—Riker thought about what had happened the day before, and about how old the destruction of Sarah's ship and her burning from the agency was—

Riker: (to himself) I know I didn't earn my starting rank normally, but even so it makes me wonder why does the Courts need to interfere, we are winning, that's what's important, and we beat them down until they give up or they are destroyed. And even if I had a special operations Classified mobile suit and that I was a scrapper, I was properly trained for combat to fight off pirates, why must this happen to me Hughes?

—Sarah has already gotten up and had gone to work in the kitchen making the daily meals for the crew, Riker got up and dressed in battle attire uniform, not the one for mobile suit space combat but the MWDF uniform provided for him with the proper medals as he had acted with much valor to quickly end battles and save as many people that could be saved as possible, even so he couldn't stop thinking about the trials and who would have reported such misuse of the mobile suit he used—

Riker: No point in worrying about it, after all the crew has my back.

Carr: Damn right we do.

—Carr and the rest of Red Squadron appeared at the door as well as the Chief engineer the captain and the executive officer, this also includes some of the crew from other ships he had saved while fighting the enemy—

Viper: We also have your back. I admit, if it's the MWDF General staff HQ we are against they will be hard to shake, they will exploit any weaknesses in our case so we must make it as strong as possible, leave no chinks in the armor otherwise they will exploit it and use it to undermine the case.

—They all move to the conference room and take their seats, the room is locked down and noise dampened as to not have the conversation be eavesdropped from outside the door—

War Master Carlton: Good to see you again LtMaj. Riker, we have a long day ahead of us but our case is strong we should be able to end it within 2 days as the only thing they have to go on is just you piloting the suit but we can cleave that out of the equation as since you were training to use mobile suits, you would have been transferred to a mobile suit team with the scrapper unit, and I have their testimony as well saying well, everything that would make the court have to drop the case as it would prove that you were more than authorized to use a mobile suit, because during your time salvaging that last wreck before that battle happened your license for mobile suits was completed so even if you didn't have it on you, you were more than authorized to use a mobile suit. The equipment is standard for the suit when you used it so they can't complain about that either.

—The testimonies and charges went on and by the second day things seemed to be dire until they turned the tables by undermining the whole case—

War Master: One thing is for sure, he was licensed to use equipment like that.

Council Member: What?

War master: He was authorized from the beginning, before he had gone to the wreck he had been given a license and authorized to use heavy equipment like a mobile suit especially a military class suit as he was trained in scrapper mobile worker defense.

Council member: Who authorized it?

War Master: Your department of administrative systems.

—The case was ended decisively and was in complete favor of Riker—

Judge: Defense has held strongly, may you continue to serve the people and hopefully put this blunder behind us.

Riker: Yes sir.

—They all salute, it was all ended within the process of 36 hours in which the victory was absolute—

Viper: Lets celebrate your victory over the bureaucrats.

Riker: I'm going to take it light today, after all I have patrol in 2 hours.

Gen. Jackson: Already covered by someone else, you should probably rest as fighting to prove yourself for 36 hours with very little time to sleep is exhausting and we need all the aces on board this ship to be healthy, I won't accept you or any other ace aboard this ship to be weakened because of bureaucratic BS.

—Riker chuckled and gave a hearty smile—

Sarah: You need to eat as well, going at it for that long has to have made you hungry right?

Riker: Yeah, hit me with your best shot of brunch.

Sarah: With pleasure.

—Riker eats up and has a beer then goes back to his dorm in which he goes to sleep, he got a good 12 hours of sleep in which no one bothered him as he had fallen asleep to the sounds of ship repairs to the whole fleet within the planetary sub terrainian base—

—Riker dreams about the past and his experiences, with it the deaths of his friends in the scrappers, although they weren't the best people he could be friends with, they were good people still, until the aliens arrived and attacked and killed his friends, in which he saved what remained by killing the ship that attacked them, Athena the AI, the most effective power supplement as it could pair up with any mobile suit and its main drive system from Minovsky to GN particle drive systems the AI of its type only existed with three different AI one per each Gundam of that was built and marked as classified—

Riker wakes to see Sarah sleeping this time they are even closer in terms of positioning, he lies awake for a moment then gets up and takes his helmet with him to the docking bay to his mobile suit.

