I'm actually rather liking Welkin's character right now. Okay he's a little absent minded and airheaded, but he's always very calm and intelligent. For instance in the bathroom with Ellet, he doesn't get all panicky. He assesses the situation and deals with it, without that "OMG Boobs!" reaction. I like that.
On the other hand I think Alicia is getting rather annoying. She just feels too in your face forceful. For the rest of squad 7, well Jann was epic and I'm always a Marina fan
. Next ep looks like we're heading to Barious Desert, I suspect that we might get to see some of the empire's more advanced units at the end of the episode (a la Maximillian's tank). As for our resident goddess of war, probably the episode after that.