“Are you sure about this Baker?” Kat asked the nondescript silhouette sitting next to her in the dark of the hover tank’s cab. “A lot of your people might die if we do this.”

The end of the white cylinder in Baker’s mouth glowed cherry red as they inhaled. For a moment, the inside of the tank was silent other than the whine of the service elevator that was bringing their vehicle toward the surface. Then baker exhaled, filling the tank with a cloud of apple-scented vapor.

“A lot of the 3445 have already died,” they remarked nonchalantly, leaning backward into the command couch for the tank. “I think you underestimate how long NeoSyne had us in that hell. Whether we were on a production line or stuck in the reactor, they had all of us working jobs that would eventually kill us. It was just a matter of sooner rather than later.”

Another cloud of apple smoke filled the cab as Baker’s hand slipped out of their sleeve, the white rod in their hand glowing gently between their gloved hands.

“Everything we had was taken from us by NeoSyne,” Baker continued, their voice matter of fact. “Whatever might remain was almost certainly destroyed when the alien ship crash-landed.”

“We have nothing but what we are able to pull from this nightmare,” they said evenly, raising three gloved fingers. “Weapons of war that this planet has never seen, proven survivors, and the skills the 3445 learned as a nomad band. It was always a harsh world, Erinyes, and I suspect that it has only grown harsher in our time underground. If my people are to survive, we will need to adapt, and it only seems natural for us to transition into mercenary work.”

Kat nodded, not entirely satisfied with Baker’s answer, but without a proper retort. Ultimately, they were right. No one would provide the 3445 with food, water or fuel out of the goodness of their hearts, and more than one MegaCorp would be thrilled with the idea of killing them all ripping their tanks apart to see how they worked.

“I know,” she answered finally, squinting slightly at the sunlight as the elevator opened revealing the top of the mesa. “It still doesn’t feel right for me to be ‘in charge’ of you. I mean, sure, I was part of the team that sprung you from the factory, but I don’t really see why that makes me important enough to-”

“Oh shush girl,” Baker cut her off with a chuckle. They leaned forward, gripping either of the tank’s control sticks. With a hum, but no real sense of motion, it floated off of the camouflaged elevator pad. One of the 3445 survivors tapped a couple of buttons on a keypad and the lift began to descend once again.

Behind them, the tank’s gunner also began fiddling with the vehicle’s controls. The back of their seat was built into Baker’s forcing them to face the rear wall. A moment later, a glowing image hummed to life, showing an image of the top of the mesa with a series of crosshairs marking where their various guns were directed.

“None of us have the polish to survive the corporate world,” Baker continued, sliding their tank into a line next to another twenty or so of the sleek, dark vehicles. “I’m smart enough to know that I’d get eaten alive if I walked into a boardroom with corporate executives. I may be a bandit, but in there I would be a minnow amongst sharks.”

“I told you,” they said, tapping a couple of buttons on the tank’s control panel. “I talked our situation over with the elders while you were doing your magical naptime thing. The 3445 needs to affiliate itself with someone, and our options are either you or that Merrimac fella. I chatted with your friend Chiffon a bit, and you seem like the right fit.”

“I just don’t understand,” Kat replied, frustration beginning to bubble over. “I’ve done some impressive things, but I’ve also fucked up so many times. Xan… Exe is dead because I couldn’t get the job done on my own.”

A hand touched gently down on Kat’s shoulder. She glanced to the side to see Whip, still in her infiltration suit, gently shake her head.

“Don’t sell yourself short girl,” Baker cackled. “Imposter syndrome isn’t just when mole monsters infiltrate your MegaCorp. You didn’t lose your friend in a bar fight. You got ambushed by an alien. The fact that you’re still standing is a testament to your grit.”

“Nah.” They waved their left hand dismissively, a cherry red glow lighting the recesses of their hood while they inhaled. “You’re like us. You’ve been hungry before. You’ve killed because you had to, and it wasn’t by pulling some trigger or pushing a button. You’ve felt a man bleed out in your grip because it was either him or you. Despite all of that, I’ve seen how you’ve interacted with Chiffon.”

“You’re not cold girl.” The tank cab filled with the scent of apples once more. “Most of the folks that have been through what you have come out the other end as reptiles, monsters wearing skinsuits. You value your friends and family. Give it a month and that’ll be us, for good or ill.”

“I,” Kat began, her voice cracking.

