The night-test of some of the larger ordnance had left Marlene tired and a bit groggy as she rolled out of bed and caught a glance of Sarah still tucked-in beside her for a power-nap. A few thoughts drifted to whether or not Kat would be alright after they replaced her bowl of spoiled cereal with a pillow, blanket, and small squadron of assorted granola-bars. She was sure they could have tried to do more for her, that girl was working herself to an early-grave even by mercenary-standards.

Putting on her 'uniform' of an weathered old bomber-jacket over the clothes she'd slept in, she managed to make a presentation on the decks as they were greeted and given a few last-second pamphlets by a not-so-forgiving colonel Wang to remind them of how they were expected to conduct themselves. Even when her back was turned, she could feel the disdain the officer felt for her. There was the slight chance that they didn't recognize each other -even if they would have- simply because they did not [i]want[/i] to recognize each other. The Perizian civil war had caused quite a few international repercussions, no doubt one of them had managed to be felt even within the Cooperative Dialogue.

The other 'exie' in the Panthers seemed to regard herself better-kept, better preserved in the reserved military-style of conduct that was being flaunted in their faces as though discipline and appearances alone would sell their untested mechs. Marlene was still skeptical.

Afterwards, she brought her old folding-stock ex-Kamdeshi rifle to the range, and set it down on the bench as she made sure to wind the 75 round drum of 7.62x39mm ammunition. The rifle was kitted-out with all sorts of things, an iFAK wedged into the skeletonized folding-stock and held in place with a constriction-band, mounting a scope that not only could see in the dark but also take video for remote-operations, and a laser-illuminator for marking targets were some of the more obvious novelties on the weapon of stamped sheet-metal and a tiny weathered wooden handguard... [i]aside from the drum that nearly doubled the weapon's weight[/i]. It wasn't pretty, she never meant it to be... felt that if she was ever seen using it the situation she'd be in wasn't likely to be pretty either; just as long as it helped her get out of the ugly situation alive, she'd be more than happy to have the world's ugliest rifle made uglier-still.