Zach shrugs, reaching into his pocket to pull free a small vial of green liquid which he raises to Rocs as if making a toast. "One thing at a time my friend." Flicking free the stopper, he downs his dose of methadone like a shot before following it with another drag from his cigarette. However he breaks into a fit of coughing mid-inhalation upon seeing the sad state of Jomo's muffin, and puts the cigarette out on his tray as he chokes out, "Sometimes though, I wonder if I'm really the one with the worst crap filling up my body."

Feng makes an extremely rude noise at Zach, and spears a couple large chunks of meat and vegetable with her fork. "You're lucky you're on my good side with the grub deal. Next time, maybe instead of letting you rest on your arse I'll drag you down to the bays and put a wrench in your hand." She then pops the overloaded fork into her mouth and chews a bit, until she hears the latest question by Rocs. Grey metal meets dark, short hair as she slaps the top of her head and shakes it irritatedly. "Gods save us from clueless robots and aliens. Blighter, berk, dross, sod... Some fool who doesn't deserve the respect they aren't given, or who is about to get their own personal raincloud and doesn't know it yet. Those three," she says as she jerks her thumb in a rough line covering Zach, Jomo, and Jonas, "are in the first category. I think we're about to be in the second."

"Someone's gotta tell me what's wrong with me, Doc!" Jomo says with a laugh as he swings back over to his temporary work space, grabbing the tools to make the cap for the grenade before spinning around once more to get back in the conversation. As he tinkers with the small parts and puts them together, he continues talking. "Save who exactly? You've gotta be, what, half robot? And if we're bein' perfectly fair here, the fact that none of us are from exactly the same system means we're all aliens to each other. So you fill two of those categories yourself. And for all you know, blighter might be a compliment on some worlds, so we're all clueless when it comes to each other's comprehension of jargon." Jomo smiles proudly at the cap, before placing it gently on the grenade, and holding it up to the light, examining it fondly. "For example, most people know this little beauty as an M67 fragmentation hand grenade. But to me, she's Suzie Q." Jomo lets out a wistful sigh, before clipping the grenade to his dull yellow belt. "But since we're speakin' a pretty universal language here, yeah, I'm about 80 percent sure it's the idiot thing. You should probably put that in your lexicon Fred. And berk, dross, and sod. Maybe wanker too." Jomo turns back to the resident engineer of the group. "What do ya say, Feng? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass." Despite the comment, the smirk on Jomo's face shows how serious he's actually taking the conversation.

Feng shrugs. "No idea if I'm more or less than half robot at this point, but I'm not a clueless one. But yeah, definitely going with the 'idiot' meaning here. And you're welcome to kick my ass anytime..." she adds, then idly pats a leg with another dull clunk. "Lord knows it'd be fun to watch you limp off after."

"I've never seen anyone with a personal raincloud before." says Fred. "How long does the rain usually last? I wouldn't want to miss it."

"It's a figure of speech, Fred," Sebastian sighs. "It means that the person in question looks gloomy or sad." Lacking further delicious muffiny goodness, Sebastian settles for a glass of milk, a couple oranges, and a bagel. "I don't care how bad the double shift repair duty is, fresh produce makes it totally worth it. I mean really, I can't even remember the last time I had an orange. And it's always nice not getting shot at for a change."

"You people should really come up with a better communication protocol." grumbles Fred. "There's far too many of these speech diagrams to keep proper track of."

All of a sudden, a boisterous laugh can be heard coming from the entrance to the mess hall. In the doorway, Captain Rojo stands tall, a bright smile beaming on his face, like that of a father seeing his family. Behind him, Enrica can be seen with her face firmly planted in her palm.

"Captain, you totally meant to give Fred a word he'd misinterpret, didn't you."

"Hah hah hah!! Well, when the outcomes are always this fun, who wouldn't?"

Making his way to his table, Rojo sits down and starts munching on a muffin. (The captain's plate is always filled first, even if he isn't in the mess hall.)

His mouth still full, he begins speak. "Sho anyw- urp- So anyway, as you all heard, we've got a mission today."