“They’re right Erinyes,” Whippoorwill almost whispered, squeezing Kat’s shoulder gently. “I’ve seen how hard you pushed yourself to pull me out of my funk after Exe died. It’s a hard world so you’re hard, but you care where it matters. I trust you and Baker should too.”

“But it’s so much,” Kat replied, the words almost torn involuntarily from her throat. “So many people will be counting on me. What happens if I screw up? The 3445 has been through so much, I don’t want to heap even more on top of all that.”

“And that right there is why we trust you Erinyes,” Baker responded. “That Merrimac guy knows what he’s doing. He’d put us to good use, but he also wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice us if it helped that Jasper friend of yours. I respect his devotion, but I’d prefer to avoid that outcome.”

“Fine,” Kat sighed, reaching up to take off her mask. “But if we’re doing this, when we’re among companions, my name is Kat, not Erinyes.”

She ran a hand through her hair, trying to ignore the way the sweaty locks clung to her fingers. She’d been in her infiltration suit for far too long.

“Whippoorwill,” Whip volunteered from her side, taking off her own mask. “I know it still sounds like a samurai name, but I kinda didn’t have a family so my crew helped me pick out my name when I was younger.”

“I’m still Baker,” their companion replied with a shrug before hooking a gloved hand over their shoulder at the gunner pressed up against their back. “But that’s Daniel Simonson if that helps at all.”

“Uh, hi” the other man offered, waving one hand awkwardly in the dim light of the tank’s control chamber. He had shoulder length blonde hair and bags under his eyes, but other than that he was utterly unremarkable.

Outside their vehicle, another tank slid into line with them, bringing the number of gently humming weapons platforms to 25. Once again the elevator began to descend into the depths of the rock formation to fetch the last elements of their taskforce.

Kat closed her eyes, exhaling deeply as she began counting backward from ten. When she reached zero, she stood up, anxiety flaring through her body and knocked once on the roof of the tank.

“Open the hatch Baker,” she said, her voice and smile tight. “It’s time for me to make a call and see about setting all of us up for life.”

They nodded back, pressing a button on their control panel. A section of the armored roof of the tank’s cab slid back, exposing Kat to a cylinder of the bright desert sun. She clambered out, wiggling through the narrow gap until she was standing atop the smooth grey curves of the hover tank.

Around their mesa, the desert was just… gone. The shockwave of the falling stallesp cruiser had wiped the desert of features, erasing thousands of years of historical sites just as easily as it destroyed the parking lots and visitors centers that had once ringed their location.

She reached up, resituating her smartpanel before tapping it once to make a call. For a couple of seconds, the eyepiece just buzzed as it tried to put the call through. Then Belle Donnst appeared in front of Kat. For the first time ever, the older woman looked harried. Her dress shirt was slightly wrinkled and a lock of hair was out of place as she power walked down a wood paneled hallway. Behind her, a pair of guards hurried along, their hands pressed against their hips.

“Miss Debs,” Belle opened, slightly out of breath. “I am assuming that you are at least loosely aware of the import of recent events. I am on my way to a board meeting. If this call were from anyone other than you, I simply would not pick up. I presume you have a good reason for disturbing me. If you don’t, I can assure you I will be… cross.”

“Come on,” Kat said, forcing a smile. “You know where I was when the ship fell. I’m calling to negotiate my services in securing the wreckage. I know for a fact that I can get there faster than any other asset that GroCorp has access to.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Belle replied, her mouth tightening into an uncomfortable smile. “I may honestly take you up on it if there are specific assets I need eliminated, but I don’t think you understand. Entire armies are already on the move to try and secure the crash site. You and a couple of friends won’t be able to make much of a difference.”

Kat tapped the side of her smartpanel, changing the camera angle so that it was projecting what she was seeing rather than an image of her face. Slowly she panned over the line of gently humming hover tanks. Then she turned the panel toward the elevator as it brought the first of the two gunships to the surface.

The vessel took off, lifting into the air under the power of three anti-gravity engines. It was as long as three of the tanks, and at least twice as wide, its entire underside studded with gun turrets and thick grey armor. Perhaps more importantly, both of its flanks were lined with APEX suits, locked into cradles and ready to drop into combat at a moments notice.

Belle was silent. When Kat flipped the camera back around the older woman had stopped moving and her distracted expression had disappeared. Instead, she was staring into her own smart panel with the intensity of a hawk that had just spotted a wounded rabbit, struggling in an open field.

