"Longwood! Ael!" barked Cruze as the two arrived finally to the spaceport. "Cutting it close, eh?"

  Celeste's eyes shot wide. "O-ho! They're beat up! They got into a fight!"

  Longwood shook his head as they approached down the long, pristine catwalk which led to their ship, that giant mess of steel that was White Horse. "Nothing like that happened."

  Aellyce's bruises had shrunk enough thanks to some Federation medicine that she could speak somewhat better, unimpeded by her inflated lip: "No, it was..."

  "An accident," said Longwood.

  Celeste blinked with extreme skepticism, her head still resting on the crate Cruze had demanded for her to leave alone. Cruze, too, rubbed the back of his bald head in a gesture that showed he wouldn't pry.

  "Yeah," agreed Aellyce when no protest was made at the lie. "An accident. That's all."

  "And that girl with you?" asked Cruze, "Gonna introduce us?"

  "Oh!" Aellyce made a big fanfare, splayed her arms out as she jumped out of the way. "Da-da-da-da! This is Dorothy, everybody! She agreed to come along as our service hand!"

  Dorothy hugged one of her arms, wearing a frilly white dress that was in stark contrast to the dark, muddy colors all the rest of the crew wore. They didn't really have a uniform for the most part; it was just more common to find overly dyed, recycled clothes this far out in space. Without making much eye contact, she muttered, "Nice to meet you all..."

  Celeste made a gross chuckle: "Meek and demure! Just my type!"

  "ANYWAY," Longwood made a loud proclamation and she relented, hid further behind the box. "What're we waiting for? It's just past six, isn't it?"

  Cruze answered the pilot's question; "Doors ain't open. Guess something's holding her up. Or someone."

  "We could squeeze Celeste at least through the cargo hatch, no?"

  Celeste grumbled beneath her breath.

  Cruze sighed. "You've seen this before just as well as I have."

  "Sure. Just not through the Federation's eyes."

  "Oy, that doesn't mean anything now."

  "I know. I only mean that the Federation was a different story; I'd still like to believe that Bella has our best interests in mind."

  "Mm. Who did you say you flew for before?"

  Longwood winked. "I didn't."

  "Hey, that's cheap!"

  "Whoop, there go the doors." Longwood pointed up the narrowing catwalk which led directly into the helm from above; the gravity would swap to the ship's own once they crossed that threshold, and drop them safely onto the ship's interior floor. Longwood began first in line, followed shortly by Cruze. Celeste scurried behind them like a crab, and Aellyce politely led Dorothy along the way, explaining more about White Horse to her as they ascended.

  But just as Longwood approached the round entryway into the hull... a strange, small creature lifted itself out, and placed two black boots upon the catwalk. He stopped walking; Celeste bumped into Cruze as he stopped too, and began to yell just before she, too, saw the blonde... thing, there at the entrance.

  "Alright you maggots!" began the creature. "Prepare to be vassalized!"

  The whole crew blinked in a blend of shock and confusion at the girl standing there, maybe four feet tall at best, with long twintails that almost scraped against the floor. By all accounts, she just looked like a child, even despite the black and red jacket she wore, and the dark commander's hat atop her head.

  Thankfully, Bella climbed out of that hatch just behind her with an exasperated sigh before they had stood there for too long. "They're not being vassalized. Control yourself; they're my mercenaries."

  "Hmph. I can work with that. Now that they're all here, I can finally size 'em up! I bet you're the Forward, huh?" She stuck her finger out at Cruze's face.

  "Huh!? No way! I'm not even a pilot!"

  "Hmm? Then is it... Greenie?"

  Aellyce staggered back in shock. "Greenie!? What kind of name is that!? A—And I'm no Forward! Longwood is!"

  Longwood answered, "Don't throw me under the bus! I don't wanna be Forward for this brat!"

  The child stomped one of her boots and the quickly-growing rancor stopped. Then she clapped twice. "Bella! Stepstool!"

  Bella simply said, "No."

  "No!? How am I supposed to talk down to these idiots?"

  Longwood grit his teeth, controlling every impulse to fling her right off the catwalk into the abyss below.

  "Wait, Bella..." asked Aellyce, "...what is this?"

  "Everybody... this is our employer. Meet Avalacia von Barbatos.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Cruze's eyes widened. "von Barbatos? Like, the Empire?"

  "Once upon a time." said the girl. "Before my luck turned on its head."

  Celeste forced her voice from her throat: "P—Permission to be dismissed! Please!"

  And Cruze agreed, "Oh, yeah, there's still some crates down below. We'd better, uh...?"

  "Denied," said Avalacia. Bella nodded instead, and they quickly spun, hurried back down the catwalk. The girl glared at her once, then turned her attention back to the remaining troupe. "Very well, then. These remaining three are the pilots?"

  Aellyce shook her head. "Dorothy was only hired as a deckhand."

  "Mmm. We'll get her whipped into shape, too. Everyone on a ship like this needs to be combat-ready. Or did you forget?" She glared at Bella.

  "I did not. My people are combat ready, for certain situations. But Longwood and Aellyce are my main two pilots. Longwood is a longtime ace pilot. Aellyce has put in more than sufficient time as of late to carry her own in the field."

