The sounds of conversation from inside the waiting room had caught Derrick slightly by surprise; he had expected the call to action to have been the cue for everyone to start gathering, not to have already been waiting in the wings prior to them. It was, admittedly, a bit embarrassing to arrive last. He was the youngest person on the team, after all, and the young man was fairly certain that at least one or two of the others with him would treat him as such. For what it was worth, though, he didn't actually [i]know[/i] any of them all that well beyond their names and whatever little introductions they had been given during the briefing... And given how he hadn't actually spent much time socializing, getting any feel for them would have to wait until after they hit the battlefield.

Trying not to draw too much attention to himself, Derrick slipped into the room and took a seat as the airship began to descend. There had clearly been an invite of some sort, given what little he had caught from the tail end of their conversation, but he simply pushed the thought out of his mind as the door outside slowly opened up. The Conduits at his side moved into position as he rose back up, nodding towards the rest of the group before following Freyja outside.

With wary steps, the young man kept his distance from the woman in front, his eyes darting to and fro as he watched for any sort of ambush. The immediate activation of some automated turrets as the vanguard slowly pressed forth at least confirmed that there was someone trying to stop them, but as to whether they were recently activated or not...

Well, that required disabling them first.

Without missing a beat, Derrick ducked for cover before sending four of his Conduits towards Freyja; immediately, they began to glow, forming a cylindrical barrier around her.

"I'll handle the defense," he said, looking around to make sure he wasn't going to get flanked from his current position, "so just clean up here and keep pushing forward."

Hopefully the others would take that as less of an order and more of a suggestion.

[@VitaVitaAR][@Wayward][@Pyromania99][@thecatinaction]