Jason had never been inside an interrogation room before. It was gratifying to see that popular media depictions of the place weren’t entirely off. Grey featureless walls. A metal table. Uncomfortable metal chairs. A one-way mirror. It all checked out.

Though the drain in the corner is a little alarming, he thought as he slumped in his seat.

He turned his attention to the only other occupant of his little cell. “So, are you going to ask me anything, or are you just going pace back and forth menacingly for another five minutes?”

The Interior agent paused in her pacing to glance at him, and he thought he might have seen just a hint of irritation in her features. Which was good. That meant she was feeling just an inkling of what he was feeling.

Not that irritation was the foremost emotion in his mind. Pants-shitting fear occupied that slot. He and Yaro had barely made it back to the base the morning after their little excursion when he’d been ambushed by the woman across from him and a squad of militiawomen.

He was to be brought in for questioning – no reason given.

Something he’d had little choice but to go along with, though he’d hardly been quiet about it. Neither had Yaro, the soft-spoken woman had gotten rather vocal in his defense. In the end though, they’d been forced to accede to the agent’s demands.

Though Yaro had promised him that she’d inform the captain of what was happening before he’d been bundled into the militia’s APC.

Still, pants-shitting fear or not, it wasn’t in his nature to show it. If anything, fear tended to make him more acerbic. Not the world’s most beneficial reaction to adversity, but everyone had their follies.

“No?” Jason asked. “I only ask because if you don’t ask me something soon, my captain’s going to be through that door and whisking me out of here before you’ve learned anything about… why ever the fuck you brought me in here.”

Again. It was small. Just a tiny twitch above the woman’s brow to let him know his words were having an effect.

“Humans,” the woman sighed, her first words since he’d been brought in here and handcuffed to the table. “Empress knows that conquering your little mudball has brought us nothing but trouble. Belligerent and ungrateful to a man.” She eyed him. “Though I suppose that’s inevitable. You are men after all.”

Jason would have liked to point out that it was a rare society that was grateful for being conquered. He didn’t though. That would have come dangerously close to admitting that he was unhappy with the Imperium. Which was just a step away from sedition. Which would be a very dumb thing to admit to in front of an Interior agent.

“That sounds like frustration talking agent… whatever your name is. Bad break up? Struck out at the bar?”

Of course, that didn’t mean he had to be silent. Just pick his words with care. Or at least, as close to care as he ever got.

“Pernora. Agent Penora.” The woman threw an omni-pad onto the table. “And you’re going to tell me everything you know about this.”

Jason saw that the pad had a video file open. The freeze frame had a militia trooper’s face in view, what looked to be a space port behind her. Given context, slightly grainy quality and the imperfect shot, he had to assume the video had come from a militiawoman’s helmet cam.

Curious, he hit the play button.

Almost immediately there was a loud crash followed by the shriek of tortured metal. The camera swung around in the direction of the noise. The doors to a warehouse had been thrown open and just outside stood the imposing form of a civilian exo-mech.

Or at least, what was a civilian exo mech, Jason amended as he took in the thick steel plating that had been bolted onto the thing, covering all the areas where the pilot would normally be exposed in the civilian model.

That wasn’t the most egregious change though. And Jason got to see said change in action as the nine foot machine’s massive arm swung round, to aim the massive rail-gun attached to it’s arm.

He could hear the two militiawomen in the video cursing, though it was muffled by the sound of crackling energy as electrical arcs rippled down the two prongs of the mech’s crude weapon system. The sound of it firing was like thunder itself, as the weapon’s payload instantly cracked through the sound barrier.

Assumably whatever it hit – if anything at all – made a noise as it was hit, but it was drowned out by the initial retort of the rail-gun.

The camera was just starting to pan around, presumably to whatever the mech had been aiming at, when the video came to an all too abrupt end. Jason almost felt cheated as he looked at the frozen screen, the frame little more than a blur of indistinct shapes and colors.

He glanced up at the Interior agent, who was watching him studiously. Quickly, he rallied his emotions, settling on an apathetic mask.

“I assume you’re not asking after my technical knowledge?”

The woman snorted, which told him all he needed to know about what she thought of his technical knowledge.

Which ironically irritated him more than getting dragged out here had.

“I want to know what information you’ve been sending back to your compatriots on Earth,” she said, leaning forward as she pressed her hands against the table.

Well, at least he now knew it was Earth in the video. He’d suspected, but it was nice to have it confirmed. Thought that discovery ran secondary to what had just been said.

“My compatriots?” he asked, utterly confused. “I don’t have any compatriots on Earth?”

