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March 26, 2342 - CSF Darwin, Cantina (1:05 PM)

Lliam had followed Neal from the bridge down to the ships cantina but just as he had said, they had to stop at a few destinations along the way. Lliam didn't know what Neal had to do at those locations but after stopping at all his stops he quickly took Lliam where he needed to go. Looking around Lliam noticed the room was similar to the Coffee Lounge on the I.S.F Darwin. Even the old antique classical piano he had played on was here. He smiled as he recalled the memories he had of the I.S.F Darwin. Looking around, he noticed that JJ; the bartender of the old Coffee Lounge, wasn't here. It was possible he ended up on another ship; which Lliam hoped was true, but he was unsure due to these dangerous times.

"They're over there Lliam." Neal said as he pointed to the corner of the room where James and Albert sat; glued to separate monitor screens. "I'll have to be on my way now. Still got things to do after all."

"Thanks Neal." Lliam said as he shook Neal's hand.

"Anytime Lliam." Neal said as he left. After saying farewell to Neal, Lliam walked to where James and Albert sat. As he approached them, he noticed a few changes since seething them last.

Other then the both of them having showered and dressed, James had cut his hair back down to how short it was when Lliam had first met him. He was now thirty four years old while his build had stayed muscular, his time on Daminia had made him more quick and agile. He was wearing normal civilian clothing; a black T-shirt, tan slacks and black shoes.

However there were now a couple scars on his face from being clawed by one of the native creatures of Daminia. The first of the two scars started between his left eye and nose that ended near his jaw on the left side. The other started underneath his left eye and was only an inch and a half long but parallel with the longer one.

Albert had cut his hair as well, but instead of cutting it back down to the same length as his fur; he left a little length to it. It had been years since his hair and fur shone so brightly that Lliam had almost forgot he had platinum colored hair and nearly white on white striped fur. He lost a little bit of his muscle mass from where it was seven years ago but he too had become more athletic just as James had only he was now thirty six years old. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and blue loose fitting jeans and black shoes as well.

The only visible injuries he had sustained was the large nick on his right ear that almost split it in half, but the largest injury and now scar that would stay with him was on his back. He received this wound after the third day on Daminia while trying to escape one of the Damin. One of the creature's talon like claws managed to slice his back open from his right shoulder to the bottom of his back near his spine. The wound was four inches wide at its widest point and the only reason he lived from the wound was because they managed to find and use some med-gel that survived the crash.

The only part of that scar that was visible while he wore the shirt was on his shoulder Lliam noticed as he walked up from behind them. Albert was the first to notice someone approaching them, his ear twitched a couple times before he turned to see who it was. His usual cool and calm demeanor faltered slightly; not upon seeing Lliam himself but rather the bandages and blood stained fur on the right sight of his face and on his muzzle near his nose.

"Lliam... are you alright?" Albert asked with concern as he stood up and turned to face Lliam.

"Lliam?" James said and turned in his chair to look behind himself. "You must have just got out of one hell of a fight! Where'd you get the armor?" He asked after seeing Lliam's injures and the upper armor he was wearing that he looted off an Outcasts corpse.

"I'm fine, and yeah... it was a helluva war zone. Quick, but intense none the less." Lliam said as he grabbed a chair and sat down. "I grabbed this off the corpse of one of the guys I killed."

"So, was it Humanitist forces, or these Outcast Forces we've been reading up on?" James asked as Albert retook his seat.

"Outcast's for sure and let me tell ya... these guys are so much different than the regular Humanitist forces we use to fight. But compared the Damin... you've read up on that right?" Lliam stopped and asked to which they nodded "Well they're not as hard to take down."

"Ha, so then it'll be a cakewalk when we finally get to fight." James said and laughed.

"I just said they were easier to take down then the Damin. They're heavily armed and highly trained... you two would have a more difficult time fighting them than I did." Lliam said.

Laughing again James said "You let me be the judge of that. Our time on... Daminia has made both of us more agile. We'll cope."

"Well, we'll see... oh yeah, can't forget to mention this. The ones that command them are like Delta. Had myself a little run in with one of them before the Darwin got here." Lliam said which caused James to stop laughing.

"Like Delta huh..." James said, shaking his head and sighing "I can't believe all that's happened since we got stranded. The database says he's a traitor and that even the Freelancers themselves have disappeared... not to mention Earth." He said in a somber tone. "Damn, I wish I could get my hands on some of these guys!" James said; anger clear in his voice.

A slight smile formed on Lliam's face after hearing James say that. Albert noticed the grin and said "Why do I get the feeling you want to ask us something?"

Looking at Albert, Lliam said "Well I do want to ask you something, but first I have to tell you a few things."

"Go ahead, we're listening." Albert said.

Lliam took a deep breath and sighed before filling them in on what had happened. He told them most of what he told the Admiral but omitted a few details due to how many people were in the cantina; including that the Outcasts had attacked solely to capture two people. After catching them up and saying there was more but he wouldn't discuss it here, he moved onto what he asked of the Admiral.

