"These blueprints are just... wow Sumiko! I don't know what to say. Amazing!" David was quickly swiping through technical drawings and schematics on the holographic display of his work table, I assume for the microbot factory.

"Mister Huang. Must I keep reminding you of the proper form of address?" Sumi said exasperated.

"Hey don't be like that you're to cute to call Miss Saitō." He teased as he attempted to flirt with the AI.

"As I have told you repeatedly Mister Huang, I am taken." She said crossly.

"You're just playing hard to get." David was having none of it.

I was starting to see why the AI had requested my presence. I'm sure Sumi had other techs in mind that could replace him if needed, but she had chosen him first, and I had already made him a deal. With a sigh I entered the conversation.

"I'd listen to her if I was you, he's known to be fairly protective."

"She actually does have a boyfriend?" He said with a frown, turning at my entrance.

"Hey baby girl, how are you this morning?" I asked Sumi as I eyed him in answer to his question.

"A little annoyed." She flashed David a glare.

"But I'm better now, I miss you sooo much! Dani, make sure you and our girls give my man lots of big sloppy kisses!" Her demeanour changed completely and she was giggling like a school girl.

David groaned and covered his face. "Of course she does." He mumbled under his breath.

"Me too babe. I'll leave you two to get back to work." I gave David a pointed look.

He had the common sense to nod vigorously in complete agreement, then watched in awestruck silence as Dani did indeed give me a big sloppy kiss as my 'girlfriend' looked on with an adoring smile.

"Is there anyone your not..." He began to ask as Dani wheeled me from the room.

"Best to assume anyone with tits from this point forward is his." Dani answered for me matter of factly without turning around.

"So, Miss Saitō as I was saying..." The conversation died off as nurse Dani wheeled me into the garage for my next appointment.

I tried extra hard, though unsuccessfully to not to ogle the woman waiting patiently as she idly checked of some paperwork on her tab'. According to Sumi she had served as a mechanic with R.A.E.M.E. (Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), during the war. She had tried her hand as a ringer with some success, but ended up retiring to persue her first love of tearing down and reassembling old equipment. She even had a successful business rebuilding decommissioned equipment and making kick ass one off modifications for corporate clients and different tiger cells around the city, but she was starting to get an itchy trigger finger and was looking for a group to throw her lot in with where she could get plenty of practice at both.

Her practical skills, in addition to the obvious benefit of working on any vehicles we collected over time, would mean she should be able to help David out considerably as he only had theoretical design experience in his chosen field. Sumi had also assured me she was an excellent fit for our current group dynamic. Which I had taken to mean fucking like rabbits, but best not to assume these things. Exactly how the AI had discovered all of this was probably best not to think about to much. Plausible deniability is actually a thing after all.

She looked up from her work as we approached, eyeing me and my wheelchair suspiciously.

"Got a couple of fucked up humvees and any other crap I could grab here for ya, courtesy of Ceaseless cell. Sign here."

Dani took the offered tab' and passed it down, I made sure that there was a 'decommissioned' note next to both hummers to avoid any issues with OP assignments before I signed with a thumb print on the screen and handed it back.

"You the boss? Chick by the name of Sumiko booked the pick up, she mentioned you might have a spot for a sign on."

With my design tech currently in the bad books I had the other girls come down and we spent the next half hour going over the typical stuff in a getting to know you chat to see if Abby would be a good fit for the team and vice versa. Seeing the way the girls and I interacted she took Brianna aside under the guise of helping to ready the wrecks for unloading. She asked several direct questions about our various relationships and in particular if different parts 'still worked' when she thought I couldn't hear. Coincidentally shortly after getting a response in the affirmative she just so happened to ask for a trial sign up period that aligned perfectly with my expected recovery date. Yep. Probably a good fit, another point on the scoreboard for the AI.

I nodded approvingly at Abby's chosen work truck as I watched the unloading from the sidelines, an older model Oshkosh flat bed. The 'moles' as they were affectionately known by the soldiers that crewed them during the war, were twenty cylinder eight wheeled all terrain beasts. Needed forty tones of crap delivered to the front lines over ground anything but a main battle tank would have trouble getting to? The mole was the truck for the job. Their multi-fuel engine could run on literally any liquid that burned, the combination anti air and personal mini gun turrets meant that anything but a dedicated assault wouldn't put a stop to the beast. There were plenty of stories around where they had even been pressed into service as a poor mans APC.

