Edward had hardly gotten through half of the toolboxes when the New Conglomerate soldier finally showed up, strolling into the room. "Hey, big boy sent me. Said you needed me?" he said.

Edward couldn't help but smile at the man's unusual drawl. "Yeah, I needed a bit of help," he said, looking up from his work as the young man stepped up to him, a hand extended. "I didn't catch your name when we met," the NC soldier said.

The Vanu scientist took the man's hand, giving it a quick shake as he gazed into the polarized, armored glass of the man's full-head helmet. "The name's Edward. James, right?"

"Yep. So, what'd you need of me?"

"Your jetpack still got fuel?"

James looked up at the catwalks around the room. "Yeah, haven't used it since we first got here. You need me… damn, talk about some hardware!" He exclaimed, his tone suddenly like that of a giddy child as his eyes coming to rest on the half-disassembled Mosquito jet-fighter hanging high above. "Think we could fix that?"

"Probably not," Edward speculated, glancing up at the hanging ship. "Might've been broken when this ship crash-landed and was chosen to be parted out for spares to keep the others running. Might've been undergoing upgrades when the crew left her behind for some reason. I don't know."

"Damn, I always wanted to fly one 'a them Mosquitos," James sighed, shaking his head in dismay. "Born 'n raised on the NC's Reaver fighter, you see, so I always wanted to get a taste of the other side of the coin, what with how many I've shot down…"

"Big fighter pilot guy, huh?" Edward remarked. "I've worked on just about every vehicle in the Vanu and most everything in the Terran arsenal, barring the latest stuff made after I left, maybe, but piloting never really appealed to me. Anyway, could I persuade you to look around up on those catwalks? We're looking for a keycard to get that door open so that psychotic Terran woman doesn't rip my head off," he said, pointing toward the blast door. "Might be stashed in a drawer or something, so look around for me."

"Sure, gimme a sec," the New Conglomerate soldier, said, looking around at the catwalks. Suddenly, the small jetpack built into the back of his chest armor spurred into life, filling the room with a crackling roar and launching him skyward toward the second floor of the large workshop. Reaching the catwalk's railing, Edward watched as he quickly hoisted himself over with a final burst of his jetpack before it shut off, the stubby exhaust nozzles dimly glowing with a dull orange heat. "Damn, where's a light switch when you need one…" he heard James mutter.

After an hour of looking over the two girls for further injuries, Daniel was mentally exhausted. "Damn, didn't realize one girl could have so much wrong with 'er," he thought as he finished up the crude splint on the younger, readheaded girl's right leg as she stared up at him, her bright green eyes watching carefully. He'd tallied nearly twenty injuries between the two girls ranging from notable to serious, including a broken leg, a fractured rib, and festering wounds and scars aplenty from who knows how many beatings. He had nearly run through his entire first tube of antibacterial cream and was debating opening up his other one when he had finally bandaged up the last of their wounds. "That should do it," he said, packing up the rest of his supplies into his medical pouch. Down the hall, he could hear Tony's suit stomping along, the booming sounds grabbing the girls' attention instantly.

It wasn't long until the exo-suited soldier stepped into the doorway. He quickly detached his helmet, exposing his face; short dark-brown hair swept to one side and matted down from his heavy helmet, a bit of chin stubble, and deep brown eyes that smiled even when his lips didn't. "Hey, guys, have you seen a keycard around here? Dunno what it would look like, but it probably has a guy's picture on it, a computer chip, the usual stuff…"

"Nah, nothin' like that," Daniel replied. Grabbing a small plastic pouch from the ground, he rose to his feet and tossed it to the soldier. "My brother 'n the kid found some 'a them in a crate back in that storage room. Just'n case you're hankerin' for a little somethin' to eat."

Tony took a moment to read the aged black text on the package, careful not to crush the aluminum-foil bubble with his exosuit's iron grip. "Combat MRE's? Shit, they taste bad enough rolling off the factory floor, why would I eat one that's two hundred something years old?"

"Hell, if you ain't gonna eat it, toss it back," Daniel said, waving toward himself. "These girls already had one but could use more."

"No, please have it-" the older girl began to protest, but Daniel cut her off. "You're skinny as a rail. When that kid gets back with more, you're eatin' 'em, no excuses," he said.

Tony tossed the packet to the older girl, still seated on the lower bunk on the right side of the room. "You heard him, doc's orders says to eat. We could move out to the common room, if you think that'd be better."

"Whatever you would like," the older girl said mildly, crawling to the edge of the bed with the packaged meal in hand. Tony could see that she was wincing, the pain-numbing effects of whatever narcotic she had been drugged with by the raiders slowly waning. "Hey, need help?" he asked, extending a hand.

"Thank you," she said, taking his hand.

Daniel gently picked up the younger girl and followed Tony and the older of the two girls out into the hallway and down toward the common room. To his surprise, the floor was covered in decrepit-looking tarpaulins, obscuring the blood stains that splattered the floor from Tony's earlier exosuit-driven massacre. The mysterious Vanu Sovereignty lady that had been following Edward around since the engineer had caught him and his brother stealing that car was seated on a makeshift hammock the raiders had set up between two loaded crates. As far as he could tell, she seemed fully engrossed in staring at the opposite wall, not bothering to acknowledge the newcomers' presence as he set the younger, redheaded girl down on a box before taking a seat himself on a nearby chair.

