[color=silver][center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/190713/7f7340615e11c92098353c41aa73586c.png [/img][/center]
[right][hr][color=white][b][b]Smith's Rest | HQ Tram Station[/b][/b][/color]
January 16th, 2677[hr][/right]
[indent][indent][indent][color=662d91]“That one’s cute.”[/color]

[color=6ecff6]“These are [i]pilots.[/i] They are here to bring the threats against New Anchorage to heel, and, if they stay, they may have to lay down their lives for it. These people are not here to be our friends. If you’re going to judge them on their physiques, it should be in regards to how well they can handle themselves in a fight. Even then, that hardly matters compared to how well they can pilot.”[/color]

[color=662d91]“That one’s cute, too!”[/color]

Eli pinched the bridge of her nose. [color=6ecff6]“Vera this is not appropriate behavior for a pilot.”[/color]

[color=662d91]“Well, like you keep telling me, I’m not a pilot yet,”[/color] Vera said. There was a little bite in her voice, but she was still smiling. She stuck her tongue out playfully at Eli and turned back to the newcomers. 

They didn’t look like much. It was hard to tell the weather-beat of a veteran from the grime of needing a shower and a washing machine. Then again, none of them here had ever been much to look at either. Raschke was, generously speaking, a “man of the people,” the pilots and staff were nobodies, some of whom weren’t even natives. Even Sophia had been a haggard woman, blown into her role like an icy tumbleweed, and gone just as quickly. [i]No,[/i] she thought. [i]Not gone. Deserted. She left us.[/i]

Eli regarded the newcomers more heavily. If only she could know from a look who meant to help them and who, like Sophia, would betray them. These people would sign their names and make their pledges, but those were words only, and for all her shortcoming’s in understanding people, Eli knew better than to trust them by their words. 

[i]Or[/i], she thought, eyes falling upon the commander. [i]Their ranks.[/i]

[color=662d91]“Ohmigosh,”[/color] Vera said, sitting up in her chair. [color=662d91]“Hey, I think that one’s a kid. Lizzy, look, that one—she’s a kid!”[/color]

[color=6ecff6]“I see.”[/color]

Vera’s smile twitched. She searched for something in the air, and then her eyes went wide. She hopped out of her chair, said something about practicing sims, and then scurried off. 

Eli was tempted to follow out of concern, but she’d have had no luck voicing them. It was all Vera talked about nowadays, piloting. Whether it was simulations, speculating about her own NC, worrying over her own capabilities, or, perhaps worst of all, waxing about her conversations with Stein, there was no escaping it. Eli had no issues with piloting, and by all accounts she should have felt proud of how much effort Vera was putting into it. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. All she felt when they talked about the future was dread, and guilt. One day, sooner now than later, Vera would do for New Anchorage exactly what Eli expected of every pilot: she would put her life on the line. 

Eli got up from the table, unfocused. She cast one last glance over the newcomers, then left for the hangar.[/indent][/indent][/indent][/color]