The Caelum clan’s sleeper hauler had plenty of spare spots, so Shinji Aso found a nice spot far away from everyone else and got comfortable. Liam strolled by with an armful of ration bars, and after making sure every other new recruit got one, handed one off to Shinji.

  “Long time no see, Liam,” Shinji said. Liam did a quick double-take to make sure no one was listening, and then leaned in closer.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Keeping an eye on Rushmore,” Shinji said. “The King agrees with your assessment. He’s a useful asset. So useful he’s above your pay-grade.”

  “He’s my asset,” Liam said. “He trusts me, I can get him to open a few doors.”

  “The fact that you look at that suit and only think of opening doors is exactly why I’m here,” Shinji said. He unwrapped his ration bar and took a bite. “Now get a move on, we’re going to look suspicious.”

  Liam bit back his frustration and headed out. An interloper being here was bad, but getting both of them caught would be worse. Shinji stayed in his seat and chewed thoughtfully on the dry ration bar. It tasted like dust and smelled like cardboard. Shinji chose to focus his senses on Rushmore, on the way he shifted his backpack to try and disguise the weight of the armor he was carrying, the armor that could open doors and so much more.

  Shinji hadn’t been on the Topside of Scrapworld in a long time. He hadn’t missed it. As a whole, this side of the station reeked of rust, sweat, and decay. But Rushmore and the armor he carried with him had the sweet sweet smell of opportunity about them.

  “If you think there’s something suspicious about Shinji, why invite him into our clan?”

  “It’s the only way to know what he wants,” Rush said. “If he leaves, I don’t learn anything else about who he is or what he’s doing.”

  “Rush has a point, dad,” Giza said.

  “And what if what he ‘wants’ is to murder us in our sleep? Or steal the suit?”

  “Hmm. Dad has a point, Rush,” Giza said.

  “And if they want to do that, they might try doing it again,” Rush said. “And I might not see the next one coming.”

  Giza quietly added one to Rush’s score. After a few seconds of deliberation, Hartwell failed to find a counter-argument.

  “Alright. Maybe you have a point,” he admitted. “If that’s the case, we need to track him carefully. See what he’s up to.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on him,” Giza said. “I’ll tell Eiffel and Jack too, we can-”

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  “No,” Hartwell said. “We don’t need to tell any more people. I barely trust you to keep a level head about this, Giza, the last thing we need is Eiffel starting to sweat every time Shinji comes near him.”

  “Alright, maybe just Jack.”

  “No. Less moving parts means less chances for something to go wrong,” Hartwell said. “Even you and I should keep our distance. Let Rush take the lead.”

  “Rush?” Giza began, before realizing that sounded rude. Rush didn’t seem bothered, as usual. “Just Rush? Alone?”

  “He’s already proven he’s the most perceptive of any of us,” Hartwell said. “Also...uh, it won’t raise any questions if he stares at a random person for a long time.”

  Rush was staring at Hartwell right now, in fact, as he often did. He liked to carefully observe everything around him at all times. Nobody would question him observing a new arrival every now and then.

  “That does make sense,” Giza admitted. “Rush, are you alright with that?”

  “It was my idea to observe him,” Rush said. “It makes sense I’d be the one observing.”

  “Just be careful, Rush,” Hartwell said. “We have no idea what they might be after.”

  “It’s got to be the suit, right?” Giza said. “Maybe someone in the clan blabbed about it, now Shinji wants to take it for themselves.”

  “We’ll see. Hopefully observation will tell us everything we need to know. Right now, we should stop talking in secret. It’s going to look suspicious.”

  “Right. Good talk team. Rush, start observing.”

  “On it,” Rush said. He walked off, eyes locked dead ahead in an unnerving glare. Giza wouldn’t exactly call that “not suspicious”, but it was Rush, after all. His default state was a little weird.

  Lieutenant Arthur Reynolds crawled a little deeper into his new bunk. Unfortunately, it did nothing to dull the smell. Hopefully it would at least give him some much-needed privacy. He dug around inside his standard issue prison jumpsuit until he undid the hidden seam inside and pulled out the small plastic chit.

  “Hello? Come in, does this thing work?”

  “It works, Lieutenant. And hold it further from your mouth. We can hear every breath you take.”

  “Sorry, Commander Howle. Objective one is clear,” Arthur said. “I’ve gained membership in their ‘clan’. With all the filth that entails.”

  There was a layer of grime inside this tube that would not come off, no matter how hard Arthur scrubbed. It didn’t help that every rag and blanket around him was equally soiled.

  “Just endure it, Lieutenant,” Howle said. “We only need one ground report. I’ve already established contact with one of the bandits, so as soon as you provide a heading, I’ll have the mech on intercept.”

  The Revanchism’s long range scanners let her know that the suit was being used to kill mecha, but Howle wanted a more complete picture, and a more precise idea of what the suit was capable of. They were already handicapped enough by that idiotic pilot, she didn’t want to have any hardware failures on her hands before trying to push said idiot into doing the important work.

  “I’ll be in touch as soon as the prisoners decide on a destination,” Arthur said. “They seem to plan on spending a few more hours unloading scrap and gathering supplies.”

  “Fine. Maintain radio silence until you have more information, then. You don’t want to risk looking suspicious.”

  “Understood, Commander. Reynolds out.”

  The Lieutenant put his tiny communicator away and hopped out of his bunk, trying to act natural. He made it exactly fifteen seconds before realizing that Rush, the “idiotic pilot” was staring at him. Something about the unblinking gaze of those dark brown eyes made Arthur feel like Rush was looking right through him. He turned his back and mumbled something about being too hot before walking around the hauler, into its shadow. Giza watched Arthur mumble his way out of sight and then leaned over to Rush.

  “What was that about? He do something weird?”

  “No, I just thought if I stare at all the other new people, it’ll be even less suspicious when I stare at Shinji,” Rush said.

  “Oh, good plan.”