Daniel watched as Tony helped the older girl to a seat of her own before stomping over to a corner of the room, setting his helmet down at his feet. One by one, he detached the massive weapons mounted over the backs of his suit's lower arms, setting them next to his helmet. Finally, he undid the suit's armored chestplate, setting that on top of the helmet before stepping out. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the older girl looking over the young man's black-jumpsuit-clad body, her eyes coming to rest on the Terran Republic logo sewn into the heavily padded suit's shoulder. "That suit is huge!" She began. "I am-"

"Surprised that there's a normal-sized person inside, yeah," Tony interjected. "She adds a few inches to your height, for sure," he said, patting the shoulder of the heavy mecha-suit before taking a seat next to the girl.

"So what's your names, y'all three," Daniel asked, gesturing to the two girls and the Vanu infiltrator who still sat silently across from him.

"My name's Juliet, and that's Shanna," the older girl said as she tore off the corner of her MRE packet, extracting a separately-packaged set of crackers wrapped in cellophane.

"This is Charlotte," Tony added, nodding toward the silent Vanu lady. "Edward's friend. Haven't heard her speak a word since we met."

From down the hallway, Daniel could hear the tapping of bare feet running along the metal hallway around the corner. Suddenly, the young boy came sprinting into the room with several more MRE packets in his arms, nearly falling over as he tried to stop himself. "I found more!" he happily exclaimed, handing the packets to Daniel.

"Thanks, bud," he said, setting the packets on the ground next to his chair and ruffling the young boy's short black hair. "What's your name, bud?"

"My name's Comere!" The young boy replied happily, only for his smile to fade to a frown. "That's what the boss and the other adults called me."

After a moment's thought, Daniel let out a roaring laugh. "Naw, bud, that's them callin' to you, like, 'Com' 'ere, ya git'," he said, faking a ruffian accent. "Come on, didn't your parents give ya' a name?"

"No, my name's Comere!" The young boy restated firmly. "Always been!"

"Really, y'all call him that?" Daniel asked, turning to the two girls.

"I, uhm… never knew his name," Juliet replied. "He was here before I was brought here. Shanna came not long after me."

Daniel took off his helmet, running his hand through his dirty-blond hair. "Jesus H. Christ, that's still five kinds a' fucked up, kidnapping babies. Hostages for something?"

Juliet nodded. "They would rob villages like mine for metal, weapons, vehicle parts… sometimes food when dealings with the Terran Republic did not work out."

"Daniel, toss me one of those MRE's," Tony said. The New Conglomerate soldier reached down to the pile of prepackaged meals and tossed him one, picking up a second and ripping into the packaging to remove a small sealed tin of peas. Fishing out a small packet of chocolate candies, he extended the packet to Juliet. "What do the Terran Republic guys do here?" he asked. "Why would they be dealing with these scum?"

Glancing down at the packet, Juliet gently took them and tore open the cellophane packet, picking out a few of the small candy-shelled chocolates. "They run a large town, from what I have heard… nobody can get in, though, so they stockpile their weapons and demand tribute from other towns, occasionally bartering with the raiders if they pick a town clean before their Terran soldiers arrive."

"Nice, so them assholes are sittin' on the big red button and tellin' folks to pay up or die… Sounds like the classic Terran way, right from the get-go," Daniel said with a scowl as he popped the top on his tin of peas, folding the aluminum lid around his armor-clad finger to form a crude spoon. "They were like that even on the colony ships, my pops used to say. Nothin' but a bunch of greedy asswipes who killed or imprisoned whoever didn't sign their name on the dotted line when the recruiters did their rounds."

"Yes… it is hard to survive outside their cities," Juliet said, glancing over at Shanna, then back to Daniel. "Raiders, water and food shortages, radiation storms, sa-"

"Hold on a sec, back up there, missy," Daniel said, eyeing the girl with a mixture of surprise and concern. "You said 'radiation storms', right?"

"Yes! I am surprised you don't know about them…" she replied. "The sun here-"

"Makes people sick," Shanna interjected quietly, looking up at doctor with nothing short of apathy. "Big flashes of light make people caught outside very sick after a few days."

Distracted by the conversation, Daniel hadn't noticed the sound of footsteps, now clear as day as they echoed down the metal corridor that his brother had disappeared down to help the Vanu engineer earlier. "Sounds like solar radiation, like this planet lacks an ozone layer and gets hit by radiation from solar flares," Edward said as he stepped into the room, with Daniel's brother and Sofia hot on his heels. "That's why these raiders were hiding out here, protected by the radiation shielding of the ship."

"Dan, you've gotta go check out that hangar!" James said, gesturing behind him with his thumb. "We got the doors to the launch deck opened up, found us a beat-up Sunderer, and some broken-down Mosquitos too!"

