Another day has passed, the Waterbear ship will be making its way towards Tarvos base from Von Braun on this day. Ido is laying in his bed half awake in the barracks, he was unable to sleep good last night and because of this his equilibrium is thrown off, despite this he tries to pull himself together and gets out of the bed. He notices that Gill is already awake and standing in a chair by the door, his arms are folded.

"Oh hey Gill what time is it?" Ido says

Gill looks down at his PDA

"Six in the morning, five more minutes and we'd probably get reprimanded for being late"

Gill turns his body around, picking up a cup and pill off the side counter

"You don't seem to be feeling well, here I grabbed you a coffee and some medicine here"

Ido grabs the coffee and pill

"I couldn't sleep last night, I was thinking too deeply about things again"

Gill gets up from his chair and heads towards the door

"Dont worry about it Ido, anyhow you slept through the announcement too, Adric wants specific staff to head down to the space port handling terminal" Gill states

Both of them head out and are on their way to the spaceport terminal entrance, they take multiple Aero elevators to get to the terminal. Once they arrive Ido somewhat remembers the area, although it looks the same it is actually much different. This is an area opposite from where Ido was originally dropped off from the space shuttle, the area looks more like an airport on earth; requiring no space suits and containing clear glass to look outside into space. Both of them can see various Lombardia class ships docked into port. A large amount of the staff can be seen in different areas down the wide hall of the spaceport, Ido and Gill are able to pick out the engineering staff specifically, they are able to see Spec, Lugo, Dutch, and Audrey in the distance grouped up.

"Ido! over here dude!" Spec can be seen waving in the distance

Gill and Ido huddle in with the group

"You guys are lucky you even made it in time" Lugo says

"Looks like the gangs all here huh? well not all of us" Audrey states

Gill looks at Dutch and then looks to his left and right

"Your buddy Mack isnt joining us?" Gill says

Dutch shakes his head both ways

"No, he was not assigned to this operation and from how he sounded he didn't want any part of it" Dutch exclaims

"I see that's alright though" Ido says

Audrey snaps her fingers

"Hey guys here comes the ship now, we should line up and be lively here" Audrey says as she points to the ship

Everyone is lined up, they look over slightly at the clear glass windows, the ship docks into one of the spaceport bays, Lugo and Audrey immediately notice something weird

"There's no friggin way, its the Aswan Kai! what the hell is it doing here!?" Lugo yells out, everyone jumps and Audrey looks at Lugo

"Don't scare me like that, it cant be the aswan kai, there was only one that existed but I've yet to be proven wrong" Audrey states

They can see a titans security team guiding a person off of the ship down the walkway, this person is wearing a different color normal suit and is in the middle of two guards, their arms are folded behind their back. They make their way to the air-lock room to remove their normal suits. After a few minutes of waiting the security team can be seen walking through the main door heading off in different directions, one person comes through the door last. It is a woman, with her appearance she can be seen wearing a titans captain uniform, her short black and grey bob cut hairstyle can be seen slightly, it is obscured with a strange headset visor over her head and part of her eyes. The woman stands there and salutes. The staff salute her back and she begins to speak.

"My name is Mera Etheredge, I am the captain of the Waterbear, its a pleasure to meet you all and I thank you for accepting us today"

Mera points to the Waterbear through the clear glass

"The staff and pilots appointed to this operation will be boarding the Waterbear with me, it is an Alexandria class ship modeled after the last surviving aswan kai ship, however as you may notice it has a lot of work done to it that differentiates itself from the original; from the moment you board the Waterbear you will be under my jurisdiction do we have that clear? Now we will do role call to make sure you are all here"

Mera pulls out a clipboard and begins to walk besides the staff who are lined up, she stops in the middle and turns to see Lugo

"I thought you were planning on retiring from the test team my dear" Mera asks Lugo with a stern expression

"It's complicated ma'am" Lugo says

"Complicated? well ide like to hear the explanation for this later, I am surprised to see you again" Mera says

Mera continues walking down the line of staff, she stops when she reaches Ido, she turns her head to look at him

"You there, you give off a strange aura, what is your name?" 

"It's Ido, Al-Mi'raj Ido"

Mera begins scanning up and down Ido, she then notices the heritage crest around his neck

"May I see that?" Mera asks Ido

Ido hands Mera the heritage crest, she holds it in her hand examining it, she puts it down and starts to make various hand gestures towards Ido, it takes a few seconds but Ido comprehends what Mera is trying to say. He responds back to her verbally, choosing to speak in his native tongue. Mera understands him and responds back verbally and utters a sentence, it is also in Ido's native language.

