Ariana Williams followed behind McKnight towards her MAS, with barely contained enthusiasm, and listened along as he began to explain it. Then, however, came Eric and his rage. The anger directed towards her was massive, she could swear the man would kill her if McKnight wasn't between them. However, as he raged, other members of the team slowly assembled, rallying to argue for her side, surprisingly enough. She couldn't help but feel her confidence being bolstered by this. She managed to stand her ground against Eric's fury until he left, and she noted with a mental smile that even Wes seemed to be supporting her, bumping his shoulder into Eric as he walked by. McKnight telling her not to fuck up, Maki and Gerard reassuring her, it all made her smile. The team, as a whole at least, wanted her to survive and make it through, and that made her happy.

As she looked over the Astelion, her mouth open in slight awe, she heard a woman clear her throat. Looking over, Ari saw a woman in engineering uniform standing there, data pad in hand. "[color=a36209]Second Lieutenant Williams, right? I'm Petty Officer Second Class Schwiss, the chief of the engineering crew for the Astelion. I'm shooting her specs over to your 'pad, save the explanation. The long and short of it is be careful, she's all about caution. The Astelion's primary gun, is also her biggest engine, so you have to make sure you know what you need. Anyway, anything I tell you the machine can tell you herself. Don't worry, she was gentle with Tori, she'll be gentle with you.[/color]

Ari smiled and nodded, saying to her "[color=0072bc]Thank you very much, Schwiss. I'll climb aboard and try to adjust...if thats alright.[/color]"

With a call of "[color=a36209]She's yours for now, don't wait for permission.[/color]", Petty Officer 2nd Class Schwiss walked up to the engineering station, likely to get readings from it as Ari booted it up. Ari, almost hesitantly, climbed into the cockpit and sat down, the pit sealing behind her. She released a deep breath, allowing her fear of Eric, her excitement over the MAS and her squad, all of it to fall away. Her fingers danced across a keypad, booting up the Astelion, and she soon watched as the system registered a new user, and as such displayed the tutorial. She nodded along, learning about the various weapons, systems, and capabilities of the machine she sat in right now. She began to speak then, half to herself and half to the MAS

"[color=0072bc]Alright, time to do a quick roll through your paces, see what you can do. I'll have to be careful, if I do the wrong thing I could go hurtling into the wall.[/color]" With that done, she began to do a few basic movements with the MAS, simple and graceful, and she swiftly discovered it seemed to respond similarly to the MKI Sparrow, just faster and more well tuned. After this, the time came to test it's combat systems. A quick look revealed the flares and countermeasures were loaded and ready, so that was checked off. Extending her suit's arms, she then allowed the melee weapons to slide out with a schink. She moved them around carefully, getting a feel for the weapons, much different than maneuvering with the Sentry's axe back in training.

Then, however, she retracted the blades and the real deal arrived. She looked down and Schwiss nodded, and soon a message reading "[b]SHE WON'T FIRE, GO AHEAD AND BOOT UP THE CANNON[/b]" scrolled across the screen, like from the engineering station. So, she accessed the X-50 and set it to cannons and, sure enough, the orange capacitators at the front flipped up, revealing the barrels, but no energy gathered. With a soft sigh of relief, she discovered the engineers were just checking reactor output to the cannon, and she didn't actually need to feed it energy. After a few moments, Schwiss nodded from the ground, and Ari happily switched away from the guns. With this done, she climbed down to talk to Schwiss, noting "[color=0072bc]The airframe is slightly warped I think, and some of the reactor output seemed strange. Other than that, she was a dream.[/color]"

Schwiss nodded, and as Ari turned, she found some of her squad mates had gathered around, so she began to address them in turn. She spent a moment recalling her Japanese, then said "[color=0072bc]Umm...Arigatou, Nishizumi-sama. Sorry if my Japanese isn't good, I haven't used it any since College. Thank you for the offer of help though.[/color]".

To Gerard, she said "[color=0072bc]Yes, Mr. Delacroix, she's a dream of a machine. Though, please, call me Ari unless we're in a formal situation. Protocol is great and all, but you are higher anyway, and even I know not all situations need my rank.[/color]"

Then however, Trapp called for them to form up and look bright. She unhesitantly stepped into her position in a line, as she was the lowest in rank it wasn't hard as her place was at the end. She nodded and said to him "[color=0072bc]Yes sir team leader, if boot teaches anything it's a parade line[/color]." With that done, she quietly stood at attention, though not in full salute until they declared an officer was on deck. Right now was one of those situations she mentioned to Gerard, a truly formal situation, and protocol was to be obeyed.