Rothgar hurried into the conference chamber. He had had a late start, but made up time weaving through the maze of corridors and stairwells between the depths of the ordnance facilities decks and this more rarefied location. The lower down you went, the more the air on this ship turned to smoke and other noxious vapors, which was just fine with the ruddy dwarf. He'd made a home for himself down there. The cramped passageways and overfilled storerooms weren't entirely unlike the Stonecrawler tunnels back home. If you stayed away from the portholes, you could almost convince yourself you weren't suspended in the vastness of space, supported by nothing in particular. Gave one the willies, it did. Worse than floating on water. At least there you knew if you fell overboard you'd hit bottom eventually.<br/><br/>The rough-hewn dwarf strode into the conference room, looked around, and froze. Yep, there she was, like an ex-girlfriend you were trying to avoid at a party that was too small to keep you from bumping into each other eventually. The window took up most of one wall, and behind it was only darkness and stars. He shuddered. There was a seat on the other side of the room, as far from the window as possible. He took a peek behind the ancient tapestry and grunted, satisfied to find only a blank wall. Rothgar grabbed the remote seat, facing his opponent head-on.<em> Ye don't put your back ta sumtin' like that unless ye have ta</em>, he thought.<br/><br/>He'd never met the two women in the room. They weren't regulars down on the gunnery decks, for sure. He noted the clean uniform worn by the red-headed woman, and belatedly looked down at his own appearance. Singed, blackened with soot, a half-empty bandoleer of glass vials clinking with every step. Washing up probably would've been a good career move, now that he thought of it. He pulled out a small paring knife and started removing the worst of the dried gunk from under his fingernails. He had a habit of talking when he was busy with his hands, which was most of the time, and saw no reason to stop now.<br/><br/>"Rothgar Stonecrawler," he announced. "Assistant Gunnery Chief, pleased ta meet ya. Any idea what this meetin's about?"<br/><br/>