Lance Corporal Shepard was cursing up a storm as she led on a creeper board underneath the M29 Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Just how anybody had managed to damage a Grizzly this bad without even engaging in hostile action was beyond her comprehension.

A message alert on her omni-tool had her rolling her way out and carefully standing back up. She fully expected it to be either new orders, someone requesting an update on the Grizzly or, possibly as an outside chance, one of her comrades asking if she was up for whatever activity they had planned for the evening. She was therefore surprised to find it was in fact from Trish; after years of not knowing anyone outside the service she was still somewhat amazed at the concept of civilian contact. She looked around the cargo bay for officers to make sure she wouldn't get in trouble before settling on a nearby crate to open the message.

[Just finished work. How's your day been?]

[Ongoing] Nikki took another quick glance around then leant down and snapped a picture of the damaged chassis, sending it to Trish with the query: [You still got that book I got you for your birthday?]

There was a pause but considering the message had to join the nearest comm buoy, zip through two star systems, get read and repeat the return journey she was fairly certain Trish had replied instantly upon receiving it. Shepard's smile at that thought faded into a grimace when she actually read the reply.

[Have you tried omni-gel?]

[Do NOT talk to me about omni-gel! I spent 4 hours clearing off the stuff those idiots on the ground put on. It's only supposed to be a temporary fix to keep things functioning until you're out of danger, putting omni-gel on top of omni-gel on top of omni-gel on top a major problem won't actually mend it!]

[Touchy subject? Well I'm afraid I'm all out of ideas, the only other thing I know that works is to stand around looking helpless until a beautiful woman shows up to fix it :) ] Shepard laughed.

[Don't think that's gonna work, all the other mechanics on this ship are ugly ass men.]

[Ugly? Terrible. Can't they court martial people for that? Damaging the good reputation of the Alliance for being full of fit people or something? It's strange though, I'm sure I heard something about a hot mechanic on your ship. What was her name... Nadia... No, Vicki... What was it?]

[Don't think I've seen any Vicki's about. She can't be that impressive if you can't remember her name. Your plan doesn't seem to be working by the way, looks like I'm going to have to be my own heroine and fix it myself. I gotta get back to work but thanks for making me laugh.]

[Anytime. Good luck]

...

It was late when Shepard's shift ended. She heated up an MRE and found a table in the mess before opening up the latest message.

[Well today sucked. Tell me about your day so I can remember how much more awesome my job is than yours.] As was becoming so common lately, Nikki felt her mouth turn upwards into a smile at the email. Taking her omni-tool off her wrist, she balanced it carefully on the table so she could type and eat at the same time.

[Sorry for the late reply Trish, been stuck on door duty all day. 8 hours of standing around doing nothing but saluting officers when they walk by. I swear one of the Lieutenants just constantly does loops round the ship to piss us all off. So what happened? Or is it covered by one of those corporate non-disclosure contract thingys? I swear your employer is more secretive than mine!]

...

[Hey Trish, just to let you know as of tomorrow we're going to be out of range of regular comm buoys. Might take a couple of days to get any messages and another couple days for replies to get back to you. Not that you have to message me or anything, you're not under contract, just that if you do then don't think I'm ignoring you if you don't hear back for a while.]

[Woo-hoo! Peace and quiet at last. I'll finally be able to watch TV at night without being interrupted by your messages all the time :) Thanks for the warning. I know you can't tell me where you are but I'm not stupid, 'out of buoy range' means either outside council space or at the very least away from major shipping routes. Be careful alright, don't do anything stupid.]

[Dammit! There goes my plan to have all the craftsmen hijack the ship, launch a tank out the cargo doors and play giant space ping-pong with the guys on the Berlin.]

[I want video.]

...

[Ouch, time stamp on your message is 3 weeks ago. Sorry for the delay, only just got it, I was planetside with a convoy of M29s. Ship had to leave orbit to deal with something in the next system so we lost our fast-boost-link to the comm network. Hopefully you've sorted it now but if that guy's still being a dick you should consider sabotaging his pride and joy. You said it was a '64 Solexa right? If you replace the G34 clips with a B23-12 it will still work perfectly safely but it'll make a horrible high pitch noise when ever he goes above 50. Should stop him speeding til it gets fixed and the two parts look so similar that it won't be picked up on a basic servicing.]

[Wow long time no see. Glad you're still OK. It's all been sorted, couple of co-workers got involved but I'll keep your advice in mind if it happens again. Do I want to know how you know that? And what the hell are you doing planetside? I thought I told you not to throw vehicles out the cargo bay door :) ]

[Umm no, I believe your words were 'I want video'. So here you go - [Error... File size exceeds data allowance...] Sorry, joking. Nothing that fun :) Alliance survey teams on an uncharted world get a marine escort just in case and a token mechanic to keep all vehicles maintained. Which of course meant I was far more busy than the infantry grunts.]

...

[So... It looks like I'm going to have to go apartment hunting in San Francisco...]

[You got the job? That's amazing! See, I told you you had nothing to worry about in the interview. So proud of you. So, uh... these omni-tools you're going to be working on... civilian or military lines?]

[Ha, sorry Nikki, Aldrin Labs non-disclosure agreements are even tighter than at my last job, no way I can tell you what I'm working on. However on a completely different subject and entirely hypothetically, as a soldier what would you like to see improved on your omni-tool?]

[Haha, hypothetically ay? Pretty sure every MOS is gonna have a different answer to that question. Front line troops probably want better shielding but I mostly use my omni-tool in the workshop, biggest thing for me would be better processing capabilities. Wait... Am I doing your job for you? Do I get paid for this? :) ]

...

[It's official, we've finally changed course and are heading back to Earth. Just a few months left on this tour.]