Donovan accepted the tray, and gave a nod of thanks to Massachusetts. He turned back to the server, chuckling as he spoke, "In that case, I'll take the chicken," Donovan continued down the line, placing some carrots, and a small cup of apple crisp on the tray. He sat down at the nearest table with the group, placing his helmet on the seat beside him. The others quickly joined Donovan at the table, with Massachusetts next to him, and Montana across. He immediately dug into the food, quickly eating through the carrots, and then starting on the chicken wrap. He only looked up when he finished the meal in front of him. He saw that Massachusetts had taken off her helmet.

Donovan grinned inwardly. "She is a pretty one," he thought, but Donovan quickly shook the idea from his head. She was a comrade in arms, not a girl at the bar. He turned his mind back to the question she had posed. "I'm a former marine, Sergeant First Class. I had a lot of experience, and apparently, whoever was in charge of recruiting us liked what they saw, so I was recruited."

"Helljumper, huh?" Lizzy's smile grew at Montana's admission. "Same here."

She didn't want to pat him or herself on the back too much for being a brand of already special soldier amid a bunch of even more highly trained special soldiers, so she altered what she normally would have said in response to finding one of her own. Well, what was 'her own' once, anyway. That was different now. Now, all of these men-- and women-- were 'her own.'

"I know why I was pulled; I'm from an ODST combat squad. We did clean up and scouting both, so I guess my track record proved itself well enough." She took a bite of her food to keep herself from over-talking, especially since Illinois had stopped and was handily shoveling food away. Lizzy found herself staring for a moment before she continued. "They picked us all for specific reasons, I think. Skill sets they needed in spades, if nothing else."

Seeing the others weren't stopping on her account, the blonde tucked into her own meal until Illinois spoke up. She glanced up at him and nodded when he was done, needing to finish chewing before she could answer. She swallowed and gave him a quick smile. "Experience is going to be handy in this outfit, I think. Hopefully Iowa and I here have enough for what they throw at us," she said, gesturing at her fellow freelancer. Montana and Illinois both looked like they were a bit older-- late 20s or early 30s maybe?-- but, if anything, Iowa looked younger than even Lizzy, and that came as something of a surprise to her. Being an ODST, she was used to being one of the youngest, so to discover the Freelancer Program had potentially dipped lower than her 24-years of age in their search for special soldiers was unexpected and unusual. It also added a whole new level to the covert ops feel of the program. Skill didn't always stand on age or experience.

"I wonder if they'll follow experience for a command structure here," Lizzy mused allowed, poking her fork into her food as she looked between the three men sitting with her. "When I was asking questions at my interview, the Counselor did say there would be solo and squad missions, but he was a bit vague about what exactly that entailed or what percentages we were looking at. I got the impression mission-related information was top secret business, which wouldn't be too far fetched for this." She gestured subtly around them with her fork before taking another bite of her meal.

Donovan listened dutifully as he downed a water bottle to wash down his meal. He was a little shocked at the youth of Iowa and Massachusetts, but clearly the Director saw fit to put them on the team. Montana looked more the part however. He was just as tall as Donovan, and nearly as big. He also was clearly older than Iowa and Massachusetts, though younger than Donovan.

His train of thought was interrupted as Massachusetts continued speaking. She made a good point: how was the command structure going to work? Donovan reasoned it would have something to do with the upcoming evaluations, which reminded him: he should probably get to the training area, and get a start on preparing for the evaluations. He started to stand, and spoke to the other freelancers at the table. "I dunno about you guys, but I think everyone else has gotten enough of a head-start on us for today. I'm heading up to the training area," With that, he made for the door.

"Guess we will find out with the evaluations coming up," Zac said before Donovan announced his leave for the training area ",Yeah guess I'll join you in a few minutes." He took a bite of his own food.
"At least the grub is good, half the time with being a helljumper the food tasted like crap and came in a can," he chuckled ",At least there was action though, I'm itching for some action. Though I do wonder, how will they evaluate us. Our personal skills or through several tests? Because to be honest, I can't hit the side of a barn with any long range weapon. I enjoy being up close and personal. With a shotgun and pistol along with my fists. That's entertaining."

"I'm sure they're aware of our strengths and weaknesses," Lizzy said, but didn't comment further. They would surely test on everything, but the question became how and to what extent. Was this some kind of delayed "wash out" testing? Lizzy had assumed that sort of thing would have been done prior to even getting an invitation to the program, but sometimes they recruited more than they needed so they could skim the additional cream from the crop. Lizzy was friendly, but she had been told enough to understand how the military ran things.

Lizzy smiled and shook her head. "I guess Illinois is right. I'm going to give the training room some space and hit it later, though, when everyone else has had a turn. It was nice getting to meet you all." She glanced between Iowa and Montana. "Good luck tomorrow, if I don't see you sooner."

While the others went their own ways, Lizzy focused on finishing her meal with her own thoughts for company.