Lifting his cybernetic arm and hitting a few buttons on it, he wrests control of the ship systems from Fred for a few minutes to bring down a projector, dims the lights, and brings up an image of a Shipping Frigate with Juno markings. Enrica begins speaking while Rojo takes another huge bite of food.

"This is Juno Transit Service vessel Silk Road. It is currently transporting a large shipment of Pulsar from Polarus to various markets in Lachesis."

Rojo swallows and interjects. "Zachary, thanks for getting us this intel." He smiles at the deal fixer, whom had joined him planet side on Pandemonium to work out the specifics and get some good data.

Enrica sighs and continues. "In any case, the details of this mission are fairly straightforward. We're to raid the Silk Road."

Rojo chimes in with "But don't think we're after all that Pulsar. Yeah, it's valuable on the markets, but it's not what we were hired to take, and the livelihood of the shippers depends on it. We're Pirates, not savages."

Enrica nods. "No, we're looking for a specific piece of Pulsar. Our contract for this mission comes from an Archaeologist researching the Kaina system, and he needs this piece of Pulsar for his research." Her face darkens as she says, "He said he would do anything to get it, including hiring pirates. He also paid us extra to avoid any contact with the SDA."

As if in response to this, Rojo lifts the green pendant hanging around his neck and lightly flicks it, causing a melodic hum to echo throughout the mess hall. Once the sound dissipates, Rojo says, "This is not an ordinary piece of Pulsar; call it a 'good luck charm', perhaps, but I'm led to believe the piece of pulsar we're searching for will be like this. Most pulsar doesn't sound that pristine when it vibrates." Upon closer inspection, those familiar with pulsar would notice that the green pendant is a slightly different shade of green from the usual green crystals that power most every piece of modern technology.

Karie continues, "The researcher called it a Swara Pulsar, and while Rojo wouldn't sell his own, we did agree to get him this one. According to our Intel, the piece of pulsar we're looking for is unique; rather than green, it's a red color."

Rojo finishes his muffin and stands up. "ALRIGHT, THEN. So, now you know what the target is, so let's go over the mission plan. We will intercept the Silk Road in between the fold gate from Juno and the sub-gate from Atropos to Lachesis. There's a good stretch of space that should be off the radar of the SDA. A small task force led by Enrica and myself will load up on to the White Dwarf once we have stopped the Silk Road, and board it. Once inside, we will divide in to two groups; I will lead a team to take the bridge and hack their computer systems, while Enrica will lead a team to the storage hold to get the Swara Pulsar. The rest of the crew will remain on standby on board the Supernova."

Enrica brings up another screen, detailing the arrangements of the teams.



Enrica doesn't look too happy with some of the arrangements, so it's pretty clear Rojo decided and wouldn't let her get a word in edge-wise. With one more sigh, she says, "So there it is. Any questions?"

There's a low murmur in the room among those not selected. "What's Cap'n thinking, takin' moon-crasher with him..." "They're letting that mad bomber in the hold?!"

Rojo's gentle smile fades at some of the comments, and as if in response, the voices lower...

"Where does the plant matter come into this mission?" asks Fred.

Upon Captain Rojo's arrival, Sebastian leaps to his feet on reflex and only at the last second does he manage to keep himself from shouting 'Officer On Deck', a habit leftover from his time in the Capella SDF and elsewhere that he's been desperately trying to suppress. What with him being a newly consenting pirate and whatnot, he figured it's a good idea to reign in old habits such as that one.

Sebastian listens intently to the briefing, raising his eyebrows when Rojo said they wouldn't be looting all of the Pulsar. "Don't worry, Captain. You can count on me. I won't let you down."

Rocs face opens into a full genuine smile as the Captain approaches and he dives into such a low bow his muzzle nearly scraps the ground. He sits near the Captain and listens as the mission is explained, "Interesting." He removes a hilt from within his lab-coat and pries the side open, a thin crystal of Pulsar sits within. "I use it on my Rapier and a few of my other tools; my medical equipment on board is mostly powered by Pulsar, in the event the ship loses power." He closes the hilt and ignites the rapier, the green blade humming gently before he shuts it down and returns it to his coat.

