The flow of continuous information left a small smirk on Archius; the constant stream was being processed by Sato, who was connected to the data-centres from her uplink. Her eyes flickered with information as the ear-piece shone a dozen vibrant hues. He stuck his hand into the snack drawer within the C&C centre, taking out a chocolate bar. Unwrapping it, he threw it into his mouth.

"Not the best…" Archius trailed off as he munched down on the chocolate. Back during the rebellion, chocolate was a rarity and he remembers there being a mini-economy based on snacks. But now that they're the dominant merc-power in the republic, they don't have to rely heavily on shitty rations.

The command centre was pristine, lined with computers and holographic monitors. At the front, there was an overlooking bridge window that peered down into the control section of the Phoenix's Fury, Kazuki's command vessel orbiting the planet. Things in the command room were calm, simply him, Sato and Eliza. Eliza? He shot his head towards her in confusion before remembering that Kaz dropped her off here

She was operating one of the computers, doing typical paperwork. Rivera must love her for doing her job for her. Archius put on a grin as he walked towards her, placing the wrapper into a hovering drone bin.

"Hey, you're gonna be done soon?" asked Archius.

Eliza stopped as she looked towards him. She didn't meet his green gaze as she scratched her head. "Y—Yeah, I just finished the equipment orders for the Katala Project, fascinating stuff."

Archius kept up his smile, even if it was annoying. Even if it burdened him, it was necessary. He regretted showing Eliza his real face, but Kazuki always implied that she was open-minded. Eliza's awkwardness was something he should probably tackle. "Good. So, are you settling in well? And don't mind Quinn if you see him, he's a bit of a weirdo even to us, actually no he's just a fucking idiot."

She nodded. He grumbled silently as he took out a datapad from his pocket, sliding it onto the desk in front of her. Manipulating people is much harder when they know who you really are.

"There's your copy of our current findings," said Archius, "Oh, and don't lose it."

"Wait?" Eliza activated the pad as it spurted out a hologram of data, "Am I… allowed this?"

Archius rolled his eyes. "Of course, you'd get one, you're Kaz's aide."

"Fair… enough," Eliza slipped the datapad into her pockets, "So, Archius, mind if I ask a personal question?"

"Sure?" Archius leaned against the desk as Sato finished processing information.

"You've known Kaz longer than me. I'm guessing you've been working with him for as long as I've known you and more. Do you know why he's doing any of this?" She said as she scratched her right cheek with her left index finger.

If that's something she wants, why doesn't she ask the man himself? Not even Archius knows some of Kaz's little secrets, even if he tries to get him to spill 'em all the time. He decided to not answer it directly. "He's not the most expressive of people, but if you want to kno—"

"—Hey! Y'all got anything good?" asked Quinn, entering the room with Lilly, Riharia and Martinez.

The first three wore white-armoured trims, with an insignia of crossing on a web-like canvas, whilst the last had a gold-trimmed vest-plate, similar to Kazuki's.

Archius turned to face them as Sato nodded her head. She gave her updated report. "Locations on Loyalist safehouses and convoys, a lot of chatter. Luckily with the merges, we have more guns for hire to support a planet-wide operation."

Quinn leaned against the side of the door as it closed. Archius always found it strange how he'd never fix up the missing portion of his left ear, even if it was mostly hidden away underneath his turquoise hair. Martinez took a seat opposite Sato. While Riharia and Lilly sat beside Sato at the command deck. Most of them had scars on their faces, signs of old fights.

"If you're here, I guess Kaz will be back soon?" asked Archius, grabbing Martinez's attention.

"Yeah, I think Phalanx Team took a different shuttle lane than us, though," said Martinez, "Traffic control."

"Eh," Archius shrugged as Martinez scratched his black hair, the tips of each strand a deep violet. His face was lined with scars, painted over with golden tattoo streaks that struck vertically above and below his eyes.

Riharia was spinning around in her chair, killing time with whatever entertainment she could find, as Lilly took out a cigarette box, passing one to Sato as the two shared a smoke. But Martinez took a glance towards Eliza. He pointed at her for a moment whilst clicking his fingers.

