Stephanie peeked out from behind the ramp opening.

The mechs the techs had been working on - she'd love to say that she'd helped, but really all Jamison had her do was handle a checklist - had already walked out to stand with Carter's mech. All 8 mechs were standing still on the tarmac, and other bystanders had left to a safe distance, save the APCs that were still littered about the tarmac, but their crews were standing around them chatting, despite the tension Stephanie could feel in the air.

Behind her, the techs and other crew members were also idly chatting, acting as if nothing was going wrong, driving Stephanie crazy.

Are they so confident in those four that they have nothing to worry about?

For a split second, she thought she heard laughter coming from the field.

Then suddenly all four of the opposing mechs fired, and missiles filled the air.

Stephanie gasped as Carter's mech took the brunt of the attack, and involuntarily closed her eyes.

But, instead of hearing more missile shots and other weapons, she heard water splashing.

Taking a peek, the APCs that had been parked nearby had were spraying water onto Carter's mech… washing off the sudden mismatch of colors that had appeared on it.

Looking back questioningly, she caught Jamison's eye, who was smiling widely, and soon she noticed that everyone else in the room was suppressing laughter

"What? What's happening?"


"Hah! That was fun. She's looking at us like we're crazy, Carter"

Carter chuckled "Thanks Jamison. Tell her I hope she gets a laugh out of this"

He swapped channels, and the other mechwarriors' voices greeted him.

"Oy, that's no welcome home for the lost one eh?"

"Hah! Lost one my ass… it's good to see you Knight"

"You too, Carter… it's been far too long. Where's the major?"

"You're talking to him. Not too surprising I hope?"

"Hah, of course not. Where's the old man then?"

"I'm talking to him aren't I?"

"Oh for fucks sake you know what I mean Norm"

Laughter broke out across the channel

"Ah, right, you lot are here too, huh"

"That's a bit cold, boss, we did save your ass"

"That right? And I thought the old watcher here never needed saving"

"What do you want from me? I was less than half his tonnage! And hell, you can't say shit Fergus, only Claide and Tarmin can, you wank"

A slight bit of anger had crept into Carter's voice, and suddenly all 7 voices started laughing

"Ah, never change, Knight, never change."

"Good to know you're still the same, boss"

Carter grumbled a bit, drew a bead on the Crusader's cockpit, and held the trigger for the machine guns - temporarily changed to oversized paintball guns - for 2 seconds. After about the same amount of time, Norm's voice could be heard shouting in surprise.

"Oy! That was a cheap shot"

All the mechs started moving about, and soon paint loaded missiles and paintball pellets filled the air, and random streaks of bright colored paints were all over the tarmac and surrounding buildings.


Jamison walked down the ramp to join the mechwarriors on the tarmac as they apologized to the spaceport authorities.

The sun was just about to rise - god they'd been up a long time - and the APC's Norm had brought were busy washing away paint from all over. The Castle, which had once again lowered its ramps, was a similar mass of random colors.

The crew was once again streaming out of the ship, but this time the men who had been waiting with (paintball) guns out last time, greeted them with smiles on their faces.

As Jamison approached the mechwarriors, he couldn't help but smile. Three of them were unfamiliar to him, but Norm Carter was always a nice, familiar face to see.

Carter's Knight's Chevaliers had the same deal with Norm's Carter's Chevaliers that Carter's Chevaliers had with the Wolf Dragoons - occasionally running subcontracts for them or working hand-in-hand with them. Carter had initially made the Knight's Chevaliers, but after accepting a contract they thought was for them, but was actually for Norm's father, he had gone through the trouble of finding them and asking to sign up - and oddly enough, Norm's father had accepted.

Carter's Knight's Chevaliers and Norm's Carter's Chevaliers. Jamison shook his head. What a mouthful.

Over the night, while the noises of the 8 mechs playing oversized paintball (and several people coming to file noise complaints) continued to echo within the Castle, Jamison explained what was happening to Stephanie, and those two phrases nearly made her question whether or not he was telling the truth at all. Jamison had nearly laughed out loud at the look of suspicion on her face.

As he arrived at the group, he noticed that there was some tension between Carter and the rest of them - in fact, he was standing roughly to the side as Norm spoke to the authorities, even as Claide and the rest chatted with the others. And speaking of Norm, he seemed slightly injured - Ian would probably be able to confirm at a glance, but it looked to Jamison as if his mech had fallen under him

Carter nodded at him, and continued to look through some paperwork he was holding. Curious, he walked up to Claide

"Oy, Claide, what's up with Carter? And what happened to Norm?"

