Ukko sat in a surprisingly intact office in a not-as-surprisingly cratered building. While following Guinevere around the city, Ukko couldn’t help but appreciate his artillerymen’s work. If things go well with The Alley, he might be able to start paying them what they deserve.

Guinevere had taken him to the wreck of a machine that had her little pet project installed. Ukko wasn’t much of a scientist, or a researcher, or even a mechanic. He was a fighter, plain and simple. But when he sent the pictures he took to his research team they had some interesting input. Guinevere might be the first person Ukko had met that was honest when they were begging for their lives.

His soldiers were slowly abandoning their encirclement of the city and pouring in; getting ready to set up defensive positions in case The Alley decides to make negotiations difficult.

Currently, Ukko was waiting for Guinevere and that cockroach Lionel to gather up some documents. He really didn’t care for that Lionel guy. Too self-interested.

Ukko was self-interested as well, but as a mercenary that was a pretty big part of his job. But this guy should have some loyalty for his own damn city.

Ukko kicked some shards of glass out of the windowsill and propped up his feet. Maybe because this was an important part of the city, the fires outside were almost under control. Not out, but under control. The air was breathable, but Ukko still would have preferred to be in his sealed off MAC cockpit.

The little Vice Admiral hadn’t stopped bringing up that point.

The little girl in a silver tank-like MAC was patrolling the surrounding area. ‘Just keeping you safe Admiral’ was what she said as she cackled and kicked up a storm of debris with her thrusters. The little urchin, or ‘Vice Admiral’ (the name she chose for herself since she didn’t have one when Ukko brought her on board), was the perfect mercenary: an asshole with talent.

All these thoughts, however, were just ways for Ukko to distract himself from the real issue at hand: that cockroach saw something he shouldn’t have. The canisters are supposed to self-destruct once they’re purged. Ukko still couldn’t tell if Lionel had just been bluffing, but he couldn’t risk it. Those canisters wouldn’t just send him to the headsmen. No, his whole organization would be hunted down like animals. He sent a recovery team to sweep the area where it could have been lost, but he hadn’t received any word yet.

Ukko had a lot of deaths on his hands, it comes with being a mercenary in a war-torn age, but he didn’t want to play a part in the mass execution of his whole mercenary troop. At least in that way, he wanted to be clean.

He could kill this Lionel, of course he was thinking that when he was in his big robot with a big gun and would have had a very very easy time turning the man into literal nothingness. Ukko yawned and closed his eyes. He was too old to be staying up like this, the sun was practically set.

The issue is that killing Lionel might not get rid of the data, in which case it would be a very unwise move. This was, honestly, becoming too complicated.

Guinevere burst into the room with about four boxes stacked up in her arms. She yelled loudly, much to Ukko’s displeasure, at Lionel to clear a table. She slammed down the boxes and started out the door, but Ukko didn’t want her to leave yet, “Guinevere, correct? I think I’ll need you around. My researchers will have a better time piecing things together if you help them out.”

“I’m sure your people are very capable,” she spit out all the words like venom, filled with pure hatred, “everything they need to look at is here. If this research is what convinces you to let us live, with all due respect, I should go help save some of the dying citizens you’re so magnanimously offering to spare.”

“No, no I don’t think so. You’ll stay.” Ukko was so used to dealing with people under his control that he winced after he realized he was treating her in that same way. If what his men had said about the pictures was true, this girl needs to be on his side. “Uh, sorry about sounding a bit rough there. You do need to stay though. The faster you help me the faster I can try to free up some of my men to help with… all of this. And hey, those people out there seem to be doing a pretty good job, maybe you should trust in your companions a bit.” If this woman made what she said she made, he really needed her working for him. Willingly would be best, but you can’t always hope for the best.

She started acting this way as soon as she realized Ukko had no power to decide what would happen to the city. Only The Alley could reverse their decision and Ukko had nothing to do with that side of things. Honestly, Ukko thought, he was lucky enough to leave out The Alley’s plan for this place when talking to her. If he told her any of that, Ukko was sure she would refuse to cooperate no matter what he did. She might even try to kill him in which case Ukko would have to retaliate. That would mean losing out on her potential future as a weapon developer for The Stragglers, given that Ukko had no intention of being murdered. He needed to make sure she stayed in the dark about the future of the city until she was securely under his watch.

She had a murderous look in her eyes as she sat down across from him. Probably not the best foot to get started off on, but time would be on Ukko’s side.

