"Make it quick," snapped Lilly, sitting along the barrack's central table as the other members of her unit sat in chairs, stood against the walls or were laying down on their bunk beds, even off-duty they still wore their uniforms, operator fatigues that were buttoned down, with vests and shirts underneath.

The walls were adorned with decoration, from posters to even a picture with rows upon rows of what seemed to be soldiers, too far away to be distinct. And alongside one of the walls was a rack of cybernetic spines, supposed to be overlayed on top of armour.

"Thank you," started Eliza, standing in front of the crate against the sharp eyes that stared at her. "First of all, I'd like to say that you were right, Lilly."

Quinn was playing holo-cards with himself as Lilly glared at him, causing him to stop. He slowly nodded at Lilly, before sneaking a drink from a beer can, avoiding Eliza's glance. Lilly nodded in turn to Eliza.

"You were right. I never should have accepted the responsibilities of an aide." She kept her eyes forward, looking directly at Lilly, the one she had to convince the hardest, "If I wasn't there… Riharia would be alive."

"Yeah." Lilly uttered one word, she was making slow progress - but progress is progress.

"Which is why I'm sorry. Even then… I knew what I did wasn't suited. My excessive worrying, distracting and stupidity not only cost you all so much… but it has also cost the lives of your men."

Lilly was about to say something. But Eliza's eyes lit up with her heart. Out of all of them, she can be the one to carry their burdens… Even if she doesn't have the memory for it, she'll carry their dreams on either way.

"But you're all far from the mercenaries that the Webinet News shows… You're people. People with dreams… Hopes and aspirations that will never be seen to." Eliza's eyes glistened as she felt in her element, speaking publicly with her heart to them all. She let her emotions bear the brunt of the speaking for her. "I never took that into account… I know it must have been hell working with me, having someone who never understood what any of you felt. Though now it makes sense, your hate and anger is understandable, and fully justified."

Quinn's unmoving eyes looked towards Lilly, then at another woman in the room with dirty blonde hair. Lilly's eyes were unmoving, still unconvinced at her apology. But the sparks of some moved faster than others. Eliza was still not done.

"My actions are… irredeemable. All the lives lost with me overwatching will never come back." said Eliza.

"So?" asked Lilly, "If you're out of words, then get the hell out." Every syllable whispered off her lips held enough malice to overdose, each word filled with spite and the voice of anger.

Eliza slowly nodded. "But… I just can't give up. You're right, I didn't know Riharia… But if given the chance to get to know you guys, I'd take it; a thousand times over. Which is why I commit to you a pledge: From this second forward, I will give you my all. So I can make up for the damages I've caused. I have no right to ask you of this, but allow me to give you all my best. Not only for the next mission, or the mission after that, but until the galaxy sees us split."

The fire in her soul lit alight as she stuck her chest out, speaking clearly as her eyes flared up. Placing a hand on her chest, she took a deep breath. "I'll give you all the overwatch that you deserve, whether it be on the field, in the mess halls or in your own barracks. You give your all, to complete the mission, it's time for me to give mine."

She knelt down on one knee, slowly taking something out of her pocket. It was her brooch. Lilly's face soured at the sight of it, but stopped as Eliza shot her hand out, presenting it as if it was a gift.

"According to the Tablets of the Ball Palace, I offer to pledge my assistance to Deltastring and the AGENCY, lest I shatter my own solar brooch," Eliza said.

The room fell silent. She felt her heart sink as Lilly stood up, slowly walking to Eliza. Her face said nothing. But as she approached, instead of slapping or hitting Eliza, she slowly placed her right hand on her shoulder. Eliza felt as if a boulder was lifted off her back with acknowledgement as her heart breathed.

"Well then, you have a long way to go, New-gen," said Lilly, maintaining a high posture with an air of strict discipline. But Eliza looked behind all that. "Come on, stand up, we don't do that… aristocracy shit here."

The tension was slit with a knife as Quinn jumped up, slapping his hands together as if he finished something tedious. "Alright! Now that that's done with… can we finally get back to drinking? And Liz! Wanna play some holo-cards with me?" He wasn't smiling, but Eliza ignored that detail.

"Holo-cards… Well, sure! If we have time for it." Eliza's face melted into a wide grin. But as she let off a small giggle, embarrassment smashed into her as she went red. She stood up, hand curling the brooch back into her pocket, hidden.

But then, Lilly let off a small, out of place chuckle. "Oh come on! You're embarrassed about that?! You weren't bloody embarrassed sucking up to Kazuki all the time!"

"I—I do not!" shouted Eliza, her cheeks the same shade as her eyes.

"Oh! Then why are you Kazuki's personal aide, huh?" teased Quinn. He took a step forward, touching the crate as he sat on top of it. "If you play cards with me I'll stop pressing you."

Something was wrong with his voice, Eliza thought.

