Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Lieutenant?" He sighed, despite the congratulations. "I was perfectly happy without them threatening to give me a squad. Thanks to above for not taking away the Demolitions Department." Because I'd kill if they ever even thought of such a thing. "Well, looks like I'll be making sure you don't make too much of a mess for awhile longer, Lieutenant." Garrett stood and looked around at those still in the room. "I'm headed for some of that vintage alcohol I heard so much about. All those in Shock Squad 215 requesting liquid refreshment, follow me. We're going in." Then he flashed his signature smirk and was out the door, regardless of whether or not anyone chose to join him.

Arcadia groaned when she was removed from the bunk, but otherwise made no complaint. She understood the bureaucratic system that the medics were required to obey, and besides she loved the med bay cots and would choose them over the bunks any day; if anything, it was an upgrade being taken to the med bay. By the time she arrived, however, she no longer felt the fatigue. When they wouldn't let her go, she asked why. The answer was infuriating. "Emotional stresses!? Try mental stress you crackpots. I flew into a firefight without a shield generator because some rook engy didn't install it properly, then Drathonians shred the ship to pieces. I parachute out only to be dropped right on my a** the last ten feet. Then I got to go play commando with a bunch of crackpot Marines for the next six hours. Oh, and did I mention Drathonians were shooting at us!? On top of that, I got a front row seat to the untimely execution of two men, and discovered a whole new goddamn species that we didn't know existed! Yes, I had to deal with a little stress, but do you know what really relieves stress? Exercise and rest. I've done my resting, now I need my exercise." Despite her most vehement and logical arguments, they refused to let Arcadia go, and she finally made an attempt to sleep.

The nurses were so grateful the moment she slipped into unconsciousness.

((Calm yourself. It's just fine.))

Cibo started to follow the others who looked like they knew their way around; she had never even bothered to read much about the specifications of the Battle Hymn because it had little to do with her life or work. Now that it was practically her home, she regretted not grabbing a map. At the very least, others were obsessed about this 'glory hog' as Cibo called it; she easily shadowed them instead. As Cibo moved with the crowd, her foot caught on something. Instead of falling on her face, Cibo shifted her weight, and went into a graceful pirouette that then shifted back into a sudden standing posture; she almost reached into a pocket for...something, but corrected herself. With an adamant expression, she bore her eyes into the culprit; a duffel bag a careless person left behind. If it were a person, it would have withered and died. The people around her walked by like a school of fish avoiding a rock in the water. A very scary rock. Cibo decided to pick the bag up, and went right back to where she would have been if it were not for the obstacle. The clever fingers of an intelligence agent combed the insides with lightning speed; the owner was one 'Frank Lumes'. She moved along and looked forward, examining name tags. Her eyes darted from tag to tag, instantly filling in the letters she couldn't see; Nguyen, Ionesco, Lumes. There! A man with clean cut hair, brown and light brown. Light skin, and a blemish here, and maybe there. With both duffel bags slung over her frame, she followed him like an ancient submarine would to a ship of the days gone by.

Kai, Lieutennant Nakamura now, shook his head and smiled a little as his second and a few from his squad left. He sat down at the desk in the briefing room, waiting to see what the res of his soldiers had to say. Once they all left, He planned to make his way to his quarters and do something like sleep, read, or play video games. Nothing like goofing off on shoreleave.

***

Emma remained in the Med bay, smiling wistfully. Truthfully, she was furiious at herself for snapping like that, but she would never let it show. Being taken off active duty stung a little, but at least she wasn't court martialled; if her parents got wind of that she'd rather go fly solo against that Demonix thing some of the older pilots had spoken of. Emma lay back and closed her eyes, these beds were definitely better than the ones at the academy, they were new, and actually had stuffing in them still. Of course, the lower gravity within the Hymn compared to that high-grav planet may have had something to do with it. Regardless, Emma would try to make the best of her 'impoundment' as she liked to call it. Maybe she could ask if the Med bay had some board games later.

