Songs: Des Rocs - Let Me Live / Let Me Die

"Nova, I'll need you to meet someone." Anouk said to me. I looked up from my data pad and saw her standing there with a short woman. She was chewing bubble gum and looked like a tough customer.

"That your girlfriend?" I asked her.

"No. She's part of the Ursa Corps. She's got orders to go to a town called Lubny. There is a famine in Lubny at the moment and people are getting rations of food, but they are obviously upset and there have been a good few small riots. So while she is going to go with you to that place to help with any relief efforts and restore law and order, you'll be looking for any clues in the local library." Anouk summarized.

"Why that library?" I wanted to know. The woman with her had blown a chewing gum bubble which popped at that moment.

"Oops." she mumbled and chuckled to herself.

"Well, there are a few hints pointing to Lubny. Not really much to go by, but it's worth a shot and you get a chance to get on Vladof's good side by helping out there. It's a nice area." Anouk replied.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I didn't really like the feeling that I had very little clue of what was actually going on around me, but there was nothing I could really do about. I just had to assume that Anouk knew what she was doing and that it would be the best for all of us to just go along with it.

"And what's your name?" I asked the woman that had come in with Anouk. She didn't look too impressed with the whole situation herself, but it seemed like she put up with it, because she had to.

"Moserah Hayussinian Yan-Lun al-Amir Andreyevna."

"What?"

"You can call me Moze."

"Alright, Moze, good to meet you. I'm Nova." I said. Anouk was grinning widely. She seemed pretty excited about this.

"Moze is one of the best soldiers in the Ursa Corps!" she exclaimed. Moze smiled a little at that.

"Hey, hey, chill it, fangirl." she replied, but I could see that she was a little proud of herself. I had no idea what the Ursa Corps was however. I gave Anouk a confused look, hoping she'd explain. She didn't.

"Okay, uh... cool, but what is the Ursa Corps?" I asked, after no one would give me any explanation.

"You haven't heard of the Ursa Corps?" Anouk asked, as if it was so baffling to her that this wasn't a thing on a backwater planet like Pandora. I mean, she had been there. She knew what the place was like.

"Nope."

"Okay, the Ursa Corps is a subdivision of the Vladof military that consists fully of soldiers in mechs. They are some of the best of the best." she said. I raised an eyebrow at her. Sounded... interesting.

"I'm having a bit of a hard time seeing it." I admitted.

"Can I... can I show her?" Moze asked Anouk. Anouk nodded with excitement, which earned her a grin from Moze.

With a smile Moze pressed a button on her ECHO device and a massive bearlike mech started materialising around her. That thing was huge. I could barely believe my eyes. I was probably staring at her with my mouth open for a good minute. She walked in a small circle and then dematerialized the mech.

"What the... that was insanely cool! What kind of fire power are you packing?" I wanted to know.

"Well, it depends, I can switch, but I have three main things I use. I can go for a grenade launcher, mini gun or rail gun. Anything else would take a bit longer to figure out for me." Moze explained.

"Shit, nice. Probably eats ammo like nothing." I commented.

"Some of it does. Iron Bear eats through resources like nothing anyway, with or without guns." she answered.

"Moze wants to do enough missions so she can keep her mech after the mandatory military service." Anouk explained.

"They let you keep the mech? That is amazing! You probably don't let anyone close to it, but I'd love to take a look at it. So if you need to do any repairs while we're in... uh..." I couldn't remember what the town we were supposed to go to was called. Thankfully, Moze came to my rescue.

"Lubny."

"Thank you. If you need to do any repairs while we're in Lubny, let me know. I'm down for helping out." I offered. It had been a long time since I had been busy building anything. Now that we had Tina and now that she was a little older, she did all the work building bombs. I hadn't seen a car to fix since we left Pandora. I felt like I was losing all my mechanical skills and it sucked.

"Sure, thanks for the offer. I'm fixing him up every other week. A lot of people have newer models by now, but I love my Iron Bear. He needs a lot of love, but it's absolutely worth it." Moze said with a grin.

"So, are you from Aeres, Moze?" I wanted to know. She nodded proudly.

"Yup. Born in the desert near Ederne. I've grown up with a tribe of nomads. And you? Pandora?" she replied.

"No, I was born on Aquator. I got to Pandora by accident and then I was stuck. But I suppose at this point I have spent most of my life on Pandora." I told her. Weird. I hadn't really thought of that. I had spent 18 years on Aquator. Then I had spent almost the entire rest of my life on Pandora. Well, it wasn't exactly more time than I spent on Aquator, but if I was to add up all the years, it would probably come to about the same amount. It was a weirdass thought, to be honest.

"Well, seems like you'll get along just fine. Come on, Moze, I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew." Anouk said to her.

"Hey, hey, hey, hold up. Not so fast. When are we supposed to go to Lubny?" I wanted to know.

"Oh yeah, your train goes tomorrow around noon." Anouk told me. I almost dropped the book I was reading.

"And you were planning to tell me that... when exactly?" I asked her. Why did she always give me news like that the very last minute?

"Well, I did just now, didn't I? Chill out, you'll have enough time to pack. It's all good." Anouk answered. I shook my head and laughed.

"Fine. I'll be busy for the rest of the day, I suppose. Go and tell the others." I told her.