Ukko turned back to the window, continuing to appreciate his soldiers’ handiwork. Lionel started to pull out specific pieces of paper. Diagrams and percentages and lengthy reports that he promised were cutting edge advances and sure to ‘change the tide of wars once again’.

He was mostly talking to himself at this point, desperately trying to justify the reason for his continued existence.

Ukko was still far more intrigued by Guinevere. He had a gut feeling she didn’t really need Lionel for this project, and she seemed far easier to work with in the long run. Sure, Lionel was the type to follow Ukko around like a loyal dog, but only until he found a better opportunity. His loyalty was, realistically, nonexistent. Guinevere, on the other hand, seemed to have an intense loyalty.

The question, the main question Ukko was currently exhausting his brain on, was what she was actually loyal to.

The pilot, some young pup named ‘Jace’, couldn’t have been it. The woman drove around his half-conscious husk of a body instead of trying to get him treated. Maybe she thought the extra modifications done to Jace would be enough to convince Ukko to spare the city, but she nearly killed the boy with that stunt. Not to mention she’s only checked on him once so far. But Ukko could understand that. The man was a babbling mess at the moment, crying about some dead girl. Visiting him right now wouldn’t do any good.

Her loyalty didn’t lie with this Lionel either. If anything, it seems like their relationship has suddenly become very strained. Probably because of all the death and destruction, but still.

Maybe her loyalty was to her research? This advancement she made, if what Ukko had been told was true, would be more than enough for anyone to hold onto as a crowning achievement of their life. His mind stopped for a moment, as if he just ran up against a mental wall, “You know, here I am trying to figure out what I’m doing here with all of you, and it keeps coming back to this little discovery.”

Lionel, who was interrupted in the middle of explaining critical output or something similar, followed up immediately, “Yes, but not just a discovery. It’s a fully operational and completed product! Fit to be strapped into any machine you wish and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about the potential this brings to your mercenary group. In fact, with these calculations it can be proven-”

“Completed? Lionel what the hell are you-” Guinevere, who had just interrupted Lionel, was then interrupted in turn by Lionel. Ukko closed his eyes; the man just couldn’t stop talking.

Through gritted teeth and, though the man looked old and frail and about to keel over, with a strangely threatening presence he said, “Yes Guinevere. Completed. After all, if it was just some silly prototype we would have to be complete idiots to beg for our lives like this.”

“Our lives? Don’t you mean everyone’s lives? Or are you really just trying to save yourself.” Ukko rose out of his seat, hoping it would be enough to get the two to shut up and let him finish his question, “You know Lionel, I thought we were all on the same page. Did having drinks with us and playing ‘friends’ irritate you? It’s clear that all you care about, the only stupid thing you give a shit about, is your own goddamn life!”

Obviously Ukko’s ‘standing up’ tactic achieved nothing. He started to speak before being cut off by a rather furious Lionel, “You’re going to put this all on me? As if I’m the bad guy here?” That got a slight chuckle out of Ukko. Imagine being in the same room as the man who was burning down your city and deciding to call your ally a ‘bad guy’. It was amusing enough to keep Ukko from pistol whipping them both and putting a stop to this drama. “You! You’re just as hypocritical as me, but you aren’t even self-aware enough to realize it. Callista and Jace? The pilots you care so dearly for? And our little group? Oh yes, the best of comrades, right Guinevere? Well, here we are: Callista dead and Jace dying. Where are your tears, huh? Why aren’t you trying to snap Jace out of his bout of madness so the doctors can actually work on him? Why is it, Guinevere, that the only thing you seem to care about is this city?” He packed that word, ‘thing’, with quite a lot of emotional ammo.

Ah, that was it. Her loyalty wasn’t to a person, or a group, or even her research. It was to the city itself. It seemed a bit too obvious, but Ukko supposed it made sense. Some nostalgic sickness or deranged hope maybe. Ukko had heard people like this were common enough, though he didn’t understand being tied to a place like that.

Lionel and Guinevere stared at each other for a moment. Lionel was clearly exhausted, the man had quite the assortment of wounds and the pain was obviously still eating away at him. Guinevere, on the other hand, was clearly deep in thought.

In a single move, a movement that was more impressive due to Ukko’s age, he landed a solid hit to Guinevere’s stomach and put a bullet through Lionel’s ear. Guinevere vomited and Lionel screamed. So much for trying to win over Guinevere with a bit of decency, but this was just the sort of tactic Ukko was more familiar with.

Ukko had seen this scene before. They were sure to start up again if he didn’t step in. And if they started again, things would probably get… violent between them. Maybe even more violent than what Ukko just did. Maybe.

