She didn't ask what they'd found.
Didn't ask why they needed two hundred thousand meals or why they were loading the Triumph with a hundred level 60 fighters. She didn't question the professional roles, the equipment requests, or the urgency in Emily's voice when she'd brought up their supply needs.
"They think they're being clever," she said quietly.
Michael glanced up from his tablet. "The kids?"
"No. The kids are the only ones who actually get it." Karen gestured toward the blue marble rising over the lunar horizon. "I'm talking about the rest of them. The corporations and conglomerates. The other adventuring companies. The UER Council."
She leaned back against the windowsill and let the frustration sharpen her tone. "The System isn't subtle. It gives us starships. It gives us FTL drives. It's given us quests to build fleets and claim territory. It's practically screaming at us to get off this planet."
From here, you couldn't see the refugee camps or the corporate logos stamped across every functional satellite. You just saw a fragile blue sphere in a very dark galaxy that wouldn't stay empty forever.
"And yet," she continued, "I have to spend my days negotiating trade tariffs with the European Bloc while my competitors try to plant spies in my shipyard. Everyone's still fighting over Earth while the real game is out there."
Michael set his tablet aside and crossed to stand beside her. His hand found hers without a word, warm against her palm.
"Luca and Emily loaded enough research equipment to run a full xenobiology program," he said. "Molecular analysis, pharmacology synthesis... Whatever they found, they're planning to study it."
"Exactly." Karen's expression softened into pride. "They didn't ask for permission and didn't explain themselves. They're already thinking three steps ahead."
"You didn't ask them what they found."
"I didn't need to," Karen said. "Whatever they discovered out there, whatever made them turn a survey mission into an expedition, it's exactly the kind of challenge I need them to face."
Michael squeezed her hand and said nothing. They stood together in the observation room and watched the shuttle dwindle to a bright point against the stars before it dropped toward Earth and disappeared beyond the horizon.
---
Luca kept his hands steady on the controls as they descended through Earth's atmosphere, watching the trajectory display count down altitude while the shuttle shuddered through the transition. Beside him in the copilot seat, Zoe worked the navigation interface and called out course corrections with the ease of someone who'd done this a thousand times.
Behind them, the rest of the crew sprawled across the passenger cabin in various states of relaxation.
"And then what?" Ryan asked from somewhere in the back. "We're going to plant the HQ here on Earth?"
"No," Luca said, keeping his eyes on the display. "I'm not sure. We have that pending reward from Alpha Centauri."
He pulled up his interface and navigated to the notifications he'd been ignoring for months. The text hovered in his vision:
[System Integration Achievement]
Alpha Centauri System Access Established
Triumph Initiative Company Upgrade Unlocked
[Headquarters Enhancement Package Available]
Requires: Established Company HQ (20+ members)
Current Status: 7/20
Upgrade will activate upon HQ establishment.
The notification sat there burning a hole in his pocket, taunting him with its vagueness. If only the System would give him a better idea of what it actually did.
"The thing is," Emily said, "the HQ needs to be placed somewhere. It can't just float in space."
"Can't it?" Zoe glanced over from the copilot seat. "Look at the Genesis Platform. It's literally a floating platform in the asteroid belt."
"It is," Luca replied, "but can we? Can we place ours in the Triumph?"
Danny shook his head from his seat in the cabin. "I don't think so. The ship's considered a vehicle, not a stationary structure. It wouldn't be able to own the space around it, even though the Genesis Platform, or Earth for that matter, is constantly moving through space."
"At any rate," Chris said, "we still need twenty members."
Emily's voice carried that particular tone that meant she was about to say something she knew would annoy him. "We could ask your brothers to join."
"No way. They're too—"
"Young?" The smile was audible in her voice. "You were eighteen before."
"I was going to say reckless."
Zoe laughed from the copilot seat. "And you're not reckless, Mister Tomahawk-Jumping Man?"
"Hey, that's my signature move." Luca made a minor course correction and watched the White Mountains rise up through the clouds below them. "Still, we have pending upgrades sitting in our inventory. Those rewards from the war delve. The Vanguard bundles."