Hell, he didn’t even have any friends on Earth, and precious few acquaintances. A painful truth, but one he’d learned to accept when he left.

The woman scoffed. “So you expect me to believe that some rogue dissidents from your homeworld managed to adapt Shil’vati tech to create that? Without anyone feeding them information?”

“Yes?” he stated as if it was obvious - which it was. “We had prototypes and theories for rail-gun tech way before the Imperium showed up. All you did was give us the tech we needed to make them viable.”

“Us?” the woman said.

“Humans,” Jason rapidly corrected, before correcting himself again. “Rebels. Dissidents. Whatever. The point is, you gave them everything they needed. Raw materials and know how.” He frowned. “So why are you surprised that some people are now using both to… stir up trouble?”

He almost said, ‘fight back’, but he managed to pull it back in at the last second. He had no idea what this woman’s game was, but he knew he couldn’t afford to be caught saying anything that even suggested he wasn’t a loyal little drone.

Which he wasn’t… was he?

He shook his head. Better to focus on the task at hand.

While his few interactions with the Interior hadn’t exactly given him a great opinion of their capabilities, he didn’t think they were total morons. He sincerely doubted the woman across from him genuinely thought he was feeding information to Earth.

For one thing, it wasn’t like he knew anything of real value. Sure, the last few weeks had taught him some of the work involved in operating a small ship like the Whisker, but was it valuable?

Not really.

Not to the rebels on Earth. Earth’s whole problem was that it didn’t have ships to begin with. How they operated was secondary to a whole host of other issues.

Could he build Shil’vati laser guns? No.

Armor? No.

FTL drives? No.

He knew how to operate and maintain two of those things, but just like operating a computer, there was a world of difference between knowing how to use something and knowing how to make it.

“So you’re saying that this…” She scooped up the omni-pad, finger skittering across the interface. “Hank Hooverall, managed to build this device entirely of his own volition?”

“I guess?” Jason shrugged. “I’ve no idea what his background is or was, but if he had a bit of engineering knowledge, sure.”

It wasn’t like the mech he’d seen was complex. Or at least, the alterations to it. A few thick steel plates welded to the exterior. The railgun attached to the arm. That had seemed the extent of the modifications.

Actually? He thought.

“How did he see?” he asked. “With metal all over everything.”

The woman glanced at him, and he could see her deciding whether or not to answer.

“Cameras mounted to the outside,” the agent said finally. “Proof of his inept design, as it was lack of sight that brought him down after militia troopers shot said cameras out.”

Jason resisted the urge to point out that the militia troops resorting to that suggested that they couldn’t bring the machine down otherwise. Not that it was much of a feat. Militia were beat cops. Lightly armed and armored.

The guy had effectively been ended by airport security.

Jason… didn’t know how he felt about that. On the one hand, humanity fuck yeah! It was nice to see Earth sticking the middle finger to the xenos. On the other… what did it achieve really? The guy who piloted the thing was probably dead.

Did he have friends? Family? What were the knock-on effects of this attack going to be? Increased security measures around civilian exo’s? The things were new, but they’d become pretty integral to Earth’s industrial efforts in that short time. If the Shil’vati limited access to them as a result of this – almost entirely ineffectual attack – it was going to be hurting a lot of companies and people that relied on those machines.

“Was anyone else hurt?” he asked reluctantly.

The agent glanced at him over the rim of her pad. “That first shot brought down a civilian craft in the middle of taking off. Shot through the drive system. A total fluke given that the exo pilot was using a mark-one eyeball attached to a crude machine arm, but that was all it took. Five dead.” She paused. “A militia trooper was killed in the machine’s rampage, and five others were injured – one critically. Finally it managed to destroy a number of other parked craft and another civilian exo. Millions of credits in damages there.”

Jason frowned.

Part of him wanted to dismiss those deaths. Just aliens who were invading his world. It was difficult though, now that he’d spent the last few months living with them. Those deaths could have been any one of the people he’d met. Could he honestly say they deserved to die? For being on Earth? Part of him hated the Imperium. He felt it always would. Yet, it was so much easier for him to hate the massive unfeeling Empire than the people he knew occupied it.

Was this what it meant to be indoctrinated?

“So-” the woman started to say, before the door clattered open, revealing a very pissed off looking Tisi.

“Is this the Interior’s idea of due process?” his captain veritably growled at the slightly startled looking Interior woman.

Jason couldn’t help but feel a vague sense of déjà vu at the sensation of being rescued by the woman once more.

“Captain Tisi,” Pernora said, rallying quickly. “Are you aware that you are currently interrupting a questioning?”