Ukko silently reprimanded himself. There was a time when he could have pulled a stunt like that without getting puke on his coat. Ah, old age is a horrid thing.

“Please, for the love of whatever unholy abomination birthed pissants like you, stop this little ‘fight’ and focus on your captor for a bit, alright? I just want to know if this discovery or invention or prototype or whatever the hell it is has a name. I’m tired of having to throw a bunch of words at something I need to think about. So? Out with it.”

Lionel was busy sobbing and searching the floor for the rest of his ear chunks, so Guinevere spoke through labored breaths, “Trahir,” she coughed, “it’s called Trahir.”

“Appreciated. Now, Lionel, go find a doctor. Guinevere, stay in this room. The research team should be nearly here. It should go without saying but considering you both seem to be… out of sorts, it would be best to go along with what I say for now.” Ukko walked out the door and left them behind.

He was willing to bet they would do what he said, but ultimately this Trahir business was secondary. The main objective still hadn’t changed, so the Vice Admiral’s series of beeps coming through his earpiece were far more important.

The building started to shake and a few more cracks started growing in the walls and ceiling. Ukko simply kept walking toward the front door.

The shaking stopped before he got outside. Once he made his way through the doors, he saw the little Vice Admiral swinging around from the ropes that she hung flags on. She managed to get herself out to the tip of the lowest gun barrel on the side of the machine facing Ukko. She screamed in a stereotypically childish and high-pitched tone, “Ahoy mister Admiral! Looks like you were right again. This guy’s a big one too. Too bad Alexi’s dead, huh?”

The little girl had more than a few screws loose. Ukko didn’t even want to think about Alexi’s death. It was an expensive machine, and the man was a damn good pilot. It’ll be a pain to find a replacement. And with this news…

Ah well, Ukko thought, no point in worrying now. Just have to fight and hope for the best.

The reason the Vice Admiral was screaming at him instead of using the radio was simple: the main boss had arrived. The Alley actually had a home-grown MAC program. They used plenty of fodder units and loaned them out to groups like Ukko’s, but their actual MAC development team had made quite the batch of models. But this home-grown program wasn’t for fighting these wars of theirs. They were for keeping the mercenaries from getting too out of control.

The short of it is this: The Alley has a special kill squad specializing in putting an end to people like Ukko. They call themselves House Keepers. There’s only a handful of them though, and only one close enough to respond to Ukko’s little protest. Still… it’ll be tough.

“How is everyone faring so far? How many got into the city?”

“Only half. Those big guns they haul around make them all slowpokes.”

“Shit, we’ll have to go with plan D then.”

“Shit,” she was clearly mocking Ukko, the man who constantly told her not to cuss, “which one is D again? Shit.”

Ukko chose to ignore it for now. If they both lived through this he’d make her stand watch for the next three nights, “We go meet him. How about the sappers, they were right behind us.”

“Shit, yeah they got in just fine. Their bombs weren’t nearly as heavy as those big cannons. Shit.”

