Sitting in the back of the dropship Lucia looks around, she spots Anastasia doing maintenance on Heaven’s Gate and her Vostroya rifle, Amber was busy tending to Gunner's wounds and Evelyn and Angel were asleep holding hands.

Admiring the differences between the two in how they looked and the culture gap, Angel is as pale as death looking more like a porcelain doll hiding a very tough person on the inside while Evelyn had tan skin, shoulder length cotton candy coloured hair which she kept in place using an alice band looked like she was the girl next door.

“Huh, didn’t figure them to be an item” she thinks to herself. Smiling she looks back at Gunner, who is still sedated.

“One day, you will meet your maker, but until that day, I will stay by your side”

As the Raider docks with the Hannibal, Onyria’s voice can be heard again “all hands prepare for jump, Wave Rider FTL fully charged”

As they disembark the medical teams are on hand and are taking Gunner to the med bay, Amber staying with them relaying vital information of what had to be done to stabilize his injuries.

Lucia heads to the nearest elevator to take her to the bridge when Anastasia joins her “Some mission yeah.”

She responds “yeah, some mission, for once I actually wish I was wrong, I wish that Gunner was right and this was just a milk run…”

She trails off

Anastasia saying “You both did well, we’re all back alive”

Lucia responds “But now we have a bigger problem, we have to explain the dead bretonian team.”

Anastasia looks at her and gestures no.

As the lift arrives at the bridge they are greeted by the XO Tim Lim “Captain Reyes is down in engineering checking on some damage to the number 2 reactor, debrief can wait until the commander is back on his feet” He salutes turns on his heel and walks back to his station.

Lucia sighs of relief, presses the button to head to the armory.

As the lift decelerates and the doors open Angel and Evelyn are waiting for them.

Evelyn asks “And?”

Lucia responds “We have time until Gunner is back on his feet, we are heading to New Bretonia now, at current speed we will be there in a week, it’s one long jump, Dismissed”

She salutes them which they return and they fall out, she heads to her locker and activates the armor removal system, as the pieces are removed revealing only the neural link suit underneath she stretches, loosens her shoulder length Thistle coloured hair and fastens a small amount of it with a hair pin given to her by Angel as a gift for saving her life once.

She heads to the showers, after taking a long hot shower she stands in front of the mirror, wiping the condensation away she looks at herself in the mirror, her glowing crimson eyes staring back at her, she is still startled when she sees herself sometimes, 150 years and she’s still not used to the sight of herself, as it reminds of the day she nearly died, rebirth as an aether has been both blessing and curse, being a gang enforcer became a lot easier once you could intimidate people purely by just looking at them and see the fear it caused, it was intoxicating but it started pushing these thoughts from mind she gets dressed and heads up to the infirmary.

As she leaves the elevator Amber walks in and gives her a kurt nod which she returns.

Heading over to Gunner's bed he is already sitting, she can see he flinched as he moved, probably the broken ribs.

As she enters the room she states “Enjoy your nap?”

Gunner jokingly responds “Did you get the registration of that truck that hit me?”

Lucia laughs and responds “Sorry pal, you’re on your own for that one.”

Dropping her tone she says “Please do not do that again, promise me”

Gunner takes her hand and says “I promise.” Taking a normal tone he adds "I suppose it’s time for the debriefing."

He gets out of bed and gets dressed.

Together they walk to the elevator, as they wait for it to arrive he thinks to himself “if I had to do it again I probably would, but I made a promise now”

As the elevator arrives Chief Engineer Rawlins is aboard, he shoots the commander a glance that could penetrate the ship’s hull “Commander, we just had your armor fixed and now you went and did an even bigger number on it, fractured chest plate internal reactive liquid metal crystal layer is on the verge of failing, heat sinks and the entire coolant system for the retribution is fried, shield generator has seen better days. What did you do?”

Gunner replies “played decoy with close to a battalion of Rhine troopers and tanks.”