Looked like Abby had even added a few of her own special brand modifications. The standard truck already had a massive ground clearance, but it looked like she had added a sort of telescoping suspension system and improved on the original by adding extra armour in the known weak points. She had replaced the canvas canopy of the bed with heavy lift aerial drones that acted as the roof when not in use, creating a fully enclosed bed to prevent prying eyes. The drones were now effortlessly lifting the broken humvees from the truck bed and moving them to an unused corner of the compound.

She had been watching me with a playful smirk as she worked, noting I was checking out her truck just as much as I was her, she walked over as the drones returned and reattached to the truck bed.

"Looks like you appreciate the classics's as much as your women."

"Beautiful things are beautiful." I answered with an easy smile.

"You know if I sign on I don't 'belong' to you right?" She said with a hard look, wanting some answers directly from the horses mouth.

"None of the girls belong to anyone, they can come and go as they please and do as they wish." I said with a tilt of my head.

She listened attentively as I talked about how things had developed starting with my relationship with Bri.

"I'll just be going to grab some things." She said quickly, her intent forgotten she spun on her heels to flee. Smacking right into Clea that was standing behind her. Of course the reaper didn't even bend with the impact, looking down at the embarrassed mechanic in her arms... to prevent her falling of course.

"Will you be staying in the penthouse with the rest of us?" Clea asked innocently as she released her grip and helped her stand on her own. Abby swooned at the gentle, musical accent of the french girl, focusing on her lips through batting eyelids as the reaper spoke.

"Check it out before you decide, we can you set up someplace more private." I interrupted quickly, wanting to be clear she could do as she pleased.

She eyed me with a thoughtful expression for a few seconds, chewing on her lower lip. Her eyes flicking between Clea and I, and taking in the view of the girls as they looked over the gear and wrecked vehicles.

"Nah it's alright, I'll sleep up top for a bit see how it goes. Not like you can chase me around in your current state if I don't like what I see."

"What ever you like." I said dismissively.

She turned to leave again, managing to dodge Clea this time, her eyes tracking Dani as she opened up the rear access of one of the hummers. She spun back around.

"Oh before I forget, the gun trucks had some unmarked freight in the back, looked pretty heavy, you got lifters or you want me to get 'em out for you?"

"Clea, you wanna grab Lilou and take a look?"

"Of course maître." She said happily, and waived at her sister as she headed over to Dani.

"They weigh around three hundred kilo's, I'll get my lifter."

"No need."

She looked at me with a frown. Even though the mek of both girls arms were clearly visible it wasn't a dead giveaway. Plenty of soldiers had standard replacement limbs. Only reapers had top of the line gear installed.

"Hard to tell without their swords I guess, the sisters are reapers."

Abby's eyes went wide. "The only girl I wanna make babies with is a fucking reaper?"

I groaned in pain and closed my eyes for several seconds, watching stars play across my eyelids as a result of my chuckle.

"I think I broke him." She said nervously to someone nearby.

"You made him laugh didn't you?" Dani sounded amused, far more familiar with my expression of agony than I would like.

"No laughing." I grumbled at Abby.

My reapers gently lowered the crate nearby where I would be able to see the contents when they opened it.

"I need five grand." David spoke from behind and moving forward next to the crate and giving it a light kick in interest.

"We already made a deal." I said bluntly.

"Huh? Oh, no, not that, to start Miss Saitō's project. Though I am curious to see what's in there after everything that happened. It's the cargo we were contracted to deliver right?"

"Yeah right." I said slowly in thought recalling the story of their inexperience that landed them all in the shit.

"You guys didn't even scan it to at least make sure it was safe I'm guessing?"

David shook his head. Abby squinted daggers at him.

"I got something in the truck, hang on." She trotted off to get the equipment.

Abby returned at a quick walk with a playful smirk noticing that everyone had suddenly found things to look at that weren't her walking away. Fiddling with various settings while flicking her eyes up a couple of times to check where she was walking, she placed herself between me and the shipping crate looking down over the item, then put her finger to her chin humming thoughtfully for a second as she put on a bit of a show about bending at the hips to run her scanner over the box.

"Looks like some sort of robot, no power signatures so it's not even on standby." With a heat in her cheeks she turned to look down at me with a playful glint in her eye. "No boom boom, safe to open."

The girls all snickered audibly at the double meaning, I grinned wickedly.

"Seriously? Another one?" A certain someone mumbled under his breath as he headed back inside in disgust.

Needless to say, we all ignored him. At my nod Lilou and Clea they stood to either end of the box, Clea using her right augmented arm, Lilou her left, they simply crushed the ends of the wooden lid on the container then used the open space to leverage it up then off to the side.