Luca pulled up the interface again:
[Unique Mission Completion Reward]
Requires: Established Company HQ (20+ members)
System-Issue Vanguard Bundles - TL9
Choose Configuration:
Armory Upgrade Package
Ground Superiority Package
Space Superiority Package
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Nanite Forge Package
Bio-Recovery Suite
Forward Operations Package
Colonization Package
Astronavigation Package
"What if those could help us outfit the ship in TL9 gear from the get-go and we're down here shopping around like idiots while we have better stuff waiting for us?"
"So why don't you ask them?" Emily said.
"Because they're not even level sixty! I thought we agreed."
"That doesn't mean they can't join and help us put down the HQ. We could even try placing it on the Triumph."
Luca frowned. "Matteo and his team are just five people."
"And Alessio?" Ryan asked.
"Shoot, I didn't even ask him." Luca ran the numbers in his head. "Even so, we'd be at twelve, and if Alessio's team isn't eight people, it wouldn't even work."
"They're six," Zoe said. "We'd need two more."
"Sabine," Luca muttered. "We could ask her and Erik to join."
Joey's voice came from the back. "That won't work. Say we asked them to join and we put down the HQ. What then? They leave the company? What happens to the HQ?"
"I say we wait," Danny said. "We'll get what supplies and equipment we need, do our interviews, and when it's time to select the crew, we put down the Headquarters. We can try to set it right on the Triumph and see if it works."
Luca thought about it. The smart play was to be patient, do this right, and not rush into something permanent just to satisfy a System notification. They'd spent five months at Alpha Centauri learning how to do things properly. No reason to abandon that now.
"We wait," he said.
Without a concrete plan of action beyond that, they descended into New Hampshire airspace and left the question for another day.
---
"Plymouth Municipal, this is IFC-Seven-Alpha requesting approach clearance to Sandworth HQ." Zoe said into the radio.
Static crackled for a moment before a response came through. "IFC-Seven-Alpha, Plymouth Municipal. You're cleared for direct approach, maintain current altitude. Welcome back."
"Copy that, Plymouth. IFC-Seven-Alpha inbound."
The White Mountains stretched out below them as they dropped through the clouds, their peaks dusted with snow and the valleys frozen solid in the grip of late January. Bare trees lined the ridges, stark against white hillsides that Luca recognized from a thousand training runs when they'd all been younger and stupider. Six months ago they'd left this place, but looking at it now felt like a lifetime had passed.
Where his old house used to sit in a quiet cul-de-sac, there was now IFC Headquarters. A sprawling compound of landing pads and fortified buildings stretched far across the property. The IFC logo was stamped on warehouse roofs and dropship hulls, painted on the sides of cargo containers being moved by loading mechs.
The place was alive with activity. Two heavy dropships sat on pads near the main building, their cargo ramps down while teams of workers in IFC gear moved equipment and supplies. A light shuttle was just lifting off from pad three, banking east toward the coast. Ground crews directed a cargo hauler into position, and Luca could see at least a dozen personnel moving between buildings despite the cold.
Luca brought the shuttle down smoothly toward pad one, watching the landing guidance systems paint the approach vectors across his display. Below them, a ground crew in heavy winter gear jogged toward the designated pad, ready to secure the shuttle once they touched down.
He popped the hatch.
The cold hit like a wall. Late January in New Hampshire, and the air bit at exposed skin with the promise of temperatures well below zero. None of them had jackets. Why would they? They'd been in climate-controlled environments for months.
But damn, the air smelled good. Pine and wood smoke from somewhere, carrying that sharp clarity that made the recycled atmosphere of space stations taste stale.
"God," Zoe said, wrapping her arms around herself as they descended the ramp. "I forgot how good real air smells. And how much New Hampshire winter sucks."
Emily laughed, her breath misting in the cold. "Feels like we're actually home this time. For real."
Luca took a slow breath and let the mountain air fill his lungs, taking in the scent of pine and earth and the weight of gravity that felt exactly right. It all hit him at once, along with the realization that his fingers were already going numb.
"Yeah," he said. "We're home. And freezing our asses off."
Two figures jogged toward them from the main building. Stacy and Charlie, both from Joey and Chris's class back when Sandworth still had a high school. Stacy had stayed behind to run IFC's local operations while the crew went to Alpha Centauri, and from the looks of things, she'd done a hell of a job.