Ukko couldn’t quite see, but he was pretty sure she just spat like some kind of rancher complaining about the weather. Maybe he should say no dinner for three nights too. He got to the elevator chain for his MAC and zipped up into the cockpit. A single wave to the Vice Admiral was all the communication they would have until this was all over.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Hopefully those sappers keep working. If they live through all this and if Ukko can get The Alley to agree to that pay bump, he’d like to have a quick and easy way of showing The Alley just how efficient he can be.

~~~

The Vice Admiral took her position behind a fallen skyscraper. Her machine was mostly hidden, and the silver blended in well with the smoke. Those battleship cannons of hers were angled at the sky like some sort of twelve-gun salute.

Ukko, in his golden MAC, went out to meet the enemy in the desert. He saw his soldiers that were still repositioning as he flew past. He zoomed in his cameras and saw the looks on their faces. It was mostly a mix of anxiety and exhaustion. They were supposed to be in the city and setting up defenses by now, but they could only move so fast.

It wasn’t the ideal scenario. If things had gone great, they would already be set up with defensive positions in the city to make the enemy attempt a single-man siege. If things had gone decent, Ukko, Alexi, and the Vice Admiral would have been working together to overwhelm the incoming House Keeper.

This, however, was the worst-case scenario. His soldiers weren’t ready and he’d lost one of his best pilots.

Well, Ukko thought, maybe the real worst-case scenario would be him fighting all by himself.

He shook his head. The Vice Admiral is more than enough. Yes. That’s how Ukko decided to think about this issue. The little girl had plenty of talent and skill, and he wasn’t so bad himself.

His golden MAC, now thoroughly dulled by dust and smoke stains, actually made for pretty good camouflage. The dulled gold paint didn’t glimmer and shine and instead blended in neatly with the endless sand and dirt.

Unfortunately, camouflage on massive metal beasts rarely mattered, and it certainly didn’t matter with Ukko’s plan. He tuned into the normal frequency of The Alley’s troops, “This is Ukko, leader of The Stragglers. We’re currently contracted under The Alley. We demand you identify yourself immediately or we will be forced to engage.” Best to be proper when dealing with these kinds of people, Ukko thought.

Ukko brought his machine to a stop on a large pile of sand that held a commanding view of the surrounding landscape. It should also mitigate the risk of friendly fire when the Little Admiral starts bringing her big guns to bear. He flipped a few switches that extended stakes from his feet. It wouldn’t do much good in the sand, but it still made aiming a bit easier. He brought his heavy beam rifle up and aimed it into the distance. He scanned the horizon for any sign of dust being kicked up. He would prefer to have this situation handled before getting into close quarters combat.

“This is a House Keeper. You should have done your job.”

Ukko started to scan the horizon more intensely now. The sun had set and the little light left made visual confirmation difficult. It was just something you had to deal with when fighting an opponent that was more than half-competent. He had plenty of sensors that he could try to rely on, but the scrambling effects of MACs made them unreliable. “Oh, a House Keeper? It’s quite an honor then. Nice to talk to you. We’re actually doing our job quite well. In fact, I believe we’re just about finished. The issue is that we haven’t been compensated.”

“The Alley has paid you what they owe you.”

“So what? You’re telling us to surrender?” A few clicks that came over the radio told Ukko the general direction. The Vice Admiral had good eyes and ears, so Ukko was willing to trust her. He swiveled the core of his unit to the south-west and rerouted his main rifle’s power consumption to one of the canisters on his back. The main generator could run the gun, but it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as it is with the cannisters. This wasn’t an enemy Ukko could go easy on, he had to either go all out or die. He preferred the former over the latter.

“Surrender?” The man laughed, though it was a laugh entirely devoid of joy, “They don’t call House Keepers in for negotiations. All you can do now is dig a grave.”

“How could I dig a grave when I don’t even know your measurements?” Ukko was sweating intensely. The controls were slick in his hands and he kept trying to blink away the salty beads of liquid.

“Very clever. Now make your peace with your god. It’s your last chance after all.”

Just before Ukko was going to give in and blink to revitalize his bone-dry eyes, he saw the telltale sign of a dust cloud that had been kicked up in the distance. He threw a lever with his left hand and used the retinal connection of his machine to guide the rifle on target with his eye.

It all took less than a second and then Ukko fired. He was quite experienced with using long-range type MACs. He was good at it and, quite frankly, he enjoyed it. It was why he was more than willing to give up an eye for the kind of performance he was now able to pull off.

Now for the main reason behind the stakes in his MACs feet. Although the beam itself had no recoil, the immediate and violent ejection of the rifle’s heavy barrel could throw off his aim if his machine wasn’t properly anchored. The barrel had to be shot out quickly, otherwise the melting steel cylinder could fuse to the weapon.

His right arm, which was currently locked into the rifle, had an overly large forearm section that housed the replacement barrels. When connected like this, switching barrels could be done within moments. It had the added bonus of working like a makeshift shield, though that depended on how many barrels were still in the arm. A hollow container wouldn’t do him much good against the weapons caried by MACs.

