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OOC: apologies for any typos or anything, I'm on my phone and too lazy to proofread.

IC:
Aria's stomach churned as her shuttle transported her to the USS Wintreath. Why, she was not sure; she was no stranger to shuttles, and she was eager for this mission. She read over the mission briefing for the third or fourth time while waiting for the shuttle to reach its destination. Already, she had the names of her crewmates memorized.

Exploration! The concept filled Aria with a childlike joy. What wonders would she discover in worlds outside of her own? She had pondered this restlessly for several nights now, and fantasies of rich alien worlds came to her in dreams. All of her service in the Talvian Space Authority, and subsequent service in the Wintreath Space Command, had led to this moment. She did not know when she would return home from this mission. Nor did she care.

The shuttle docked on the ship. Aria sat - quite impatiently - in her seat while the shuttle broadcasted its arrival on the USS Wintreath. After a small waiting period, she saw the doors of the shuttle open to the larger ship's airlock. The surveyor grabbed her belongings and walked through. So much waiting, she thought as she again had to stay still while adjusting to the slightly different pressure on board. Her gaze wandered down to her wrist, where her watch lit up with a notification. "dad and I wishing you the best! xoxo," it read. The watch was of an older make, dated a few years at least. It had been standard issue in her old position, though, and she was permitted to keep and reformat it for the purposes of this mission. Smiling but not concerned with replying, she just waited for the screen to darken once more.

The doors on the other side of the airlock opened soon after, and Aria stepped through. Immediately, she was struck by the sheer size of the ship; never in her service had she seen anything comparable. Quite honestly, it was intimidating in its vastness. After taking a moment to appreciate it, she turned to a small screen mounted on the wall beside the door. A map of the ship was currently on display. Quickly glancing over it, she decided to first visit the bridge. She was surprised to have not seen anyone near the entryway, though she didn't particularly mind. Carrying her bags alongside her, she walked until she reached the similarly vacant bridge. Wary not to touch anything, but fascinated by the starmap, she spent some time simply staring at it. The thought that she and the rest of the crew would fill out this map further then it currently was... it filled her with determination.

The Captain was shortly informed that Aria Wells was on board and simply staring at the starmap. He quickly hurried (after finishing his borscht) to the bridge. It seems that the bridge crew are off duty right now he thought.

"Hello, are you our explorer?" announced Alexsandr.

The voice of another human startled Aria; she had been deep in thought staring at the map. She turned to see a man whose badge indicated he was Captain of the ship. Remembering her briefings, she recognized the man as Alexsandr Von Erikson. She gave him a brief salute.

"That would be me - Surveyor Aria Wells, reporting for duty. And you would be the Captain, correct?"

"Yes, I am the Captain of this grand vessel. You may call me Alexsandr though. Hendrik  and Aaban are already on board. Take a look around this vessel. A crew member will also escort you to your quarters. Hopefully everything will be satisfactory for the long journey ahead of us!"

"I've found this ship more than satisfactory thus far - thank you for the warm welcome, Alexsandr, and I'm sure our journey will be a grand one."

A crew member soon came to her and led her to her quarters. Along the way, she continued to be awed by the scale of everything on board. She resisted the urge to stop and acquaint herself with everything, however, as she wanted to first get her belongings in order. Eventually, her quarters were reached and she stepped inside. She thanked the crewman and dismissed him, closing the door behind her. Casting aside her bag, she briefly scanned the room.

Her bed looked surprisingly comfy, and a computer upon a desk was tucked neatly into a corner. By her right side was a minifridge, which upon further inspection contained water bottles and some snacks. Two doors (in addition to the entry door) were present; one on the left side of the room, near the far corner, and another directly opposite it. Aria first walked toward the right one, which opened as she approached. It was a small closet, already stocked with some clothes. Aria then checked the other door, which revealed a bathroom inside. She then briefly unpacked her belongings; mostly clothes for varying conditions, but also a few objects of sentimental value.