Given recent and current circumstances, I don't mind telling you I froze and probably shit myself. The two reapers had no such hesitation however, Lilou had the shorter vibrosword hidden in her leg compartment out and ready to sever the robots head in the blink of an eye. Clea pulled a heavy hold out pistol from somewhere that would seriously fuck up anyone's day and had it pointed at the monstrosity in the box.

A brand new chinese warbot, designation wolf.

All four of its thick, boxy black metal legs were folded up into its sides, synthetic muscle fibres bulging from strategically placed relief sections of the armor that were open for transport. The warbot was as long as an average person was tall, there are no rounded edges on the chinese wolves, a mass of angles sharpened to deliver as much death as possible from almost any angle at the slightest touch. The huge blockish shape of the head held two sets of jaws, one for rending flesh, one for clamping down in a vice grip to drag unfortunate souls to god knows where.

As a group we collectively exhaled the breath we had been holding.

"Well fuck." Abby said dumbly in shock.

That was enough to break the tension, the air filled with nervous laughter.

"Maître, should I..." Lilou made a motion as if to stab the robot through the head.

I probably should have let her, hell my instincts were screaming to turn the thing into a pile of melting scrap. The soldier in me, like always, won out. I couldn't recall even the hint of a story about anyone ever having managed to capture a wolf, let alone a brand new factory sealed version. The army intelligence guys would loose their shit over such a find. Unfortunately, I only knew one person I could call out of the blue to both offer up a brand new chinese wolf and not have questions asked about my loyalties or motives... probably. She already hated me, in fact she was very vocal and descriptive about how exactly she had hoped I would die a horrible drawn out death the last time we had spoken.

I looked at Brianna and smiled apologetically. At that look she immediately knew what I was about to do.

"Nooo. No, no, no, no, no." She held the bridge of her nose with both hands and squeezed her eyes tight trying to wish my thoughts away.

"Sorry baby girl. Why don't you go park the humvee with a clear field of fire to cover this thing and I'll give her a call."

Dani gave me a worried sideways glance then seeing I wasn't about to elaborate followed Bri to get the gossip, the rest of us cleared the area and entered the lower floor of the base. Hopefully Brianna would stay on station in the truck and not just flick on the turret. This was going to be uncomfortable enough as it was without having Bri adding fuel to the fire with her mere presence. With a sigh I made the call.

"The fuck do you want? Clearly not dead yet I see." The dark haired filipino woman growled as she opened the channel.

I looked at her furious face with a slack expression, despite the greeting it was good to see her. Hurt like fuck emotionally, but she looked well, so that's good right? I needed to get this done quickly before she simply hung up so I dove right in.

"Closer than you might think. Got a wolf, still in its shipping crate. You want it?" I gave my best effort at displaying no emotion.

Her expression softened considerably at shock with what I had just said, but she was still squinting daggers and probably trying to kill me with her mind or something.

"Your such a fucking liar." She spat, laughing mirthlessly.

Unsure if seeing me had made her loose her shit, or if she was referring to the reason for my call, and also... I really didn't wanna poke this particular bear. So in response I simply plugged in and played back a little of the feed from my neural implant. For bonus sympathy points the wheelchair I was currently in was evident in several frames at the edges of the feed as I looked down at the warbot.

Veronica fumed in silence at me on the other side of the monitor. Just when I was sure she was about to hang up she responded.

"Asshole. I'll be there in five minutes." She disconnected the call.

I turned from the comm station to see a surprisingly empty room. Nope... hang on. Lilou, Clea, and Abby stuck their heads carefully around the door and looked in.

"Is it safe to come out?" Abby asked.

"Maître, who was that?" Clea chimed in, no small amount of concern in her voice.

"That was the ex-wife." Dani announced smugly, slapping Clea's ass as she walked past the girls into the room, clearly she had managed to get Brianna to spill the beans.

"Ahhh" The other three all hummed and nodded as though the universe had just been explained to them and broke up to go about their business.

Daniela bribed me with a couple of pain pills and a glass of water, I returned the empty glass to see her looking down at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Spill." She may have gotten the story from Bri, but she wanted to cross reference with my own version apparently.

I sighed, not seeing anyway out of it.

"We dated for six months, I proposed, she said yes, we got married." I said, looking up hoping that would be the end of the conversation.

"Annnnd." she said sweetly, batting her eyelids at me with a cute smile.

"A week later she found out Bri and I were still sleeping together and she filed for divorce."

"Why didn't you end it with Bri, or tell her before getting married?" Dani sat in a nearby seat.

