A few hours sailed by since meeting the Kanarussian transport. Avelyn spent the majority of the time in the astrogation deck, admiring the blue and orange void that lay just outside, the three inch graphene-reinforced window the only thing standing between ten seconds of agony and a grand total of 90-ish seconds of life. [color=#FF2E00][i]‘Like at Proxima.’[/i][/color] a thought surfaced in the back of her mind for a brief moment before being banished. She didn’t see much point in hanging around all of the new arrivals and eavesdropping, now that they’ve spilled onto the ship like water out of a pierced barrel in bigger numbers than anticipated. After all, there was a fully sanctioned deep dive scheduled for all of them. Primarily, she wanted to find a calm place with no traffic to order her thoughts on how to approach the Captain. Ultimately, brutal honesty seemed to be the best approach. Natasha was a soldier after all, a profession where dry facts were the norm.

In the end, there were three possible outcomes she could think of. Option one: They solve the problem. An ideal, but unlikely time and fuel consuming exercise, not to mention the potential added exposure. Option two: Some other branch of Moonstrike is asked to solve the problem. Much more likely, but much more nerve-racking. Having some insight into their operations did not leave a good impression of Moonstrike as a whole. Maybe Avelyn’s expectations were too high. Maybe the rest was more well put together. Or maybe they were even worse. A grim prospect. And lastly option three: She gets booted off the ship for being a security risk. Very much not ideal, yet at the same time likely and worst of all, completely understandable.

Figuring the new arrivals have had enough time to settle down by now, she set out to find Natasha. After a minute of asking around to track her movement, she caught her going into the conference room. [color=#FF2E00]“Captain. Can I steal you for a minute? I bring bad news, but don’t shoot the messenger.”[/color] she tried to lighten the mood a bit, even though there was nothing funny about what she was about to say.

[color=#FF2E00]“Now, I’d like to preface this by saying I intended to first pull my weight and then ask for favors, but shit’s moving fast and we’re not as inconspicuous as I hoped”[/color] Avelyn took a deep breath, [color=#FF2E00]“Right. So, unsurprisingly, many of us still have a family out there, even if they probably think we’re dead. In my case a mother and father. And as long as the Ascendancy doesn’t know we’re working against them, all is well. The problems start once they figure out any of our identities, and although some prefered to call us by numbers, they’ll connect the dots if our names and faces land on their desks. And if they’re half as smart as they’re dickish, they’ll use anything or anyone to screw with our efforts. Now Flame has already identified himself to the Richthofen during your little episode with the 11th fleet remnant, so his old folks, if still alive, might be fucked already. I’ve seen a few black sites and what they do to people there.”[/color] She didn’t say it, but knowing her arcane arsenal, it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what the Ascendancy had her doing there, [color=#FF2E00]“And while I can’t speak for anyone else, I can say with certainty - and please forgive my honesty - that compared to my parents, everyone else, this crew included, is and always will be second rate to me. So if I wake up one day to see that Jonas and Sola Vernal were arrested on the news.. Problem..”[/color] she paused for a moment, trying to judge how the captain was receiving this, [color=#FF2E00]“I was hoping Moonstrike could arrange for the aforementioned individuals to be discreetly removed from Ascendancy territory and into alien - preferably Korta or Rau’Ve - space where they’d be mostly or entirely out of harm’s way. Ideally, we would pick them up ourselves to make it easier on them, but I can’t ask that of you, given how out of the way Epsilon Theta is.”[/color] Avelyn finished, bracing for the worst.