Arthur leaned forward on his desk, chin rested on two clasped hands as he stared through squinted eyes at the two men gathered before him.

“Should I be worried that you both came in together?” Nothing good ever came about when his older brother was together with his son. The two often making a point to make his life as hard as possible. The brother in question simply grinned back, placing both his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair with a whistle.

His son on the other hand was easier to read, and while he looked nervous for some reason he couldn’t quite place, he didn’t look guilty in any way. “That crosses off the idea that they did something stupid.” he thought, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “But it still doesn’t explain why they are here.”

“Well?” He asked, a little peeved that neither of them had yet deemed fit to speak up. “Why are the two of you here?”

“Ask him not me,” Leonard caved first, raising his hands up. “Coming here was his idea.”

“Tsk,” Henry grinned as Arthur's eyes shifted to him, sitting back up properly in his chair and lobbing a datapad onto the desk. “Take a look through these first.”

“Hmm?” Arthur picked up the datapad and took a quick look through the few videos it held, whistling as he did.

“I figured you would find out soon enough so I bought it to you first,” Henry said as Arthur placed the datapad back down. “It’s quite something isn’t it?”

“It certainly is,” Arthur swivelled the datapad around to Leonard, who instantly recognised the video as the last battle he had fought in the simulator pods. “Care to share where you learned to do all of this?”

“Err..” Leonard looked around, unsure how to answer such a question. Luckily however, his uncle stepped in for him.

“I think I can explain a little for that,” Henry said, drawing Arthur's eyes back to him. “Due to my position within the Mech Corps I have become.. Well acquainted with the military's intelligence service, Bulwark.”

“Does father know about this?” Arthur raised his eyebrow. The family had a very hard stance about staying away from politics, and Bulwark was anything but non-political.

“He does,” Henry answered. “Although he was none too happy about it when I told him.”

“I can imagine.” Since their father, Leonard’s grandfather, Nicholas had joined the Elders Quorum his communications with the outside world had become all but zero. Each member of the esteemed Quorum swearing an oath to never work with an organisation that could bring the family harm. And Bulwark certainly fits that standard. “But how does this relate to Leonard?”

“I was getting to that.” Henry smiled, his carefree attitude continuing to irk Arthur. “You see, Leonard here was entered into an advanced training course, although as you can imagine the details aren't able to be discussed.”

“I see,” Arthur’s eyes met Leonards, their earlier discussion last night made this revelation somewhat easier. “And is there any danger involved in this.. Training?”

“As much as can be expected from something so experimental.” Henry kept up his story, surprising Leonard with how quickly he could make up a plausible story. “Although it is pretty safe, all things considered. And the results speak for themselves.”

“They certainly do,” Arthur racked his finger on his desk. “Very well then. Thank you for being forthcoming about this.”

“Aye, you were going to have to find out eventually,” Henry said, once again leaning back in his chair. “I just decided to jump the gun.”

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“Something that is quite hard for you to do i'm sure,” his father quipped at the man, earning a toothy grin in return.

“I'm forthcoming when I want to be.”

“When you want to be..” Arthur drawled. “Well if there is nothing else, unlike you two I actually have some work to do.”

He lifted up a small pile of documents and the two of them got the idea that it was time to leave. Leonard stood up first, sighing with relief that this little impromptu meeting went as well as it could have. Henry followed suit, offering a casual wave before disappearing out of the room, bringing the door closed shut behind him.

Arthur leaned back with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose before clicking a button on his desk, the call he had temporarily muted coming back to life.

“I assume you heard all of that then father?”

The grizzled face of Nicholas Vallum came to life on his desk console. The man's face was heavily scarred from decades of battles, a large jagged scar moving from his chin all the way up past his temple. His once dark hair was now streaked with lines of grey, his age clearly beginning to show.

“I did,” his voice was low and rough. He was sat on a large chair, framed in the centre of towering windows that overlooked their ancestral planet, its stark and resource hungry surface was dotted with military and industrial complexes.

“Then what Henry said is true? He’s a Bulwark operative?”

“That idiot son of mine,” Nicholas said, an undisguised anger frosting over his eyes for a brief moment. “He thought he could try and hide it from me in the beginning, more the fool he is. And now he has allowed those snakes to put their hands on my only grandson.”

“That doesn't necessarily mean Leo is a part of them now.”

“You may be right,” Nicholas stroked the stubble on his chin. “And yet here he is, trying to get in contact with them through clandestine means. Maybe it is time we brought him into the know, before he gets himself even more entangled with that place.”

“He’s far too young!” Arthur slammed his table, raising himself out of his chair in protest.

“Arthur,” Nicholas said, voice softening a little. “I know you wish to protect your family, however these are uncertain times we now find ourselves in. At Least take it into consideration.”

“I’ll think about it,” Arthur said through gritted teeth, sitting back down into his seat.

“Good.” Nicholas nodded, before moving back to their previous business.

– –

“Have you put any thought into your future in the Mech Corps?” Henry asked Leonard as they made their way through the corridors of the estates main building. “Someone with your talent would be wasted in the Iron Knights, how about transferring into my force? We could always use another skilled pilot on our borders with the Condor Kingdom.”

Leonard’s ears perked up at the name of their neighbouring kingdom. “I didn’t know that you were stationed there. Isn't that more of a waste? Aren't our borders with them completely peaceful?”

“It certainly is quite right now,” Henry smiled, a hit of something he could quite place briefly flashing in his eyes. “But you never know how these things go.”

“Do you think we’re going to war?” Leonard posed, although he already knew that they were it didn’t make much sense that his uncle would. “I thought relations were good.”

“Ah you know how these things go.” he waved off the question. “But put some thought into it, a future senior mech pilot is wasted out in the fringes of human space.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Leonard said, getting a slap on the back in return as he and Henry went their separate ways.

“To think the old man was a part of Bulwark,” Leonard thought as he made his way through the estate. “I had no idea, but then again that's probably the point. But this could be good for me, he seemed to know about the swarm lord core that I ingested and thinks that’s how I got my newly found piloting skills. Although that's not untrue, it's not the main part of it and could get them off my back trying to figure out what I did get.”

It would also explain his cryptic words about their border with the Condor Kingdom, if anyone were to notice military movements from their neighbour it would be their military intelligence. Although Leonard was certain that the invasion had caught Bastion completely off guard, at least, as far as his memories from the future were concerned.

“Maybe they know more than I thought,” Leonard internally mused, not wanting to think of any of the other possibilities that such a revelation might bring. “I hope so anyways.”