"That's uhhhhh, a long story..."

Claide pointed at the Crusader, and Jamison noticed that there were dents in the armor - dents that couldn't have been from paint pellets or the paint loaded missiles. Looked like fall damage... and a boot print?

"What happened?"

"Remember how we got back Carter's Marauder while evacing him and Stephanie?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember who we left the damned thing with?"

Jamison blinked as he realized what had happened

"...did he actually?"

"You can see the dents can't you? At some point, none of us had noticed he had closed distance with the Crusader, and suddenly all we heard was the sound of the Crusader falling then the Hawk's boot stepping on it's chest"

"Why?! On the suspicion that he's behind whoever had the Marauder?"

"I don't know, they were on private comms for that bit."

Jamison sighed, turned around and started heading back to the Castle

"What are you doing?"

"Gonna prepare some tools and supplies - Carter damaged that Crusader, I sure as hell ain't gonna let Norm or his boys fix it"


Tell me, Norm. How exactly did my own mech come to kill me?

The hell are you talking about?

You heard me. My Marauder. It's in the Castle right now, missing a cockpit. Now, how exactly did it end up with a pilot trying to kill me?


Stephanie stumbled down the ramp, following Carter as he made his way to Harlech to buy supplies. Normally it would be Igni, but whatever had happened last night had made Carter want to get out on his own… according to him anyway. Jamison had told her that he'd forced Carter to go over to where Norm's company was based and to go fix up what he'd damaged, and she was going with him to see him work on the mech.

It was very early in the day, and the city was just waking up as people were heading to work. Carter grumbled all the way, but Stephanie was curious about all the people she saw. Some looked distinctly alike, with very similar facial and body features, but aside from them there seemed to be people of all nations and stripes. There were some people that looked like her former neighbor, Aki-san, who used to share trivia with her about her home back in the Draconis Combine… Kuritans! That was the name. There were also people speaking in different languages, but thankfully for her english was still the most common thing she heard.

Speaking of what she heard, they all seemed to be talking about mechs in one way or another. Some seemed to be talking strategies, some maintenance and logistics, some the actual schematics behind them.

Jogging up to just behind Carter as they entered a large warehouse, she coughed slightly

"*Ahem*"

"Yes?"

"I never really got to ask, but what is this place anyway?"

"What, this old shi- "

"Not another word, Carter. Who's the lady?"

From behind a pile of what looked like salvage, a woman in the most cliche mechanic's jumpsuit (one that, now that she thought of it, she was surprised to not have seen on board the Castle) walked towards them.

"Oh, didn't realize you were in today Rachel"

"Don't you Rachel me, Knight."

"Ah, Steph, this is Rachel our… supplier. Rachel, this is Steph, one of our new crew"

"I'm sorry for your loss"

Stephanie blinked. "Pardon?"

"Anyway Carter, where's my boyfriend?"

Carter's turn to blink. "Who?"

"Y'know, the one you usually send to get your stuff"

"I don't know who that is, and before you say what kind of boss I am, I haven't been here on Outreach in years… though last time I was it was Starn we sent"

"Bingo"

"Damn that man. How long?"

"Been about three years."

"Really? That's… Anyway, look, you got any parts for Norm's Crusader? Oh, and a cockpit for the Broken Soul"

"Hrmmm, why are you looking for parts for his Crusader?" A grin spread across Rachel's face

"Maybe have something to do with the commotion last night?"

Carter grumbled "Look, you have the parts or not?"

"You've not exactly told me what you need, Knight"

Carter nodded to Stephanie, who pulled out a piece of paper and handed it over to Rachel, who spent a minute reading the list.

"Jamison write this?"

Stephanie nodded

"Tell him to improve his handwriting for fucks sake. Yeah, I've got the parts. You sure you want to bother fixing up that Crusader though? Pretty sure he said he's been looking at buying a Caesar"

"A what now?"

"...Miss, where'd you guys come from?"

"The periphery?"

"Specifics please"

"Near the Magistry of Canopus"

"Can't be more specific?"

"I'm embarrassed I never bothered - I never thought I'd leave the planet anyway"

"Well, in any case, someone else is gonna end up using that Crusader, so you might as well fix it. I'll have it sent to his place by tomorrow noon"

"I'll be there. The cockpit?"

"By tonight"

"Thanks. C'mon Stephanie, we're done for today"

"One more thing Carter"

Carter looked at Rachel, then motioned for Stephanie to go outside