Once that was taken care of, she walked to her bed and sprawled out on it. She raised her wrist to her face, and the notification from her mother was still present on the screen when she turned it on. She texted back now, thanking her mother for the well wishes. For a brief period she simply lay there, but soon stood up again. She sat at the computer desk and found another map of the ship loaded onto it. Next, she decided, she would visit the lounge; it did not appear she had any jobs that needed doing right now, so she may as well acquaint herself with other areas of the ship.

She left her room and found her way to the lounge, denying an offer to be escorted by a crewman near her room. Once there, she noted that several people were present, though mostly more crewmen. She sat down in a chair and gazed at a TV screen, currently on a news channel. Reading the banners floating aceoss the bottom of the screen, she noted one headline in particular: "Terrorist attack in southern Talvias kills 20." Aria was not at all surprised, and mostly desensitized to it at this point; that region of her country had been subject to violent separatist attacks for decades now. Such headlines popped up at least every month or two. She looked up from the banner, and now saw a picture of the very ship she was on. The USS Wintreath expedition was making waves across the region.

Alexsandr decided to check out the other areas of interest. But first, he told a crewmen to contact the other members of the crew to get on board as soon as possible.

He looked at the nearest map of the ship and found out there was a War Room. He found a blank screen that supposedly was a map and found a list of every man aboard.

"Odd. Why would there be a war room on an exploration vessel?" he wondered aloud. There was also a table and some chairs which he guessed were for meetings and discussions. He left the room and explored the other parts of the ship and found out there was a unit assembly area as well. Perhaps this vessel is also a prototype war vessel he thought as he went back to the bridge.

As Gunther walked towards the shuttle that would take him to the USS Wintreath, two men in uniform quickly walked up with both hands on their rifles.

One spoke loud and clearly, "Sir, only authorized personnel are allowed in this area. Please hand over your firearm and come with us."

Without stopping, Gunther slightly raised his machine gun with one arm, pointing it towards their feet. "I am authorized personnel, and no you're not touching Karen," Gunther said forcefully.

"Gunther Stenberg?" one questioned.

"Aye, now take me up to the ship," Gunther said as he walked between the two soldiers towards the shuttle. As he took a seat inside, he let out an inaudible sigh of relief. "Those two soldiers could tell who I was, so the crew must already be informed who I am," he thought, "so it looks like I won't have to try so hard at first."

As the shuttle neared the ship, he went into his meditative state that he used to become his new persona, Gunther. By the time the shuttle docked and the door opened, he was already standing up, machine gun in hand. As he stepped out of the shuttle, the crewman who was there to greet him stepped back with wide eyes.

"Uh, are you...? You're not supposed to carry weapons onto the ship," the crewman whimpered.

"Try and take it," Gunther growled.

The crewman quickly looked down and typed onto his personal tablet, saying, "I'm letting the Captain know you're here. This way to your room."

Gunther followed slowly, gazing at the ship as he walked. "I think I may have gotten in over my head," Gunther thought. "This is really official-looking and high class."

As he entered his room, he stared at the crewman until he nervously scurried away. He hid his gun away into the closet and sat on the edge of the bed, meditating for a couple minutes to regain his composure. He then stood back up and headed towards the bridge where he assumed the Captain to be.

Alexsandr was busy plotting the initial course of the ship until he noticed someone come in. Since Alexsandr did an extensive reading of his crewmen, he knew the man to be Gunther Stenberg.

"Hello Gunther. I heard you were from the mercenary group Fire's Edge? It'll be good to have someone with combat experience when we explore planets. Never know what could be down those. Anyways, welcome aboard to my vessel. You can make yourself acquainted with the other members."

Alexsandr paused for a brief moment. "Also, try not to scare my crew. And calm down with that gun of yours." 

Zerick Chase looked in the mirror and fixed his uniform. After his graduation, he was hand picked to be an engineer aboard the USS Wintreath, an honor higher than any other for an engineer. After he was satisfied with how he looked, he found his parents at the front door to see him off. With the farewells said, he was off.

