Elias had learnt that the company interface on his neural link was only simple as that was how he had chosen to keep it. Slim had been showing him some of the deeper settings. From pointless visual changes like seeing the menus in green instead of blue to important features such as a helper feature that would better explain what options were available on each screen. The settlement interface was a submenu of his company screen. It was just as simple at first glance.

Level 2 Buildings Resources Upkeep = 2 minor shards Command Tower Communications array 0/100 minor shards to level 3

It didnt even have a menu for the settings. This was found when highlighting the settlement name itself. He wasn't sure if the neural link or he had caused it to default to Earth standard gravity and air composition. It had even adjusted the temperature to a pleasant twenty degrees celsius.

"Ah. This is better." Said Mouse. They were sat in the lower level of the tower, a welcome upgrade from their command tent.

"So we have a settlement, pity we drank the beers last night." Said Elias. "What do we do now?" He asked.

"I'll start," said Mouse pulling out his console and sliding it to the centre of their table, "we had building materials for four buildings. That's frame work for five by five buildings, twenty-one wall panels each, two pairs of door panels, twenty-five roof panels. We have utility and energy piping five metres per building. Alongside this we have the bigger workshop building materials supplied by Gary. Once we connect the buildings to the central tower they will have basic power but will draw off the Crystal and increase upkeep costs." He flicked to a second page.

"Here it shows we have used thirty-three wall panels; two doors and thirty-three roof panels to create this building. So basically we don't have the materials to complete the other three buildings to full size at present. I suggest we build two full size and hold on the last for now."

The others nodded at his plan.

"Next, I've got good and bad news. The good news is the finances. We salvaged Swarm parts to a market value of four thousand three hundred and forty credits. As well as this we have collected twelve minor shards directly from the Swarm with a value of one thousand two hundred credits. Add this to the treasure trove found on the upper level of the ziggurat and we have 18,540 credits.

"Unfortunately with good news comes the bad. I've contacted a couple of dropship captains on Porta. With our lack of protection and small settlement size they'll only set up a route if we cover the cost of all one hundred seats. That's ten thousand credits. Problem is, all the others will only even think about a deal if it includes shares in the settlement."

"But we'll get some of that back if they sell tickets, right?" Asked Slim.

Mouse shook his head in reply.

"Not on the first drop. That's not all. They want exclusive rights to the route for six months and one hundred percent of the take of the ticket price for the duration of the contract. For that they'll commit to a once weekly drop starting in five days." Mouse rushed all of this out.

Normally the settlements would have several different dropships competing for their business or in some cases they owned their own. It wasn't unusual for the ticket sales to be divided in the company's favour rather than the dropship. It made sense as the more popular the route the more tickets they would sell then they could make more money by increasing the number of drops to the settlement.

"Bastards. Who is it. Reiner?" Slim snapped.

"Yup. She knows we're over a barrel and won't budge." Said Mouse.

"Do we have a choice?" Elias asked.

"We could refuse and request a trade convoy from one of the nearby settlements. That's the problem it would be a request and we would need to give up something for it. Last option would be travelling back ourselves but we just don't have the man power to do that." Mouse laid out the options.

"So in summary, no." Elias said. "I say put a little pressure on to see if we can change the terms. They're taking a risk on us but this is too one sided. If they won't budge then they'll lose the contract at six months when it becomes more lucrative."

"I'll see what I can do, but she was pretty clear. That's all I've got for now." Mouse took some notes and looked over to Slim.

"I've got good news, good news and bad as well." Said Slim. "Well maybe not bad news, but not good. Lets call it a problem that isn't really good or bad but needs thinking about."

"That's cryptic enough Slim, just spit it out." Mouse butted in.

"Alright. You know I let you say your piece without interupting. Maybe if you just waited..." Slim started.

"Slim, I'm sure Mouse didn't mean anything by it. What have you got to say?" Elias was arbiter once again.

