“—And that is why I forgive the minuscule inaccuracy regarding the injector quantity, it’s an easy mistake to make with all the labels, you two still with me?” asked Claire, sitting down opposing Eliza and Quinn in a drone restaurant. It was within the nearby Train Station, a quick bite before they catch the night trains.

Eliza could start to feel her mind recover from a state of near-death. Life was breathed into her lungs. Pushing her head up from the table, she glanced towards Quinn. He looked more dead than her.

“We’re alive!?” asked Quinn, in a hushed voice. His eyes were teary from mental exhaustion. “You could have been a bit FUCKING clearer with your warning…”

“I tried…” Sitting up, her eyes scanned across the restaurant. It was a cosy establishment, a drone restaurant with sparks of life within it. Unlike the high-end restaurant that she planned to go to with Kazuki and Archius, this place wasn’t filled with people.

“Oh yeah, Liz, you got your Contractor Card with you, right?” asked Claire.

“Hmm? Contractor what?”

Claire shook her head slowly. Quinn smirked, then jokingly remarked, “Looks like you’re not always on top of everything.”

Claire took out something from her breast pocket. It was a holographic ID Card. Claire… No last name. Employed at the AGENCY, Specialist Medic at the Rank of Ohmicron. “If you want to keep working with us, you should get one.”

“Pfft,” Quinn made a mocking noise. He flicked up his own card. Quinn - Specialist breacher, Rank of Alfa. She… didn’t understand it, she merely nodded and clapped slightly.

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary,” Eliza said. “Plus… if it’s really needed, Kaz will tell me.”

Claire nodded. “Fair enough, just don’t go flaunting it around like Quinn.” She rolled her eyes.

Quinn chuckled. “Aaah, come on, you’ll progress to Alfa rank one day, hell, maybe I’ll even make it to the Heptagia!”

Claire hid a laugh.

The holographic menus in the centre of the table fizzed, before activating at the sense of motion. Only the darkened sky gave clues as to how long Claire had been rambling on. The outside was filled with endless platforms as bullet trains and maglevs towed in and out by each minute. The webinet news was playing on a nearby monitor, as Eliza glanced at it, listening in to Starport News, a popular news channel in the Republic.

‘Many are still reeling from the outburst of violence recently on the Ptolemy-2 Station, where hundreds of civilians, security and staff were massacred by mercenaries that have been claimed to be ex-Clandestine,’ reported the news anchor, giving clear statements. ‘Eyewitnesses on the station have claimed that the AGENCY was involved somewhat. But whilst it may seem the worst is behind the Grandé Republic, violent crime has seen a tenfold increase since pre-incident statistics. This is Camerio Dackre, Starport News.’

Things… are changing, Eliza could see that. But, something didn’t sit right with her.

Claire took her phone out, looking outside the window as trickles of rain started to pour down. Those outside activating their umbrellas or pulling up hoods, with the station’s intercom announcing one minute delays and arrival times. Claire asked, ”Hey, you think Gabriel wants to hang out with us?”

“Gabriel?” Eliza raised an eyebrow, she hasn’t heard of that person before… yet it feels familiar. “Why not Amyé or Lilly?”

“Well… don’t want Amyé getting drunk on us, do we?” joked Quinn, nudging Eliza.

“Yeah,” said Claire. “Oh, and don’t worry about Gabe, just an old friend of ours. He left the AGENCY after the rebellion.”

“Ah, so that’s why I haven’t heard about him…” The name sounded so familiar, yet she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Guess it’ll be lively with just the four of us!” said Quinn.

Claire typed into her phone, immediately getting a response. “Fuck, he’s busy with his bakery.”

“Three of us…”

“Local one?” asked Eliza, somewhat surprised that someone was able to leave the industry behind and get a normal life. Though with a small pallet of applicable skills that businesses nowadays demand, she understood why mercs stayed.

Claire mulled over the question for a moment, shrugging. “Local as in planetside then yeah, it’s like a dozen districts away, I think.”

A moment of calm came as Eliza glanced around as a serving drone turned on some music; the restaurant only had a dozen or half in it, including them. But those within the restaurant looked as if they were pulling hard deadlines - even this late. Well, work-life balance wasn’t this planet’s forté, thought Eliza. Perhaps these people want to get an extra bit of work done before heading home. Slowly, the same drone hovered towards them, wearing a cute bowtie on its white spherical surface, as a holographic face popped up.

