Ignoring the constant phantom pain coursing through my body, I focused on the kids probing in the tech junkyard from the top of an obsolete rusted tank. Wait, is that sparking ah?! These lively brats sure know how to have fun. Here we go again.

An explosion occurred and debris shot through the air in all directions.

The hell they are messing with this time. "COME HERE YA BRATS. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO STOP MESSING WITH STUFF YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT?"

"Well? Which one of you was it this time?"

Frowning, I climbed down the tank before pausing to glare at each one of them. Despite their silence, their nonverbal clues pointed to Aaron.

"Now now, what did you break this time?" I crossed my arms and as my gaze landed upon him he shrunk back.

"Old Man um..." He responded meekly.

"Cat got your tongue brat?"

"Old Man, I found an almost complete class three battle drone that looks kinda cool and I just... called others to have a look at it." His eyes were still locked at my feet.

"Taking a look does not result in an explosion boy! Now tell me what happened?" I waited a few seconds and he didn't respond. "You tried to dismantle it, didn't you?"

He hung his head while clutching his fists. Realizing the futility of staying silent, he muttered, "Yeah, I did."

I couldn't keep up my facade any longer, and I burst out laughing even as they stared at me in confusion and shock. Addy, the pure-hearted worrywart as ever, asked with worry, "Old Man, you okay?"

I kept laughing. Arin came forward, activated his wrist scanner, and started a scan of my body. Addy came up and stood beside him. Both of them were checking the results with narrow eyes. Slowly, I stopped laughing.

"Hey, young medics, there is nothing wrong with me. I saw that your dear friend was messing with that useless Raptor bot. I was not sleeping, I was watching you all closely. My swarm and Cyberware is working perfectly."

This caught their attention. Arin, Abby, Prika, and Btor started laughing with me as I broke into another bout of laughter. After a few moments, Kuhri and Vinu joined in. Aaron's face turned red. He crossed his arms and glared at me.

"What happened Aaron? Are you feeling well my son? It seems like the blood flow to your face has increased." Arin and Abby laughed harder.

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"Sheesh, my face is not red." He spoke loudly.

"Embarrassed about being caught in front of your Hannah huh? Don't worry brat she does not mind a little mischief. Do you Hannah?" She started blushing. "N- No, I don't."

"See bro, she doesn't mind a little mischief. She even likes it, seeing that she is blushing." Arin pitched in. Aaron's face turned even redder; he huffed and ran to the sleeping quarters, aka the broken half-buried cruiser. Hannah was having trouble stopping her growing smile and blush. She turned around and ran after him. The rest of the merry band of engineers, Vinu and Kuhri followed them.

These kids even make this grave of all manner of tech lively. If we were not forced to run from Eldra, it would have been even better. I shook my head. Best not to think about that.

“Um, Old Man.”

“What happened, Prika?”

“I think you went a bit too far this time,” she spoke with a tinge of worry in her voice.

“Nah, He didn’t big sis. They can handle a bit of teasing,” Abby said with a grin.

Prika still had a frown on her face, but she nodded "Okay."

“Correct Abby, you are getting a pizza today.”

Yay!, Abby cheered as a big smile spread across her face. She stuck her tongue out at Arin. This girl surely loves food as much as Arin. With a smile, I started walking back to our camp in the cruiser. Kids followed me chatting about some random fashion stuff I had no interest in.

Out of habit, I checked the surroundings. Suddenly, I saw a black dot in the reddish-blue sky. I have a bad feeling about this.

The receiver crackled in my ear, "Old Man, alliance carrier is in orbit. They are deploying landing crafts. The exact number is unavailable, they are taking down our satellites. What do we do?"

"Vinu, don't panic. Get our big boy running and he'll take you out of here, get to work."

"Okay!" I cut the transmission.

“Fuck. Run to the old freight, your parent’s killers are coming to finish their job."

Their faces turned ashen.

“But, what abo-”

“Shut up and run, Prika take all of these brats with you, and don’t you dare turn back. I am going to get Skylark, we will hold them off.” I barked as they started running.

Swarm engage combat mode. I subvocalized as I ripped off the fake cover and activated my Exo.

I quickly suited up and started running diagnostic checks. Troop carriers were approaching fast. I was able to distinguish the golden mechanical robot, on its silver armor plates. They landed about a mile away from me as the diagnostics came green. Curse my luck, those bastards had to land between me and the Skylark.

A distorted voice blasted through the speakers of troop carriers. "Imperial scum surrender, and we will grant you a fair trial."

I scoffed. Sure fucker, let me get to my partner and I will give you a fair trial as well. The message was repeated over and over again. I navigated through all kinds of rubble, giant parts, rusted machines, live ammunition, broken barrels, and whatnot. A laser shot hit my visor blinding me for a split second. Crap, they found me. I started running in a haphazard way to throw off their aim

Still, a few glancing shots blackmarked my armor. Soon, soon I will be hitting them back.

My receiver crackled, "Old Man we are taking off. Prika out."

"Roger." There, the entry point. I grinned, payback time. I jumped in and the hatch closed behind me.

"Hey Sky, let's have some fun. Shall we?"

(Sure Prime, Priming up systems)