“No one new, just that elf twerp Silvertree, just took her this long to find an opportunity to smack you.” Zeo said as she rolled her eyes.

  “What I ever do to her? I mean, it's not my fault she was a terribly pilot compared to the rest of us, and it definitely isn't my fault she got burnt up, coming into an atmosphere.”

  “Yea, well, you know elves, never their fault when they can blame a nearby human.”

  “I'm, sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about, Besides the four of us really need to get onto finding territory for ourselves like right now, so if you're not going to help then we will be on our way” Corwin said as he took a step back towards the door.

  “You are the legendary Star Hawks team, aren't you? You have to be, they are the only ones that the elves are this pissed off enough to try to… uh, smack as you put it.” Jasmine suddenly asked as she ducked out from behind Corwin to take a few steps closer to us. She then suddenly turned around to face Corwin.

  “Think about it, big brother, the Star Hawks are the only ones they could be, and there is a rumour going around that Zeo and Kenna are Scions of their clans, they have the authority to accept outsiders into the fold, it would allow us to move to a new home, and if a scion is guaranteeing it then there will be a home waiting for us, we would just need to negotiate a contract to get what we want. We can leave this shithole we are trapped in. if I am right, then we could ask for sanctuary,” she said earnestly as she puppy-dog-faced him.

  I glanced at Zeo as if to ask what the hell just happened, only for her to shrug. So I turned my attention back to the siblings and decided not to comment.

  “Stop it Jasmine, they are not your idol team, the Star Hawks are void drop pilots not players, and I will not let you be taken advantage of like this, and since they are pretending to be-” he stopped talking as I interrupted him.

  “We are not pretending to be anything, it is your sister that has accused us of being something, and I will not sit here and listen to you two talk yourselves into a frenzy that is completely unrelated to us. Now, if you are done, we have work to get to.”

  I stood up quickly and walked over to the desk and tapped on a map symbol, watching a holographic map extend out of it to hover over the desk. I glanced over my shoulder to see jasmine looking sheepish and apologetic as Corwin quietly berated her. I let out a sigh, thinking I had escaped that close call, but I noticed lefty giving me the side eye. I winced slightly, knowing he suspected something, but I quickly turned back and focused on the map. Manipulating the hologram until I found a nice small city with multistory buildings all over the place, and they were far from the front lines. I pointed at it and smiled.

  “Perfect! We can take over this entire city, and turn these high rises into apartments, penthouses, or something like that.” I declared.

  Corwin walked over to look at it and then rotated the map as he plotted a course to the city, after a few more moments he turned to look at us.

  “I am sorry, for what was said, I was getting nervous and worry over our housing situation got the better of me, Jasmine should not have accused you of being that criminal team and is sorry for her actions too. However, part of what she said is a possibility, if we do find a scion of a clan even a Planetary one they do have the right to offer us sanctuary as long as they can get us to their territory.”

  “Uh, no worries, I understand, think nothing of it.”

  He glanced back at the map of the city and nodded his head slowly. Before turning back to look at us and said.

  “This city looks perfect it is out of the way and far from the front lines, if we can take it and hold it for the next three weeks, we will be able to claim it and turn it into the credits we need for the next who knows how long worth of rent, however I think a better option would be to pay the rent only for as long as it takes us to build a ship that we can live on.”

  “Oooh, I always wanted to live on a ship or orbital station!” Jasmine squealed in delight.

  I was about to make an offhand comment and somehow Zeo knew because my hud went pinged just as I was about to raise my hand to wave dismissively, but instead my eyes darted to my hud to read.

  [FSGT Walker: Kenna, this would be a good opportunity for us to lie low to, I know the commander has probably told you to go wild, but my dad said doing so would be a bad idea, especially when the big boys coming from the Galactic Federation Headquarters arrive with their armada to sort this mess out. They tend to have a fire and destruction attitude before they stop to look at what it's aimed at and if that target was on their side or not. If you catch my drift.]

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Uh, yea sounds great, we can split the profits in half, you take that side of the city, and we will take this side. All of us can defend it for three weeks until it is properly claimed.” I said, as I tried not to show how nervous Zeo’s message had just made me.

  I turned my head, giving Zeo the look that said we will discuss our part later. I knew the boys wouldn't get the message, boys never do, so I just glared at them instead. They both gave me a weird look back, However, they didn't comment, and I ignored their look and turned back to Corwin's team.

  “Sound good?” I asked.

  The four nodded their heads and smiled as lefty and righty moved to take a closer look at the map and began to plot a course.

  “Hey, Kim, how many credits do you have on you? Maybe we can snag some skiffs and make this journey faster?” Brendan asked as he eyed the map like he did not want to walk that distance.

  I chuckled, but I knew I would not be able to afford to buy us skiffs, if anyone could, it would be the celestials hiding amongst us.

  “Yea sure, because I can afford that, why don't you just go steal some while your throwing out wild ideas.” I retorted.

  “Okay,” he replied as he turned and walked out the room, leaving me feeling confused.

