Commodore Von Ingram sat in the amphitheater surrounded by her staff officers and waited impatiently. To her left sat Commander Wolfram De Ruger, Wolfram had been with Yekaterina since her days commanding the [i]Rosenkreuz[/i] and was her sole confidante in the fleet. Now he commanded her escort detail, and though he had a ship of his own he was still very much her First Mate. To her right sat Captain Neion, the Tinman. He was a crude and brutish thug who was more machine than anyone had any right to be and was an angry and bitter lout who found it very difficult to hide that he was an angry and bitter lout. In other words he was the perfect man to be the right hand of Rho Squadron. She trusted him to do whatever was necessary to complete their objectives and the fact that he wasn't the slack jawed idiot that she often chided him for being made him all the better suited for the job. They weren't as close as she was with Commander De Ruger, but he also hadn't spent the last decade serving alongside her as Wolfram had. Filling out the seats in front of and behind her were the other officers of note in Rho Squadron, Yekaterina had tried to get Legate Kossk, the hulking leader of her marines, up among the others as well but there was a protocol for such things and a Gn'Mok legate among the naval staff was not it.

With little else to do in her spare time Yekaterina drew a small spring-loaded knife from her pocket and began to play with it. This drew the attention of both Commander De Ruger and Captain Neion who looked at her in much the same way a parent would look at a toddler doing something completely absurd. She hardly noticed either of them as she cleaned under her already immaculate nails with the blade and went back to flicking it open and closed. "I picked one of these up when I was last home. I figured it was finally time to see the object that gave me my nickname," she said flicking it open again. Her eyes were focused on the blade not the incredulous stares of her underlings. "I can't actually tell if I should be flattered or offended by the comparison. Its a nifty little toy but its hardly a threatening weapon. If I ended up in a knife fight I think I'd want something with a bit more heft to it than this, a proper combat knife. I can't imagine how this thing came to be the symbol of cutthroats and ne'er do wells." Wolfram simply chuckled at her observations. 

Stowing her knife Commodore Von Ingram tugged at her dress jacket absently, it didn't fit her chest properly yet she had forgotten to get it fitted when she was last in port. The crowd of officers began to rise to attention as the Grand Duke entered the room. Yekaterina followed suit. She had the demeanor of a bitch but if Neion was anything to go by it certainly payed to respect one's superiors. She listened carefully to the briefing though she already knew what her part in the operation was.

[center]" Our attack, however, will come through Paolo."[/center]

Yekaterina narrowed her eyes at the words and carefully glanced towards Wolf who met her gaze. The Grand Duke certainly had a reputation to uphold, their expressions seemed to say, not that it was a particularly good reputation for most people. At least Rho Squadron wouldn't be in the thick of things, she didn't like the thought of going toe to toe with an Arian battlewagon, she wasn't Captain Lutzen and had no intention of being more like him. As the briefing ended and the admirals left she stood to leave with the others unbuttoning her jacket as she walked. By the time she was out of the Amphitheater she had the unlatched all of the polished buttons and was walking at a clip that her men found difficult to keep up, her jacket billowing slightly like an exaggerated cape as she made her way out. She had a lot of work to do considering this entire plan hinged on her and that over-starched prick Morning raising enough hell for the invasion fleet to not be turned to cinders as they translated into realspace.