‘Good evening. Can I take your orders?” asked the drone, in a highly mechanical voice.

“Surprise me!” Quinn gently tapped the drone on its back, sending it spinning ever so slightly before its stabilisers activated.

The drone hovered for a second before a random order was placed on a projected screen, fried rantegari. Eliza was surprised that the drone complied, fascinated at it. She hadn’t been to a drone restaurant before, but they seemed far more robust than she anticipated, a welcome surprise.

‘What do we have here?’ asked Synthia, a holographic visage projecting itself onto her shoulder. ‘Surprised that we can accomplish such a simple activity, Miss Eliza?’

‘Ah, no!’ Eliza tried to wave her off her shoulder before Quinn and Claire saw her. But it was already too late as her hand phased directly through Synthia’s holo-form.

“Huh?” Claire leaned over whilst looking at the visage, “Wait you have one of those?”

Quinn immediately tried to speak directly to the AI. “Hey, you, tell me all of Liz’s deepest and darkest secrets.”

“Hey!” Eliza shouted, flicking the AI tutor off. She clicked her tongue. “Bloody hell… Why the fuck did she have to do that?”

“Orders, please.” the drone repeated, unflinching.

Claire pointed towards the drone. “Same as Quinn, surprise me.”

Another order was added, grilled ribs, quite simple yet its simplicity was its core. Eliza scrambled to view the menu. But she was incredibly picky… trying to pick randomly didn’t work before, so she debated with herself… She mumbled under her breath as she scanned the menu, she’d typically have time before to plan this out…

The drone remained silent, uncaring at Eliza’s indecisiveness. Her rose-red eyes glanced at the drone and back to the menu… She pushed her glasses up the brim of her nose but to no avail. She just couldn’t pick one from the variety they offered!

She slumped down to the table. “Surprise me…” Eliza trailed off, defeated.

Another order was placed, fish ‘n’ chips. The drone didn’t care, simply ‘nodding’ as it hovered away. “Thank you for your patronage.”

“Oh, come on, Liz, it’s always best to ask what the restaurant recommends!” said Quinn, “Let me tell you, travelling on contracts is hella fun, even if it’s a boring training contract.”

“Yes…” Claire interjected, “All fun until the planet we’re on is embroiled in a druggie-fuelled civil war we have to intervene in, because someone blew up smuggled goods.”

“Lilly must not have liked that…” Eliza commented, implicating Quinn to be that someone. It was quite obvious.

“No… she did not,” said Claire. “Riharia, Kiri and I had to stop her from literally killing him.”

Quinn rolled his eyes, poking fun at Claire. “You misremember, she wasn’t gonna kill me, you’re just overstating your importance; you’re hungry aren’t you?”

“Absolutely—” As she started speaking, her stomach grumbled slowly. She paused for a moment before continuing, “—not…”

“Pfft.” The two could barely hold in their laughter at the sight. That was far too conveniently timed, and of course, her face was bright red, contrasting her navy blue eyes and hair.

“HEY! Why don’t you try guarding Eliza for a whole day? Her schedule is so packed it feels like a month went by in an hour!” shouted Claire. But the jab only got Quinn to burst out into even more laughter, as he started to wheeze. “No, I’m fucking serious, I could see my hair turning grey a hundred years too soon.”

“Calm down!” interjected Eliza, “Wait—What are you insinuating about me?!”

“That you’re just an Iris-damned nerd! Seriously, guarding you is more mind-numbing than watching Kazuki stare at a gas mask paint dry. AND YES: HE DOES THAT. I HAD TO TEND TO HIM DURING THE REBELLION AFTER EACH TIME HIS HELM-MASK BROKE,” said Claire, a bit hypocritical, Eliza thought.

“Ah, so every mission!” Quinn quipped.

“Why…” The statement pissed her off, studying was far more important than watching paint dry! “Then what the hell is Kaz to you then, huh?! If you’re so adamant about it with me?”

“Hey, hey, that’s not what I said! He’s just our leader, alright?” Claire shrugged. Now that she thinks about it, why… is Kaz the leader of the AGENCY? Of course, he led the rebellion, but after all the dust has settled, can’t they just leave?

“Why are you guys even still in the AGENCY?”