  “He wouldn't? Would he?” I asked as I turned to look at Travis and Zeo.

  Both shrugged their shoulders and gave me a ‘I have no idea look’.

  “Crap.”

  [FSGT Walker: I wouldn't worry too much about it. We have been ordered by Commander Lucas Winch to take whatever we need, so it's not stealing, it's using the military equipment supplied to us and happens to already be in use.]

  I nodded my head slightly and then turned to look back at the map. I ran my finger slowly from what was a very detailed base camp over to the city and back again, I began to notice that tiny ships were even shown and if the map details were to be believed then those ships were being tracked in real time.

  “This map thing is awesome, maybe I should start looking into how designing my own ship would work” I mumbled as I watched a ship fly out of the base camp.

  “You might want to take a training course for that at this base camp's training hall” Zeo said as she looked over my shoulder.

  I glanced at her before letting out a sigh and a second later frowned as I saw a little line labelled Company Personell: The Lost Sheep. It was running down some road towards the landing pads.

  “Oh, shit, he is actually going to do it… uh, we have to go… we have to go like right now!” I said as I panicked slightly and turned towards the door.

  It was one thing to know you had authority to take whatever you wanted, and a completely other thing to actually do it. Knowing whoever you did steal from would be pissed and not understand. The four that had followed me here panicked and chased after me as I ran down the stairs two at a time. The two remaining Star Hawk members silently followed along slightly more calmly.

  By the time we arrived at the landing pads Brendan was holding Some kid looking guy off the side of the ramp threatening to drop him as he waved at us.

  “This kid said he would give us a ride! Then for some reason asked me to dangle him over the side of the ramp while he screamed for help, and you know how much I love to oblige the whims of generous and kind people.” He shouted to us as we came running onto the landing pad.

  I rolled my eyes and quickly ran up the ramp, not even bothering to stop. By the time I had my ass planted in the pilot seat and turned everything on, the rest of our company was aboard. Brendan even dragged the kid inside, dropping him in a seat after the ramp started closing. I was about to pull the flight stick back when I heard a nasal voice over the control tower radio channel.

  “Drop-ship P42 you do not have clearance to take off, please power down and file a flight plan with the flight tower before-”

  “Shhh” I whispered into my mic, interrupting him. I began to smile as I pushed a button to seal the cockpit.

  “Repeat after me, never interrupt the flow Of one's jam during the theft of a player's asset while they are listening to music.”

  I giggled, picturing the confused Look on his face as I pulled the flight stick back, lifting off the pad. I quickly stowed the landing pads under the hull and started climbing into the air when I heard his voice again.

  “Halt, criminal, return to the landing pad and surrender yourself to security, or we will open fire!”

  I couldn't resist. I smiled and slowly added more power to the engines and climbed higher as I angled the ship over the walls and out of the camp.

  “Are you asking me to dance, oh, such a charmer. Very well, I accept your invitation to this dance.” I then flicked a switch and spoke directly to the cargo bay.

  “It's dancing time, lock down and prepare for some grooving moves!” I declared happily and flicked the switch back to the control tower channel.

  I watched on the camera feed as the three Star Hawks in the back dove for seats, strapping themselves into it as fast as they could. This left the four new faces standing in the walkway with confused looks on their faces.

  I was about to switch back and tell them to hurry up when I noticed a plasma cannon mounted on a wall near the landing pads swivelling around to point at me. Instead, I decided to talk to my new dance partner.

  “Wooow, dance partner selected. Hellooo plasma turret, are you a good dancer? I feel like you are average, well I hope you can at least keep up.”

  I jerked the flight stick back and jolted higher just before it fired its blue plasma, missing me. I smiled again and angled the ship to take me further away to give us some more distance as I taunted them.

  Oh, dear me, you should never step on a ladies shoes while she is dancing.”

  I guess I had somehow hit a nerve because I heard some new man screaming.

  “Just shut up and die, you crazy bitch!”

  A few moments later, a red plasma bolt shot out of the cannon. My eyes widened slightly before I lifted the flight stick and fired a thruster under the nose for a second before flicking the emergency shut down switch, letting the drop-ship flip over as the heat seeking red plasma flew past. The drop-ship began to fall towards the ground as I quickly started powering everything back up. Once the radio was back on, I grinned and spoke to them both.

  “Crazy? Haha, everyone's accusing me of being crazy lately. Jeez, don't they know crazy is what I do for breakfast. No, it's the unadulterated insanity that plays on repeat in my head, that is what everyone should be really afraid of.” I almost sang the last bit to the control tower as the drop-ship came back online. I then moved the ship until it hovered over the ground with its nose pointed at the sky. I grinned like the Cheshire cat I suddenly felt like and said.

  “Someone once said flying was like being a leaf on the wind, to that I say fuck the leaf, I am the God damn storm!” I screamed the last six words as I slammed the throttle all the way forwards and engaged all rear thrusters just to give it that extra push. I couldn't help screaming in excitement and pure joy as the ship rocketed into the sky at speeds it was never designed to endure.

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