From the time they had shared in the cab over the last week he knew they would both go back and forth bickering if he didn't say something. Slim gave him a knowing look as she got back to her report.

"The Good news is that our settlement has been registered which makes us eligible for some central support. On Carus we can apply for one recruit per level of settlement. The only cost is an admin fee of one hundred credits. The other good news is that they work this out at the beginning of the month, which is in three days time. So if we sign up then we can get new recruits pretty cheap pretty soon." She stopped for comments.

"Sounds good to me. Simple enough to say yes to that." Elias answered, looking at the others who nodded in approval. "Now what was that bad news problem?"

Mouse nudged him with a smile causing Slim to frown at not one but both of them.

"It's to do with the recruits. Normally they arrive, are thrown in to a mission and then a certain number survive and come back to be debriefed. Instead all of them have survived, which is odd." Now it was Elias's turn to frown.

"Go on." He said.

"Well you have to understand the mentality of the people who sign up as recruits. Some sign up to explore the galaxy and adventure. Others because they believe it will give them a fair wage and opportunities. The majority though, they sign up for the credits when they take out the contract. Signing up to work for the armed forces on the colonies is the easiest way to get out of most Earth slums. Not only that, it pays you to leave and you can pass that money to family or spend it before shipping out." Slim said, she stopped as Elias looked like he wanted to say something.

"But isn't that the same for the other colonists? They get lucrative deals to come out to farm or build here." He said.

"Yes, but only if they have a neural link with proven skills activated. No company will hire a person who says they farm. Not if they then have to pay for a neural link and then ship them over. Easier to pick those who already have the neural link and can prove they have the skill. You realise how unlikely that is for those living in the slums. Regardless of whether they come from Earth, the colonies or spaceports. Anyway, I'm getting side tracked. Basically within a group of recruits there will be those that have no desire to fight. No skill at fighting. They will have scraped through the simulated basic training course and have limited ability to put those skills to use.

"This is where our situation is strange. You put those people in a real life scenario with the Swarm and unless they are very lucky they die. They forget to shoot, try to run or just fight so poorly that they are the first to fall. Instead you trained them, checked they had the basic skills to stay alive. You put them in groups so others would watch out for them. Lastly you fought for them, with them. Gods, you even jumped in to save a couple directly. I've talked to each and every one of them today. Some see you as a hero, others as superhuman. The thing is, those that shouldn't have survived are traumatised. Sure, there are a couple that never had the right mentality to be fighters who have changed and now want nothing more than following in your footsteps. Others who will just drag down the rest of the troops as long as they are in the platoon. If we leave that cancer, it will cause resentment and problems down the line."

She paused and waited as the issue she was describing sunk in. Having outlined the problem she looked at the others. Mouse held his hands up.

"Not my area of expertise I'm afraid." He said, leaning back on his chair to show he was just going to listen to Elias's opinion.

"I never considered that keeping them all alive might be a problem." He said. "I always thought everyone should be given a chance and now you're telling me they're causing an issue. Well, will cause an issue." He slumped with his head in his hands.

She was right. He had wanted them all alive. Taken personal risks to ensure no-one was killed. He had watched back a couple of the encounters on his neural link. If any soldier under his command had pulled the stunts he had then he would have slapped them with a demerit and threatened more if they left their defensive line again. Knowing his assumption that all the recruits should be given a chance to learn and show their worth was fundamentally flawed because of the method and reasons they had been recruited was hard to take in. They sat in silence for a minute as his brain continued to process the information. Finally he spoke.

"Right. So what do we do with them? I mean, what do they want to do?" He said

"Interesting." Slim replied. "I never asked what they want to do, just a brief analysis of how they were and current mentality." Mouse perked up at this, leaning forwards again.

"Well we are short a construction crew." He added.

"You think we could use those recruits to fill other jobs?" Slim had a look like she had finally cracked a puzzle.

"That could work. Some of them would have skills, now they have a neural link too. We would need to get the necessary Skill licences so they were recognised." She was scribbling on her console, the words degenerating into a mutter.