Chief Rawlins just shakes his head and says “Well at least you are back alive, all about the small mercies I suppose”

Gunner says “Indeed it is Chief, keep me updated on what will be needed for the repairs”

The Chief nods and stops the elevator on the engineering deck.

As the elevator stops on the command deck, the doors open and Captain Reyes is waiting for them and says “Commander, good to see you on your feet again, Empress Boleyn is on the comm in the briefing room”

Gunner replies “Thanks Captain, I plan on being around for a while longer.”

They salute and go to their stations.

Gunner and Lucia enter the briefing room, the face of the Empress on the screen.

She says “Ah Commander, I have just finished reading the after action report, nasty bit of business in regards to Lt.Col Brandis, I am truly sorry that he did that, a shame really, anyhow your payment has been processed, now onto the rest of it, the information recovered is classified and any mention of what happened on New Dawn is punishable by death, you will be required to scrub all data from your vessel and transmit deletion logs once completed, failure to comply well you get the idea Commander, Any questions?”

Gunner replies “None your majesty.”

Empress Boleyn says “Very well, our business is concluded, you’ll have 3 hours to complete the deletion. Goodbye.”

As the call cuts Amber speaks “Well that could’ve gone worse, at least we are not going to get vaporized.”

Gunner then says “Do we have an idea of what is in that data?”

Evelyn replies “We made a secondary copy while we were still on New Dawn, the original data drives have been incinerated, so we can check it later once it’s been it’s been verified safe.”

Gunner replies “Ok thanks, Onyria? Please delete the existing data and send deletion logs to the New Bretonian military.”

Onyria responds “Already done Commander”

Gunner then salutes his team and says “Dismissed. Get some rest from what I have been told things are about to get real busy around here.”

They all salute and start walking toward the door.

Lucia then says “Oh Gunner? There is still the matter of the drinks bill after the mission…”

Gunner replies “I haven’t forgotten, once we land on New Bretonia we will get that sorted out, after that mission you all deserve it.”

On the way back down to the armory Lucia silently stands there and looks at Gunner, she wants to berate and chastise him for his stupid behaviour on New Dawn but instead just looks on, lost in her own thoughts she is broken from her fugue as the elevator stops. Walking towards their armor stations they begin cleaning their weapons in silence.

Gunner walks up behind Lucia and hugs her, she jumps a little as she was deep in thought

Gunner then asks her “Anything wrong?”

Lucia a nervous wreck lets it all out “You crazy, selfish, stubborn fool, you could’ve died and for what? Nothing we got was worth your life, it would not have been spent, it would’ve been wasted for a fool’s errand, for a world and ruler that does not value you.”

She breaks down crying “You know how lonely it can be.”

Gunner kisses her, she tightens her embrace and her emotions carry her away.

The next morning, Lucia wakes up and sees Gunner standing by the view port of her cabin.

She says “Morning, thank you for listening”

Gunner replies “I promised, I am not going anywhere”

Onyria’s then speaks over the intercom “Commander, you are required on the bridge urgently, incoming message from New Bretonia high command”

Gunner replies “Roger that Onyria, on my way.” He looks at Lucia and asks “Are you coming?”

Lucia says “No, I have to finish up here. I’ll catch up later”

Gunner smiles and heads out the door and walks to the elevator.

As he arrives on the bridge he gives Captain Reyes and Major Lim, walks to the communications room and activates the comm system.

General Arno Churchill of the Bretonian Military appears on the screen and says “Commander, your vessel is being diverted to Gibraltar Naval station for investigation, failure to comply will result in you being branded as enemies of Bretonia.”

Gunner responds “Problems General?”

General Churchill replies “You will be briefed when you land, the Empress has decided to share the information uncovered on New Dawn with you. Churchill out” and the comm cuts

Gunner thinks to himself “we are just getting started”

With that last ominous message fresh in his mind he turns around and walks to the elevator.