“Ooh, ooh.” Quinn interjected, counting on his fingers, “Money! Pay’s good, sure you put your life on the line but Arbiter pays us a premium, more than Clandestine, I’ll tell you that.”

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“Shut up, you’re still here because Lilly’s still here and who knows what you’d be doing without her!” Claire stuck her finger out, waving away Quinn’s answer. “But for most of us? Money, to be honest. Pay’s good, what can I say?”

“Yes… but…” Eliza thought for a moment. She didn’t know how to word it, but it was quite evident that Kazuki wasn’t the best at social interactions, either relying on blunt assertions or threats most of the time. “I’m guessing you picked Kaz to lead you guys… it just seems weird from my view I guess? No offence or flack to him! Really! It’s just that… when I think about it, it perplexes me, he’s never been the leadership type of guy?”

“See! She is trying to coup him.” Quinn jabbed at Eliza. “Rivera was right!”

“Now, now, calm it,” said Claire. “Kaz’s always been our leader, I guess? Well, Martinez chose him.”

“You’re siding with her because you think it’ll get you Tirax-Genesis armour.” Quinn bluntly said, leaning over the table as Claire whistled away, glancing to the side… “See!”

“Nuh uh…” Claire shook her head. “You know… I’m not jealous… at all.”

Eliza chimed in, “Sorry but uh, I can get you guys some if you’d like?”

Claire immediately twisted her head towards Eliza. “Absolutely! Please! You have no fucking idea how much I envied Deltastring for that armour, top-notch armour, best on the market? Hell yeah I’d want that, ballistic tests show that it can even stop a Nine-Nine Magie.”

She was having a total nerd-out over armour of all things, yet Eliza found it to be quite relatable, the nerd-out part, not the thing over armour. It slowly started to dawn on her that she really had no idea just what Kazuki is like… She’s known the civilian side of him for a while; but his merc side? No… She refuses to admit it.

Hiding away the thoughts, she chuckled, placing a hand over her mouth. “Sure! But first… answer my question,” said Eliza, using it as leverage. In all honesty, she was going to give it either way.

“Arbiter’s always led us from the front, he leaves planning to others but on the battlefield: he wrecks shit. Guess we felt loyal to the ‘noble’ that bled with us,” started Quinn.

“What he said,” Claire interjected, placing her head in her palm as she placed her elbow against the table. “Some talk the talk, but Kaz walked the walk; plus he’s worked with a lot of Clandestine’s best operatives, of course, they’d side with him over the Directors.”

Quinn smiled. “Plus he’s always willing to pay off our tabs,” he said before chuckling. “And gambling tabs... Actually, we just go to him if we ever need any extra money and he’s willing to just buy us out of our debts!”

“Ah? So Kaz takes care of his own...” Eliza mumbled to herself, guess that’s how he bought their loyalty.

Claire continued, “Don’t listen to Quinn, most of us aren’t like that... Some, yeah, but not all. Before you came along, he had like ten drones and me fix up his Stimie gear after each mission.”

“Stimie?” Eliza didn’t particularly know what she meant by that.

“Stimulant-based exospine, like—”

Eliza interjected, “—Oh! I know that! Why didn’t you just say?”

“Then why didn’t you get the short-hand version of it?!” Claire exclaimed, shaking her head slightly. “Do you really know your exoskeleton types?”

“Of course I do!” rebuked Eliza. This was just one of the various facts she had to know. “I learnt them whilst studying cybernetics, which helped me repair Kaz’s exospine. We have stimulant-based ones, as the one Kaz has…”

Quinn shot his hand up. “Wargear type!” he shouted. “Like to pack some backup shots just in case I’m outta loaded shells.”

“Wait, if you have wargear, then Claire must have…”

Claire answered, “Support, helps me store some extra medical shots for healing, you know? Helps quite a bit, though not a lot of people like it. People typically go Stimie or Communication.”

“Yeah… Lilly, Martinez and Hosea are probably the only people that actually use Auxiliary, though—” elaborated Quinn.

Auxiliary? Eliza wasn’t particularly aware of that one. She knows the normal ones… Stims stimulate combat prowess, Support helps in paralysis, carry load and medical capabilities, and Wargear helps pack an extra punch whilst…

“—Kiri was given a chance to use it! She stuck with a Communication-based one! Can you believe that?!”

