Maxwell couldn't help it: he chuckled. He chuckled because he couldn't argue with much the woman said. It was surprising that she had such a good grasp of the situation, at least to him it was: he didn't get that wise about things until he was in his thirties. She seemed to already grasp the implications of everything involved in the event.

"Glad to know there's at least one good head on someone's shoulders around here," he said, looking away from Sabrina and over at the other FRAMEs in the bay. The whole lot of them looked to be in shabby condition. It [i]wouldn't[/i] take much for the XCD to dispose of the mercenaries in whatever way they wanted. Sabrina's caution was good advice.

"One thing stands out," he thought aloud. "Seems the one - Kat - thinks the fighting's always been about more than money. Seems to think there's something wrong with soldierly discipline, too. Might help if an actual soldier on the team helped ease her into the setting, hm?" Maxwell tapped his PADD to check the time. He nodded to himself, then looked over at the woman working on her FRAME. He'd talked entirely too much.

[i]I must sound presumptuous,[/i] he thought to himself, [i]or pushy, or both.[/i]

"Time until arrival is close. Best get yourself cleaned up within a couple hours." Maxwell took one last look at Sabrina's handiwork, then nodded approvingly. "FRAME looks spiffy."

With that, the middle aged man started packing up the cleaning supplies he'd borrowed. The only thing he thought would be difficult to put away was the ladder, but he was surprised with how lightweight it was and how ingenious the collapsing mechanisms were. [i]Probably some new, cheap alloy,[/i] he thought to himself as he put it away. Before long, he was out of the FRAME bay.

[hr]

It didn't take Silver long to prepare himself for the next meeting with the XCD military. He took a quick shower, did his usual morning shave, then got into his pilot's gear. He took his time cleaning his personal weapons, had a good breakfast, and then started reading all the data the Panthers had on the XCD military's protocol. He wanted to be ready.

The hour was getting closer and closer to the time when the ship would dock in XCD territory. Despite everything, Silver didn't feel nervous. He felt...

Well, frankly, he didn't feel much. It was just another job, one more wave of missions before he could get to doing what really mattered.