"What?" Said Slim to the ship manager. "Ten percent fee for shipping and another ten percent for making an order under the usual minimum?" She threw her arms in the air and stalked back to where Elias was waiting in the centre of the terminal.

"Ten and ten for that company." Slim sighed, sitting down next to Elias.

She had forgotten how the cost of every unit ended up increasing when the size of the order decreased. Most shipping companies added ten percent to the recruitment fee which made the average of a new recruit on Carus two thousand credits. She could normally bargain a little under this and would swtich between managers waiting for each to give her a better offer than the last. With a lack of reputation and making a small order, none of the managers were even giving her the time of day. Instead each new manager seemed to be increasing the price per recruit. It was driving her mad.

The best offer they had was for a nine percent fee on top of two thousand per recruit. She had been optimistic that they could save a couple of thousand credits and instead were going to overspend. Honestly, there was little they could do now until Mouse had secured an order for the equipment.

"Can you or Mouse use a rifle?" Asked Elias in desperation.

"Maybe Mouse, but I wouldn't trust him to be able to shoot with it. You'd be better just throwing me at the Swarm." Said Slim.

"Well we could drop to less recruits?" Elias offered.

Slim smiled but shook her head.

"I asked that, the fee goes up even higher on orders less than twenty-five. It's like they can smell our desperation."

With twenty-five recruits they would need 54,500 credits to purchase the contracts. Dropship tickets for him, Mouse, Slim and the recruits would then come to 2,800 credits. Having worked this out he waited with baited breath for Mouse to make his purchases before they could do anything more.

Mouse shook his head as Elias and Slim left to head towards the shipping terminal and pick out the recruits. They had to believe that Elias could deliver what he had outlined. He shook his head, it had been Slim that persuaded him the cost of almost twenty thousand credits to buy Elias's contract and upgrade his ticket to Carus would be worth it. He wasn't ready yet to agree she was right but at least now they had hope.

It was only after Elias had shared his skill list with Slim that she accepted his plan might be possible. In part because having such an eclectic variety of skills reminded her of Jed once again but mainly because it made his plan seem less crazy. To attack a level one ziggurat they needed a commander to lead the attack; a squad leader to drive the troop carrier and manage salvage; a squad to clear the upper level and numbers to ensure they weren't overwhelmed.

Minimising the fighting force to twenty-five and all of them new recruits seemed crazy until Elias told them about his sim experiences. It made the impossible suddenly seem reasonable. There were only so many corners they could cut on the other costs. Twenty thousand credit for a comms array seemed a lot but without it they couldn't link with Porta to inform of the new settlement and negotiate a dropship. Then it came down to the minimum numbers for a settlement size. They had wanted twelve buildings to fill the dome straight away before the first dropship arrived. Any less than three meant they would have nothing but the essential buildings, they needed five but didn't have the money.

The excitement that Elias showed as he explained the plan kept building and building to the point that Mouse and Slim felt dragged along with the wave of enthusiasm. Who cared if it was only recruits and who cared if they were ten thousand credits short of the money they needed. On his own again, the pragmatist inside him started to question how possible it would be to actually achieve what they set out to do. That was how he found himself making a beeline through the afternoon crowd heading for a very specific workshop.

He needed to to try and secure orders for the supplies they would need to have a chance of success. He looked at his shopping list checked his budget and then gazed up at the store he was stood outside 'Gary's'. The front was cluttered with military equipment; scraps of armour labelled and priced either side of the entrance that led deeper into the small passageway that was squeezed between two larger office fronts. Mouse knew the looks were deceiving and squeezed sideways past a selection of auto-turrets and displays of varying quality energy-weapons to find an open workshop.

"Gary, my friend, how are the kids." Mouse said, a great beaming smile plastered on his face.

"Hungry and poor thanks to the last time I saw you." Came the response from Gary, not responding to the smile, his arms crossed over a broad chest.

"Come on, that's why it's called an investment. If it was guaranteed then everyone would have wanted a piece." Mouse kept up the smile, looking down at the four-foot figure in front of him.

Gary had been born planetside on a world that had a higher than standard gravity, stunting his height in a way that made some look down at him in their dealings as well as literally. Mouse knew better than to make this mistake.

"Look. We're friends." Mouse ignored the raised eyebrow from Gary at this remark. "So as soon as I had another opportunity, where do I come?"

"What?" Gary said, exasperated. "You can stop there Mr Sinclaid. Not a chance. I like you, I liked Jed and you know I'll give you a fair deal, but you're paying up front."