“Miss Debs,” her voice was much firmer. “Can you please tell me what I’m looking at, and, if it is what I think it is, I would be grateful if you could send a copy of that clip to me. I may have a use for it in the coming meeting.”

“Twenty five hover tanks,” Kat confirmed, blinking a quick code to the smartpanel to send the recently filmed clip. “The tanks are supported by two gunships, each carrying 50 suits of powered armor that outperforms anything you’ve ever seen, and five air superiority drones.”

“I was right.” Kat smiled tightly at the camera. “NeoSyne was working with the stallesp. We managed to grab the fruits of their research and weather the shockwave in the bunker where it had been stored. It might not be enough to hold off a full army, but I can assure you that we will be able to stop anything short of one. It takes a lot to even damage one of these things, let alone actually disable one. Better yet, almost everything mounts laser based point defense. We’re functionally immune to missile attacks unless someone decides to blanket the area in nukes.”

“And break the treaty of Melbourne,” Belle responded thoughtfully.

“Better still,” Kat continued, glancing upward meaningfully. “If you remember our meeting on the Humbrass Atoll, I was able to secure some help. I will be able to get in and out of the stallesp ship. Taking and holding it won’t be pretty, but it’s something we can do if the price is right.”

“You have my attention,” the older woman responded with a curt nod. “Name your price and I’ll see if it’s something that I can get the board to agree to.”

Kat held up five fingers, her smile growing as she answered. “Five percent.”

“Five percent of the proceeds from the salvage and research?” Belle asked thoughtfully. “I can do that. Consider it done. Now how fast-”

“No,” Kat cut her off. “Five percent of GroCorp’s shares, split three ways. Two for you. Two for Jasper Haupt, and One for me. If I’m going to do this, I’ll need allies, and despite your differences with Jasper, the two of you are the closest approximation I’ll be able to find on short notice.”

“SHARES?” Belle blurted out, losing her cool for the first time. “The shareholders will never- Wait, you want me to side with the Haupts? I killed Jasper’s father! Please don’t tell me you forgot about that Katherine!”

“It will take NeoSyne time,” Kat replied, raising a hand to shade her eyes as she took in the blasted landscape that had once been the Southwest,”but they can rebuild. We’re going to bury the factory we pulled this equipment from, but they have access to hundreds of flash clones. Unless you manage to grab the salvage and reverse engineer it, it’s only a matter of time before NeoSyne builds an entire army using this tech. They were well on their way when we stopped them.”

“Just think of tech that GroCorp will pull out of the wreckage,” she goaded. “Antigravity, force fields, reactors, tanks, and fighters. It goes far beyond the military applications. In one year, GroCorp will have new products that will dominate the global market. Within five years, no one will be able to compete.

“Obviously the company will be able to renovate its armed forces,” Kat continued, tapping her smartpanel to change its view as she scanned the massed tanks a second time. “If GroCorp wants to push its neighbors for more resources? It will be able to win those fights. If it wants to build up its army and let its goods dominate the market? No one will be able to match you.”

“Still,” Belle replied, reaching up with her left hand to massage her temples. “I appreciate that you want to rope me into this by making me a shareholder, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to sell the board on this. GroCorp only has something like 50 shareholders, and half of them only have a one percent stake. This wouldn’t be a step up for the Haupt boy or me, it’s a magnetic catapult launching us into low Earth orbit.”

“For you?” The older woman asked rhetorically. “I can guarantee that I will have orders to seize your family and threaten you. You’re a smart girl Miss Debs. This game has always been rigged against people like you. There are some moves you can make and an illusion of mobility, but-”

“Then I’ll cut a deal with Tri Holdings and kill any shareholder that moves against me,” Kat interjected. “They literally would not be the first, and I doubt that they could beef up their security enough to stop me.”

“Hell,” she scoffed. “Even if they could, it would just be a matter of time before Tri managed to wear GroCorp down. In the meantime, you know that I would be leveling in the tower. I doubt there are more than a handful of people on the entire planet that could stop me once I learned a couple of silver tier skills, and they can’t be everywhere at once.”

Belle stopped short, cocking her head slightly to the side, before chuckling quietly. “You’re right Katherine,” she responded, eyes flicking back up to her smartpanel. “It wouldn’t be the first time, and that was before you had access to black-market alien supertech. You might be onto something here.”

“I just want to be clear about all of this,” Kat said, trying to keep the nerves from her voice. “My primary goal is denying the crash site to NeoSyne. I’d prefer to work with GroCorp because its where I grew up and where I have the most connections, but if my only option is to cooperate with Tri Holdings I will. Hell, I’d rather blow the ship up than let NeoSyne have it.”