"Hold up… weren't you that girl with Kaz and Archius?" asked Martinez. Archius was surprised that he could remember her, after all, it's been a good week or so.

She slowly nodded as Archius glanced down towards her. He might as well introduce her to them. "She's—"

"I am Eliza Celeste-Delmara," Eliza interjected, standing up. Unlike the rest of them, she wasn't wearing a combat uniform; nor was she wearing any implants or an exospine. She wore her typical everyday clothes, and Archius noticed Lilly rolling her eyes. Eliza's voice was filled with life. "Kazuki's aide, I look forward to working alongside you all."

As one of three people in the room with no implants, Eliza stood out amongst even Archius and Sato - namely because no one really knew who she was. The Merc Business was always about connections and contracts, and here was this nobody, on the command deck of one of the most powerful warships in the system.

Riharia simply looked at Eliza whilst eating, Lilly and Sato were smoking and neither seemed all too interested. Sato was half-asleep whilst Lilly maintained an air of discipline, calmly sketching something on a small notebook. As expected, Quinn broke the silence. "Oh! So you're the cutie that Claire and Martinez were talking about."

Stolen story; please report.

"Uh… Thank you?" Eliza trailed off as she went red with embarrassment, an appropriate response in all honesty. Quinn never quite manages to shut his mouth but at least this wasn't as bad as how he acted before.

Martinez shot a look at him. "Hey, don't harass people you've just met."

"Pfft," Quinn shrugged, "Surrrre general."

"Bring that attitude onto the field and I might throw you into the reactor," said Martinez, half-jokingly, sighing as he turned back to Eliza and Archius. Martinez placed his hand up to his face, tired at having to deal with all his subordinates. "Kazuki probably won't mind all too much."

"I vote in favour," said Archius, jokingly as well - to the amusement of both Martinez and Quinn.

"I'm betting you're new to the business, we're not all assholes like him - name's Martinez. Kaz's Two-I-C. Used to serve in the military before training planetary militia, if you could believe that. 4th Armoured Corp, Kastenor National Guard. Hell, we didn't even have implants in the army…" Martinez then bumped his fist into his chest proudly.

"Hey! I'm not that much of an asshole!" Quinn rebuked.

Lilly muttered under her breath, seemingly tired of all this, "More of a thief than an asshole."

As a brigadier-general, Martinez always had an eye on politics, Archius thought. But he was never a player, always an immovable object. Maybe that was why Kazuki liked him, liked him enough that he'd have far more leeway than any of his aides or subordinates.

"Well, I've been told most contractors had served the Republic, namely the army, though. My dad told me that navy personnel had more applicable skills," said Eliza. Martinez was impressed with her knowledge.

"Smart one," Martinez commented, looking at Archius with a grin.

It wasn't wrong, Archius mused. "Smarter."

Sato and Lilly watched as Riharia jumped off her seat, placing the packet of crisps down and walked up to Eliza. Her crimson red hair, done in an overly pretty ponytail and side bangs contrasted her fairly pale skin as she squinted at her.

Riharia contemplated for a moment as she said, "Left-handed or right-handed?" Quinn walked past Riharia as he went across the room.

Eliza paused for a moment, probably expecting this to be some sort of set-up joke. "Left-handed?"

Her head twisted over to Lilly, "Add one for left!"

Lilly nodded dismissively. Out of everyone there, Lilly felt the most cold. Eliza was incredibly confused by this. "If you are trying to do a survey, why couldn't you have done it on a message system?"

"That's what I told them!" Sato shouted, interjecting whilst complaining, "But nooo, Kazuki wouldn't allow us."

"And why is this important?" asked Eliza.

Lilly took the cigarette out of her mouth as she spun to look at Eliza. "You really know nothing, huh? It's for your equipment, whether you're left handed or right handed. Have you tried drawing a pistol from a left holster with your right hand? In the heat of the moment, I'd prefer to draw with my dominant hand. And in the heat of the moment, a split second divides you from life and death." A hint of malice and anger lingered between her lips.