"But Gary, hear me out." Mouse kept trying despite the frosty reception. He picked up a battery from the counter in front of him, pretending to look it over as he spoke. He waited for a moment to see if Gary would try and stop him again and continued when he was only met with silence.

"See, the thing is, I have an exclusive offer for you." Mouse started, watching Gary to see how his words were received.

The reason they had used his services and his store with Jed was in part because Gary had to work twice as hard to keep up with the larger companies. He was an independent businessman and had got where he was by skill and effort. It was people like him that Jed had wanted to support the most. Mouse truly felt guilty that Gary had invested in Jed's last mission. That money would have gone to support his kids. Part of him wasn't sure if it was right to ask him to take a risk again, but he also knew he had to give Gary the offer first.

"Here's my shopping list." Mouse tapped Gary's console to bring up the information, then he waited. Gary moved forward, obviously curious about what Mouse was requesting.

"Standard equipment for twenty-five recruits; troop carrier." Gary worked his way down the next part of the list. "Building templates and materials; comms array. Huh." He paused and looked up at Mouse an interested look forming. "These are the supplies for settlement development, aren't they."

Mouse nodded, waiting to see what Gary would say next.

"You know how much that investment hurt?" Gary looked Mouse in the eye for the first time since he had walked in. The pained expression cleared the grin from Mouse's face.

"We had just enough to bring the kids to Carus and get a place planetside. Not to be comfortable, but to be together. Hannah still hasn't forgiven me for taking that risk." Mouse knew better than to speak at this point.

There weren't many people he actually considered friends on Porta and Gary was one of them, it had been wrong to just avoid him after the last mission failed. He should have come back and talked to the man sooner rather than only appear when he wanted something once again. Gary must have been able to read the guilty look in Mouse's face as his next words were softer.

"Give me your budget. Honestly, I'll see what I can do." Gary said.

Rather than update the console with his neural link Mouse gave Gary direct access to his company interface for Nidus. He waited and watched as Gary nodded, accepted the offer and checked the details.

"You're a bastard Mouse." Said Gary finally. "I assume Slim is getting the recruits?" Mouse nodded. "They won't give a new company anything other than standard rates." He did some quick calculations. "Fuck, Hannah is either going to kill me, or..." he paused "...or, kill me." He tapped on his console as he talked. "Did I mention you're a bastard?"

Finally Gary slid the console back to Mouse. He looked down at the information.

Item

Number

Cost per unit

Total cost

Armour

25

400

10000

Energy Weapons

25

200

5000

Batteries

100

100

10000

Troop Carrier

1

10000

10000

Buildings

4

10000

40000

Workshop

1

0

0

Communication array

1

20000

20000

Food/water

1260

1

1260

Tents/shelter

28

100

2800

Total

99060

Mouse quickly looked over and compared the cost to what they had and what they needed. The corners of his mouth slowly turned up as he read the amendments.

"Workshop?" Mouse asked. "That's more advanced than a simple building, are you sure?" Gary nodded.

"Just make sure you pull this one off. Or if you don't, no point in coming back here. Hannah will literally kill me rather than let me invest again." Gary replied.

Mouse double checked the details, making sure to be thorough rather than signing off before he was sure.

"Ummm. Gary, not wanting to be a pain, but you missed off one set of armour." He said, noticing there were twenty-five rather than twenty-six.

"Trust me Mouse. The order sheet is right, I'll double check the crates myself." Gary said with a wink. Mouse raised his hands up with a defensive look.

"Of course, just checking." He smiled once more and grabbed Gary in a bear hug before putting the man down and signing the contract. "See you soon Gary."

Mouse bounced out of the store. The company bank account didn't show any change for a moment before dropping to just over fifty-seven thousand credits. He headed back to the bar for a celebratory beer while he waited for Elias and Slim.

"...and then he goes and pulls out a minor Shard from his pocket and says, will this cover it." Slim finished her story and Mouse roared with laughter.

They had done it and were ready to roll. Twenty-five recruits and their equipment was being loaded on to a dropship headed for Southwatch as they enjoyed one last 'proper' meal in Porta. Given the paltry seventy credits that were left after all their purchases Slim was wary about delaying for another day before heading off. At a credit a beer and two for a meal they would probably land flat broke if Mouse was left to celebrate any longer.

Elias finished the last of his beer and settled up with the barkeeper. Making his way to the dropship terminal he felt a thrill of excitement. It was going to be hard work achieving their goal but they had cleared the first hurdle and were on their way. This time tomorrow he would be setting out across Carus in the make or break attempt to build a new home.