***
Evelyn Didn't know what to do with herself. High command had told her to give the crew shoreleave before the next mission, and her 'parents', The Engineers that had created her body and programming had sent a notice asking her to try and interact, saying it was important for research. She didn't really feel much like it, being more comfortable hooked up to the ship's computer, but there wasn't much she could do with her home on low alert and being repaired. It seemed life was tough being the only sentient computer in existence. Making sure the bridge crew were performing what little functions they could do at the moment satisfactorily, the ASIAN Android removed herself from the bridge and walked down to deck E-24 on deck 32, Meeting the new arrivals seemed smart, and it could be a good way to 'break the ice' as her human counterparts would say.

Garrett smirked at the engy and continued walking. TRS Chaos, huh? Some frigate you used to work on?" Garrett was feeling a little social now that his body had been given the promise of alcohol, and he really didn't know Dante other than his name and his basic skill set. Hell, alcohol was the best way to get to know him for what he was.

The pilot grumbled, eyes still closed. "First you want tests, then you want me to sleep, now you want me awake. Make up your... Oh, Corporal." Having opened her eyes mid-sentence, she realized the error of her speech. "Excuse me, Corporal: the nurses have been giving me a hard time. Won't let me leave even though I'm perfectly healthy." Then she realized she was rambling, and Kerning must have awoken her for a specific reason. "What's going on, sir?"

[[ Just a note here, I've been seeing a lot of y'all making this mistake. Hanger = metal hook you put clothes on. Hangar = aircraft bay ]]

Jack quickly found his way back to his barracks and picked up a particularly depressing book off his footlocker. He stepped out into the hall, wondering where to go. Pattel's Pub was down the hall, but it was always crowded. Making up his mind, he headed to the main hangar. Several minutes later, he was shoving his way past crowds of incoming newcomers coming off transport shuttles. After a quick flag down of a NCO, Jack found the shuttle he was looking for, and was soon on his way down to the planet surface.

He came down in the main staging area that his squad had been at before the assault on the Artemis. It was much less crowded now; most of the soldiers there were engineers on their way to the Jupiter-class. There were still pockets of Drathonians hiding about, so anyone leaving the base had to be armed. Book in one hand, sugar rifle in the other, Jack strode up a grassy knoll and into the woods. The sun was high in the sky when he finally stopped and sat beneath a tree to read.

---*edit*

Raji awoke from her brief nap, checking the time. It hadn't been long, but she decided to get up and about, anyway. Wearing a wife beater and her BDU pants, she headed off to the med bay. Inquiring with a nurse, she soon found herself in the west wing. It wasn't long before she came upon Arcadia and *Steven* speaking. She felt a bit of a compulsive twinge at seeing *Steven*, but she approached nonetheless. "Good morning, Arcadia, Captain," she said a bit curtly, nodding at each of them respectively. "I was wondering what all the fuss was about, getting restricted to the medical bay," she said, a bit amused at the notion. "Is everything alright?"

"So why the hell are you on the Hymn? Sounds like a safer place to me. Don't see why you'd ever want a transfer." Of course, Garrett would have never been capable of living on such a ship, never seeing action or getting to use dangerous and/or flammable materials. He would hate any sort of environment that wasn't constantly pushing him to the limit and testing his ability to survive. That's what Lieutenant Hendlow was: a survivor. He'd survived the annihilation of Los Angeles, he'd survived the trials of the Anarchists, he'd survived their demise, and now he would survive this war... or he might finally have met his greatest challenge and die the way he'd always imagined: guns blazing, bombs exploding, taking twenty of those scaly bastards with him. That would be the way to go.

She gave a nod to Raji. "Nice to see you're alright." Then her gaze shifted back to Steven. "Sorry, I haven't had a chance to check my 'pad. Captain, can you get me the hell out of here? I might just have to put a few nurses in intensive care if they keep me here much longer. Respectfully, sir." Arcadia usually wasn't one to anger, but she had things she needed to; namely, she needed to care for her new ship. It had to be recolored, diagnostics needed to be run, and she'd like to give it a test run before the next battle if possible. That was a lot to do, and as always she never knew how long she had to do all of those things.