Planet Manhattan, Present Day

"Whatever Damian, I was just trying to answer the question of how humans ended up here in the first place. Don't even know why I bother though, you can't hold your booze down like you used to. If you really think that I'm that drunk, you haven't seen me drunk yet."

It was a busy day as per usual on Planet Manhattan. Transports, freighters, police patrols, and Bounty Hunters alike all were piling into the main bar. Two Liberty Policemen were sitting at a booth with what looked like a large bottle of Scotch and talking about something heatedly. A woman sat at the edge of the room on a raised stool watching the projector display some sort of Niobium jewelry. A couple were sitting at the bar sharing a bottle of wine and the bartender was polishing up some glasses. He knew that on a Friday night, people were going to get irritated if they couldn't get their alcohol to top off their week, that's why this bartender was known as the best in Liberty. He always kept his liquor stocked, glasses clean, and his social skills up to par. When you were a bartender in Liberty, you saw people of all sorts of backgrounds so either you learned who came in when, or you were screwed as an employee. He had now set down his glass and started to wipe down the bar, considering the corner booth to see if the gang of four seated there needed to be topped off. He recognized three of them instantly, for they were here every night and always went to that same booth. The table there was piled with several different bottles of booze and shot glasses kept rising and falling with their coordinated drinks. They came in so often in fact that he could pick the three off by name.

To the outside left corner of the booth sat a tall, skinny man with dark brown hair and rimless glasses ("Who the heck still wears those things?" The bartender always wondered to himself). He sported a lab coat of some kind and his defining characteristic to the bartender was that he was always picking at his hands. His name was Clayton Haug and what he did for a living was unknown to most people. The bartender did know however, that he was a part of Willard Research Station over in the California System and had been working there since he graduated Manhattan U.

Next to him sat a shorter man with lighter brown hair wearing a jumpsuit that looked like it belonged to Liberty's very own Deep Space Engineering company, one of the "Big Three" Liberty companies. He was kind of hesitant on most topics that the group would discuss and never said even when he got a chance to speak. Still, it looked like he got along very well with the group and enjoyed the booze. Keegan Sabol was an escort pilot for the DSE and mainly was seen defending loads of goods and mechanical parts from being stolen off transports by pirates. His fellow escort wingman sat on the outer right side of the booth. A larger man sporting a similar jumpsuit to that of Keegan's, Logan Johnson was a man who had a big heart and a good mind; it was just in an unorganized mess. His jumpsuit gave him a slimming appearance, though it was obvious that anything smaller wouldn't be able to fit him. Even though he was quiet tonight, he was known around the neighborhood as a guy who said what came to his mind and didn't care how loud he was when he was saying it. Keegan and Clayton eventually decided that he was an okay guy even though he said things that probably wouldn't be okay with many others.

The bartender then focused his eyes on the fourth man sitting between Keegan and Logan on the middle right of the booth. He was a Navy pilot that much was certain as he sported the blue and gold uniform of a navy officer. He also had dark brown hair that was slicked down so that it appeared slightly curly over the top of his forehead. It was an odd haircut for someone in the Navy the bartender thought, but it was none of his concern. He currently had his hand on a shot glass and proceeded to down it, making it his third shot of the night, already though, the bartender could see that being in the Navy meant that he hadn't had a drink in a while as his speech was already slurring. "Yak see Clayton, what' yam need to do is get over the brains, and star' talk' to some chicks." It seemed like there were 10 s' in chicks as the last letter was pronounced for far too long. "Yeah okay Pohlman, whatever you say." Clayton hated talking to a drunken friend, but a drunken Damian Pohlman was the worst. Damian was the mildest of the group by far when he was sober, but when he got smashed, he was very loud and obnoxious. Rolling his eyes, Clayton turned to Keegan "So how was the week for you guys? I heard DSE got a huge shipment of machinery sent out."

