Rio nodded affirmatively while Atlas spoke, a small smile creeping up across her lips. She pressed the power button on her tablet and put it back inside of her handbag, leaning back in her chair. At least this way she didn't have to leech off of her family to sponsor the team.

[color=94ffad]"...No, I wasn't. It was just a small concern I thought of, considering how important they are."[/color]

While the woman was content to leave it at that, someone else chimed in. Someone else that she didn't want to [i]have[/i] chiming in. Predictably a [i]foreigner[/i] would be opposed to the idea of sponsors. Gurevich wasn't exactly Rio's favorite of teammates and she made no effort to hide that, giving him a glare. She leaned forward a little and placed her knuckles on the table, but luckily Laudat was the voice of reason. He pointed out the importance of sponsors and engineers, but little else.

[color=94ffad]"Hm... you bring up another good point, Laudat. I don't suppose we have a team engineer, do we Atlas?"[/color]

While sponsors were important, so was a team engineer. They knew things most pilots didn't about their gear and can come in handy when it comes to optimization. Even Rio would admit that an engineer would help with Union's performance out in the field... and speaking of performance, in two days they were already going to face off against the AIs already. Curse Ace and not even giving teams a small grace period to practice! She does know one thing, though. The AIs get swapped out every year, so they can't prepare for any one specific setup. However, if they get switched out every year...

[color=94ffad]"...although I said I would be unable to practice tomorrow, I think I might be of some use to the team still. I'll do some research on past AI usage and see if I can't find a pattern. Even if my predictions are off, it won't hurt to be a little prepared for a hypothesis."[/color]

With that, Rio rose from her seat and neatly tucked it back in place. She took a small scrap of paper from her handbag and scribbled something down on it. She shoved the paper to the middle of the lounge table once she was done writing, showing that Rio wrote down a number.

[color=94ffad]"I'm afraid I need to get going now. Here's my number in case any of you need to contact me. You might want to call before sending me a message, I like to be sure of who I'm talking to."[/color]

She stated it as more matter-of-fact rather than anything, but Rio still managed to sneak in an angry glare at Gurevich. After giving out her number the woman left the lounge without another word, leaving the rest to discuss further.