“Sorry Yaro, but I agree with Jason.”

Jason’s eyes widened in surprise as Nora stepped away from Yaro’s prone body.

“The fuck did you do?” he asked, rushing over to check on her. He winced as the action jostled his injured arm.

“Calm down,” Nora said. “I just hit her with a sedative.”

Feeling that her pulse was still beating strong, Jason sighed in relief. Glancing back up, he saw that Nora was brandishing a now empty syringe.

He exhaled. “Why the fuck do you even have that?”

She shrugged, stowing the used needle away in a pouch at her belt. “I borrowed a few from medical. Given you’re… you, I figured I might have to break up a fight non-lethally at some point. And given that most folk walk around in armor that can easily bounce a stun-shot, and I don’t have an MP override, I decided I needed a means of taking someone down without physically having to wrestle them.” She glanced down at Yaro. “Because, between you and me, I don’t think the odds would have been in our favor if she’d decided to make this physical.”

Clever, Jason admitted mentally. Those needles would go right through someone’s suit.

Sighing, he stood up and dusted himself off. “So, I assume you’re with me?”

“Nope. I’m staying here. Yaro was right on that point at least: a military can’t function if everyone decides to just run off and do their own thing.” She paused. “No matter how they might feel about their commanders.”

“Then why did you…” He trailed off, reduced to awkwardly gesticulating to where Yaro lay on her back.

“Because you’re also right.” Nora leaned down, running a hand through the downed woman’s fur with surprising delicacy. “Gremp would never go for what you’re planning - and we’re all probably going to die here unless something changes.” She shrugged. “So I might as well let you have a shot at saving us all.”

Jason stared at her oddly, only belatedly realizing that in aiding him, she’d just betrayed someone she likely thought of as a friend. Hell, she was probably closer with Yaro than she was with him.

“You’re an odd woman Nora,” he said finally.

“I don’t want to hear that from you of all people.” She looked back up at him, features twisting into an odd little smile. “Now, you better get going before someone comes over to ask why we’re both standing over a passed out Rakiri.”

Jason smiled wryly at that, but put her words into action as he turned to leave, pausing only for a moment.

“Take care of her for me,” he said finally.

“I will.”

Satisfied, he continued on his way. Maybel fell in beside him, having watched everything that had gone down in silence. If the woman had any thoughts on the little ‘mutiny’ that had just taken place, she was keeping them to herself which he was thankful for.

He didn’t know if he could handle having a third person giving him a list of reasons why he sucked today.

Instead, her first comment was on something far more pertinent. “This isn’t the direction of the gate.”

He shook his head.

“We’re not going anywhere until I get this metal prong out of my arm.” He wouldn’t be able to do much of anything until he got it removed. “We’ll just have to hope that I can get that done and dealt with before Gremp sends out a second set of goons to arrest me for… mutiny or whatever.”

He didn’t know exactly what she’d charge him with. She had so many delightful options to pick from after all.

The Ufrian woman nodded slowly, keeping her head low as they walked deeper into the base. Not that it stopped her from catching the gaze of just about everyone they walked past. Ufrian’s might have been a fairly common sight outside of the compound, but they were a lot rarer in it.

Probably should have had her meet me outside, he thought.

Oh well, there was nothing for it now.

“Then we leave?” she asked anxiously.

“Not quite,” he murmured, eyes drifting over to the burnt-out remains of Cleff’s Command Unit. “We’ll need to grab a few things first.”

-------------

In the end, removing the prong had been a relatively simple procedure that had barely taken five minutes. The pair gotten it done and been out of the base before anyone had come looking for him.

Sure, he’d been questioned by the marines at the gate as he exited, but a quick reference to the fact that he was the Champion had seen him through.

It had likely helped that he was with Maybel. A marine sneaking out with an Ufrian in tow held certain connotations; the sergeant in charge had likely not seen any reason to look into it too deeply. Even on the eve of what might be the regiment’s final battle, he didn’t doubt more than a few soldiers were sneaking around for a bit of last minute loving.

It was an unfortunate reality of their mixed unit regiment, at least for Jason whose job it had been to try to curtail that kind of thing when it interfered with the unit's smooth operations.

Which was far more often than he might have liked. From soldiers skipping out on guard duty for a bit of fun, to lovers' spats boiling over, he’d spent more time than he’d care to tally, dealing with the fallout that came from attractive young men and women being cooped up together for long periods of time.

And yes, he was well aware of the hypocrisy of him being the one to complain about that fact.

Still, in this case it worked in his favor.

“Why did you change out of your magic armor?”

