"You're the new person, aren't you?" he seems to be examining you thoroughly. "What do you want to talk to me about? You want to learn about the team? Well, that's a long story... but as Merrick seems to have gone catatonic on his turn, I guess I have time to tell you something.

"It started out with just Kane and Mack... that was a long time ago. Then Race and I joined, and after that Kaiyan and Andrew. It wasn't long until we had a full-fledged team going. We didn't have a name back then, we were just another group of Rebel operatives. But then Race died, and his sister Jessica not too long after that. Andrew had long since disappeared, we didn't hear from him again until after Uno died... by that time I was long gone. I died trying to take over an Imperial Corvette... it's a long story, but to make it short I managed to get out of that, thanks to our time-travelling friends... but I'm digressing here.

"Not too long after Jessica died, we decided to break contact with the Rebellion, to go out on our own: we became freelancers. You name it, we hauled it. We were still in the Solar Wind back then. But that didn't last. So I got us the Starflame. Kaiyan died saving Mack's sorry butt, and we found our way to the Minos Cluster, and got talked into working for the Rebels again... and Panic, my cousin Blades and I got ourselves killed doing it. But, we managed to free the sector, so I suppose our sacrifices meant something. Anyway, they re-joined the Rebellion, and got made into the brand-spanking-new Special Ops Team 1 for their trouble.

"From there, they went straight to the Battle of Yavin, where Kane and my man Darion flew a Y-Wing straight down the Death Star Trench, while everybody else spent the entire time searching the Death Star for Arika's lost lightsaber. After that, they made it to the Corporate Sector, where Panic's friend Arika died and they got saddled with Merrick. Kane found out he was a Jedi -- talk about delusions of grandeur -- and they picked up everybody's favorite Verpine, Chitonakk. They finally made it out of the Corporate Sector, after shooting down a lot of IRSDs and making some Espos dance in their underwear (don't ask), lost Chitonakk to a villainous vampire, lost Shadowlord to Clint Bajakkian, and had the Death-Run 9000 give them a run for their money.

"The Battle of Hoth took them all by surprise, but it must have been fun hunting down those Wampas, and we managed to recruit an X-Wing pilot, Steele, to join us. After Kane was kidnapped by High Inquisitor Tremayne, Niku'a, Cyruss and Elyna went to save him, while Merrick, Dreygos, Riggins, Steele, Rueger, and a new guy named Gatsby were ambushed by StormCommandos in what they now call 'The Massacre.' But, they got Kane back, more or less in one piece, and Ethan and Vince joined up. Then, of course, we met an odd little race that just happens to be able to time-travel, did them a few favors, and here I am -- and here is Shadowlord, and here is Merrick, and here is Chitonakk... you get the picture.

"Well, it all wound down with the Battle of Endor, when Merrick, Ito, Shadowlord and I gave those Biker Scouts a run for their money, while Cyruss did an amazing last-minute rescue of his fiancee, Deanna Madine, and Kane faced off against High Inquisitor Tremayne... with some help. After that, we all went our seperate ways for a while, until we were all brought together again to serve on Cyruss' Nebulon-B frigate. Kane is Wing Commander, Shadowlord's in charge of the Marines, and I get the highly demanding job of Acquisitions Officer."

Ramierez pauses to flash a smug look of pleasure.

"Where was I? Oh yes, Acquisitions Officer..."

Merrick nudges Ramierez, motioning to the pile of cards on the table.

"Well, it's my turn... you'll have to come back later so that I can tell you all about being Acquisitions Officer... or the time I invented a drink -- it was called 'the Eruption.'"

Merrick coughs loudly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see that, and raise you..."

Ramierez turns his attention back to the game, and you are left to wander around the ship on your own once more.