Riharia took a step back, briefly shaking Eliza's hand. "Ah… I'm not one for fighting…" She trailed off, causing Lilly to raise an eyebrow at her statement.

"Riharia, marines then security, and that's Lilly, marines then logistics - and that's Sato, and that's Quinn, marines to security - like me!" introduced Riharia, pointing at each respective member in the room. It was quite a lot of information

Quinn waved, showing a plasma cartridge he freshly snatched.

"You still keep these around?" asked Quinn, catching the ire of Riharia. She snarled at him, Quinn's limbs throwing back the cartridge in a panic. "Hey… hey… just looking out for you."

Riharia and Eliza started talking to each other, away from the others. Girl-talk, or whatever, Archius thought... Either way, he listened in.

"No! You can't be that young... right?" asked Eliza. "I mean... Wow..."

Riharia chuckled. "Hey, some of us were born in the dirt and snow! We grow up fast but I guess we don't look like it, hmm? Well, except Quinn. He doesn't act grown up at all, keeps stealing things from all of us that he finds interesting."

Eliza shuddered. "Sounds quite challenging to live with him," she said. "I got Kaz and Archius staying at my place and I swear they're using up all the toothpaste and toiletries..."

Wait a minute, were they?! Probably Kazuki! A life of endless money hasn't taught him how to budget. Great job he's doing the AGENCY's budgetting with Rivera. "Pfft, back in Clandestine we had to share the damn toothpaste, imagine that... We didn't get a good dental plan."

"You guys had a dental plan to begin with?" Eliza quipped. Riharia snickered. At least those two were getting along, but Archius knew Lilly wouldn't take too well to Eliza's presence here. She's just a civilian, compared to all these freaks around Archius and Archius himself. "You guys did at least get healthcare, right?"

Nodding, Riharia said, "Of course, half our job is getting shot at, the other half is shooting back. The Directors were stupid as shit, but they weren't that stupid!"

Eliza grinned widely. "You know," she murmured, but Archius could STILL listen in, even if he had to stretch his ear out to hear better. "I thought I'd be stranded here until Kazuki got back, but... I didn't know Kaz had... so many..." Eliza stopped, as she was staring directly into Riharia's eyes. What she probably was realising was that Kaz had a lot of... reasonably attractive women around him.

And men, if he... No. Archius probably could have told if Kaz threw in that way.

Riharia pointed a finger at Eliza's face. "Don't worry, we're not gonna steal him from you," she quietly whispered over. Eliza's face calmed. "Except Persephone." Eliza's face stiffened with dread. "Just kidding, just kidding, anyways, how'd you get your hair all... smooth and silky?" Riharia grabbed a few strands of her own hair, which was remarkably not as silky and smooth as Eliza's.

Great, they were talking about boring things now, Archius thought, turning away.

Martinez stood up and started to make his way out of the command room.

"I'll take off my exospine, it's starting to sting," said Martinez. "But, better prepared than dead."

"Ah, I might as well keep ya company," said Quinn, following after Martinez, "Oh, and tell me when Amyé's back."

"Ugh, just don't ask me stupid questions…" Martinez commented, his voice growing distant. "Or try to steal my under-plates."

Lilly gave an uncaring nod as Riharia leaned against the command deck, nearly activating the emergency weapons control system. But before that could transpire, Lilly smacked her in the back, directly on the exospine as she avoided the screen button.

"Agh, you dumb cathing arse!" Riharia said, rubbing her exoskeletal-reinforced back. "I should have removed it earlier..."

The pain was, as expected, pretty bad. Archius has never seen it on the field, but he's been told that landing on the back with an exoskeleton is equivalent to a kick in the balls from a Carijora goat-ram but across a much larger area. He didn't know if that made it worse or better and he had no intention of finding out himself - he'll leave the suicidal stuff to Kazuki.

She slowly turned towards Eliza, holding onto her back and limping around. Riharia was always good-natured, unlike the two drunken idiots she hangs out with, Amyé and Quinn. "Good to meet you, Lizzy Celesty-Delmary."

Eliza walked over to her and patted her on the back in an attempt to help her ease the pain. "Do we have any painkillers here?"