Jason winced again as Maybel helped him out of the boat and onto the docks of her hometown. For all that Imperial medical science bordered on magic, it couldn’t change the fact that less than an hour ago, he’d had a rather sizable hole in his arm. The fact that it was now filled with bio-foam numbed the pain some, but he was still reminded of the injury everytime he chose to use that limb.

“Gremp could lock me down remotely if I was still wearing it.” He wrapped his newly borrowed cloak around him as the pair of them made their way down the wooden streets.

The town was curiously empty relative to the last time he’d been here. Few boats plied the waterways, and what few pedestrians he saw were furtive and hurried as they flitted from destination to destination.

It was a peculiar change, but he had little time to dwell on the cause for it as he and Maybel hurried on. Besides, in some ways it worked in his favor that the streets were so empty. Ignoring the fact that the tattered hood about his head was a paper-thin disguise, he found he was feeling just a little vulnerable without his armor.

“If Gremp could do that, why was she having trouble with your ‘tankers’?” Maybel whispered as they strode across a bridge and into the fancier part of town.

Jason resisted the urge to roll his eyes, because of course she’d heard about that.

“In theory,” he began. “The jamming we’re currently suffering makes that feature impossible. Still, I’d hate for it to suddenly drop - for some reason - and for me to suddenly be reduced to a statue.”

Admittedly, removing his suit had been an act of paranoia on his part. Even if the jamming let up, the signal would still have to reach all the way underground. Still, knowing his luck, it would, and he’d be in the middle of swimming or something when it did.

He didn’t exactly fancy rolling the dice on that happening.

Besides, it’s not like a suit would do me much good if I ran across an Edixi patrol...

Beside him, Maybel shivered. “Armor that can imprison the user? You outworlders are a strange people. An Ufrian brave would never stand for their chief to have such power over them.”

Jason shrugged, only to squawk in surprise as an arm locked around him and dragged him up against a wall.

“Hey what’s the-”

He rapidly silenced himself as his eyes landed on what Maybel had seen.

An Edixi patrol.

The pair of shark women were walking through the town with the casual pace that came to soldiers on patrol. While their eyes seemed to continually swivel about as they scanned their environment, their pace was unhurried.

Well, shit… I guess that explains why the streets are so empty. The Alliance must have garrisoned the town.

“What do we do!?” Maybel hissed. “They’re coming this way.”

Sure enough, the pair of soldiers would walk right past the small alcove that he and Maybel had sequestered themselves in. And even a casual glance into the darkness showed that it was a dead end.

So, Jason did the only thing he could think of.

“We need to-”

Maybel’s words were cut off as Jason planted his lips on hers. The blue skinned woman froze at first, but that quickly got into the act, arms reaching out to wrap around him from her position shoved up against the wall.

Not that Jason was focused on that. Everything he had was focused on listening to the sounds of the patrol women as they continued to walk towards his hiding place.

Come on. Come on. He thought as the steps got closer. Just walk past.

They didn’t. The sound of the pair’s footsteps continued until they were right behind him. Then they stopped. Jason felt his heart pounding in his chest as the two seemed to notice him, exchanging fast words in their native tongue. Then one of them made a comment that had the other laugh.

They lingered for a few more heartstopping moments, before continuing on.

Finally, once he was sure they were totally gone, Jason released Maybel, who sagged in place.

“They’re gone, we need to keep moving.”

“Wah?” The Ufrian woman responded blearily, before focus seemed to refill her eyes once more. “Right. We need to, uh. Find the… thingy.”

He gave the blushing woman a quick side eye before grabbing her arm and bodily tugging her in the direction they’d been heading in before the Edixi had shown up.

He could indulge alien horniness later. Right now he was much more focused on not being executed.

“So… not that I’m pointing any fingers, but is this the moment where you admit to me that your people have always been working with the Alliance? Perhaps trading with both them and Imperium?”

That seemed to snap Maybel out of her reverie.

“What? No!” She pulled her arm from his, walking on her own. “The first time I ever even saw one of those new off worlders was when I went down into the tunnels with your people.”

That caught Jason off guard. “Wait, you joined our attack?”

The woman puffed up proudly. “I snuck in by pretending to be one of the boat guides.”

Well, I suppose that explains why she was with us when we returned back to the Mining Nexus, he thought.

“As for them being here now?” She shrugged. “I’m willing to bet that Mom invited them in after they kicked your ass. She’s practical like that.”

Given that it had barely been two hours since that ill-fated attack, Jason could only concede the point.

“Very practical,” he agreed.

And he was only now realizing that practicality could be a double-edged sword in a business partner. The other party would only support you so long as it was in their best interest to do so. And with the Imperium’s most recent defeat, it was no longer in the Ufrian’s best interest to be aligned with them.

If it had ever been.

It’s all about whoever holds the bigger stick, he thought. And right now, the Imperium barely holds a twig.

