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[h3][color=steelblue][i][b]Ash Holloway[/b][/i][/color][/h3][i][b][color=4682b4]Location:[/color][/b][/i] Education Center (M)
[i][b][color=4682b4]Skills:[/color][/b][/i] N/A
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	Taking the stand again, Ashton maintained the same sort of militant composure that he demonstrated with his first walk up to the stage. The questions asked seemed a little toward the vague for his tastes, considering the nature of the Court Martial, so he confined his answers more or less to the defendant in question as not to muddy the waters with details unrelated. Also considering he was asked questions requiring more than a yes-or-no answer, Ash responded with greater situational detail. 

	[color=4682b4]"[i]Team Newnan[/i], my group for the initial evacuation of our settlement and relocation, approached from the north. The Colonel had me pegged as Army immediately and demanded my credentials. Name, rank, number, etc. I complied, informing that our arrival was at the request of Lt. Commander Thana Martin, to report to Master Gunny Macsen Martin. He verified Zone of Action and we immediately deferred to his authority. Monroe was already present at this time on the other side of the Huey. Couldn't hear what he was saying clearly enough to give reliable testimony. Can confirm the conversation on Maddoc's end as accurate to his testimony, ma'am. Two other groups approached from the south and the west, respectively. Long lost cat, too, if you'll believe it. I identified the group from the west as the other half of our people from Newnan (Team Eden), and notified the Colonel that we had no connection to the group from the south, nor Monroe himself, ma'am."[/color]

	When asked about his take on the whole situation, Ash responded, [color=4682b4]"Overwhelming set of coincidences that got all parties to that place at one time, and we still might have missed each other were it not for the Huey landing. Everyone was in a position where they had to show remarkable trust. Being out in the world for too long makes it hard to do that. Year, four months, and some change is a couple lifetimes out there. Everyone had something they cared about on the line. My [i]take[/i], ma'am, it that the situation could have gone FUBAR very fast and it was a miracle that it didn't. It was a good day."[/color]

	And finally, the question of how he was feeling at the time. This one required that Ash delve into a part of him that he wished to remain buried for official matters. Talking about his feelings wasn't a strong point. So, he kept it mostly to the subject of the Court Martial unless asked otherwise specifically. [color=4682b4]"Cautious. Suspicious at first. The fact that there were a number of people I did not know around heightened this. Some relief when Zone was verified, but too many unknown factors. I had people there for which I was responsible; the presence of a potential troublemaker did not sit well with me. After we were all disarmed - [i]all[/i] of us, and in transit, I felt better, ma'am."[/color] The Newnan folk were strong and had numbers. Were all on equal footing, Ash would have put his money on them if it came to an altercation. Now that they were all one tribe, so to speak, this last piece of tribalism was moot. In any case, Ash didn't want to throw Hunter under the bus, but he did strive to be honest to them and to himself. 

	When the questioning was over, Ash continued to show the expected discipline and mannerisms of an officer, deferred to Court Martial protocol, rose, and retook his seat. Another glance up to Thana before he made it back down was comforting. Though he was a person obliged to his personal code and the concepts of jurisprudence where such things were preferred and practical, he did hope in some small amount that this would be done expediently. 

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[h3][color=crimson][i][b]Thalia Carmichael[/b][/i][/color][/h3][i][b][color=dc143c]Location:[/color][/b][/i] Education Center (M)
[i][b][color=dc143c]Skills:[/color][/b][/i] N/A
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	Thalia took her seat at the witness chair when called upon, this time with significantly less in the way of extraneous noise. Of course there was less. Now that fate had deemed that every eye in the place would be on her, she was able to move fluidly and quietly. This had to be some kind of sick joke, expectorated down from the heavens above to teach her humility. And here, of all the sins she was genuinely guilty of, Thalia did not believe that Pride was one in which she required a lesson. Wrath, maybe. Gluttony? The ability to not gain weight and an overappreciation of canned pasta (among other things) made it a contender. But this had nothing to do with what was going on one way or another. 

	Briefly, she wondered if she had to swear on a bible, or some such similarity. If she did, and she used her fake hand, did it still count? 

	Thalia's more blunt nature was in bloom as the questions were asked. She tried her best to be as open and honest as possible. After all, she had nothing to hide. The people of CMB already knew what kind of a person she was and whose family she came from, so false innocence was stupid and ultimately counterproductive. [color=dc143c]"Yah, so, we wah cutting through Wewahitchka, making for Mexico Beach. Friggin' choppa lands. Navy - sorry, [i]Thana[/i] was gone then and Beatrice wahs in chahge."[/color] She paused for a moment, look of both sadness and rough anger flashing across her face in even amounts. Continuing, though notably more terse in word and demeanor of speech, [color=dc143c]"Coming down highway 22, um - [i]from the west[/i]."[/color] She was almost mocking Ash's testimony from earlier. Thinking about where the sun was in the sky that hour, yeah, he was right. [color=dc143c]"I was scouting ahead. Usually do. I was..."[/color] She didn't want to use the term "expendable", but it was kind of appropriate. [color=dc143c]"Nevermind. Gahd damn duck... Time I gaht theah, Huntah was saying something about making sure we were who we said we were. Talking about us, the othehs, whatevah. I know he was smiling. I didn't trust it. Until I saw Navy's guy and his group, I was planning on getting us out."[/color] 

