Valian had never liked war zones.  The was air always afire with the sounds of fighting, fleeing, and dying.  He much preferred to fight in his ship, where the only sound was your own breathing, and whatever beeping alerts your ship had.  But when you work with Starfire, you sometimes have to fight on-planet, or else in a station, so Valian was able to keep his cool—at least outwardly.  Inside he was nervous.  He didn't believe that they would be attacked, and if they were he was no slouch in gunplay, even if everyone else on his team was probably his better, but he knew that it wasn't where he belonged.

He could tell the nervous man was the captain from his uniform, but he was otherwise entirely unremarkable.  [i]Either he got the job because the old captain died in the battle, or he's been spoon-fed by some rich daddy his whole life.  Maybe both.[/i]  His nervousness was understandable given his situation, but someone in command doesn't just that that show.  [i]Hell, buffoons like this are probably the real reason this planet's in such dire straits.  Oh well, like uncle Kaas always said, "Where incompetence festers, there is opportunity."[/i]

He was not surprised to see Krull choose to guard against boarding parties.  He didn't know much about Goralians, but he did know that they weren't exactly a passive people.  [i]Guy probably voted for the siege.  Oh well, better for me this way.[/i]  He had not expected "Eight" to board the Babylon, however.  He had seen a perfectly good ship in the hangar that he understood belonged to his fellow Cyborg.  [i]Maybe there's still a person underneath that computer-speak of his.  I certainly hope so, it'll make things much more interesting.[/i]  He'd seen that other guy's ship in the hangar—[i]Bruce, wasn't it?[/i]—and while he could appreciate it for what it was, Valian understood why his teammate didn't want to do this mission in it.

Valian grinned, "Well I'm going to be of much more use flying than guarding against boarding attempts."  And the ship he used led to an interesting situation: While much closer in size and speed to a fighter than one would expect from a cargo ship, even one designed for agility, the Starbolt was still very much that.  It wasn't out of the question that any attacking forces would assume that he had something in his hold—and he did, but it was nothing on the scale of Oppenheinium.  Nevertheless, it was possible that they'd come after him first.  His grin only grew larger as the anticipation for the upcoming battle swelled within him.  He could barely hear the distant sounds of war.  [i]It's been far to long since I've been able to give the Starbolt a proper fly.  Let's see what these rebels can bring to bear.[/i]