Halfway to the coffee bar, Skye could already see that he was going to have to wait in yet another line to get his caffeine fix. One of the guys from his shuttle was standing in front of the machine with a slack jaw and a blank expression on his face as if he was trying to figure out how to work a piece of alien technology. He smirked to himself, quickly recognizing this idiot to be the same soldier who had asked how much longer it would take them to reach the base every day on the journey in. The dumbass was definitely more brawn than brain. It was good thing they had that videogame respawner system or else he probably wouldn’t last more than one battle.

Not wanting to deal with the guy before he had a half-empty mug in his hand, Skye hung back to wait for him to figure the machine out on his own. Apparently he didn’t have to stand around for long though. He raised a brow as a short, brunette girl suddenly pushed past him and began offering the clueless rookie advice about the coffee maker. It seemed she didn’t have as much patience for morons as he did. Whatever. At least the table was clear now as the other guy hurried off like he expected the machine to explode.

Taking the opportunity to fill his own cup, Skye made a beeline for the coffee maker and set it up to pour himself a drink. Though he would never admit it out loud, he was a little relieved he’d overheard shorty’s explanation about how it worked. He wouldn’t have taken as long to figure it out as the last dumbass, but he would have had to look it over to know what each button did. He didn’t feel like making a fool of himself in front of a room full of people he didn’t know yet today.

As he waited for the suspicious sludge to empty into his waiting paper cup, he took a moment to side-eye the girl who’d scared off the other rookie. From her swagger, he could tell she had probably been here a while, but she definitely didn’t fit the persona he’d expected to find on a space battleship. If they had been standing right next to each other, he was sure he would have had a head-and-a-half over her, and she looked light enough to pick up with one arm.

The visor she was wearing was interesting too. He’d never seen anything like it before. It reminded him of a pair of bulky swimming goggles he’d worn at the public pool as a kid, and he couldn’t help but wonder what it was for. Knowing where he was and hearing about the other mind-blowing technology on the base, he wouldn’t have been at all surprised if she was wearing some sort of high-tech weapon on her face that could kill a man if she winked.

[color=#16B887]“Mystery flavor, huh?”[/color] Skye mused as he swirled the thick, black coffee he’d filled his cup with. Still getting to know the rest of the soldiers on the ship, he decided he might as well try striking up a conversation with the visor girl. [color=#16B887]“Is that how the higher ups keep the population under control around here? Survival of the fittest. Pretty sneaky.”[/color] He lifted the drink to his lips and took a swig, trying not to gag on the viscosity of it. The liquid clung to his throat like motor oil, and he made a face. [color=#16B887]“Well shit, I was hoping the coffee in this place would be better than the ship we rode in on, but this is fucking worse.”[/color]