines and Pilots, and all were allowed to return for a little R&R. The Battle Hymn's Battle group had been bolstered by the RIgel, PRocyon, and Achernar Battlegroups, a small armada that the Drathonians knew they could not afford to assault without Demonix, which was still stuck around Terra IV with Warp troubles. For now, The Hymn's soldiers were taking it easy, and replacements were being shuttled in, taken for the moment from the three other battle groups, as the Battle Hymn was the only ship actively engaging in ground campaigns at the moment.

There were several places the Hymn's marines could go; They could stay aboard their ship, being lazy in either their private rooms for the officers, or their barracks for the Enlisted men. They could go into the Drydocks That the hymn was now docked to, the large hole in it's side being repaired. A couple of bars had been found in more or less working order, with their stocks of 'Vintage' Alcohol intact, since Drathonians couldn't hold alchohol for the life of them (The woes of being a reptile). And finally, there was the shuttle ride back to the planet, if you wanted to see the bombed out forests and smell the leftover stench of battle.

For CIU 215, However, they were Currently shoved in a briefing room, with their captain at the head, He had something to say to them, relayed through him from high command.

For the Replacement soldiers and crewmembers, they were just arriving in the hangar bays, offloaded, with duffles in hand, to find out what their new assignments were. Luckily for them, it was shoreleave for them too, so that particular activity could be avoided for a while.

[[Green Squadron's part of the storyline just ended sooner, I'll figure out something for them to do.]]

Arcadia would be awoken not long after, somewhat rudely, by a couple of medical officers and the ships doctors, They had recieved orders to check up on her, and were here to bring her to the med bay. It wasn't that long of a walk, luckily for her. And after a quick physical to make sure she was okay, the Pilot was allowed to go back to sleep, just, in the med bay this time.

Kai Laughed to Garrett, responding "They probably want you here to look after me or something, I am still technically a Kid, I suppose." He said, Handing Garret a sealed envelope. "However, I'm sure your orders might hold something fun for you, It did for me; Lieutennant Hendlow. Personally, I think we should just keep saying Captain, It Sounds Better." Kai Then Handed out similar sealed envelopes to the rest of the squad, all of which read ORDERS in bold print on one side.

He then stood back up at the front of the meeting room, announcing "Welcome to Shock Squad 215. You are now all permanently assigned to this unit. You can also Open your orders Now. I'll take a round of questions if anybody wants, and then We're dismissed to shore leave."

"Here's a question. Anybody notice how we're given a pretty tough assignment and then just promoted for doing it? Like, we didn't do much of anything special or beyond, did we? That was our task from the beginning."

"Oh, and now we're all stuck with each other, so I can bother the ever-loving crap out of you guys more." Thomas was extremely cheerful about this, but only for a split second. "I heard talk of a bar. Is it worth anything in any way?"

(( Well, its my first post; send me a yelp if something's wrong. ))

A raven haired, blue eyed Intelligence Agent moved forward and stepped into the hanger bay of the Terra Class ship, the Battle Hymn. Strangely, everyone nearby seemed to stay away from this pretty newcomer. The unpleasantness of Cibo Malinowski's personality could be felt even by the most idiotic of Drathonians. She firmly believed the Battle Hymn was just another publicity tool the Old Farts came up with to bolster cannon fodder moral, at least, until now. The ship was massive compared to the Mars-class ships in the flotilla around it; the fabled Solaris cannons were integrated directly into the hull, and the whole thing bristled with turrets. At the same time, it was smaller than the Drathonian Drake-Class ships she occasionally infiltrated. These rudimentary, first hand observations injected a little doubt into her previous conceptions of the ship. Cibo thought to herself, "Its not so bad...but I'm definitely going to get lost." These musings brought to her attention the orders she had in her uniform's pocket;

"Private Second Class Cibo Malinowski, You are hereby ordered to report to the Terra-class Battlecruiser "Battle Hymn". Further orders will be received upon your arrival. "

She frowned and said to herself, "What the hell does it mean by 'Further orders will be received upon your arrival'? &%$#-tacularly specific orders from command indeed." At that, she sat down on her duffel bag; Cibo decided if anyone was going to meet her and give 'Further orders', that person had better do so soon. Otherwise, she was going to storm off with duffel in hand, and simply get lost. The only thing that impressed her so far concerning the Battle Hymn, was it's size.