He then quietly reads the team assignments and realizes he's never been in battle with Feng or Jomo before; he rubs his lower back with a sore-memory of his last sparing match with Enrica. "Miss Feng and Sir Jomo, I am a Melee fighter and I prefer to leave my foes alive. I will assume, as we are not looting these couriers life-lines, that we are aiming to not harm." He nods at Enrica for confirmation and continues, "I would ask that if you accidentally injure one of our targets, that you inform me instantly so that I may treat them." Rocs ignores any comments from the crew.

Feng listens to the briefing silently, but turns to Rocs once he makes his request. Rather than answering him, though, she looks to the Captain. "Good thought. Captain, what are the rules of engagement? Minimize casualties, or avoid 'em completely? Also, any rules on plunder besides 'don't ruin their livelihood'?"

As Rojo begins their briefing Zach starts picking apart the sausage on his plate, making sure to look up and send a wink Enrica's way as she sighs heavily over his involvement in drafting the plan. She never quite seemed to forgive him for actually being useful, but he always preferred to take her derision as a compliment. Hell, tolerance like this was damn near to the highest order of praise as far as he was concerned.

As Rojo starts wrapping up, Zach quickly scarfs down what he can of his remaining meal before dropping his tray off for Ramon's staff to deal with at the conclusion of the captain's speech. "Yeah, I got a question too. It slipped to mind to ask earlier, but do we know what our benefactor is hoping this Swara Pulsar can do? If it's something we can make use of, that kind of info might be even more worthwhile than the payoff itself. Unless of course Fred's fears come true and we're just helping him make a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of herbicide."

As soon as Jomo can hear the boisterous laugh of the captain, he shoves as much of his 'Breakfast' under the table as quickly as possible, conversation with Feng forgotten. He leans back over the rest of his work space, covering up as much as possible so that the First Mate doesn't catch wind of what Jomo's been doing. Jomo's had enough of his precious supplies confiscated already. Jomo gives a short little salute to the captain, trying to act as inconspicuous as possible. Thankfully, Captain Rojo went straight to the mission briefing.

At the mention of a Juno ship, carrying Pulsar no less, Jomo perks up, an ominous grin spreading across his face. Despite the fact that he's clearly dying to say something, Jomo manages to hold back his usual inane chatter. As the mission debriefing finishes, Jomo pumps his fist, "Yes! There's no ships like home ships! First time since I got pulled aboard. I swear, I blow up my own ship and suddenly you don't want me anywhere near something similar." Jomo chuckles, and raises up from his laid back position, turning to Rocs as he makes his request. "I'm all about melee too, Doc." Jomo says, placing a hand on his bicep with a flex. "Explosives are reserved for those that cannot be punched into submission! But since you want minimal damage, I'll just stick with an old family technique." Jomo chuckles, but does not elaborate.

A moment later, Jomo raises his hand, and turns his head back towards Enrica and Captain Rojo. "I have a question! Are you sure I can't take just a tiny bit of pulsar? I'll even leave some of my own personal cash." A glint grows in Jomo's eyes, as he starts to daydream. "Nothing's quite so wonderful as a pulsar laced explosive. It brings tears to your eyes. But like all relationships, ends far too quickly." Jomo wipes away a few tears, with his wrist, a smile still etched into his face. Jomo pauses for a moment, lost in a memory, then continues his pleading with renewed vigor, and lots of hand gestures. "I promise, I won't even put it together on the ship. I'll lock it in a safe, put that safe in a box, put that box in a Corsair, and put that Corsair on a tiny, uninhabited planet, just large enough that a few bricks of C4 laced with pulsar will turn it into stardust. So, please?"

Rocs blinks a few times at Jomo, "Family Technique is it?"

Rocs then observes as Jomo goes off on his tirade about explosives laced with Pulsar and the feline's eyes light up brightly. "Such passion! Jomo, you must show me this. I wish to observe your art first hand! My people knew of Pulsar for quite a long time but we had very little means of acquiring it. What will it do? How will it light up? May I record the occasion for future review?" For all intents in purposes Rocs has lost his cool veneer and seems to more of a kitten in a yarn factory. His feathered fur is almost bristling with excitement.