For now though, none of that entered Ukko’s mind. As soon as the new barrel was locked in place he flipped the lever that activated the next power canister. The spent one had been ejected and began to melt from the inside like it was supposed to. He only had four more of the canisters counting the one he just activated.

But, at the risk of wasting the now active canister, Ukko hesitated before firing his follow up shot. His first shot caused an explosion, but it was unusually small almost as if-

The ground shook and the tremors managed to screw up Ukko’s aiming. It hardly mattered, he now realized he was shooting at some sort of decoy. He refocused his vision toward the main cameras and saw the cause of the quaking. A full salvo of the Vice Admiral had just dug up twelve new craters due south of Ukko’s position.

There was a clear heat signature in that dust storm.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t slowing down.

Ukko swiveled his core again but had to fire the shot off early at risk of the power canister going critical. He used the opportunity to lower the power of the shot and extend the duration. He swept the gold-tinted beam across the entire dust cloud, leaving a trail of cleared up skyline where the kicked-up sand and dirt was vaporized.

Another salvo from the Vice Admiral screeched by. This salvo, however, landed too far east. She wouldn’t make a mistake like that though…

Above.

She was aiming at an airborne target.

By the time Ukko realized this, even though it only took fractions of a second, it was too late to try to get another shot off. He ejected his rifle and brought the makeshift shield arm up and extended the embedded sword on his left arm. He brought them both up in an X in front of himself as a massive axe made up of a blade and two gears hit him with all the force of God himself.

Long yet slim propellant tanks protruded out of the back of the MAC, making it look a bit like a porcupine. Each quill-shaped canister had a bright blue flame lighting up the back. The guy must have used one of his propellant tanks as a decoy to confuse Ukko on that first shot.

The machine was simple lines all the way through. The focus was on speed and striking first. The dark purple machine that seemed to look like the cosmos in motion had nothing more than a simple number painted on the exterior ‘8’. All in white and plastered on the upper right thigh.

The two gears on either end of his axe blade started to turn as the blade struggled to cut through Ukko’s shield arm.

The combined weight of the MAC and sheer power of its boosters had sunk Ukko’s legs deep into the sand. He was trapped.

The gears crunched into his arm armor and stopped, but only for a moment. They began to grind through the reinforced plates, slowly pulling away chunk after chunk and feeding them past that massive axe blade.

Ukko had to do something.

He retracted the sword on his left arm. He tried to ease his left arm away from supporting his shield arm, but every inch he pulled back was an extra inch the enemy gained, slowly bringing him closer to digging that axe and those gears into Ukko’s cockpit.

He had to be quick. It would have to be one singular motion if this had any hope of working.

He pulled back his left arm entirely and followed up immediately by pressing it straight up against his shield arm’s hand.

The wrist joint started to buckle, nearly snapping in two from the pressure. The axe also managed bite deeper into his arm, now only a hairsbreadth away from the cockpit.

Ukko remained as calm as he could. He needed to think clearly. The sweat had now drenched him and his controls. The sound of cracks splintering his teeth as he clenched his jaw tighter and tighter threatened to distract him; to cause a lapse in judgement.

But somehow, he managed not to screw it up. He flipped a switch that extended his blade again and watched as it shot straight through his own machine’s hand and directly toward the enemy MAC’s core.

But the House Keeper was quick. Ukko was sure that these damn House Keepers had to be cheating somehow. Nobody can move like that.

But, nonetheless, the enemy MAC shifted some of the boosters on its back, pivoting them in their sockets, and managed to shoot itself up and back.

Ukko’s sword had severed some cables on the machine’s right leg and, thanks to that thin armor, it looked like he did some decent damage.

Of course, hurting the leg of a MAC that seems to be focused on flying probably didn’t help as much as he hoped it would.

And, as he took a few breaths to tally up the score, he reluctantly admitted being half buried, without his rifle, and with a chewed up right arm probably meant he was losing.

But he wasn’t fighting alone.

Another explosion, as if the Earth were breaking in two, bounced around endlessly inside his metal cockpit. Twelve burning boulders of metal flew in a straight line, leaving a red-hued streak of light in the night sky as they passed by like meteors.

All twelve shots missed as the House Keeper burned more propellant to boost out of the way of the only round that nearly hit him.

But Ukko had seen this before. The Vice Admiral usually kept her distance, so her rounds always rained down from the sky. But when her rounds came flying straight past, it was clear that she was charging the enemy.

Contrary to the massive size of her machine, it was one of the quickest MACs around. The massive boosters, though obvious targets, easily brought her to supersonic levels when she activated a power canister.

The silver beast approached like a bird of prey. Its twelve main guns were spread out to both sides like the wings of a raptor.

Although she was fast, she wasn’t very maneuverable. She spread her cannons like that to cast a wide net, obviously hoping to make some sort of contact with the enemy.