The thought made him realize that he’d probably been listed as AWOL already. Which was bad. The kind of bad could well lead to his summary execution if he was caught before he’d pulled off his gambit.

Which was kind of funny, in a morbid way. Of the four factions on the planet, three of them would execute him out of hand, despite the fact that one of them was opposed to the other two.

Hell, he might well still be facing the firing squad even if he pulled this off. Which was… off putting.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice. Or, well, he did. It had been between almost guaranteed death within the day, or a just slightly less likely chance of death in the near future.

He'd chosen the latter.

“We’re here,” Maybel said somewhat unnecessarily as their destination finally came into view.

Her home.

----------

If they’d chosen to search the house, they’d have found it. It wasn’t like it was hidden. It was sat in the rear… boat garage.

Which he supposed said a lot about how much Maybel had been thinking with her vagina when she’d invited three Imperial marines into her home.

Not that Maybel's poor judgement on that front was his primary concern. No, it was an entirely different lapse in judgement that had him upset.

“You left it in the water!?”

He couldn’t help but stare, wide eyed at the sight of the Imperial Transport Shuttle floating in Maybel’s boat shed. The civilian craft was little more than a square block with an engine attached to it, ladened with heavy exterior armor plating. Which made sense, the thing had been some noble’s attempt to retrofit a craft to be capable of flying through Raknos-Three’s stormy weather.

Though how successful they were, remains to be seen, he thought, eying the many craters running along the thing’s dinged up exterior.

Though how many of those dings were from it’s last test flight, or from a band of Ufrians transporting it down here, remained to be seen.

“It’s a boat. It floats. Because it’s waterproof.” Maybel responded.

“It’s… not…”

He didn’t know how to explain that while she was technically correct on the water proof part, that didn’t mean…

“Because it’s supposed to go into space. That means it can’t let air out. Which means water can’t get in.” The blue skinned woman seemed rather proud of that knowledge. And Jason supposed, that in abstract it was impressive.

Still, this was part of the problem with pure book learning. Especially when it came from an eclectic list of sources.

It lacked a foundation.

The kind of foundation that would tell you that you didn’t leave spacecraft floating in lakes.

He could feel a curious sense of déjà vu as he resisted the urge to point out the difference between void-proof and water-proof. It was like trying to explain to Cleff all over again all the reasons why tanks weren’t submarines.

The thought of Cleff caused an unexpected pang in his heart, which he quickly shook his head to dismiss.

Instead, he refocused on the issue at hand. Which wasn’t truly all that dire. Unlike those tanks, the shuttle was only partially submerged, so it wasn’t like it was displacing tons of pressure and would have sprung a leak in the months since it had been pilfered by an enterprising Maybel during the chaos caused by the Roach invasion. And given that the ship was intended to function on Raknos, it was also assumedly rust-proof.

How well that rust proofing had stood up to being submerged in water for months at a time, remained to be seen, but he was trying to be optimistic.

Because if this hunk of junk couldn’t fly, he was up shit creek without a paddle.

“This plan gets crazier by the second,” he muttered.

Still, there was nothing to be gained by sulking over it. That was time better spent doing something productive.

He jumped over to the vehicle, landing on its hull with a small thunk. While it’s current submerged nature meant he couldn’t access the machine via the rear ramp, it did have a top hatch.

Opening it, he slipped inside. Hitting the deck with a muffled thud, he winced a little as the dank stagnant air of the interior hit his nose.

Looking around the interior, he winced at the crap strewn about the place. A discarded bronze breastplate. Tools, both primitive and modern. Bones, from what looked to be some kind of fish. All in all, it was a mess. And while he wouldn't go quite so far as to say Maybel had been living in the shuttle, by the look of the place, she'd been spending a lot of time in here.

“Anyone else know about this?” he asked.

“Of course.” He jumped at the sound of Maybel’s voice, scowling as he looked up to where she was leaning over the rim of the top hatch. “I couldn’t exactly move it by myself.”

No, she couldn’t, and the fact that she and her people had been able to move it was kind of impressive. Sure, it was an airframe, so it was built on the lighter side of things, but it was an Imperial airframe. Which meant anti-grav. So it wasn’t like it would have been built that light.

“Would your mother mention this thing to the Edixi?”

She cocked her head. “No, why would she?”

He opened his mouth, before pausing.

Now that he thought about it, he supposed there was no reason for the Ufrian woman to. Even if they were ‘allies’ now, Governments kept secrets from one another. On various state assets.

And make no mistake, this shuttle was one of the Ufrian’s secret assets.

He was just about to ask if she’d also managed to pilfer the ignition switch, when a noise rang out through Maybel’s house.

Someone was knocking on her front door.

…Loudly.

“Shit.”