Claire shrugged, offering up a suggestion, “Maybe she prefers having a legion of drones swarm her? Communication does help increase uplink capacity, so that’s probably why she uses it.”

“What’s an Auxiliary one?” Eliza mused.

“Huh? It’s just a combination of any of the rest, maybe Kaz’s one is one of those, it’s basically anything that doesn’t think in the already existing categories, lazy I know but whatever,” Claire said. “Aren’t you supposed to know this?”

“Hey! I just wasn’t aware of that one…”

Quinn slowly leaned over the table, whispering into Eliza’s ear as he flickered up a deck of holocards on the table. “Sire! Your honour is under attack, you must defend it and battle the wretched leader of Heimfall!” Quinn tried to provoke her.

“What are you saying?” asked Claire. “You better not be… you fucking asshole.”

Claire quickly realised what they were doing as Eliza listened intently to what Quinn said, “Look… I can teach you the basics as we play, you’ll learn the rest easily.”

Her pride was hurt, so of course, she nodded. She’s down for a casual game of holo-cards if Claire’s interested. “Alright…”

“Oh, and lock in. This is competitive,” said Quinn, opening the cards as he playfully watched Claire sigh and lament agreeing to getting something to eat. It seems a bit of Lilly’s frustration rubbed off onto Claire - that being a complete annoyance and aversion to Quinn’s antics.

He started to organise the cards as Eliza’s head slowly turned towards Quinn. She was hyper-fixated on one word. Competitive? COMPETITIVE? Of course, it’ll be competitive! It’s a game where only one can win. Her mind was filled with racing thoughts of victory, holding the final card above Claire as she won her first-ever victory against a seasoned player. She continued to delude herself with that, slowly giggling to herself, under her breath.

“Heh…” Eliza trailed off. Claire took note of her gleaming crimson eyes… rose-red, hooked up and ready to burn the whole deck. Glancing out the window, Eliza watched as a train stopped at the station, unloading a large amount of passengers… This was a business sector, why are they here? Did businesses shift to night shifts as well?! She’ll have to catch up on the news, though their large, thick coats were not popular amongst the salary-workers she normally saw.

“Oh, please… not now!” interjected Claire, “I’m all for you learning it, but neither me or Quinn are good players.”

Her pride was questioned, and she must answer. Quinn was already arranging the entire setup for Dullahan’s Calling as holo displays of towers, walls and a blazing sky lorded over the table, a holographic fortress city sprawling up, the citadel’s peak seeing eye to eye with her. Units and maps erupted out from small cards, unravelling for Eliza to see. The cards hovered up, displaying the dynamic deployment zones for the defenders and the attackers - a war of attrition to either save or destroy the city.

She felt a slight tug at her hoodie, borrowed from Kaz.

Taking another glance out the window, she could see more and more passengers arriving, taking up the seats outside.

A holo-board floating above the station advertised a new Uplink Model. 10x stronger than all other models? She raised an eyebrow, fixed on the subject. It looked like it was made for professionals across the board, a clipped-on earpiece that is smaller and more powerful.

Given what happened to Kazuki on the P-2 Station… It may be prudent to ask him about those…

She shot a look back to Claire as she reminded herself of the game.

“Don’t go easy on me, alright?” asked Eliza, fired up. But then she realised, she had absolutely no idea how to play, it can’t be that bad, right? “Quinn! How do I play?!”

He sniggered at her question as he turned to answer. “Well, it’s just a card game, easy to learn. You’ll be beating Kaz in no time.”

Claire snickered, as she suggested, “Maybe you can finally beat Kaz’s unbreakable record. Beat him and you can say you’re better than… Martinez, Sato, hosea.” She started counting on the joints of her fingers, much similar to how Archius would.

“Ooh, maybe beating him is how people get into his inner circle! Think about it!” suggested Quinn.

Claire chuckled, “Fuck no, he just doesn’t trust you! He trusts the rest of us, though.”

“Huh? I understand you,” Quinn then pointed at Eliza, “But what about her?! Martinez’s his Second; Archius is his coordinator but what about Liz?!”

Eliza spoke up, scratching her head, “Ah, we’re just friends from school, I guess?”

“Just friends?” asked Quinn, turning the question into a light-hearted jab, “I’m not buying it and I don’t think Lilly does either.”

