"Great," Ash laments, trying to keep her tone light despite her mood. "The day I have to leave the military is the day I can finally eat the MRE's."

She opens the back and looks inside...

(not sure what the condition of the stuff is )

The food is somewhat 'stale' but not inedible. Doug watches Ash eat every now and then she can observe his expression change... presumably from something someone said mentally.

(Doug will try to link to KB... he hasn't done that in a while)

From the way Ashley greedily avails herself of the (generously) mediocre food, it's clear she's either very hungry indeed, or accustomed to even worse fare. She stops shy of just emptying it altogether, even though she feels as if she probably could. In fact, there's maybe just under half left when she stops herself with visible effort, and rolls the top of the bag shut again.

"Thanks," she says when she's finished. She looks ill at ease though.

If I have to eat that much now, it's going to be pretty hard to find enough food by myself once this runs out...

"Are you feeling better now, Ashley?", asked Anna trying to reestablish a connection to the young woman. "I respect what you said about your home. I even understand why. In order to survive we need to help out each other, else all this will not make much sense. Maybe I should help infiltrate the city? Most think I'm an Aberrant when they see me. I can hide in the open there.", the last part was partly directed at Doug and Gregory.

"Little better," Ash replies to Anna. She puts the sack down on the ground and leans back against the wall next to her.

"How long before we know if the asteroid's still coming?" she asks. "Sorry if you already said. Wasn't at my most focused before."

Raider nodded at Ash over his bite of the MRE. He swallowed and said, "About 3 months. At that point it will either work and the Earth will be saved, or we'll have just enough time for last ditch efforts like trying to go to the comet and see what we can do with our nova powers."

"And what are you guys planning to do for those three months?" Ash asks. She looks at Anna, then Doug, then back at Raider, and wonders for a second where Greg went.

"We could do a lot of damage in three months," she suggests.

Raider smiled but said, "We aren't out of the woods yet, we might still need the resources of this place. I'd suggest planning and laying the ground work for your revolution and uprising. Make friends with the folks back where we come from and maybe convince them to take action when the comet has passed. I'll support you and I'm sure Doug will. As for me, I've got a ton of work to do in the meantime. I need to make sure we have a backup plan for that comet and I want to make sure there is nothing left up there in orbit that Squiddy can use against us."

Gregory continued to scout the areas of the city he had not been to before. He explored above and below ground. The whole time he did, he tried to memorize the important things. One of these days, he told himself, he would have to have Raider show him how to be smart, so he could remember things that he saw and heard.

Doug obviously liked what Ash had to say but disagreed on the implementation. He nodded in full agreement to what Raider had to say. He says,

"The shear scale this place is built on makes it difficult, likely impossible, to win if we just swing away blindly. We need to figure out how to start a civil war. No way all these dysfunctional minds, powers, and egos stay together without making a multi-factional bucket of snakes."

"Since we don't dare act against them for three months anyway... let's find out what their strengths and weaknesses are. Find out who the players are and whose toes they've stepped on."

"Hello ..." A voice comes echoing down the passage and into the room. "Anybody home?" It was James, recognizable by the sound of his voice and the sound of his odd gait. He soon enters the room, flashlight in hand, "There you all are! Brother, did you succeed? Were you able to launch the missiles?"

Before James entered there was a distinct frown on Raider's face, but it changed to a fake smile before James could see. He gave the others a look that said to be wary and ready for attack.

"Brother, how good of you to visit our little hole in the ground. Sorry that we don't have better facilities to share with you, but we were a bit more concerned with security than luxury when we arrived." Looking at James and trying to fathom his reactions he continued, "Well, there is good news and bad news. Good news, is that the missiles were launched and are on the way. The bad news is two fold. First, it's going to be about three months before we know whether this strategy was successful, and by then it will be nearly too late to do anything else. The second bit of bad news is that launching the missiles caused the platform to become unstable and it's orbit is now decaying. I had hoped to salvage some of that nice tech."

"And what of you, have you come up with any other plans that might help in the event that the missiles don't do the job?"

From the moment he heard James' voice Raider is poised to go intangible on an instants notice.

James laughs, "It is unfortunate that father poisoned your mind against me, but at least we've cleared that up now. You all should come back to the tower, we can rest and talk in more civilized settings."

He pauses, "And I may have some other ideas ... but I'm afraid that most of them pale in comparison to a salvo of nuclear weapons."

Raider nods, "Yes, some good food and drink would be nice, but I'm afraid what I need most right now is rest, and this is as good a place as any for that. I feel safer here with my people around me than I would in a tower full of strangers, no matter how luxurious. We could certainly take you up on your kind invite tomorrow. How does that sound?"

James looks nonplussed, the first time that you've seen his facade crack. "I suppose I can understand that though I will hope that you will reconsider in the long run. Living in a hole is rather beneath ones such as ourselves." I will leave you then and we can meet again tomorrow. As he speaks he eyes Ashely but says nothing. Indicating neither curiosity nor familiarity.

"Tomorrow then," he says an turns to leave.

When he looks towards her, Ashley has to look away. She doesn't want to, but she knows that seeing him seeing her...already her control is fracturing. Her fists clenched at her sides, and the muscles around her jaw quivering from pent up need to thoroughly wallop.

Oh yeah...'such as we.' She'd make him bleed for that one.

Doug remained silent as James entered and talked. James was dangerous and he figured it was just better that way.