Welcome to Illium (Day T-2, Morning, Briefing Room)

[Comstar]

(This event thread does not count as your morning thread - you are free to post elsewhere in this time slot)

The briefing room was packed. The air was full of the sound of wood creaking as it accepted the weight of the main staff, mechwarriors, team leads, and assorted other crew that had squeezed into the space to hear the first real briefing on the mission, now that they were 2 days out from landfall.

There was an air of anticipation, muttering, and tension. Excitement, even. Two months on this dropship, traveling here, jump after jump, and everyone was ready to get on with it. Of course, extended travel was a part of mercenary life, but it didn't make anyone less restless. Major Yuri Creed was sitting in the front row by the holotank, but hadn't yet gotten up to speak.

Lucretzia Winters still hadn't shown up.

The captain of the dropship, Alexei Herald, was sat a few seats from the coffee machine, and was already into his second cup.


--- Thread is Open for RP, briefing will be delivered once people have an opportunity to arrive ---

[Freja Fogel]

She'd become part of the company practically mere hours before this trip had been launched. Given that, was she the most recent recruit? Quite likely. Not that she knew this to be a fact, however; her interactions with the rest of the company had been pretty minimal during the journey, after all. It hadn't been a conscious decision to make that happen, but she was fine with it. It wasn't as if she had much to say to them, and she was used to the solitude. She'd been such a minimal presence that her appearing in the briefing space might've caused a few whispers to go around the place. They did say she had been *recruited* by the commander, rather than signing up on her own accord, and that was worth whispering about. Also her hair, probably.

[Andrea DeTroyes]

It seemed the next to arrive was another recent addition to the company. Though she had been with the crew more like a week or two then a few days prior to this whole fiasco. Well dressed for a merc, Andrea slid into the briefing room. She gave the room a once over, nodding to the other occupants and then moving to grab her own cup of coffee. The noble suspected it would taste terrible...most instant coffee did...but the soldier in her appreciated it for the rush of caffeine.

[Comstar]

Surprisingly, the coffee machine seemed to be an older model which used real beans - and the result was fairly good.

The dropship captain nodded knowingly as she took a cup, but otherwise didn't say more.

As the room filled, it seemed people might have to start sitting near one another, if they wanted a seat.

[Dr. Reinhardt]

Dr. Reinhardt enters, taking a quiet sheet toward the front and to one side. He smiles in direction of the others that have been filling in, but definitely looks out of place amongst the military.

[Andrea DeTroyes]

Pleasantly surprised at the quality of coffee, Andrea nods in turn to the master of the void craft before taking a seat. Her eyes fall on the scientist and then her fellow mechwarrior, giving both an assessment. For her part the young woman had the sort of idle bored look one expected from a noble scion. She took another sip and seemed to consider breaking the silence.

[Yuri Creed]

Seeming to read the room, Yuri Creed stood and strode to the holotank, tapping a few buttons to bring up a floating image of the planet they were approaching. Above it, yellow letters appeared, spelling out a name.

Illium.

Turning to face the room, Yuri nodded, and then introduced himself. "Eyes on, everyone. While we wait for the Echo group director to join us, I'm going to break down the basics for the Fortunate Ones. Listen up."

Tapping a button, he expanded the view of the planet so they could the pattern of three different continents spread across the planet surface, bounded by massive oceans. One was buried in turbulent weather, storms and heavy cloud cover. The second, which overlapped the southern pole, was ice-bound and frigid, and the third was barely temperate, nearing the northern pole, with sparse greenery and extensive mountains comprising the single land bridge connecting it to the main land-mass.

"I'm sure you can read, but I doubt the name Illium means much to you, so I'll give you the basics. This world fell off the star charts a few hundred years ago." Left unsaid was the obvious implication of why a world might have left the star charts during the Amaris Civil War - many worlds were functionally destroyed in that era and the start of the succession wars. "The location and details were uncovered from the Helm Memory Core that has been circulating - it was the impetus for this mission, and when she arrives, the Echo Group Director will explain more of what she hopes to find."

Crossing his arms, he glanced around the room. "As for our job, we're providing security. That's why we kept our cards close to our chests - we didn't want to draw in attention and invite a fight we don't need, and were hoping there would be no threat at all. Unfortunately that won't be possible. We've detected signs of life on the surface, and were pinged by a flight control tower yesterday. There are still people down there, which means we'll need to keep the peace if they intend to cause trouble."

Shaking his head, he added, "Here are the ground rules - no expedition goes out without at least one mech as escort - we run regular patrols, and our base camp obeys basic security protocols and perimeter security. Nobody comes in without permission. Our mission is to keep the research teams, their discoveries, and their equipment safe. Any questions on that front?"

[Andrea DeTroyes]

"Seeing as they pinged us, Major," Andrea spoke up, "Can we rule out a simple group of pirates hiding a bolt hole? Actually, Sir....is there already any expectations of hostility from the locals? The ping wasn't a targeting or warning?"

[James Hall]

James quietly slipped into the room with Mata trailing after him. Noticing the mechwarriors speaking, he moved towards coffee machine. He would wait until everyone had a chance to get a cup before going for his own. Mata, nervous around so many strangers, hid behind her father.

[Yuri Creed]

"Seeing as they pinged us, Major," Andrea spoke up, "Can we rule out a simple group of pirates hiding a bolt hole? Actually, Sir....is there already any expectations of hostility from the locals? The ping wasn't a targeting or warning?"

"We can't officially rule out anything, but from what we've seen on scopes, it looks like some sort of settlement on the third continent." He gestured to the map, highlighting a small glowing dot near the northern end of the mountain chain.

"We've also picked up radio chatter and it looks like they have people going to the main mountain range... perhaps some sort of mining operation. I don't think we're looking at pirates, but out here, private security might be the next worst thing."

The fact that they themselves were private security was left unsaid.

"It may be perfectly amicable, but until we know, we're keeping our guard up. Considering the planet is, for all official purposes, free range, we may have to shift folks if they're sitting on a critical dig site. Let's hope it doesn't come to that."