"I asked the Admiral if he'd let me go after the Outcasts that attacked the colony. I... 'Convinced' him to let me go with Kathy but... we need a few more people to come with us and the Admiral needs all his personnel onboard. Which is why I've come to you two, would you help me hunt these guys down?" Lliam asked.

There were a few moments of silence after Lliam asked them. It was Albert who first spoke up "I can tell that you have a more... personal reason for wanting to go after them other than for just attacking the colony. If you tell us why you really want to go after them, and why Captain Nance is willing to go as well; considering the children you said she takes care of, then I'll give you my answer."

James smiled as Albert spoke and nodded his head. Ever since the transport incident, Albert had started speaking more and more, to the point he dominated conversation when he spoke and often he could tell when someone was hiding something. "I'm siding with him on this. Give us a little more info Lliam." James added.

Lliam sighed and said "Yeah... I do have a personal reason for doing this, and so does Kathy. I... I can't tell you her reason, at least not yet. It requires me telling you some stuff I'd rather not discuss here. Part of my personal reason for wanting to go is also why she wants to go, but the other is because... well..." Lliam stopped and looked around.

After noticing that there was no one near them; and no furs who could listen in on them, Lliam said "My personal reason for wanting to chase them is because they came to this colony, killed all these people; men, women... children, both human and fur alike and caused all this destruction just so they could capture two people. My reason is because of who those two people are."

Lliam then explained how he and Kathy followed a group of Outcasts who had taken vixens and children prisoner. He had already told them the Outcast leader could do similar things like him but he decided to elaborate more on what the Outcast Mateo could do and how he acted when the vixens and children weren't who they were looking for.

"I'm guessing since this is personal for you that... it was family they took?" James asked.

Lliam smiled slightly and said "Yeah... their family. One of them is Sara, you both remember her right?"

"Sara, as in who your brother used to date; Sara? How is she family? From what the Admiral told us, Rrahkarr and her split ways when he left." James asked.

"Well... because before we were attacked and listed MIA I found out; in a rather unique way" Lliam said with a chuckle and a slight blush; visible even through his fur "That she was pregnant with Rrahkarr's child. She had a daughter; so I'm related to her through my niece." Lliam simply stated.

"Rrahkarr has... a... a daughter... your niece?" James stuttered, his mind temporarily having trouble comprehending what he was told. "So you're saying that brother of yours had an ankle bitter now?" James added and started laughing.

In a serious voice Albert asked "What do you think they're going to do with them?"

Looking him in the eye, Lliam said in a sad tone of voice "Depending on why they took them... torture, enslavement... death."

Both Albert and James; once he quieted down, grew pensive looks on their faces as Lliam waited patiently for them to answer. After a few minutes Albert said "Okay Lliam, we'll help." As he stood up he looked at James and said "Let's go."

"Sure" he said as he stood up also but then asked Lliam "What about weapons and supplies?"

"I'm sure we'll be fine on weapons." Lliam said which made Albert give him another calculating look. "Though supplies may be a bit limited, I'm not sure. We'd have to ask Kathy." Lliam added.

"Well then, let's go. I'd like to meet her." James said with grin.

"Okay, but you'll have to lead the way. I needed Neal to show me the way here after all." Lliam said as James laughed and started to head out of the room.

***************

CSF Darwin, Starboard Hanger (1:45 PM)

Walking off of the turbo lift, the three friends entered the hanger. Stepping past the marked off area they entered zero gravity. Kicking off they headed further into the hanger and approached the Luxuria. None of them took notice of the large cargo doors that were open on the underside of the ship or what had just been stowed away inside.

Lliam did notice however that Kathy was floating near her ship with a frustrated look on her face. She looked like she had just had heated debate about something with someone, and agreed to it which seemed to be not sitting well with her.

Nearing the edge where the walkway gave way to the empty space of the hanger, Lliam grabbed onto some hand railing and slowed himself down before turning to face Albert and James. They slowed down as well as Lliam said "Can you two wait here? It looks like Kathy isn't happy with something."

"Oh aye, is that her behind ya?" James asked in an Irish accent, to which Lliam looked behind him.

Kathy was right behind him and looking him in the eye with a scowl. Forcing a smile Lliam said "Hi there, um... these two are the ones I was talking about."

Her scowl was replaced with a smile as she looked at them. "Hello, it's nice to meet you." She said in a pleasant voice before the upset look returned. "Can you tell me why I agreed to have two mechs loaded onto my ship?"

"Well..." Lliam said and thought for a second "All three of us can pilot mech's, but I don't know why you agreed to it or why they even offered to load them."

"Who offered them to you?" James asked.

"That second lieutenant that greeted us when we arrived." Kathy said, momentarily forgetting his name.

"Neal?" Lliam asked as she nodded her head.

"Someone say my name?" Neal asked from behind them.

They all turned to see Neal coming up from behind them. He was holding a couple of data pads in one of his hands while he used the other to grab hold of the hand railing to stop himself. "These will hopefully familiarize you with these new mechs." Neal said as he handed the pads over to Lliam and James.