"We might as well get to know each other if you want to continue working with us… Quinn, our residential hot-headed drunk and thief," said Lilly, her coldness snapping in place, introducing members of her team to Eliza, "There's me… Guess I like taking photographs?"

"Oh come on!" shouted the woman out of the blue, she had a sweet-face. Standing up, a small team of drones activated with her. "You love it! Otherwise you wouldn't have snapped photos of half the battles we fought in."

The woman flicked up a holographic photograph, showing a large space battle, with tens of vessels and a billion lights and munitions.

"Old Terra," Lilly said. She pointed at two large vessels in the background. "Martinez and Kaz were boarding Clandestine's flagship… Wait a minute…" Lilly glanced back at Kiri, throwing a water bottle at her. She caught it immediately as she looked towards the crate.

"You really should take pictures of our ground battles," the woman said snarkily.

Lilly shook her head. "Hey, I had limited drone frames and cameras, only wanted to spend it on the large battles," she said. Her face contorted into one akin to a drill sergeant's as Lilly glared the woman down. "High chance that they'd get destroyed, so it only makes sense to conserve the ones I have right now."

"What? Till Arbiter gives you a blank cheque to buy a thousand more?" Quinn jeered.

Eliza glanced at the woman and smiled. "I…"

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"Kiri," she said. "Name's Kiri, don't sweat the details, please, but this is the first time that we've had an outsider with us…"

"Maybe an outsider can provide a new set of ideas?" Eliza asked. Lilly raised an eyebrow, but dismissed any notions of smacking her down, it seems. Eliza noticed more glances at the crate, she said, "Ah, well you see… I wanted to give you something, as a commitment to my promise, my contract to you all."

"Well then, what do we have here?" asked Lilly, prying the crate open with her hands. Peering in, Kiri took out a vest-plate set of armour, with a few of her drones picking some up. Kiri's glasses glinted at the sight of the name 'Tirax-Genesis'.

"Tirax-Genesis? Why, you shouldn't!" exclaimed Kiri. "How the hell did you get these?"

Eliza scratched her cheek, smiling, "Great, I'm just happy that you like it…"

Lilly was silent as she kept her head looking down at the crate. Quinn shook Lilly's shoulder. Eliza's face bore worried anxiety as Lilly shook for a moment. Then, she grabbed her own vest-plate and twisted to Eliza. Her face was alight with a cold enthusiasm.

"I've been demanding this from Kazuki for the better part of a year. Maybe you DO know how to play military politics." Everyone glanced at Lilly as she made weird noises, smirking. Lilly noticed, sliding back into her commissar persona. Her lips fell. "Smirk again and I'll have you all take reactor cleaning-duties."

But before Eliza could answer, blaring alarms sounded across the vessel as the alert lights activated. Eliza felt a sudden shock overcome her.

Quinn rolled his eyes, saying, "For fuck sake… Did a drone smash into the fire alarms again?" He ignored the alarms, looking more annoyed than anything on the surface. "Anyone down for some dullie after this?"

An image was slowly forming in Eliza's head… It wasn't exactly apparent earlier, but she dared herself to conclude such now. Without Riharia, Quinn was acting differently…

'ALL FORCES MAKE READY. I REPEAT. ALL FORCES GEAR UP FOR DEPLOYMENT. ALL AVAILABLE HICOMM MEMBERS RALLY THEMSELVES AT THE COMMAND BRIDGE AT THIS INSTANT.' said a voice. 'I REPEAT—"

∗ ∗ ∗

Once again, she stood within the command room. Kazuki was present, glaring at the table as Eliza felt a sense of dread overcome her, he looked more worried.

"We have a positive ID on Svenn Janstein, codename Afterlife." reported Sato, placing a thousand holographic datapads onto the command deck. "The Ptolemy-2 Station. We all know what they'll try to do. Several vessels docked across the station are harbouring Loyalists. Our objective is to eliminate the Loyalist presence on the Ptolemy-2 Station, at all costs."

The room was filled with people that Eliza didn't know. The most important looking people she didn't know were an old man and a middle aged woman, with one single gold-trimmed pauldron, compared to the two gold pauldrons that Kaz and Martinez had. She was squished in between Lilly and Martinez.

Glancing up, Eliza could better see the various intricacies of Martinez's tattoos. From her brief studies and knowledge, she could decipher the meaning amongst the patterns. "Starseeker?" she muttered to herself.

Martinz glanced down at her, nodding. "That it is," he said, before looking back up at the command table.

compared to them, there were a dozen other commanders in the room. Kazuki was still being repaired whilst the briefing happened, Eliza's mind was filled with worry but she hid it from them all as Archius stepped forward.

"We've received reports of Loyalists gathering near the old Clandestine HQ. They probably intend to retake it as a distraction then use its shields to protect themselves." Archius said, placing both hands on deck.

"I can take Mason and Asphene's divisions down to the surface. We can hold off the Loyalists." assured Martinez, proposing his own plan of action. Eliza glanced as he flicked a holo-card onto the table, showing a battle-field simulation map.