“Maybe,” Belle replied, absently swiping some hair out of her face. “It’ll be a tough sell because people with power don’t stay in power by giving it up without a fight, but I should be able to convince them that throwing their weight behind them will help the company enough that watering down their shares a little bit won’t actually hurt them.”

“I would have done that even with your bribe by the way,” she chuckled, locking eyes with Kat. “You’re offering them a good deal. It’s more than fair. I can’t guarantee that the board will see things that way, but I’m certainly willing to try and change their minds.”

“Still,” Belle sighed. “I’m not sure that I’ll be able to work with Jasper Haupt. The boy is young and emotional. I think those around him understand that the events of last year were just business, but I suspect that he will take what happened to his father personally.”

“Make it work.” Kat shrugged. “The world is at stake and I need people I can rely on. We both know that I can’t exactly trust you, but at the same time, so long as I tie your interests to mine, we can work together.”

“I suppose,” the executive responded reluctantly. “It’s a lot you’re asking of me Kat. I wish I had some more time to think about this.”

“NeoSyne and Mr. Jackson have made a pact with aliens that want to enslave our entire race,” Kat answered evenly. “Right now GroCorp needs someone with the connections to stop them, but you simply don’t have access to the sorts of forces you will need to stop another push to infiltrate the company with flash clones. I do.”

Kat paused, looking very purposefully up into the morning sky before continuing.

“Change is coming Belle, and you don’t even have the luxury of choosing a side. Align yourself with me, or get swept away with the shifting tide.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t see any flaw in your logic Katherine,” Belle sighed. “You’re right.”

Then the older woman’s countenance changed, exhaustion melting from her face as she smiled back at Kat.

“I must say,” Belle concluded, “it has been a pleasure working with you Miss Debs. You’ve grown more as a business-woman and a negotiator than anyone I’ve mentored. It’s a shame my daughter was such a disappointment, but you have been an absolute gem. I look forward to our future interactions as shareholders.”

The feed cut, sending a cold shiver down Kat’s spine. Her shoulder slumped slightly, and she took a deep breath to calm herself. Unbidden, images of the GroCorp board sending thugs after her family flashed through her mind.

The negotiations only worked because an executive like Belle couldn’t even conceive of how much Kat cared for her family. There was no way she would leave them to the board’s mercy, even if that meant more risk and less profit for her. Of course, Belle had already demonstrated an absolute willingness to sacrifice her children to get ahead. It would only seem natural to a shark like her if Kat were willing to make the same move.

She leaned down, knocking twice on the hood of the tank. The armored panel slid open once again, and Kat slipped down into its dark recesses, the scent of apple filling her nose.

Of course, she thought to herself as her eyes rapidly adjusted, the most important factors were that she was elevating established executive families with her, and that she didn’t blink when faced with a threat. Raising multiple executives at the same time, and at a higher level would take enough of the edge off of her brinkmanship that the board would be able to swallow their pride in exchange for raising her status. They wouldn’t be happy, but letting her future companions save face was an essential concession to ensure that she wouldn’t be stepping into a boardroom full of enemies.

“So?” Whip asked expectantly. Baker turned their head, hood rustling as they looked in Kat’s direction. “How did it go?”

Kat smiled, letting the tension fade from her body before she answered. “We have a deal.”

Baker leaned forward, tapping a button on the tank’s console.

“Let’s get moving 3445,” they commanded into the open intercom. “GroCorp has decided to back our little endeavor. It’s time to shoot some corpos and make ourselves very, very rich.”

Outside their tank, both of the gunships lifted off, a pair of triangular fighters escorting each one while the fifth and final plane flew ahead, scouting the wasteland for any hidden foes. At the far end of the tank column, the first of the armored vehicles floated off the edge of the mesa, dropping gently toward the desert below.

Baker blew out another plume of smoke, filling the tank’s cab with the scent of apples once again. Kat licked her upper lip, frowning as the smell wafted over her.

“That’s,” she began, hesitating for a second before finishing. “That’s a vape you’re using right Baker? I swear to God it doesn’t even smell like tobacco.”

“That’s because it’s not tobacco,” they answered. Somehow, without even seeing her companion’s eyes in the recesses of their hood, Kat could tell that they were winking at her. “Flavored water with a hint of caffeine. Can’t set a bad example for the young ‘uns, could I?”