"Well, glad someone's happy around here," he said, reaching down to the pile of MREs and tossing one to his brother. "Dinner's served. By the way, this here's Juliet, and Shanna…" he said, gesturing to the two girls, "… and Comere, I guess," he added, nodding to the boy.

"Well, nice to meet y'all," James said, taking his helmet off to expose his face, ruffling his light-brown hair. "Name's James Wilde, pleasure to meet'cha."

Sofia stepped forward, stopping in front of Juliet. She briskly removed her helmet, letting down her long dirty-blond hair that she had kept in a tight bun underneath her helmet. "I'm Captain Sofia Izetta, Third Infantry Battallion of the Terran Republic," she said, tucking her helmet under her right arm as she eyed the teenager with a discerning gaze. "You said you know about some Terran forces nearby, might have been dealing with these raiders?"

Juliet looked up at the demanding lady timidly. "I, uhm…"

"Come on, spit it out."

"Hey, captain, ease up," Tony said. "She's had a rough day, give her some space. Grab an MRE and relax for a bit, we can figure that crap out tomorrow. Sun's been down for ages, we could all use some sleep-"

"Shut it, private," Sofia snapped, glancing over at her subordinate for a moment before returning her focus to Juliet. "You were saying?"

"I don't know, I don't even know where this place is in relation to my village, or anything…" the girl replied in dismay, looking down at her packet of candy.

"But if we got you back to your village, you could get us to the Terran forces, yes?"

"But why would you want to?!" Juliet asked with a burst of sudden anger. "They murder and steal and leave people to die, and anyone in their right mind would want nothing to do with them!"

Sofia bent down, getting right up in Juliet's face. "Listen here, don't you EVER tell me what I do or don't want," she growled. "What I know is that the Terran Republic, no matter how twisted or corrupted, has a common goal to serve the name of the Republic and its supporters. What I also know is that they have resources that could very well get us home, and if I have to gun down every last one of their payrolled lackeys myself to get them, you can bet your anorexic ass that I'm going to do it."

Standing upright once more, she walked over to the pile of MRE's at Daniel's feet and snatched one up before walking down the left-side hallway. "I'm headed to bed. Set an alarm for eight hours, then I want everyone up and working to get that Sunderer running and get us over to that girl's village, then the Republic's base." The sound of metal on metal echoed into the common room as Sofia dragged one of the metal doors shut, leaving an awkward silence in her wake.

A small sniffle broke the silence as Juliet lowered her head, quietly munching on her candy. "Hey, don't worry about it," Tony said, patting her on the back. "She's just scary like that to whip new recruits into shape. You'll get used to it. Here, I've got something that'll make you feel better, one sec."

Tony hopped up from his seat and walked over to his MAX suit where it stood, reaching up into the right shoulderpad. After a brief moment of fishing around, he removed a rectangular chunk of foam padding bordered by Velcro, as well as a smaller metal tin. Replacing the padding over the hidden compartment, he repeated the process for the other shoulder, removing a slightly larger, gently curved metal flask. "Let's play a game," he said, popping the lid on the first tin as he took his seat once more, revealing a deck of cards, gently weathered from hundreds of games. "I can teach you blackjack, poker, solitaire, 'Egyptian War', you name it!"

"Hey, uh, is that…?" James asked, eyeing the flask that Tony held in his other hand.

Briefly glancing at the New Conglomerate soldier, Tony tossed him the flask. "Just don't chug it all in one sitting. If we're really stuck here, then that's gotta last me until we go clean these rogue Terrans out, if they haven't drank all their stocks already."

James cautiously unscrewed the lid of the flask, sniffing at its contents. Suddenly, his eyes went wide with glee as he lifted the bottle to his lips and took a swig. "Thank god, liquid gold!" he exclaimed, wiping his mouth with the back of his free hand. "That's some great whiskey! How the hell'd you get your hands on this stuff?"

"A few gambling debts, a few IOU's, a few pulled strings," Tony said with a sly grin as he slipped the cards out of their metal container, shuffling them with practiced haste. "Care to play a round of Terran Hold 'Em so I can teach her?" he asked, nodding toward Juliet, then Shanna. "How about you, Edward? Charlotte?" he added, looking over at the two purple-clad soldiers.

"Thanks, but I probably should go put in a bit of work on this Sunderer before I hit the sack, if we're headed anywhere any time soon" Edward said, shaking his head. "James, if you wanna stay, I'd still like you to come give me a hand tomorrow morning, alright?"

"Sure thing, partner," James said as he took a seat on the floor in front of Tony, turning to toss the flask to his older brother before taking the cards that the Terran soldier offered him. "Come on, Dan, I bet I'll beat your ass two outta the first three hands!"

"You're on, dipshit," Daniel retorted as he took a quick swig of the flask of whiskey and drew up his chair, capping the flask and setting it aside before turning about to pull up Shanna's seat so she could play.

"Alright, that should be enough," Tony said as he dealt out two cards to everyone. Looking up from the deck of cards, he glanced about the room, noticing that Charlotte had disappeared. "Well, looks like Charlotte's in for the night, anyway," he said, turning back to the cards. "Now, let's get started!"