<div class="floatleft">(https://myanimelist.net/images/characters/4/34461.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Lt Maxine "Max" Cosinara<br/><strong>Callsign:</strong>Phade<br/><strong>Date:</strong><em>Flashback</em>01 March 2032<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Moon Base Aluce Hangar/Officers Mess<br/><strong>With:</strong>Lt Cdr Zilkin Kaverosky<br/><hr/><br/>There was a bustle of activity off to her side.  A cadre of officers, many looking sleepy if not downright exhausted.  She knew that look well.  Hours on hours of sitting alert, ready for anything to happen.  The worst for Max had always been sitting alert on the ramp, in her Veritech.  So close to anything, to feeling the power and strength of the machine in her soul, but so far from really being able to do anything, unless something happened.  There were days she'd prefer a simple airborne alert.  It was a waste of time, a waste of fuel to send up combat alert patrols if nothing was happening.  That's what they said, but Max always knew it was more about being jealous they weren't out there.<br/><br/>She watched as the officers piled in and slowly grabbed their food.  Many of them were new.  Young officers without a shred of combat experience and very little experience in any other form.  It had occurred to Max that was the reason that Cmdr. Nomura had asked for her to join the unit.  Not only was Max checked out on the most advanced versions of the VF-1 and VF-5, but she had garnered a reputation for being a fairly good instructor pilot.  The squadrons would need a good instructor to beat these new punks into shape, much the same way her instructors beat her into shape.<br/><br/>Her thoughts wandered with the memories of pilot training when the pressure on her shoulders suddenly pulled her back to reality.  The warm whisper of his voice washed along her spine like a warm shower on a cold day.  Normally Max would have been out of her seat in a second.  Not one for hand to hand combat, invasion of her personal space such as this tended to get her ire up.  But there was something about his touch that simply caused her head to roll back until she was looking up at her red haired nemesis.  She smiled.<br/><br/>"You'd better call me Phade, it's your fault I got that callsign."  She responded.  "You didn't know I was coming?"  She enjoyed the squeeze of his hands on her shoulder for a long moment before standing up and giving him a long hug.  She almost had to stand on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck but she accomplished the feat with grace as always.  She moaned softly to herself as she caught a scent of his skin.  Even after two days of alert duty, he still smelled the same as he did the last time they'd seen each other.<br/><br/>Releasing Zilkin, she found it hard to look him in the eye as she was sure she was blushing now that everyone had seen her hug him.  In an unexpected feat of lacking dexterity, Max found her chair and offered the other chair at the table to Zilkin.  "How is it I had an idea you were going to be here, but you had no idea I was?"  She asked as they sat.  "I guess random troop movements aren't as well broadcast as promotions and assignments.  Congrats by the way!"  She said with a smile, her hand softly brushing against his in a very personal gesture.