“An interrogation, you mean?” Tisi shot back, mawed grin twitching up into a thoroughly unamused smile. “One taking place without the private’s commanding officer present – or even informed – making it a clear violation of the Shantares Agreement.”

The Interior agent stiffened. “He came voluntarily. You were not required.”

“Turox shit,” Tisi said, crossing her arms. “Though if that is the case, the solution here is simple, no?”

Pernora’s eyes widened, but the captain had already turned to him. “Private, do you want to leave?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jason said, more than a little surprised by how quickly his CO had turned this all around.

“Alright then,” Tisi said, sending a smirk at the other woman in the room as Jason clambered to his feet. “If you don’t mind, then my crewmember and I shall be leaving.”

The pair of them were already halfway out the door before the agent recovered from her surprise. “Captain! You can’t!”

Tisi stopped in her tracks, peering round to look at the woman in much the same way that someone might inspect something on the bottom of their boot.

“I can’t?” she asked dangerously. “I believe I can? Unless this is actually an interrogation, which would give you the right to hold my crewmen without my presence.”

Pernora’s mouth clamped shut.

“If it is, you’re welcome to hold him, though if you do, I’ll be making a call straight to the admiral’s office. I’m sure she’ll be very interested to hear that a member of the Interior is abducting marines off the street without charging them - or informing their immediate superiors.”

The Interior woman now looked like she was sucking a lemon, a fairly amusing expression on someone with tusks.

“I thought not,” Tisi smiled. “Come on Jason.”

Jason followed after his superior, staring at her with not a little awe as they walked through the dank halls of the Interior’s holding facility.

“Thanks ma’am,” he said finally.

Ahead of him, Tisi just shrugged, turning to favor him with a far more indulgent smile than the one she’d just given Pernora.

“Nothing to it, private. I was telling the truth when I said that the Interior was overstepping themselves. Sets a bad precedent if I let them pinch one of my crew for whatever they feel like.” She shrugged. “Empress knows I’d lose Rocket in a day given how she likes to wind up customs.” The woman shrugged. “Still, you are welcome regardless.”

Yeah, it was moments like this that really reminded him that the Shil’vati weren’t a monolith. They were a people. A people who had different opinions, beliefs and methods. Did that forgive the conquest of his world? No, not by a long shot. It did solidify in his mind that blowing up a spaceport wasn’t the correct answer to the Imperial problem though.

He imagined that would have a number of people back home calling him a limp-wristed coward, unwilling to do what was needed. Jason was fine with that. He was just a guy trying to make his way through the universe. Living as best he could while doing his best to be true to what he believed was right.

Given he was currently in service to an expansionist imperial empire, that last part wasn’t working out too well, but that was life.

“Any idea why she grabbed me, ma’am?” he asked as they stepped out into the biting cold of Gurathu’s winter air. He had no idea if ‘cold’ could be classified as a smell, but he was pretty sure that was what the air of Gurathu smelled like.

Tisi scoffed. “Pernora’s an upjumped crab that believes she deserves better than she has. The woman’s constantly trying to uproot this or that ‘conspiracy’ in an attempt to get herself out of this ‘dead end’ posting.”

“So she heard about this attack on Earth and decided to grab the most tangentially related thing she could get, ma’am?” Jason said as they stepped onto the car park.

“Got it in one, private.” The young woman nodded, obviously pleased at his deduction. “We just got news about the ‘exo-attack’ on Earth this morning. I say ‘news’, it was basically a subnote in the report I was given, with a few small changes to civilian exo rental laws. Not my wheelhouse.”

Jason nodded as they reached Tisi’s car; a surprisingly sporty looking bright red number that clashed with his vision of the woman as eminently practical.

“Pernora probably only saw it as an opportunity because the news-vids are blowing the whole thing way out of proportion. The censors should really have stepped in when they started make wild claims about humans producing their own exos.” Tisi shrugged again as she clambered into her car. “The only reason I can imagine that they haven’t is because the high governess of Earth is probably putting pressure on them to lay off. Drill up public fear and maybe get some troops sent her way.”

Jason was barely listening, instead his eyes were panning around the all leather interior. His attention returned to the conversation though as Tisi finished her explanation.

“You really know a lot about this, ma’am.”

The young officer actually looked a bit sheepish at his observation, her already dark complexion turning an even darker shade of blue.

“You know what they say, private.” She chuckled self-consciously. “Once a noble always a noble. I don’t even know why I still bother to keep up with politics these days, but I do. Old habits and all that.”

Jason might have responded, but he was caught off by the sound of the car’s powerful engine roaring to life, and he had to stifle a yelp as the vehicle shot out of the carpark with a speed just shy of unseemly.