Ben stared at the hodgepodge mess of gears in front of him and grumbled. He was no mechanic, but something about the screeches and random "pings" of steel coming from the system didn't sit well with him. Actually, scratch that – those noises were bad, period.

He spared a look at the self-proclaimed "engineer" beside him. "You're saying this is normal?"

"Yeah." The stocky man replied, stroking his beard. "Anything look wrong?"

"There's a loose gear there –" Ben pointed to within the machine – "and a bit of metal just flying around in there."

"Yeah, I know. The gear's okay, and that piece of metal hasn't screwed anything up yet." The man replied. "Plus, it's a rudder. Not very necessary; we can always just turn it off and replace it if we need to."

"That doesn't sound like a good long-term decision." Ben sighed.

"The rudder's been going for three years. It can go for a few more."

Well, it wasn't as if Ben could do anything without risking some horrible failure. He supposed he was just bored, and paranoid. Standing back, he closed the access port to the rudder mechanism, wincing as the hinges let out a sharp screech.

Once he recovered, he turned to the mechanic again. "You're right; there's probably nothing we can do."

Hesitantly, Ben stepped away and left. Behind him, the mechanic said something about "paranoid greenhorns" to himself, before plopping back down upon a chair.

Once back in the hallway, he was again faced with an impasse. Where to go to?

Their supplies were dealt with, a few motorized machines in the hangar able to carry anything they needed with them. Ben had inspected and loaded up the machines in advance; everything looked good, except for the state of disrepair they were in.

They didn't need papers, for obvious reasons. And nobody needed to pack up anything on a landship.

Perhaps there was a book somewhere… he decided to go ask. Tracing the mottled patterns of light the sparse portholes cast upon the ground, he followed the hallways in search of assistance.

Levina idly glanced at the outside of the landship through the glass of the game room, before turning her attention back to the strange assortment of pieces upon the checkered "chessboard." She'd heard of the game, but hadn't had the time to play it until today.

"Alright, so what does the pawn do?" Anne asked her again.

Levina sighed. Their group's resident academic apparently had certain… misconceptions about her memory. "It moves one or two steps on the first turn. One step after. It captures diagonally and can also capture a pawn moving two steps to a position beside it."

"Nice, you remembered en passant!" Anne smiled. "Alright, let's start then. You can start as white."

That seemed like an advantage. Anne was obviously playing nice. Levina decided to move the pawn in front of her queen, allowing it to stay protected. Anne responded in turn, and the game started in earnest.

"Did you read up on chess in advance? I thought you were a total beginner!" Anne responded after Levina played her second move.

Levina replied, bemused. "I am a total beginner."

"Then how'd you know to play the Queen's Gambit?" Anne asked.

"Queen's Gambit?" Levina replied. "I'm not familiar with the term."

"It's an opening." Anne explained. "Gives up a pawn early, for a better strategic position."

Levina stared at the chessboard for a moment, before realizing her mistake. "Oh."

"Alright, let's do… this!" With one swift motion, Anne knocked Levina's pawn off the board, before scrambling to catch the pawn as it tumbled off the table.

Recovering somewhat awkwardly, she crossed her arms and tried to adopt an aura of mystery as she smirked at Levina. "That was a bad move. But can you exploit it?"

"The mysterious aura doesn't suit you." Levina idly commented, studying the board in front of her. Anne had mentioned "exploiting" the move somehow… but she saw no way to attack directly without making a similar mistake. Perhaps… she moved another one of her pawns forward in an effort to assail Anne's position.

"Thanks for the trade!" Anne promptly knocked off the moved pawn. Levina sighed, before taking that pawn in return. Now she was down a pawn, with nothing in to show for it… she was losing this game, wasn't she?

Fifteen minutes later, Anne rose from the board, triumphant. Throwing her arms above her head, she celebrated for a moment before offering Levina's proffered handshake.

Levina inwardly sighed. It was an entirely expected outcome, but it was nonetheless disappointing. She had simply dropped piece after piece to stupid mistakes, before losing the game after a long chase after her king.

Perhaps she should have resigned earlier, and left herself some honor… but Anne seemed to enjoy chasing her king across the board, and who was she to deny her that enjoyment?

"Alright, I'll see ya later! Was fun playing with you!" And with that, Anne all but bounded out of the room, leaving Levina to her own devices. At least Anne had the mercy of not subjecting Levina to another humiliating round.

While she was preparing to leave the room, a thick book caught her eye. It read "Beginner Chess Openings and Strategies." Levina shuffled over, opening the book and flipping through a few pages. A devious smile gradually grew upon her face. Anne wouldn't be winning the next time they clashed…

That day, the occasional passerby would be treated to the sight of Levina hunched over the chessboard, book in hand; rapidly shifting pieces around the board as she glanced at the book's pages.

Fredrich grimaced, his Arts devices humming around him. The entire landship was contaminated with an absolutely unacceptable level of Originium. Which may not have been a problem to the Infected Yetis, but it was certainly an issue for him. He preferred his body intact and functioning as it should, thank you very much.