"Ummm. What is happening?" Elias asked, looking a little confused.

Slim just waved in his direction and continued to focus on her console. He looked at Mouse in confusion.

"Don't worry. This just means our problem about what to do has been solved." Mouse said.

"Right." Said Elias, looking a little confused.

A notification flashed up on Vito's display. There weren't many things he programmed to automatically show choosing to respond to most in office hours so he opened and read it with intrigue. Soon after he finished reading he made a call.

"Commander Daggart. Thank you for being so prompt. It seems our friend Mr Thompson was successful in his endeavour." He said.

"Did he have help? Or did they change the destination?" Came the reply.

"I did not call because I need questions Commander. Either he was competent or lucky. The reason is irrelevant." Vito snapped back. "What I need is our company to be the first to visit this new settlement. He must have spent all his resources to succeed. It took them five days to establish the settlement. That means in another five days I want you in position to move in to support the next phase of our negotiations with Mr Thompson."

He hung up the call. Twenty-five new recruits and a single squad leader. Vito rubbed his hands together. There was little chance they had anything other than a few left. He had looked into this new company Nidus. They had no resources, no alliances. His men would sweep in as they struggled to defend themselves from incoming Swarm. All the cards would be on his side as they negotiated the price of his support.

"Porta, quaint. It's like Jed named everything here. He was always a sucker for Latin." A man walked along talking to himself.

A grey haired man made his way from the arrival terminal down towards the main concourse. A bright look in his eyes showing his age had not slowed his mind. Tattoos were peering out from beneath an eclectic mix of clothes. Rough worn work trousers tucked in to a pair of sturdy power-armour boots and a colourful shirt, patched like a quilt hiding pockets, trinkets and interwoven holsters for more gadgets than seemed necessary. Some were empty as was orbital station policy. He would get his weapons back on arrival planetside. Anyone who looked carefully would also notice the expensive top model nanoweave bodysuit underneath the other layers.

He ignored the calls for help, a job and other less savoury offers to make his way directly to the dropship terminal. Here he looked down the list of destinations.

"Where is it." He muttered checking all the names. "Ah. Libertas. Not very subtle of you."

He stepped up to the cashier at the booth to one side of the area.

"When is the next drop ship scheduled for Libertas?" He asked.

The man looked confused for a while as he looked down at his console.

"Ummm. Just a minute please, did you say Libtas?" He asked. "Are you sure that's a settlement here, I'm not familiar with it." He had been working in the dropship office for six months now and thought he knew the names of all the settlements including the newer ones.

"LibERtas." The man repeated.

"Ah. Oh, that's odd." The man replied. "I have a single scheduled drop, it's just been registered. For five days time. That's one hundred credits." He continued.

"No. Not soon enough. Where's the nearest settlement and when is the next ship there?" The man asked abruptly.

He did not like to be kept waiting and knew that being impatient with the cashier would not get him down to the surface sooner. Jed had said come as soon as possible and it had already taken months to get the missive and arrive. In the great scheme of things another couple of days would not matter, but he could not bear to be sat waiting when he could be moving towards his target.

"Sorry Sir, it's a new settlement. I'll just need to check for you." The cashier looked down at his console for a minute.

"Southwatch is the nearest settlement, two thousand five hundred kilometres away to the northeast. Or Highpeak is four thousand to the northwest. Then there is Threerocks that is three thousand five hundred to the south. Southwatch would be your best bet, there is a dropship leaving tomorrow." He smiled at the oddly dressed man in front of him.

"That will do. Book me on." He said.

"Not a problem." The cashier gestured at the biometric sensor in front of him that would automatically transfer the credits for the ticket. The man swiped his hand over it to activate, accepting the notification on his neural interface.

"Thank you," the cashier looked down at the name that sat next to the ticket verification, "Professor Oberon, see you tomorrow."

The man who was already walking away gave a dismissive wave over his shoulder.