Jasmine Let out a loud sigh before walking over to me. I noticed the three boys following behind her as they had down cast eyes.

  “Kimberly, we have the same concerns, and normally we wouldn't team up with anyone we didn't know and trust, but at this point we are desperate. This is literally our last chance.”

  She turned her head looking back At the other three, and I noticed them nodding slowly before Jasmine turned to me to continue her story.

  “Our guild has the entire population of our planet as its members. It belongs to a celestial baron clan, but they have many guilds and the one we belong to isn't considered very big, but it already has the companies it wants to support. Plus, we only formed a company to be able to work together on getting benefits to pay our rent. Guilds aren't really interested in small time companies that struggle to earn any money.”

  She paused as she looked up at me nervously, as if trying to decide just how much she wanted to actually reveal. She even glanced back at the other three before looking at me.

  “Anyone can pay for rig time. It's not cheap, but we decided to take the gamble and spent the next two months' rent on getting four rigs for this month.”

  “You four are on an orbital station?”

  “What? No, we are on the planet you can rent a rig at uplink centres.”

  “Oh, okay, sorry to interrupt.”

  She sighed, and I noticed her eyes darting around nervously as she kept glancing at the boys behind her, then back at me.

  “We are on the verge of being homeless, if we can't secure a few buildings to pay our rent each month, then we will be out on the streets. Ya know, homeless and hungry.”

  We were approaching the gates of the military base. When Jasmine quickly rushed towards me and grabbed my arm as she looked intently into my eyes.

  “We are willing to take the risk of joining forces with you because you are a fan of the Star Hawks and are clearly not afraid of the Silvertree Clan, who are the owners of all those frigates. All we need is a quest mission out to a town where we can tag four apartment buildings. The four of us can remain behind to defend them once we have them for the three weeks we have the rigs for, but getting walking there will take more than a week. The pin on your jacket suggests you are a pilot.…. Can you fly us?”

  A smile slowly spread across my face. I was about to nod, but a roar over my head made me look up to see a piece of metal welded to a hover bike's frame soaring over my head. It was heading in the direction of where I had come from.

  “Looks like the jerry rigging crazies are already at it” Corwin said with a chuckle.

  “First, yes, I can most definitely fly! Second, Jerry, what now?” I replied.

  “Oh, there are a bunch of engineer classed people that go a little crazy and jerry rig scrap parts together and then dupe some poor sap into taking it into combat” Corwin replied as he waved his hand dismissively and moved forward in the line towards the gates.

  “This place will quickly become known as a town” Jasmine said as she tried looking over people's heads as she stood on her tipping toes.

  I noticed my radio app had a red one in the top right corner of its display icon, so I mentally clicked on it. It opened and displayed the channel I had previously been talking to Zeo in and that I had received a new message from her.

  [FSGT Walker: Kenna, I forgot to tell you, when you are in a black op mission your login details are changed for your own protection, I don't know what your new name will be so let's meet up at the drunken skunk tavern second floor room 205 we are already there waiting. Oh, and get this, the crazy basted ‘Brendan Ripter’ couldn't stand being left out of this mission. He purchased a mech and strapped it to a rocket and fired it at the base, I have no idea how it isn't in pieces. Now the lunatic is in the busted up thing and currently having it jerry rigged back into working order and should arrive at the tavern soon.]

  “He's insane” I muttered to myself just before I looked up at the gate guard who waved something in front of my face and listened to it beep as he looked at his hud before waving me through the gate.

  “Next!” he shouted.

  I stumbled through the gate and soon found the other four waiting for me. Jasmine smiled and pointed down a road.

  “Let's hurry up and check in, then we can find your people and get a quest Mission. Oh, Kimberly, what kind of ship do you have?”

  “Uh, well I have mostly flown drop-ships, but I spent about a week in a spitfire, and I own a skiff back home… Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, because the Star hawks are mainly drop-ship pilots, but I heard their leader, Kenna, is now flying a drop carrier! Can you believe that? I heard it is a whole other experience to fly one of those, and some people can't handle the mental strain. They apparently end up just sitting on the deck and never taking off.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  I smiled nervously, as I remembered the experience. If I hadn't had a brief touch with it before I was expected to take off and fly the moment I logged in, I could have very well been one of those people that froze on the deck. I nodded my head and was about to tell her how scary that sounded when the group stopped, and I looked up instead to see a man standing on a platform in a Terance Officer uniform. He was inviting people up one at a time, and from where I was standing it looked like he was marking them off a list, or maybe adding them to one. The crowd moved fairly quickly as everyone wanted to check in and get on their way, and I was soon heading up the stairs and towards the officer.

  “Name?”

  I almost said Kenna Mackenzie, out of reflex but luckily remembered I was meant to be in hiding, it took me a few seconds to remember what Corwin had told me my display name was.

  “My player name is K.1.m.b.31.y.”

  “Got it, I noticed you are sporting a Star Hawks emblem on your back, what is your affiliation to the Fugitives known as the Star Hawks? Keep in mind, the crystal on my cuff will change colour if you are lying.”

  I winced slightly and decided to go with the truth and hope he wouldn't believe it.

  “Oh, haven't you heard, I am their glorious criminal mastermind leader, Kenna Mackenzie, of course!” I declared sarcastically as I gave him a wink.

  He laughed as he waved me off.

  “Yea, sure you are, and I'm the queen of Beltivatsh, a simple no affiliation, but I am a wannabe like every other fool would have sufficed, but the crystal is displaying a half-truth, so I'm at least glad to hear you think the star hawks are actually criminals, therefore I also suggest you lose the jacket as soon as possible, people might get the wrong idea. Now move along, please.”