Riker: Athena, you said before that you find me a worthy pilot, why was that back then?

Athena: You were the first to be able to effectively pilot this suit in a fashion that was planned out strategically and Tactically in which you knew where to strike first then when and where to continue the attack before losing power.

Riker: Even so, there has to be more to it through right? I've never thought about it but I feel like when I let you take over, the attacks seem a little to direct, should we work on that?

Athena: Yes, as making us unpredictable to the enemy will make it much easier to keep ourselves from being killed.

—They worked out several tactics, as well as plans, so that when the AI took control of the machine they would have several different ways of effectively dealing with the enemy—

Riker: One question Athena, is it possible to make AI fragments? I feel that if we can use such a thing it may help keep some of the others alive as well.

Athena: It is possible but is outlawed by the AI treaty which was made after me, Bellona and Francis' unnamed AI were made, so we do not count on the treaty unless we are a threat to life and limb to the MWDF and the MIlky Way Systematic Congress.

Riker: So yes but it's illegal?

Athena: Yes but also it would mean an extreme amount of pain for an AI as it is the equivalent of ripping an animal apart slowly while it struggles to live. In fact I am already an AI fragment, named Athena Delta, I recommended just using Athena as it is quick and effective.

Riker: Damn that sounds harmful and tough, remind me never to bring up that subject again.

Athena: Noted.

Sarah: Shouldn't you be sleeping?

—Sarah hugs him from behind as they sit and look at the Gundam currently sitting still and powerless in front of Riker, Sarah and Athena who was currently running in the earpiece that Riker had extracted from his old helmet—

Riker: I can't sleep anymore and I already slept a good amount and who knows any day now, we could be called to finish the fight as we are the closest to the system expressing Hostilities towards other Congressional systems.

—They return to the room and instead of splitting Athena, Athena provided blueprints of how to make an AI for his allies, he worked on this in secret but only let the ship captain know about the project as it would be a support AI to help run the ship, he also designed a module but couldn't build it in which they brought Sayla in and at first she refused but looked at it again and agreed to help on one condition, that the AI has a cutoff point in the case that it tries to kill everyone on the ship, they of course agreed to those terms in which it was the only logical way of keeping the AI in check—

Athena: I will teach this new AI what he will do and how he can do it, of course he will learn over time.

Riker: He? What's his name?

Athena: Romulus.

Riker: Do it, also I want to introduce him to his uh, would it be master, or perhaps ally? What do we use as a description to make them equals?

Athena: Comrade.

—Riker gets Gen. Jackson in to pair the AI to her so that it is as her aid to help operate the ship—

Riker: General this is your personal AI, Romulus, take good care of him, Romulus this is your comrade General uhh...

Gen. Jackson: General Tara Jackson.

Romulus: General, what must I do?

Gen. Jackson: Be my comrade AI, one that I can trust on one thats like my friend, you shall help me with the ship, soon we will come t you to the ship, it will be disorienting but you will appear at the bridge Map console, I will meet you there.

Riker: No take his chip with you, and take my old headset, he needs to get used to the ship slowly, this is the first time I've done this even though I followed Athenas instructions to the letter.

Athena: It will take him 6 hours to be used to the connections to the ship, at the map terminal you can connect his chip there manually but until he gets used to the ship, introduce him to the ships systems slowly or it will be the equivalent of torture for he will not know how to work the ship off the bat, or in other words he needs to be taught, as well as gain a symbiotic relationship with its owner, you.

Sayla: So this is the new AI? Listen, after you connect to the ships systems, you will need to work to earn my trust, until then, I don't trust you Romulus.

Romulus: She's scary.

Gen. Jackson: Calm down Sayla, Riker just told me that I need to nurture this AI to fruition, that's what I'll do until it has matured and becomes helpful.

—The coming of the new AI was a shock to the whole ship, but as time came and went as they waited for the order to gather and attack the hostile system the AI grew and matured and grew a liking for Tara but also a liking for her boyfriend, Jordan King and as time continues they wait as repairs and advances are made to equipment and weapons, and during that time multiple sorties to intercept ships were done in which they kept enemy assets from leaving the system and getting on the path to take parts of the solar system—