"Why are you giving these to us? The admiral said he needed all his assets." Lliam asked.

"Well... these two don't have registered pilots for them. The two who would've originally piloted them were killed a few days before we got the shipment of these new mechs." Neal explained.

"How long ago was that?" James asked.

"A few months ago, they were killed on Daminia." Neal said.

"I see they're LM's; the MvLM T-14 Predator. Hmm... are they based off the Terra?" Lliam asked as he scanned the data pad.

"Yes... well, partially. They were actually based off the data that was provided from the Terra you piloted as well as the Nova but mostly from the Terra. Most of the data came from that time on E'zelah when those powers of yours came to be. Based on that, the gear heads had to redevelop the design of their mechs. After a few years they came up with the answer; apparently they integrated a... uh... what was it called?" Neal said as he tried to remember the name of what it was they named the system.

"A Bio-mechanical control system!" James said, sounding excited.

"Yes that's what it was." Neal said.

The others were just staring at James so he decided to enlighten them "Basically these new mechs move much more like a person then the old ones. They'll have fluid movements and quicker reaction times compared to the mechanical and limited movements of the other mechs. Say if you were running in one of the older mechs and tried to jump there'd be a delay after the CPU processed the information and sent it on due to the reaction time of the mechanical system that moves the mech. With these Bio-Mech systems, they'll jump the instant you want to." James said then looked at Neal "Did they finally fix the ligament control issue that was holding them up?"

"Y-Yes. How do you know so much about them already?" Neal asked in bewilderment

"I had heard they were planning on implementing the Bio system before we got stranded. But I also heard they were having difficulties at the time; the ligaments that would help control them weren't responding correctly last I knew." James said and chuckled.

"Wait, these mechs can fly?" Lliam asked after reading on the capabilities of the Predator.

"Yes they can, that's what the Mv that's in front of LM is for. The MvLM Predator is a multirole battle suit. It can operate on the ground, air and even in space." Neal explained.

"So how many ligaments do they have?" James asked as he scanned through the data pad.

"Four is the max the most of our pilots can handle, some are at three but any more and they'd need to be body builders in order to operate the mech." Neal said.

"What does the amount of ligaments have to do with movement? And why do they have ligaments in the first place?" Kathy asked.

Turning to face her, James said "Well that's what makes up the physical end of the Bio system. The more ligaments these mechs have the stronger they are; they can jump higher, run and turn faster, also the more they have the harder the mech can actually hit something at close range with melee weapons or its hands. But the downside to that is the more ligaments they have the stronger the pilots need to be."

"Okay that somewhat explains why they have ligaments but why would the pilots need to be stronger?" Kathy asked.

"The concept is similar to lifting weights. I'm pretty sure you can lift a decent amount of weight; probably more then what your build says you can lift, but even at that you can only lift so much. To lift more you'd need to be stronger. Take me for example; I'd be able to pilot a mech with four... maybe five ligaments. Albert here would be able to easily to pilot one with five or six but these LM's are too small for him." He said with a smile as he patted Albers shoulder; who just chuckled. "Lliam is the odd one out though; he'd probably be able to pilot a mech with ten or more like I could pilot a mech with one ligament." James explained.

"That just means he'll be able to operate these Predators at their peak performance." Neal interjected then looked at Kathy and said "The mech's are loaded and they'll be secured in a few minutes. If you need any other supplies let me know otherwise you'll be cleared to leave soon after."

"Thank you. Actually we could do with a resupply of antimatter and replacement parts. That and I think I should take them all aboard and show 'em around." Kathy said to him.

"Alright, if you can get me a list of the replacement parts you'll need I'm sure I can get you most if not all of them shortly." Neal said.

"Of course, I have the list here; I was looking for them down at the colony." Kathy said as she pulled out a data pad and handed it to Neal.

Nodding his head, he told her "We can get you these but it'll take an hour."

"That's fine."

"Good, I'll see to it that they're loaded, control will notify you when you're cleared to undock. Good luck guys, I know you'll need it." Neal said and started to leave before he stopped and turned around "Captain Nance, the Admiral has given you clearance to use the militaries secure FTL communication network." He said to her formally as he handed her a data card.

"I assume he wants to keep in contact with us?" Kathy asked.

"Yes, or to provide you with information we pick up and vice versa. Good luck everyone." Neal said and headed towards the turbo lifts.

"Alright boys, come on." Kathy said as she kicked off in the direction of the Luxuria's hatch followed closely by the others except Lliam.

When Kathy reached the hatch and noticed Lliam didn't follow she called out to him "What's the matter?"

He kicked off and soon stopped himself from running into her before saying "I'd like to go back down to the colony... I have to see my sister before we take off."

She looked like she had a hot retort ready but instead told him "Follow me, I'll beam you down."

"Thank you Kathy." Lliam said as he followed her to the Luxuria's transporter and was beamed back down to Falora.