Keegan, who had been looking down at his glass in deep thought, snapped back to reality with a sudden jolt, "Yeah, our CEO just signed a deal with Ageira Tech. We've been shipping parts over to a site in the Galileo system. It has something to do with Ageira wanting to build jump Gates that lead to Liberty space. They were going to build them at the bends so that convoys entering Liberty are less likely to be attacked by Rogues and Lane Hackers." Damian gave another lurch and took his fourth shot, despite Logan's advisory warnings to resist. "Wait, all the bends? That would violate the Border World Treaty. Each nation is supposed to split the Border World boundaries evenly, so Liberty jump Gates past the Liberty half would- "Piss off an already angry Kusari government? Yeah, I know, and I don't know what you want me to do about it. Logan and I are just following orders, though I'm half tempted to talk to Blackburn about it." Thomas Blackburn was the current CEO of the DSE as well Keegan and Logan's main authority on nearly all their assignments. Although he wasn't the man who had the idea of building the gates, he still controlled the manufacturing side of things. "Maybe I can convince him to stop supplying parts to Ageira. If nothing else maybe they can slow down the production of the parts until an agreement between the nations can be settled." Keegan was looking genuinely worried. The colonies hadn't been this close to a war since before the four of them were born. Liberty and Kusari were at ends with each other ever since Kusari had weapons plans leaked by a former Naval Forces Officer that turned Blood Dragon (AK, the rebel group dedicated to the overthrow of the Kusari government). The plans were given to Liberty about 6 years ago and they consisted of a new prototype of battleship that had the power and armor to take on 5 Liberty Dreadnought battleships with ease. Ever since the leak, Liberty and Kusari have been locked in an arms race with neither side having a clear advantage. "If anything, Clayton, the jump Gates will draw the line and cause war between us and them… I'm just an escort pilot; I have no clue about military piloting and strategy. What the hell will I be able to do if things get really heated?" Clayton just sat there in silence, picking his fingers like he usually did when he was nervous or deep in thought (he was doing the latter in this case). For he, being just a scientist on a classified Liberty Station, had no idea what he would do either if a war came about. "Yeah man, I'm not sure. It's almost like we're being cocky about our current military situation and not really caring about the people that we would put at risk by allowing ourselves to get into a colony-wide conflict. Could we win? I think we have just as good of a chance as Kusari does. The problem is though, at what cost would it invoke?" Just as he spoke the last word, Damian started whooping and hollering again. "'Eye Clayton, I goth a nice girl for you o'er here," He slurred as he pointed to Logan who, in turn, gave a single-raised eyebrow. "Okay Dame, I think you've had enough to drink. Hey Tex, bring the bill over here." He proceeded then to whisper, "I'll take it guys, you and Logan go ahead and head home, I'll take Damian back myself and leave his ship here, so he can pick it up in the morning." Keegan was about to object but then remembered who would be waiting for Damian and thought it would be good if Clayton did talk to her. "Whatever you say man, just know that it wasn't our fault that…" "Nobody's going to blame you dude, I got this. It's not the first time that I've had to take Damian home to her. Courtney will have to deal with it," Clayton interrupted.

Courtney Holland was Damian's fiancée; they had been together for as long as Clayton could remember. He wanted to take Damian to her himself because he figured he would be the one she would least likely lash out against. The three of them had alternated rides to Manhattan University over their first summer, compared to the other two, she knew him better. Whether that was a good thing, or a bad thing though depended on what the he and Damian were doing. She hated it when Damian got shit-faced and as it stood, he couldn't get up out of the booth even with Logan trying to hold him up. Clayton looked at Keegan, who just shook his head and walked out of the bar. "Alright Logan, grab his left side… there we go… I got his right… now lift!" With an effort that wasn't helped by Damian (he was dragging his feet and almost seemed to want to fall), they were able to hoist him up to a stable position. At this point, they were the only three people left in the bar other than Ted, who seemed to be waiting on them as he held the key to the main door. "Alright Clayton, now that we got Damian, where's your ship?"