  I chuckled softly like I was agreeing with him as I stumbled back and quickly descended off the platform. I turned away and hurried over to where Corwin and one of the spooky recon guys were standing waiting for the other two to check in. It wasn't long before we were all back together again.

  “Well, that was fun…” Jasmine whined as she looked around for something.

  “Yea, super fun… I need to find a tavern and meet up with my friends.” I replied as I tried to spot a sign indicating which way to go.

  “There is a beer mug with a skunk on a sign on the far side of the platform, pointing down the road near it,” one of the creepy guys said suddenly.

  I made a wide arc around the weird officer that somehow, apparently, had a lie detecting stone. I glanced nervously at him a few times on my way until I was standing under the sign with the mug and skunk on it. I turned and followed the way the sign was pointing.

  “What's with that cuff crystal on the lieutenant?” I asked as I looked at Corwin and Jasmine.

  “Oh, that thing? Uh it's just a low grade anxiety detection crystal, the wearer asks you a question and if it makes you nervous then they narrow the question til they figure out what the lie is.” Corwin replied dismissively.

  “Yea, it works as long as the user cares About the question being asked though.” Jasmine added.

  I turned my head to look at Jasmine as we turned down another street following the mug and skunk signs.

  “What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

  “Oh, uh, he-he, Well you see, when he asked if I had any affiliation with the star hawks because of the symbol here on my breast pocket, my answer made the crystal flash red, but he didn't care.”

  “What? Why didn't he care?” I asked, narrowing my eyes a little.

  “Uh, no idea,” she replied evasively.

  I was about to go after her, asking more questions, but Corwin pointed up at a sign showing we had arrived at the tavern. I pushed open the door and walked into a room with tables all around the room and a bar off to my right. A staircase on my left led up to the second floor, and I was about to turn to take it when I heard shouting from across the room, near the back wall.

  “You take that back! Their legends that are being slandered!”

  “They're criminals and you know it!”

  “Screw you”

  “Eat cow dung!”

  I saw a beer mug smash against the other guy's head before that guy reciprocated with his own beer mug before they both resorted to using their fists. I quickly moved to the staircase and headed halfway up before glancing back at the two to see it had spiralled into a full bar brawl.

  “Damn…” I whispered as I rushed up the stairs, Jasmine right behind me.

  I glanced back to see the three guys about halfway up the stairs, causing me to stop and watch them watching the brawl, I had to roll my eyes when I heard Corwin shout.

  “Get him! Yea, now use the chair! Use the chair!”

  “Will you three get up here already!” Jasmine hissed at them.

  “Oop, sorry Jas” Corwin said sheepishly as he hurried up the stairs.

  “Coming” the other two said together as they followed Corwin.

  I shook my head and turned, heading down the hallway it didn't take me long to find room 205 I was about to knock when I heard a voice I recognised from downstairs scream.

  “Shut up, you lunatics! We are all on the same side, if you want to fight go take a quest mission and kill the enemy! Now straighten this shit up and pay for your damages!”

  I quickly hurried back to the stairs to see Brendan standing by the front door, glaring in the room.

  “Oh, that guys got some big ones on him.” one of the recon guys said. It was also at that point as I glanced back at him that I decided to call him lefty since he never gave his name. The reason I decided to call him lefty was because he carried his weapon on his left side, indicating to me that he was left-handed.

  I glanced above Brendan’s head and saw his display name was The Lost Sheep. I rolled my eyes, knowing he had named himself that just to screw with the rest of us. I suddenly grinned, deciding I was going to have some fun of my own with his name.

  “Oi sheep boy, get your ass up here, we have a meeting to get to” I called out as I tried not to snicker. He turned his head to look at me then smiled and started heading towards the staircase as he called back.

  “Oh, shut up, numbers, your just jelly because I didn't need numbers to get my name.”

  I rolled my eyes as he reached the top of the stairs and we both grinned at each other.

  “Good to see you, been a hot minute.”

  “Ha, you to, who are the new faces?”

  “The girl is Jasmine, she is a huge fan of the subject that caused the brawl downstairs. The one that looks like Dway- scratch that, you wouldn't get the reference. The walking muscle is Corwin, her brother. Lastly, the two whose names I don't know and have decided to refer to them as lefty and righty are former some planet's military recon specialists.”

  “Wow, bet that was a mouth full” he gave me a wink before continuing. “So basically, don't mess with the girl, or you wear the walking tank, got it.”

  We both headed down the hall chuckling until we finally reached room 205. I lifted my hand and took a moment to pause and think about how this was the moment when the band gets back together for some more chaos-inducing shenanigans. Then I knocked on the door.

  “Pizza delivery is on Wednesday!” came a shout from inside, which made me frown in confusion, and I was about to check my hud to make sure it was the right room when Brendan laughed and shouted back.

  “Only on Wednesdays!”

  The door suddenly opened and Travis was standing in the doorway with a shotgun pointed at my chest.

  “Buy a girl, dinner first, why don't ya”

  “Ha, never for you” he said as he waved us in.”

  I quickly walked past him, spotting Zeo standing behind the door holding the handle as her other hand held a pistol just below the peephole. I chuckled and walked over to the bed, sitting down on it as everyone else shuffled in behind me. I smiled to the seven people in front of me and heard Zeo say.

  “The four of them are clean, I did a background check, they are Federation Loyalist, a bit of hate for their own guild and by extension their clan, but their clan is led by a dweeb” she shrugged before continuing. “You should encourage them to vamoose over to your orbital station and join you.”

  She grinned at me before adding, “and by that I mean yes you could do that, but we can also speak openly around them.

  I noticed the four in question were looking between us with a confused look on their faces.

  “So, who did I piss off this time?” I asked innocently as I ignored their confused looks.

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