"Alright that's enough, please follow me, the same goes for the rest of you meet me on the Waterbear" Mera says

Ido begins to space out, looking straight ahead after hearing what was said to him

"What's wrong? what'd she say?" Gill asks

"The horned rabbit manifests, its mere presence causes trepidation" Ido states

Ido holds up the heritage crest and says "I don't know what she means but she was speaking in my native tongue, very few speak the language today including myself, I did not see this coming"

Lugo interrupts Ido, poking him on the shoulder

"Hey let's get going, lets not get on her bad side, I know how she works because I've worked under her before"

The staff begins to board the Waterbear, the interior of the ship feels way more spacious. Most of the staff recognizes the equipment onboard however there are also many new additions at the same time, ones that they do not recognize are the weapon systems. Mera escorts them to the bridge tower, its not much different from a Lombardia class ship. Mera begins to point out the armament outside the ship as everyone looks outside the bridge tower.

"This ship has multiple anti aircraft guns, mega particle cannons and some new additions with the help of Anaheim electronics; they are self defense systems that uses electronic superposed load weapons, they told us to use them if a group of mobile suits were to ever gang up on this ship" Mera says

She begins to point at the specific turrets she is talking about

"These turrets are equipped with fifty barrels of stacked ammunition, they can fire up t0 thirty thousand rounds a minute, anyone who decides to mess with my ship is in for a surprise" Mera states

"They sound very scary" Audrey chimes in

Spec raises his hand and speaks

"Do you have shuttle hatches and mobile suit launching decks?"

Mera brings up a blueprint of the ship on the bridges hanging monitor

"We have two shuttle hatch bays and four different mobile suit launching decks, we only utilize two launch decks for now and we save the others as backup incase of emergencies"

An electronic ringing sound can be heard inside the tower, everyone hears it and notices its coming from a communicator seated on an arm rest on the captains seat. Mera walks over to it and picks up the communicator, it is a brief call but she answers it and then hangs up the device.

"I've been in contact with Adric your commander, that was him on the communicator just now, it looks like he would like to move this along faster; I know this is sudden but he said the operation will start in six hours from now, not two more days"

Mera walks into her private quarters in the back of the bridge, she comes back out holding a big stack of papers and starts to hand them out to everyone

"Please fill out these forms,  you may choose to opt out of this operation, however if you choose to stay you must arrive back here at the designated time otherwise I will leave you behind, I'm sure your commander would not be too happy" Mera states

Suddenly the bridge door slides open, a voice can be heard

"I'm apart of this operation too you know, hope you all aren't going to just leave this old man behind" everyone turns to the left to lookover, the voice is Bendel's, Ido gives a short wave to Bendel.

"Well if it isn't Bendel, another surprise but a welcome one at that" Mera states

"You haven't changed at all Captain, how's the visor helmet I designed for you, is it helping you?" Bendel asks

"Yes, its working quite well, I would like to stay and discuss more with you however I must talk to your commander, that is... before we leave for the operation, tell the staff they can look around but keep an eye on them, make sure they don't touch something they shouldn't" Mera exclaims as she walks away

Ido then walks forward and shakes Bendel's hand "I had no idea you were coming with us, what's going on?" Ido says

"Commander Adric personally assigned me to the operation, I'm going to be handling the ammunition, weapons and loading for your mobile suits as a safety precaution, plus I was getting tired of being a hermit in that armory and well I want to do something more productive" Bendel states

Bendel looks to his right looking out the glass window, Mera can be seen walking off the catwalk, she turns her head around briefly and walks out. Strangely the titans security team appears again, acting as her bodyguards.

"Why is she wearing that visor helmet and why did you design that for her"? Ido asks

"She uses it as a therapy and rehabilitation device, at the tail end of the Gryps war something happened to her occipital lobe in other words her eyesight or how her brain processes light; just make sure you don't be a curious cat and ask her personal questions, she's a secretive person and doesn't like it" Bendel states

At that moment the loud intercom speaker interrupts Ido and Bendel's talk

"I repeat, six hours from now the current operation will be starting, I remind all personell who are assigned are required to board the Waterbear, standard procedures are in effect, that is all" it is Adric's voice making the announcement

Bendel turns around and faces the rest of the staff, he folds his arms in

"Alright you heard the man, I cant tell you what to do so you guys will need to figure it out yourself, as you heard the time limit is six hours, if you have any questions I'll be in the lower deck of the ship"

Everyone scatters about the ship slowly, some stay while others are most likely heading back to the barracks or getting something to eat. Ido's plan is to prioritize multiple tasks before he's ready to head out, he feels optimistic about the operation after seeing Bendel and a sense of safety and security that his current acquaintances will be joining him on this journey.