Almost a week passed since the tactical meeting, and within that time Vance had almost gotten accustomed to life in space. Jita had assigned him a bedroom somewhat near Glass's, and he had been spending his days learning the basic structures of the alien world. (His favorite thing he had learned was that Aeribisques were bioluminescent. Glass was very happy to demonstrate this).

Arwin had requested that Vance meet with the rest of the mission crew in the hangar bay for their briefing and takeoff. After wandering around the base, he eventually found it. The hanger was huge- the largest room in the base from what Vance had seen. It was full of starships of every shape, design, and size. It honestly looked straight out of the movies. Vance spotted a small crowd gathered in front of one of the ships- and within that crowd, he spotted Arwin.

Before Vance could reach Arwin to talk to her, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, and then looked up. It was Rachard.

"Hey." She greeted. She was somewhat intimidating, seeming to loom over Vance and everyone else in the crowd, but her voice remained pleasant and calm. "Vance, right?"

Vance nodded. "Yup. That's me."

Rachard nodded. "Great! I mean. Well, it would've been kinda awkward if you weren't- nevermind." The way she stumbled over her words was jarring- she seemed so dignified, so self-confident at the meeting. "I hope I didn't scare you. I've heard I can be a bit intimidating."

"No, not at all." Vance lied. It was obvious, too. God, he's supposed to be a better liar than this."

Rachard frowned in response, but only for a moment. Her cheerful demeanor quickly resumed. "So. I'm assuming this is your first time in space?"

"Uh. Yeah." Vance stated.

"Ah, that's so exciting! Rachard smiled. "You're lucky to have Arwin as a pilot too, she's the best around."

"Attention, attention," Arwin's voice cut through their conversation. Vance turned to face her,

Arwin was wearing a trenchcoat over her normal uniform and an earpiece comlink in her ear. She was also standing on top of a metal crate, making her seem even more dignified and intimidating.

"Everyone seems to be here, so we can start on the briefing." Arwin's voice was clear and monotonous, almost harsh. "We are on a diplomatic mission to planet Lyral, which means no violence unless strictly necessary." Arwin shot a glance at Glass, who Vance just realized was in the crowd with them.

"Hey, hey, I can control myself." Glass gave Arwin an unconvincing smile. Arwin continued.

"We are going to Lyral to talk with the people of Lisoire about a ship found in their sector. We're going to have to be as careful as we can, we don't know what all we're dealing with. Am I clear?"

The crowd murmured in agreement. Arwin nodded. "Very well. Let's board the ship and get on with this mission."

As the crowd slowly moved into the ship, Glass ran up to Vance. "Excited?" She smiled.

"Uh. Kinda?" Vance confessed, "I mean, Arwin was talking about how we don't know what we're dealing with."

"Aw, c'mon." Glass teased. "We almost never know what we're dealing with.C'mon, let's get on the ship already." She said before dragging Vance to the ship.

The ship was cool, colder than the main base, and the hallways were smaller. There weren't any windows; the walls were sheets of grey metal. Vance and Glass were the last ones on board, as the doors closed soon after they boarded,

"C'mon, you've got to meet the rest of the squad!" Glass said, dragging Vance through the ship's hallways.

Vance was led to an open room that almost resembled a living room. There were windows

(currently closed and blocked by metal curtains), a table, and seats. On those seats were two of the people Vance recognized from the meeting, Astrid and Zy.

As soon as she entered the room, Glass sat down next to Astrid. She beckoned for Vance to follow.

Vance walked into the room, slowly and awkwardly, and sat next to Zy.

"Don't think we ever formally met." Zy greeted. "Zyxos Julien, a pleasure to meet you."

Vance shook Zy's hand (It was cold and hard, it felt unnatural. "I'm Vance Connel."

"Nice." Zy responded with a smile. "That over there's Astrid, and you already know Glass."

"Sup." Astrid greeted. Glass smiled and waved.

"Yeah." Vance nodded.

Before anyone could continue the conversation, Arwin's voice came over the intercom. "We're taking off in thirty seconds."

"You better hold on" Zy advised.

Vance couldn't respond before the entire ship lurched forward, causing Vance to fall back into his seat. It only lasted a few moments, though, and soon everything returned to normal, leaving Vance in a state of surprise.

"First takeoff, eh?" Zy asked, playfully teasing Vance.

"Yup." Vance answered awkwardly. "First trip to space and all."

"You're from earth right?" Astrid chimed in. "What's it like?"

"It's...alright. Part of it I'm from was pretty dry. Got real hot in the summertime."

Astrid nodded. "Nice, nice. I'm from Virakusso. Lots of mountains, lots of trees. These other two are from city planets."

Glass laughed. "Seijano is not my home."

"So." Vance answered. "You guys been friends long?"

"Ehhh..." Glass shrugged. "It's different for all of us. Like, Astrid and I only met when we both joined up here. Zy tried to arrest me a while ago."

Zy nodded. "That I did."

"And he and Rachard go way, way back. No one here's got too many ties to Arwin, though. She and Chard get along pretty well, being both castvernon and all."

Vance nodded. "Speaking of Rachard, where is she?"

"Up in the cockpit with Arwin. She's the copilot." Zy explained. "We all kinda have our roles, I'm the mechanic-slash- tech guy, Astrid's the muscle, Chard's the tank, Arwin's the brains and the pilot, Glass is the stupid stealthy one-"

"Hey! I'm not that dumb!" Glass cut in.

"Anyways, you get my point. All our skills kinda fit together well, one of the reasons we're the mission team."

Vance nodded. "Sounds like quite the team."

The conversation lasted a few hours as the team travled through space. Vance learned that Astrid was born organic but was turned castvernon in a science experiment she had no say in, that Zy was a manufactured stealth drone built to fight for the Baron (the castvernon's greatest enemy- a confederation of organic species and allegedly as bad as the castvernon), and that Glass was a slave to a politician she later murdered in cold blood.

Eventually, the ship slowed to a stop. Arwin's voice came over the intercom again. "Everyone, we've arrived in the lyral system."