She grumbled under her breath… She had to dispel many rumours in the past, especially since Kazuki’s always been a ‘high-valued person’. Whether it was because of his actions or his birth name, she wasn’t all too sure. “Then buy it… Look, I don’t want to get into the details but we’re working together, understand?”

“Hmm… Absolutely not buying it. You tell me that you work for my boss, have no accolades, but at the same time, you’re in his inner core? Either you or he fancies the other and I don’t know!” said Quinn, continuing his rant with a self-satisfying smirk. “Come on! SPILL IT!”

“I absolutely do not fancy him.” stated Eliza, groaning in exhaustion, rubbing her temple, “You know, back in high school Kazuki told me he had to dispel that particular rumour… seventy-eight? Seventy-nine times or so… It’s quite common.”

Claire weighed in. “Relax, we’ll loosen his tongue up for you, he’s a lot more chill than people give him credit for - hell, even I panicked when I started working with a member of the fucking seven mercs.”

She smirked, but something struck Eliza as weird. The hoodie she borrowed from Kazuki felt tighter than usual - even though they were the same height… No, that wasn’t right. It felt hardened. Then, a small aching realisation hit Eliza.

“I just realised I don’t know much of Kazuki,” Eliza said. “I mean… I was around during the war with the loyalists… But it seems like you guys knew him for much longer.”

Claire held up a peace sign. “Since the summer of 4922.”

4922? That means Kaz’s been doing this for at least as long as she knew him since he joined Sarimba High for their final year in 4923.

Quinn raised an eyebrow and chortled loudly before he started to cough profusely. Eliza patted him on the back, helping him clear his throat. After a few seconds, he said, “You think that was a cathing war?! She thinks it’s a war!”

“Don’t confuse Liz with your local swears or whatever,” grumbled Claire.

He shifted his gaze to Claire, who wasn’t exactly most fond of his teasing outburst. Quinn pointed a finger at Eliza, then at Claire and back and forth.

“I… I’m sorry, I’m not exactly accustomed to the scale of things in the industry,” Eliza said.

Claire shook her head. “That’s fine… That’s fine. The ‘war’ against the Loyalists was merely a series of related operations… I guess you could call some of the engagements battles, but that’d be a bit disrespectful to the scale of battle we’ve fought in.”

“Not even worth a campaign, let me tell you that! The AGENCY’s planning for the battle over Old Terra drove half of the Command insane…” Quinn said, leaning in to Eliza. “Why’d you think Claire, Arbiter and Lilly’s so stiff?”

Eliza chuckled at his remark, still feeling the tight strings of her clothes cave in against her chest… Ugh… She’ll complain to Kazuki later.

“Hey, I heard that,” Claire said. “But he’s right, a war for us is… a war. Sure, we have our own little wars here and there, but nothing on the scale of Old Terra or Cantari’s happened since… Cantari.”

“I... Heard about what happened over Old Terra on the news,” Eliza started... She paused and took a moment to continue, not exactly finding the words, “Are... is it true?”

“Hmm? The fact that we fought three battles in a single day? False... It was three and a half, the half coming from the forces already at the place,” Claire answered. “Kaz led us to victory that day... I heard Martinez call Kaz the next Yamagata... Ironic—”

Quinn cut in, adding on, “Given that the High Admiral’s his dad!”

Eliza nodded.

“But... we lost a lot of good people that day,” Quinn continued, his face slowly falling to one of regret and pain... Eliza merely watched, feeling her clothes cling tighter with each word that came off Quinn’s mouth. “We were outnumbered each fight, Kaz made a daring boarding attempt and won... And here we are.”

She tugged at her hoodie’s collar lightly, it was tougher than usual, do normal clothes do this? NO! What the hell is she thinking? She asked herself why it was the case, but her mind couldn’t fathom any answer to her question.

She pondered for a moment… But before a thought could come to pass, Claire’s bored blue eyes lit up as they skidded to the side - looking out the window. Eliza’s did too. A fuselage of muzzles pointed inwards into the restaurant

Eliza’s curiosity about the hoodie quickly turned to confusion as Claire shifted upwards. She knocked over the cards on the table, lunging forward as sweat dripped down her forehead. She threw them both to the ground with a heavy thud. A litany of plasma crashed through the windows - gas and vaporised matter splintering across the air.