Oh hey! Who are you again?

I took a look at the payroll and the money from the CDF, gave everybody a fat equal paycheck. But gave 75% of mine to the pot to be split and we talked about moving out of Microtech to setting up on Terra. Aside from the obvious oceans and beaches, the forests were dense and calming. I took the little bit of cash I had and set up a home for myself in them as a place to get away.

The others took to building homes close to mine and we bacame a small colony that wasn't tied to the Org in any way. Yeah, we could have built a larger establishment like the larger orgs but frankly we didn't need the space. Just a pad big enough to land damn near anything, smaller ones, and we attached a small clinic ot it. People knew we were there as a quick-access clinic for their passing injuries and we barely charged, or outright refused to let newer citizens pay because they needed it.

Arcantha never built her own home, instead insisting on living with me. Deacon and Grendel put their homes right next to each other and connected them while Veridian and Ravi lived together and were rarely away from each other.

Ravi's recovery was clearly painful, she kept a spent ammo casing on a necklace and refused to take it off. We all knew it was the shell from ending her relationship with Pearl. We thought it sadistic she kept it but she lost it for a week once and was completely inconsolable. But Arcantha found it in her clothes during the move and Ravi lit up like a Luminalia lamp. Verdi was coming into her own and proving to be an invaluable asset. I trained the crew in the Tevarin ways as I was, but a thousand times less shady and intense. Verdi picked up insanely quick and you could swear she could have been one of my group as kids, in a one-on-one spar with me she was starting to pick up back-to-back wins. While I was getting scared, I felt intense pride that she could one day take over Spacemoms if I died for good.

While Grendel and Deacon were dedicated to the job we all had, they lived in each other's lives pretty closely. We looked into new helmets after hers had been damaged to the point of being a liability but to be entirely honest I think they fell in love in battle and may have done some smooching. Just my suspicion.

The mysteries of Deacon revealed themselves and we understood the guy more once we learned about the helmet. The hand belonged to his daughter, Helene. His wife and kid were lost to a Xenothreat incursion years ago when coming in to make a surprise visit. Right over Crusader the ship caught them and opened fire.

They never had a chance and he dedicated his life to the UEEN after the loss. The helmet was the only thing recovered from the wreckage of their E1. Helene painted her dad's helmet and was going to surprise him with it when she saw him.

I was laying in bed with Arcantha and talking about things we needed for the space station when an Idris touched down on our pad. IFF tag said the ship belonged to the UEEN so I pinged the bridge.

"Hey, welcome to Spacemom surface sta-" I say before the crew cuts in screaming. They had a mountain of bodies on board needing immediate medical attention and they heard about us from our work at the Standton/Terra gateway. I replied and said that we don't have the bed space but we can call up the Apollos, Cutty Red and the Galaxy is already on the pad so to drop in. I ping the crew to get dressed but the second the screaming started they were up and getting into scrubs. Verdi didn't, she armored up and wouldn't give a reason why.

Ravi did. And she armed every single turret and trained them onto the ship. She insisted on custom size 8 guns and now I know why.

"Cal, the thing is commandeered by Xenos." Ravi said softly over the comms. "It's UEEN but I think some assholes have a score to settle with us."

I grabbed my gear, Arcantha was already half-suited and in a minute everybody pinged green and good to go. I cancelled the Apollo and Cutty lifts and got ready to turn the turrets loose.

"Identify yourselves before proceeding, who is on-board and what happened or we open fire."

Deacon was already pinging his buddy back in the navy for info about a lost ship, gave serial and all. Ravi had already deployed the EMP built into the pad, a precaution for things like this and the ship shut down entirely so any chance it had of firing on us was minor.

"Here's the deal." A disturbingly familiar voice crackled in over the static. "Surrender yourselves and we promise this whole settlement will disappear without a trace."

A massive thud kilometers away, then another, and another.

"Quantum drops twenty kilos out." Ravi said happily. "All UEEN and ready to party."