	She did not say it aloud, but in case the situation turned into a firefight, she was planning on targeting Hunter first. Of all parties present, he seemed like the greatest potential source of conflict, and that included the guy manning the 50-cal, so long as he was armed. If he was the origin of a fight, the tactic was to eliminate him and either utilize cover or drop her own weapons. It might have given her plausible reason to expect mercy, seeing as she was dispatching the aggressor, and/or focus attention on her so her team could escape. Thalia was more satisfied that it was not necessary. [color=dc143c]"When Bea and them caught up to me, it was almost immediate disarming, so... heah we are. We weren't on the scene long enough to see a whole laht of whatevah go down. Tension was big. I noticed that."[/color] Were it not for the fact that Thalia was genuinely trying to make this place work, she wouldn't have been as honest as she was, nor remotely as talkative. 

	So far as how she felt, her answer was a little colder than most. [color=dc143c]"There's no feeling. Out theah, I avoid new people. If I can't avoid, it's risk and reward, fight or flight."[/color] Thalia looked to the judges assembled with piercing eyes, summarizing from her keen instinct for survival, [color=dc143c]"If more people at that crossroad were like Huntah, you never would have seen us."[/color] The statement was open to interpretation. Never would have seen them at all? Never would have seen them until it was too late? Or more accurately perhaps, they never would have seen them until they knocked on CMB's front gate. 

	Either way it was a sober reminder for Thalia. She might have become something similar to what Hunter was now, and probably much, much worse, were it not for people who helped her and became her friends. As it was, her antisocial and potentially violent tendencies didn't need any more encouragement. Just a direction. 

	
	


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[h3][color=burlywood][i][b]Hank Wright[/b][/i][/color][/h3][i][b][color=deb887]Location:[/color][/b][/i] Education Center (M)
[i][b][color=deb887]Skills:[/color][/b][/i] N/A
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        Hank sat in the witness chair looking a little bored and a little testy, like a burned-out mathematics teacher who just couldn't seem to get the little bastards in his classroom to grasp the basic points of long division. Granted, this was his civic duty, and all of that. Cost of doing business in one of the last benign pieces of civilization left, yadda yadda, but he really just wished that he could sit in a balcony someplace and make colorful commentary alongside his hetero lifemate, Wayne, like slightly less grumpy and significantly drunker versions of Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show. 

	[color=deb887]"Yeah, I was out there. You wanna know what happened? Fine. Me, Maldonado, Apocalypse Barbie and Sportacus..."[/color] Hank paused, giving a little wave out to the rows of chairs in the greater auditorium, [color=deb887]"...came up on the kid there talking some shit, like he [i]wasn't[/i] about to be whisked away to a land of mashed potatoes and clean sheets. Hell, the helicopter ride should have been worth some quiet time, at least. I mean, it's no Tilt-A-Whirl, but what is, right?"[/color] Hank sighed. This stuff had been related a few times already by different witnesses, and while parliamentary procedure was often repetitive and boring, his years with the Cheshire County Sheriff's Department made him familiar with the hassle enough to just go with it for now. 

	Hank gave a brief outline of what details he could clearly remember, which fell in line with the established testimony so far. Apparent to him, this was overkill designed to establish some baselines for future testimony, considering that they were jumping around the timeline of total events. His follow-up about how he felt at that time was hijacked a little by personal observations about Hunter's demonstrated psychology, or one interpretation of it. [color=deb887]"The kid was letting his Bulldog mouth overload his Chihuahua ass in front of new people. The new people didn't strip him for spare parts and that's how I knew you guys were alright. All in all, I might have thanked Hunter for that tidbit of information. A lot of other people out in the world would have used him as target practice for being so irritating, and I'd have to flip a coin to see whose side I'd be on, then."[/color] He looked over to Hunter directly, quickly addressing him like a stern patriarch, [color=deb887]"Do you want to get shot? Because that's how you get shot. I hope this self-destructive thing is a phase and you get over it before you take others down with you."[/color] 

	Looking back to the Court representatives, [color=deb887]"If you ask me, the kid needs something that'll give him a sense of accomplishment. Far, [i]far[/i] away from scissors he can run with. As for how I felt?"[/color] Hank leaned back in his chair and smiled a little, as if he was thinking of some faraway point of happiness, [color=deb887]"That chopper was the prettiest damn thing I'd seen in a long, long time, and I wasn't going to let one disgruntled guy and his dog ruin it for me. There was nothing I could have done about it one way or the other anyway, so I just stuck around to see the show. Does that answer work?"[/color]