  "And they know the mission?"

  "Only what they've needed to know to get us this far."

  "Eh? So you've told them nothing!?"

  Bella was obviously suppressing her anger by the look on her face, and by the way the vein in her forehead throbbed.

  "You two were supposed to be gathering information about the Black Casket!"

  "Black Casket...?" Aellyce's brows scrunched in frustration. "Bella, you knew!?"

  Bella retorted, "It wasn't like that, Aellyce. The job listing stated it was a simple scouting mission until further information came through. I would have changed the assignment, but the board's been dry for months. In any case, I had faith that you both could escape had anything gone awry. And I was right."

  "That's some serious bullshit, Bella." muttered Longwood through grit teeth.

  Aellyce looked — his fists were balled at his sides.

  "You had faith? You didn't warn us about the secret weapon we were scouting because you had hope...?"

  "Longwood—"

  "Aellyce could have died, Bella, if she had fired anything except whatever weapon that was, she would have—"

  "Longwood." Bella's voice commanded respect.

  Longwood kept the rest of his frustrations held tightly within his balled fists.

  Avalacia looked surprised. "If this is how you run your team, Bella, I can't say I'm surprised you haven't gotten me any results."

  Bella didn't respond. Aellyce stepped forward instead, offering her own testimony: "My systems were rebooted by force last time I met that thing, but last time we had an excursion, I saw that there's a cloaked vessel between all of your opponents' Caskets. Did you know about that?"

  Avalacia shrugged. "I did. Cloaking is so last gen; that's the problem when you trust an old system like Proton with your library. The Empire library is much more extensive—"

  "That ship is where your Black Casket is refueling from. If you take out that hub, it'll force it to flee."

  "You think I don't know that!? Even my snipers can't penetrate that kind of armor, that's why we're trying to take out the Black Casket, so we can get close enough to eradicate that moving base."

  "Then put me on the job."

  They all looked at her in surprise. "You're already on the job, Greenie."

  "No, Avalacia — I've seen your side of the fight; what are those, TASK-86s? 99s? Your side of the fight is makeshift, you're an uncoordinated mess!"

  "Huh!?"

  "One of our Caskets... No, send me with in with Longwood as my Backup, Proton on Comms... Celeste and Cruze can rig me up with some of the new kit they bought today, can't they?"

  "Out of the question," said Bella.

  Aellyce grit her teeth harder, and turned to Avalacia. "Then you! Give me the command!"

  "Excuse me!?"

  "Give me the order and I'll take out your Black Casket and that moving base, by myself! I've seen the field out there, none of those combatants are experts! I could weave between them like a ghost, I could end this battle and end this stupid contract!"

  Ava shrugged with a smug petulance. "Fine, then. It's your life, kid."

  Bella protested, "Both of you, knock it off! It's not going to—"

  "Let her go," said Longwood. "She's ready."

  "Longwood...!"

  "She's right about that battlefield, too. They're clumsy. I saw that Cruze purchased some nice big missiles today. We could put them to good use, and we'd still have enough time to redeem the warranty. Celeste has probably already updated the firmware to support them. What's the big deal? We're mercenaries — dying's what we do."

  Ava grinned. "That's more like it!"

  Aellyce stormed past the three of them. She cast one last glance Bella's way. "After this, Bella... You and I are done. I don't want to work for a liar."

  "Aellyce!" she shouted out as the girl lowered herself into the helm. She wanted so badly to chase after the girl, to have a chance to explain herself... but it was still integral to keep her optics in front of Avalacia; at least, for a little while.

  Dorothy stood squirming at the edge of the catwalk. The three of them all turned uncertain gazes toward her. "Umm... Maybe I should come back? Another time?"

  The next day, they were armed to the teeth. Their Caskets had a refurb overnight courtesy of Cruze and Celeste working in tandem, their guns were updated to newer firmware and loaded with extra rounds, increasing the weight of their Caskets by significant amounts. Updated flight plans were sent to Aellyce and Longwood to inform them of their new braking and acceleration speeds. They they were given full military uniforms from Avalacia.

  Aellyce woke early the next morning, zipped on her black slipsuit, and pulled on the heavy, magnetic boots that felt way too tight. Then came the gloves… and the pistol she strapped on at her hip, one of many adorning straps that slung across her torso and thighs. She glared at the holstered weapon for a long time. Nothing more intimate than that, huh? Shooting someone that close-up? I'm still not even sure I could do it in a Casket...

  Last was her helmet. That one, she procrastinated. They’d never worn helmets in the field before. But she’d also never been in live combat before. If her hull was breached, that was her last line of defense. But just knowing that it signified real combat on the horizon, just within the next few hours... That did not give her a good feeling.

  A knock came at the door.

  “Come in,” said Aellyce, quieter than she'd hoped. The door didn’t open. She slowly, apprehensively approached it… “Someone out there?”

  She pressed the button on the frame and the door slid open; of all people, there was Longwood, in matching gear to hers.

  “…Longwood?”

  He looked even more dreary than he did at the spaceport. He only said, “We need to talk.”

  And he shut the door behind him.