Deacon cut in on comms and sounded dead serious. "My guy came back and said this boat was captured three hours ago and couldn't find it. The navy is probably here to collect."

"Alright Cal, fine." Another voice said. "At least let us get your navals out of here and we'll leave you be. Promise, they can all be treated and we'll leave you alone and take the Idris."

Ravi's heartrate spiked and her emotions were running high.

<I fucking hate regeneration.> popped up on our huds. Pearl and Jojo were back from regeneration and more than likely escaped prison. Given how tenacious and bold Xenothreat was they more than likely pulled it off.

"I know you don't remember our last interaction, but I'll fucking ventilate you again, Pearl." Ravi's voice colder than ice. "Leave us or I'll add another shell to my necklace."

Verdi wasn't about to watch half a year of recovery vanish in a few minutes and opened her mic.

"Pearl, just leave. You and Jojo have no place here and we REALLY want you to leave without incident." She said softly.

The rumble of engines in the distance slowly grew louder as the UEE recovery fleet approached, two Polaris and one Idris in a strange new red paint.

"Yeah, recovery crew." Deacon said over the mic, and he sounded terrified. "We need to go back inside and get back to what we were doing. Black out the windows. We didn't see or hear anything."

"Well I'm gonna offline their turrets and quantum because I-" Ravi said before she got cut off by Deacon.

"You. Saw. Nothing." He said coldly. "Go inside, lock the door, black out the windows, forget this happened. If you touch that ship now you're never getting out of prison."

This was new to me, and I was a black-op baby. We knew about everything inside the UEE Navy as kids, all the way down to the HIGHLY classified stuff "just in case".

We all walked back into our homes, dressed down to normal clothes and carried on like nothing happened.

Outside there was ZERO noise. The rumble of the ships vanished and it was dead silent for at least two hours before a knock came in on my door.

I got up, walked over and opened it to see an older woman in Navy Officer dress and extended her hand. I shook it and looked at her name badge. S.O. Marlin.

"Hello, just coming by to thank you for your service and I wish to speak to Deacon if that is okay?" She said very warmly.

She seemed so sweet but "Special Operations" on a nameplate makes the fear go through the roof. I pointed over to his building. "He's over there, ma'am. Name should be on the door."

She nodded gently, smiled, and walked away after thanking me for my time.

I turned around and my door snapped itself shut and locked, and I didn't even set it to do so. Fuck I'm so scared right now, a military cryptid showed itself at my door and wanted one of my crew.

I pinged Ravi but only got a response from Marlin nearly instantly.

"Do not. Only warning."

FUCK. That's genuinely scary because that says she's got a constant eye on us and probably knows what Ravi is capable of. Ravi can get into ANY system undetected but I have a feeling the cryptids have been watching her since she first snuck into Deacon's mobi on my probation.

I sat on the bed with Arcantha and didn't move, COULDN'T move. We had no cameras in the homes and very few around the site but I have a feeling Marlin could see EVERYTHING somehow.

Another hour of silence, another hour of fear. Then the door slid open and who would be standing there but the cryptid with Deacon standing right behind her at attention and pale. He normally had a nice tan but he looked like a ghost. Merlin stepped in, looked around our home and smiled.

"Miss Callie, I need you to follow me. Deacon is here to keep an eye on your partner while you are gone."

My heart sank and Deacon looked terrified. I stood up and put my boots on while he sat on the bed with his head in his hands. Arcantha leaned over and rubbed his back.

"Lead the way, ma'am." I said almost as if a naval soldier.

"My ship is on one of your pads, we'll be heading out to discuss things in privacy." She said softly, almost sweetly. That made me insanely paranoid.

As we walked to the pads she mentioned the Idris incident, the Terra incursion, all of it in insane detail. She knew EVERYTHING and charged me for a keg of booze.

Her ship was a model I had never seen in my life. Small shuttle, matte black paint, this this was a cryptid chariot.