"Look who's back from the stars!" Stacy called, grinning as she approached. Her dark hair was tied back in a tight bun, and she wore a tactical jacket with the IFC patch on the shoulder over what looked like light armor. A tablet was clipped to her belt alongside a holstered energy pistol, and she moved with the confident stride of someone who'd been running operations for months.
Chris stepped forward to give her a quick hug. "Stacy. Place looks good. You and Charlie have been busy."
Charlie clapped Chris on the back with a laugh. "Someone had to keep things running while you were off playing space explorer. Karen sent word ahead. We've got vehicles ready so you can visit family before the Victory Tour kicks off."
Joey gave them both a quick hug, and Luca noticed the way his friend's expression shifted. Carefully neutral, the way it always got when family came up.
They followed Stacy and Charlie through the bunker entrance and into the lobby. A glass wall stretched along one side, offering a panoramic view of the White Mountains and the frozen valleys below. A fireplace crackled in the corner, throwing warmth across the space where a few couches and chairs were arranged.
"I'll grab the vehicles from the garage," Charlie said. "Make yourselves comfortable. This'll just take a minute."
He headed toward a stairwell while the crew drifted toward the glass wall and the warmth of the fire. Luca stood there for a moment, looking out at the compound sprawled across what used to be his neighborhood. "Thanks. I'm heading down to Meredith later to see my grandparents and uncles, but first I'm taking Emily to visit her mom."
Emily glanced over at him, smiling. “It’ll be good to visit her. Just her, though,” she added with a slight roll of her eyes, making it clear her stepfather wasn’t on the list.
Emily didn't talk about it much, but Luca had seen the way she'd light up whenever Karen treated her like family. Some wounds ran deep.
Zoe took her keys with a nod. "My parents should be back from the Platform by now. Need to see them and the horde." She grinned. "Eight siblings means someone's always got drama I need to catch up on."
Ryan grinned. "My family's here. I'll probably swing by, grab some of my mom's cooking if she'll let me."
Chris looked over at Joey and Danny, and Luca watched his friend's expression shift into something protective. Joey and Danny were standing together, neither looking particularly excited about going anywhere.
"Joey, Danny," Chris said. "You're coming with me to visit my folks. They've been asking about you both."
Joey hesitated. "Chris, you don't have to—"
"Yes, I do." Chris's voice was firm. "My family's your family. That's how it works."
Luca had to look away. Chris's family had taken Joey in when things got bad, and they'd never stopped treating both brothers like they belonged.
Danny opened his mouth to respond, but Zoe's hand shot out and grabbed him by the ear.
"Nonsense," she said, tugging him toward her with a mischievous grin. "You're coming with me."
Danny winced, half-laughing. "Zoe—"
"No arguments, Donohue. You can visit Chris's family later." Her dark brown eyes sparkled. "I need backup dealing with eight siblings. You're not getting out of this."
"Alright," Luca said, glancing around at his crew. "Let's make the most of this day. Visit who we need to, and meet back here tonight."
Charlie returned with a line of SUVs, pulling them up to the garage exit visible through the glass wall. The crew began moving toward the door, but Luca lingered by the window for a moment. Emily's hand found his, warm and familiar.
Sixteen years he'd lived here. His mom was buried less than two miles away.
But standing here now, looking through the glass at the frozen valleys and the compound built over his old neighborhood, something felt... off. Not wrong, exactly. Just different.
Six months ago, leaving Earth had felt like an adventure, a temporary journey he'd return from. Now, looking at the place where he'd grown up, all he could think about was the quiet hum of the Triumph's engines, the way Proxima b's bioluminescent forests looked at night, the feeling of standing on alien soil four light-years from Sol.
"You okay?" Emily asked quietly, squeezing his hand.
Luca glanced back at the view one more time, then at Emily. "Yeah," he said. "Just... it's weird, you know? This place looks like home. But it doesn't feel the same anymore."
Emily nodded, the firelight flickering across her face. "I know what you mean. The world's a lot bigger than we knew." She squeezed his hand. "We grew up here, but..."
"But we outgrew it," Luca finished quietly.
He looked up through the glass ceiling of the atrium. The sky was a pale, winter blue, vast and empty. Somewhere up there, beyond the atmosphere, the Triumph was waiting.
"Yeah." Emily glanced at the mountains through the glass one last time, then tugged him toward the exit. "Come on. Let's go see our families."
https://discord.gg/JkDC3CJupC