Once on the shuttle, he took one last look at his homeworld. The shuttle took off once Zerick strapped himself in. A short flight later and they landed in the USS Wintreath shuttle bay. Overcome with excitement, meeting with the Captain was the only thing on Zerick's mind.

Gunther simply nodded to the Captain. He looked the Captain up and down and came to the conclusion that he would not be much of a problem for him. He turned around and headed back to his room, not taking much interest in wanting to meet the other members yet.

As he arrived in his room, he saw a computer terminal on a desk, where he then went and sat down. The computer screen had a few icons, one of which was labeled "Daily Logs". Gunther realized that somebody would most likely be monitoring these logs.

He opened the program and decided to write:

The Captain or Grand Prince or whatever he wants to call himself seems a good enough guy but not as tall as I imagined. Try to stay on his good side. No more scaring the crew or waving Karen around... at least not as much.

He closed the program and noticed another icon that read "Crew Dossiers". He opened the program and spent the next several hours reading about the other crew members. He wanted to know exactly who he was dealing with before meeting them face-to-face.

As soon as Gunthar left, he was notified of Zerick's arrival. He decided to meet him in the shuttle bay. While walking there, he made a mental note to keep a close eye on Gunthar. A moment later, he arrived at the shuttle bay.

"Hello! You must be Zerick. It'll good to have an engineer here. You'll find this vessel's engineering capability... to be very large. A crew member will escort you to your quarters and then the assembly/engineering bay. And welcome aboard!"

Hendrik had spent a good few minutes exchanging pleasantries with the strange and lively Crushitan, and was now making his way to the lounge once more.

As he entered, he saw a woman whom he surmised to be Aria. He calmly made his way over to her, but saw that she was staring intently at the news monitor. He gave a cursory glance at the headlines, and immediately saw the problem.

He decided that it might be best to leave her to her thoughts and wait for her to notice him by the bar. He was in no rush to meet all his fellow crew members. They would have a hell of a long time for that.

"Bar tender, please give me a martini. Actually, make that two, but send one over to that woman over there in the lounge. Don't tell her who sent it. Just tell her the person who sent it thought she could use a drink."

"Thank you, sir. I plan on keeping all systems running optimally at all times," he said with a salute. "The challenge is half the fun"

The captain was soon informed of the last shipment of supplies which apparently came inside a mining ship. He inspected it and it came with an encoded message.

"This mining ship is for you to mine minerals. This will help your assembly area. Also Captain, you must remain on your mission forever. We do not expect you to come back to Wintreath. The supplies given have some minerals and beacons that will indicate a planet's status. Please set it so it represents the planet, whether colonizable or uncolonizable. Please keep this message with you or in your quarters at all time."

The Captain sighed. He would never see his family or home again. He decided to go to his quarters immediately and insert the message into the computer's data system. Fortunately, his computer was on a completely different system than the rest of the ship and was hard to break into.

James Wheeler watched as the planet slowly drifted away from him. So I'm back in space again, and sooner than I expected, he thought, as the shuttle docked with the USS Wintreath.

As he entered the ship (and presumably his new home), he looked around. It was definitely cleaner and more spacious than Shadow Bird, the freighter he'd last navigated for. A crew member stopped James, asking, "Identification, please?" As James showed him his ID, the crew member stated crisply, "Welcome aboard, astrogator. The captain is likely expecting you on the bridge."

With a brief nod, James proceeded toward the bridge. He had not been expecting such a formal greeting, though on his brief walk he did catch some crew members mentioning something about a "machine gun scare" or something like that.

James soon reached the bridge, and took in the beautiful sight of shiny new equipment. Definitely not some thrown-together pieces of junk like the last time I was in space, James thought to himself. Hopefully, this newer-looking equipment also behaves better. The navigating computer not failing on me all the time would probably be helpful.