However, someone else in the room spoke up, it was the middle aged woman, her armour was in a purple trim. "Bullshit, we'll need more divisions on the ground!" said the woman, the name Persephone engraved into a small part of her vestplate. Her voice continued to worry onwards. "At least five thousand! We don't know how many they have, but if they're confident enough to—"

"No, you damn worry-wart." Lilly started, her face filled with frustration. "Martinez is right. We need most of our forces on stand-by… I don't think we need to remind you what happened to your division the last time YOU overinvested; we're not in an attritional meat grinder here - remember that." Lilly's voice was snappy at the purple haired woman, the lady formed a scowl at the beratement.

"Here, here! Let's not get hasty!" shouted the old man, his face, beard and hair as pale as the Eclipse.

"Thank you… Hosea," said Lilly.

"No! I was… talking about you…" Hosea trailed off, by far looking the most grimmed face and experienced in the room - even against Martinez and Kazuki.

The room fell into a state of chaos as Quinn shot in to defend Lilly; a dozen colourful trimmed groups argued over strategy and tactics… Lilly placed her hands up to her uplink as she turned it off, rubbing her earlobe. Martinez sighed as Kazuki remained silent. Lilly turned to Eliza, scratching her head, "Well… welcome to mercenary politics."

Martinez sighed, turning towards Lilly and Eliza. He said, "It's not normally like this… but the distress of it all is setting in. Plus… not everyone here's an AGENCY hardliner… In fact… half of this room fought against us."

"Wait… what?" Eliza's face twisted in confusion, "Might I ask why they're here, then?"

Martinez mused, "Most of them were Clandestine. In fact, all of us were Clandestine. Money talks, Eliza. Most quickly defected to Kazuki."

"Then…" Eliza trailed off, "I'm guessing Kazuki needs them…"

"Exactly," said Martinez. "But don't think that they're all treacherous… I know many of them myself, even from back in the military. Most couldn't defect, Clandestine likes to have a tight grip around its men. It lost that grip when the then fourth of the seven mercs died… to Kazuki. When the floodgates opened, the war changed."

"We all have the same objective." said Lilly, "But getting there… it's harder than what it may seem."

The three turned back to the carnage as Kazuki slowly stepped forward, placing both hands on the command deck. He calmly spoke in a loud voice, "Silence."

Everyone turned to Kazuki. Their voices cut shut. Eliza noticed the mood change quickly as Kazuki's eyes glared at them. Golden hue and a hollow aura penetrated Eliza's soul as he gripped the deck in mild frustration…

"There will be no infighting here. We all fight for the same objective. Martinez…"

Martinez stood to attention. "Yes, Kazuki?"

"You will command forces on the surface and in the Sub Levels. Take Mason, Morris, Asphene, Krakow and Namira's units to the surface. Reinforce our existing positions and patrols, but let them take the HQ. Lilly, Claire, Percy, Kellerman, your forces will be under my command on the station. No reserves. We go all in."

Everyone nodded at Kazuki. Whether it was out of respect or fear, they didn't interrupt him.

"Order all AGENCY assets across the Republic to red alert, contact Hosea and order him to stop contract-negotiations outside the Republic."

Kazuki placed his hands together. "Until we consolidate, I do not want to overstretch our forces. Keep our anti-piracy and security operations online for now, but ensure they are prepared to warp into the Anagora system from anywhere within the High-Table Oversector. Any questions?"

No one spoke. But Eliza had one aching question, she raised her hand. Kazuki nodded at her, acting as if he didn't know her. Everyone shot a glance at the new girl. She felt out of place, but everyone there listened… "The terms of the Judicial Contract don't reach the Ptolemy-2 Station, if we imply it as the police will… It may be safe to presume that doing this will give even further justification to the removal of Anagora's Enforcement Contract."

"It will." stated Kazuki, "But I care about results, not semantics. We will storm that space station. We will rip the Loyalists to shred. We'll show Anagora exactly why they need us."

"Well, at least we're not the ENFORCERS," shouted Archius, jokingly. "We can all go on a nice vacation after this and they'll surely pick up the slack. Beaches on Chinio are good this time of standard-year."

A few in the crowd chuckled at the passing remark. Many had smiles, even Kazuki had some spark in his eyes. Even if he didn't have a single thought or emotion on his lips or eyes, she could feel the aura of his feelings change ever so slightly, it warmed her… It was like seeing a younger sibling and being proud of them… Except, she felt far more proud of Kazuki than Ulysses, but she doesn't blame him.

"Well then," said Kazuki, standing up straight as his exospine mechanisms cranked into gear. Warmth faded to hidden anxiety as she remembered how injured he was. But she understood the necessity of it, and once again she put all her faith in an irrational belief that Kazuki will survive.

Kazuki commanded his men, "Let's go slit their throats."