This wasn’t the ideal plan, not by any estimation, but Ukko went with the flow. He ripped off his left arm, the arm with the embedded sword, and brought it up like a javelin. His right arm should still be able to handle this much.

The Vice Admiral barely managed to clip the House Keeper’s machine. The House Keeper was quick and agile, but those fuel tanks were just too long. The pilot was skilled and he managed to purge the canister almost immediately, but the damage was already done. His porcupine of a MAC started to spin from the force of impact.

Somehow, in a feat most would know is impossible, he managed to use the spin and his own speed to bury his axe into the Vice Admiral’s back. The gears, still spinning, were chewing through her machine as she passed by and continued to chew even after the House Keeper let go of the weapon that was now embedded in the Vice Admiral’s machine.

The makeshift javelin arm had already been thrown by this point and all Ukko could do was trust that it struck true while the House Keeper was still recovering from that spin. For now, the Vice Admiral was the priority. He had no plans on letting both of his best soldiers die today, especially not her. He focused intently on the cord that was plugged into his eye socket.

The direct connection should be enough to let him control his MAC remotely, though not for long. He used the regular controls to dig his left hand into the chest of his metal monster. As if ripping out the heart, he gripped the cockpit and gouged it out, sending a shower of cords and metal shards raining down to the ground.

The connection between his controls and the machine was now completely severed, he had to rely on his ability to move it mentally.

It hurt Ukko.

It was a hot, searing pain that lanced through his eye socket and soaked into his skull. The bone housing for his eye felt as if it was fracturing in a million different places, each microscopic crack finding its way to another and threatening to splinter the bone entirely apart. He felt himself being lifted, higher and higher above the head of his MAC.

His brain was thinking strange thoughts. The MAC felt so distinct and different, like a living breathing organism, while he himself felt less and less real. Ukko was coming to a realization. At this point, he was less a human and more a processor. A component, no, an organ of this demon.

Blood poured from his face. It streamed from his ears, nostrils, eyes, and even pores.

One more push, thought Ukko, just one more push.

And then, after a sudden increase in the g-force that streaked the blood across his face rather than it pouring down, he was flying.

The mental connection was completely severed.

An audible and yet entirely self-contained ‘snap’ emanated from his head.

The flight didn’t last long. The cockpit was built well and he survived the landing. He pressed the button that popped open the lid and dragged himself out of the box while still screaming in pain.

He didn’t know where the strength to even move was coming from, but he was sure that if he woke up tomorrow, he would probably be wishing he died here.

His aim was true and he landed right next to the Vice Admiral’s MAC. The axe had dug deep into the back of her machine before finally stopping when it hit the main gun housings. The main generator of her MAC was stored in the bottom half, so there was no risk of it going critical, but the cockpit was stored directly between the two big double-stacked gun emplacements.

Ukko dragged himself up the sporadic handholds and metal ladder rungs that covered the machine. The pain was immense, but he was a man possessed. His screaming voice had gone silent as his mind honed in on his singular goal.

Ukko had no desire to lose her.

None.

He coughed blood, staining the beautifully simple silver armor, but he didn’t stop climbing.

He reached the cockpit and punched in a code that ejected the main armor covering. The gust of air nearly blew Ukko off the machine and to his death, but he held tight.

Ukko’s heart went cold. The blade of the axe glinted in the back of cockpit, cutting straight across. The silver moonlight that glinted off the sharpened metal illuminated the scene.

He reached toward the Vice Admiral, the little girl that had no business on the battlefield and yet also nowhere else to call home.

He stopped short of touching her cheek, taking a moment to wonder why he had to survive all this.

But his thoughts were interrupted, “Did we win?” Her voice was clearly frightened.

Ukko had an insane thought to hug the girl, like a father might. He shook his head, splattering drops of fresh blood around her cockpit, and smiled, “I haven’t checked.”

“Sometimes,” she choked back a sob, “sometimes I think you’re bad at this.” She tried to smile.

Ukko realized she wasn’t afraid of what she just went through. She had become used to battle after all. She was afraid of what had happened to him. He supposed being saved by your mentor who was bleeding from every pore on his face, staining his graying hair and beard, would be a bit horrifying. He leaned back out of the cockpit, appreciating the cool breeze that was starting to blow across the sandy expanse. In the distance he saw the House Keeper’s machine. It was kneeling down on top of a sand dune with a sword, Ukko’s sword, stuck in its chest. It was still lit up by that blue light from its thrusters. “Shit, I think we actually did it…”

The little girl had already started to climb up out of her cockpit and sit on one of the metal arrays of the radar head, “So, does this mean we’re getting that raise Admiral?” She shouted down at him, clearly feeling better now that Ukko had calmed down and started trying a bit harder to hide his pain.

“Well, if things go as planned, I’m thinking maybe. Sixty percent chance sounds about good.”

Ukko looked up at the little girl on her perch, still too worried about her. The moon and stars seemed to welcome her all too gratefully up there. She looked down at him, smiling widely, “Shit.”