"It's stupid, you wont believe me." I grumbled.

"Try me."

I looked her in the eyes as I answered, hoping that she would see the idiotic honesty of my words and the loss I felt.

"It sounds stupid now in hindsight, but honestly, neither option even occurred to me. I mean I joined up when I was sixteen during the war, you know what it's like, you just hook up whenever with someone, no one even batted an eye if you went bed hopping. We met the day after I was discharged, she chased me, I guess... I just didn't know the rules of relationship outside of the army."

Dani pecked my lips with a sympathetic expression. "You want me to tell her I drugged you up and your sleeping?" She asked genuinely. I shook my head in the negative.

"Good! Because she's already here!" She said gleefully as she jumped up and wheeled me back into the compound. Okay... maybe she was enjoying this just a little too much.

Apparently Abby needed to do some 'emergency maintenance' on her truck and she just simply couldn't get it done without the help of Lilou and Clea. And of course the particular component that had miraculously failed just happened to be in the perfect vantage point to view the proceedings as they 'worked'.

As the viper walked she had a hand held out at right angles to her body, giving the middle finger to the humvee I had on over watch in case something happened. Brianna climbed out of the truck glaring daggers and leant back on the car with her arms folded across her chest and a distasteful expression on her face.

My ex stopped to look down at me in the wheel chair, ignoring both Dani by my side and the two men she had brought with her.

"Who'd you fuck to get this place? Hope that's painful." Two bitchy comments in a single breath, she brought her 'A' game.

I looked up at her with a lost expression. I hated how things had turned out between us. I nodded mutely.

"Good." She spun on her heel and looked down into the box. Careful to only bend her neck, not her hips or knees in front of me.

"This the only one?" She asked with ice in her tone.

"Only one I'm selling. And I'm only selling on the condition you share everything you find out. I know it when you do." I opened the negotiations.

"Give them to me." She said with her hands on her hips, not even bothering to turn around.

"You know operational salvage laws just as well as I do. No."

She spun and dropped a chit in my lap. I had to force myself not to react when I checked the balance, it was considerably more than I'd make in a year.

"Which leg you want? Not sure I got anything that will cut it off for you, you bring something we can use?"

She scowled and threw down another chit.

"Front or back half? Or maybe your prefer lefty righty?" I asked.

Her jaw worked in frustration. I knew her tells. No way in hell did she like handing over this sort of cash, especially to me. The fact she hadn't simply told me to fuck off and left already could only mean she had been ordered to make the deal. So I kept pushing.

She threw down another chit and glared at me with hate. Meaning she had at least one more left, and if I wanted more than she had she would be leaving empty handed and she knew it. Don't misunderstand my intentions, I was actually more than happy to hand over the thing for free, if wolves were going to be running around anytime soon then having the army R&D guys going over it with a fine tooth comb could only be a good thing for everybody. Also the money was good, but I was more enjoying the fact that I was finally getting under her skin for change. Sure tit for tat is never a good thing, but honestly it felt... freeing. What could possibly go wrong?

"hmm." I hummed thoughtfully, teasing out the tension, making no effort to hide the fact I was checking her out as I did so.

"Leave the head, it would make a nice gift don't you think?"

She threw her final chit in my lap. Close to a million in total all said and done, and I had five more just like this one. David was gonna be pissed when he found out.

"Looks about right." I said checking over the balance of each chit.

She spun on her heal and at a muttered order the two men behind her loaded up the warbot on the trolley they had arrived with.

"Don't forget I want daily reports on your progress." I called out to her retreating back.

"Fuck you." She answered without so much as glancing back and giving Bri the middle finger again as she left.

"That wasn't awkward at all." Abby said as she approached.

"Maître, you are good, ouis?" Lilou asked

"I hate that bitch daddy." Brianna grumbled, cuddling into Clea's side for comfort.

"I know baby girl, if it's any consolation though, the bitch just bought you all new gear." I handed the chits over my shoulder to Dani.

"Holy shit!" She said checking over the balances.

"Now get going, the lot of you. Thirty grand each. Dani, you can dope me up before you go." Daniela, Brianna, Lilou and Clea all left to get their gear in case they were called to an OP during their shopping trip.

"I'll be back in an hour or so." Abby smiled, perhaps a little disappointed.

"Nope, that includes you. Combat gear though, no new toys. Better take David as well, he needed some stuff for a project."

I looked around the suddenly very empty compound blinking. Well Shit.

Dani returned a minute or so later with a giggling apology to get me back upstairs.