He sat down heavily upon his bed, realizing that he hadn't taken any respirators with him to this expedition. Oh, how he regretted thinking those weren't necessary… he supposed he had the pills in his first-aid kit, but those were for treating acute exposure symptoms, not stopping infection.

In fact, preventative medicines for Originium exposure didn't exist at all. Had they existed, Fredrich was certain they would've been cleaned off the shelves the moment they were put for sale.

Well, no use thinking about the sad realities of this land. Fredrich decided to make his way to the upper decks of the landship. It wasn't as if the air around the landship could be contaminated, could it?

Taking a portable Originium detector with him and locking the door to his room behind him, he quickly made his way to the top deck of the landship. He had taken the liberty of mapping the landship's halls the moment he had boarded it; navigation was a non-concern for him now.

Emerging through a ladder to the cold outside air, he activated his Originium detector. Soon, satisfied with the rapidly dropping levels of Originium his sensor informed him of, he sat down upon the steel deck, before considering his choices.

Most likely, he was simply making a big deal out of nothing. While levels ten times background were preposterous, he hadn't heard of any cases of Oripathy from simple respiratory exposure. Then again, the spies he was in contact with had the bad habit of dying before they could meaningfully risk Oripathy in the first place.

They were on… what, their fourth contact for him, at this point? The first had died in an "unfortunate" car accident in Siracusa. The second had been stabbed on a side mission in Sargon; and the third killed in a counterespionage op in Rim Billiton.

That final one he remembered very clearly. Mostly because it almost compromised his position; he'd made a mistake that took a lot of his savings to bribe his way out of.

Deciding not to reminisce on the past, he made his decision.

Fuck it. If it was fine for his former team, it was fine for him.

Fredrich soon disappeared back through the ladder, closing the port behind him. There had to be something he could pass the time with...

"Hello? Are you in there… Frostnova?" Ben knocked on the door in front of him, waiting.

A chill came from behind the door, and soon the door opened, revealing Frostnova in her distinctive tattered coat. "What is it?"

Ben took a quick step back to avoid freezing himself, before starting. "I heard your room had some books. May I borrow one?"

"Sure." Frostnova stepped to the side to let him pass, before gesturing to a book lying on a table. "I just finished reading History of the Ursus Empire. I would recommend it; it's useful."

Ben raised an eyebrow, staying well away from the thick book. "I… uh… do you have any lighter reads?"

He swore he heard a chuckle when he said that.

"Maybe. You'd have to check the bookshelf." Frostnova left the room, giving him space to peruse the books at his leisure. Ben breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she left; the girl was scary, and her Arts even more so.

After a few minutes, he finally picked out something he liked; a simple fantasy novel. Leaving the room and signaling to Frostnova that he was done, he headed for his room for what promised to be a fun read.

"See? I told you normal people don't read history books for fun." Andrey said.

Frostnova grumbled. "It's useful, Andrey."

"That doesn't make it fun. I almost fell asleep watching you read that, and I don't sleep."

"I liked it." Frostnova protested.

To that, Andrey genuinely had no response.

With a satisfied sigh, Levina closed the pages of the book before her, returning the chess pieces to the board. Standing up, she walked over to the bookshelf and slotted the book back in, before checking the clock on the wall; 7 pm. Just in time for dinner.

She made her way through the now-familiar halls to the mess hall. Picking up a cooked meal from a Yeti, she sat down and began to eat.

Anne soon approached her. "Up for another match after dinner?"

Levina smiled. "Sure. How about two?"

"Why not?" Anne replied.

Levina chuckled. Anne had no idea what was about to hit her…

An hour later, they were back in front of the chessboard, the checkered wood tiles now a familiar sight to Levina. Again, Anne let Levina play as white, and start first.

Levina played one of the "openings" she had memorized, watching as Anne slowly fell into her trap...

A few minutes later, it was over. Anne pouted in front of the board, giving a death stare to the queen that had ended the game.

"Well, you're quite lucky." She said, resetting the pieces on the board. "I'll start as white this time, then."

To her dismay, it wasn't just luck. Levina won the second game as quickly as she had won the first, smiling at Anne's confused expression.

"How?" She finally asked.

"After you left, I spent the day studying this game." Levina calmly answered.

"AN ENTIRE DAY?"

"Roughly ten hours of time, yes."

"Wow." Anne sighed. "Guess I have to step up my game, huh?"

"Mhm."

Anne smiled. "How about another game, then? I won't hold back this time!"

Levina won that game too.

AN: Did some extra planning on character background and roles. If you notice any discrepancies or sudden changes, please do leave a review.

Also, hopefully non-chess players understood the short chess segment. It should be understandable, but I'm not quite sure. For reference, the opening line in the first game was d4 d5 c4 dxc4 b3 cxb3 axb3, which leaves Black at a roughly -1.0 advantage.

Either way, I hope everybody had fun reading this chapter! It certainly was a fun write for me.