“Very well, thank you,” Mei replied without missing a beat, smiling lightly. As the Lieutenant Commander turned and focused his attention on the board, she leaned back in her chair a little more, seeming to be relaxed. Her apparent nonchalance, however, belied the seriousness with which she focused on his words. She often came across as relaxed, uninterested, and even flippant, but the reality was that when it came down to it, she took her job more seriously than anyone.<br/><br/>She knew full well the consequences of failure, and she had no intention of suffering those consequences, nor seeing those around her suffer them. With that in mind, she took in everything he told them. Someone was sending out a jamming signal beyond the mountains, apparently strong enough to essentially cripple even their best sensors.<br/><br/>He went on to tell them that this would be more than a routine patrol, which she thought should be obvious, but she couldn’t fault him for wanting to sober them all up to the realities they were facing. It was a good idea, she thought, to always be prepared for combat, but the life she had led thus far demanded such a philosophy, and she recognized that such was not the case for everyone. It was easy enough for most people to get lulled into some sense of routine when they did the same thing over and over. That was dangerous in any line of work, but more so in an occupation such as this. Nonetheless, it was a reality, thus making it necessary for such things to be said.<br/><br/>They would not be going alone, but rather accompanied by Gamma Platoon. That was of some comfort, as the other platoon was more experienced, where they were still relatively new, with most of them having little, if any combat experience. She was no exception, at least in this arena. She had seen her fair share of combat, but that was all before she had joined up with Chaos. Still, the intuition and reflexes one learned during a real combat situation could be applied across the spectrum, so in this way, she was at least a little better prepared than most.<br/><br/>He continued on, explaining the loss of contact with the town beyond the mountain, which made sense, considering. Additionally, the previous patrols had yet to return, and considering the situation, there was no way to contact them. Beyond this, he explained that their Valkyrie production facility had gone dark. They wanted to know why. It was easy enough to put the pieces together and guess that these occurrences were connected. It would be foolish to dismiss them as coincidence. Still, the mastermind and the true objective behind these incidences were harder to deduce with such little information.<br/><br/>Their job was to investigate, to find this information, and to eliminate any threats that may present themselves. She felt a bit of an itch to get started now, to feel the rush of combat again. It was a terrifying thing for many, to be faced with the very real possibility of death, but she found it exhilarating. Once, she had lived for such a thing. It was different now, but the itch was still there, hiding in the back of her mind. She wouldn’t seek out confrontation, though. She was not that reckless. If it came, though, she would be more than ready.<br/><br/>When he asked if there were any questions, she had none. Not because there were no questions that needed answering, but because she knew that he had no answers for anything she might ask. She wasn’t in the habit of asking questions she knew there were no answers to, or to which she could deduce on her own.<br/><br/>She glanced over her shoulder at Emile, who raised his hand and asked for some semblance of a risk or threat assessment. She thought it was unlikely that he had such information; the patrols had not returned, and their scanners were blocked, after all. Anything they had would be purely speculation.<br/><br/>It was a valid question in most situations, so she couldn’t fault him for asking. He was a bright kid; he was just young and green. She turned her attention back to the man at the front of the room, a hint of a smile lingering on her lips. His answer was just as she had predicted, but she supposed now there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were going into this blind.<br/><br/>“Well, there are worse situations,” she suggested, shrugging. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m ready to get this show on the road,” she recognized the irony of her being the one to want to move things along when she had been the one who had showed up late, but the room had taken on a rather somber air and it was stifling. She wasn’t a fan of those types of situations, and in her experience, it did no good to sit around worrying and letting your nerves get the best of you. They led to hesitation and distraction, which could very well lead to your death. Better to take one for the team and lighten the mood, to play on their excitement for something new than to let them all get stuck in their heads. That was what she thought, anyways.