Year: 2333
Planet Harmony, Frontier Capital
City -

"You still writing in that journal? Not even an hour before you get hitched?" I hear, before quickly tucking the leather-wrapped collection away. "Honestly Jack, I would think you'd spend the time doing something else"

I chuckle. "Like what, Droz? Pacing the floor isn't quite my style, and sweating bullets is likely to ruin my outfit" I hear Davis chuckle. "He's got you there, brother" he says, sitting down.

Droz scoffs. "No, he doesn't, he just gave a poor excuse".

I shake my head. "I gotta do something to calm me down. If I can't – ". My alarm goes off.

Droz says what we're all thinking. "Moment of truth, mate"

I shake my head. "You'd think getting married would be easier than the Battle of Typhon"

Davis chuckles. "Nothing you do is ever easy, Jack. You should know that by now"

He's right. After Typhon, I joined up with the SRS, serving on the frontlines with my Titan, BT-7274, who we found hiding my helmet's subsystems shortly after the battle. When Droz and Davis parted ways with the 6-4 to start The Last Resort and coordinate material gathering missions for the Militia Fleet, I joined with them, acting as liaison between the SRS and the 6-4. 6 Years after the Battle of Typhon, I started going out with Jill Gates between missions. 5 years after that, I ask her if she'll marry me.

Her words? "Win this war, and kick the IMC off the Frontier for good, and yah, I will"
One year later, we won the war.

And now we're getting hitched. A week after the end of the Frontier War.
I knew – no, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into when I proposed. I chuckle.

- Five hours later, House on the Edge restaurant

"And there I find him, taunting this wannabe merc by taking potshots at his feet while jumping around the room like a maniac!" Bear says, recounting a story from Eden Sector. I'm standing off to the side, quietly, with Jill leaning against me. We had our meal earlier, now we're just listening.

Someone walks in. Ah, it's Sarah Briggs. She looks around, sees Jill and I, and walks over. Half smiling, half smirking, she says "Happy couple all people'd out?"

Jill nods. "I think our war hero is just about ready to head home for the night. . . I know I am"

I nod. "Yah, I was past ready when Bear started his tale"
An hour and some of exchanging tale tales, exploits on the Frontier, and various heroics in our battles alongside the SRS, and I'm just waiting for everyone to get tired so we can head home"
Sarah's half smile, half smirk turns into a full-on smirk. She knows what's up. Then it fades. . . something's up.

Jill notices this too and beats me to the punch. "What's up?" she asks.

Sarah shakes her head. "Alien artifacts. We knew the Fold weapon wasn't the only thing we would find out here, but almost everything we found during the war was some tool of aggression or another. Makes me wonder..."

"What all these weapons were for?" I ask.

Unsurprisingly, Sarah nods. "All well and good to have these installations so we can defend ourselves in case the IMC get ballsy enough to think about raiding the Frontier again, but nothing about transportation"

Sarah's look turns solemn. "We're trapped out here, just like the IMC is trapped in the core"

I nod. "Hopefully not for too long. We got a barrier – we'll break through it" I say confidently. Inwardly, I'm not so sure. Harmony, as of now, is home to some 43 million people. If growth becomes an issue, we could face some serious issues in the future

[-]

EDIT: Made an edit regarding time between engagement and end of war, also changed year due to thoughts regarding Jack's age in arcs 1 and 2