KIMBERLY

	December 27th, 66 A.C. Night time in Western Australia, one week before Operation Concordia. The exact time of my mission was currently two minutes past three in the morning. I was late but I'd make up my time soon enough. I had to make sure my prosthetic arm was working properly before the operation. The personal glider I was given was the perfect way into the Federalist outpost. On silent wings I rode the wind through the dark of the night. There before me I could see the outpost, an oasis of unnatural light in an ocean of pitch black night. It was small, but not insignificant and it acted as a checkpoint on the way toward the mining town of New Vaelyn. That wasn't what made it important, though. 
	It was chosen because it was insignificant; completely out of the hot zones of the frontlines on the east side of the continent. What I was interested in, and more importantly my clients, was the MUTTs stationed there. WarMUTTs the Federalists produced, one called Harrier by the company with the same name, the other a Dingo by Auscorps. The basic Harrier Ds were bipedal general-purpose Enforcer-class MUTTs, just shy of twenty feet tall with a shoulder width of twelve feet, while the Dingo was a little taller, but not nearly as wide, acting more as a light scout vehicle. Both were the newest models to date, just an upgraded version of the ones we had used before in Mexico. That was why I was picked for the job, I knew how to pilot these machines, how to ‘ride’ them. I was a Rider.
	The war Australia had helped instigate in Mexico was making every nation nervous, and now that they were having a civil war, a new power was working towards making their play. A conglomerate of nations looking to snatch up as much tech as they could before everything crumbled down to nothing.
	I landed my glider as close as I could without arousing suspicion. The black of the night made for the perfect cover, and from what I could tell by the look of the soldiers on guard duty they had been run ragged for weeks. They were likely just reserves, to boot. The sentry looked like he was on his last legs already, probably his second or third night of running double duty. I even saw another napping up in the guard tower. Intel had told us the Feddies had been locked in a desperate fight with the royalist separatists, and they had gone to the lengths of conscription. These were no career soldiers, they were farmers, dog catchers, or vagrants the government only wanted for bodies in uniform, all of which would make my job that much easier.
I stashed the glider behind a bush and palmed the gun on my hip. 
	It wouldn't do much good unless the aether engines of one of those MUTTs was active, otherwise the mana in the air would interfere with the combustion from the primer. I don't know exactly how that worked but that's what Carter told me. I made my way closer to the outpost, avoiding any lights they directed my way by putting my face down to the dirt. The gear and facepaint I had on rendered me practically undetectable if I was still. I hid behind the dry brush, the dirt mounds and by some luck I had made it to the rocky walls. Scaling them would be easy for someone like me, I was a gargoyle after all, my claws were designed for such a thing, and besides, my fake arm could hold my whole weight by itself for hours.
	Over the wall I went, quickly spotting the two MUTTs they had kneeling down with their cockpits open, ready for an emergency. That was a nice idea on paper, but I was about to show them why they ought not do that. A single guard stood lazily by them, at least they had a guard, I thought, until I noticed his helmet was tilted just over his eyes. My guess was he was simply trying to catch some sleep where he could. Luck or not, I would use that to my advantage.
	I was quick on my feet, crossing the road over to the parkway where the two MUTTs were. I hurried toward the guard, the sudden noise of my approach alerting him, but it was too late. I planted my metal fist right into his nose and knocked him clear off his feet, his rifle hitting the floor uselessly.
	As soon as I passed him, I was climbing up into the cockpit of the closest WarMUTT. The controls were not much different from the old ones and I quickly familiarized myself with them. First thing was first, I powered on the aether engine, the MUTT humming to life. All the gauges and dials lit up giving me the green lights that systems were optimal. I quickly found the manascope, the pair of magic goggles linked to the MUTT's ‘eye.’ Just before I could shut that hatch I heard boots charging my way and a fireball ricocheted harmlessly off the top of the hatch before sputtering out. Great, they had mages. Thank God for the aether field, or I might have been dead.
“Jerry! Who the hell is in Unit One!?”
“Is it the Crowns?!”
	An alarm was sounded; that was my cue to get the hell out of here. I heard someone come rushing up to the hatch and I scrambled to get my pistol out. With the aether running, my handgun should be able to fire. I took aim and pulled the trigger at the first sight of movement.
	Click!
	Bang!
	The ringing in my ears disoriented me, the cramp metal cockpit resounding the discharged round in my head. The face before me belonged to a kid, he couldn't have been much older than sixteen or seventeen. I had just barely gotten the draw on him, my metal hand having grabbed the bayonet he had thrust at me. He fell back and before I had time to process what had happened I shut the hatch and stood the MUTT up, getting my bearings. 
	Before anyone else had any bright ideas, I stowed my MUTTs weapon and grabbed the other MUTT, lifting it up with both arms to carry it with me. The power behind these new models was… impressive to say the least. It used to be that it took two or three just to lift one Harrier B, but this D series had tripled the output.
My escape was easy enough, the Feddies behind me wasted their time throwing any manner of magic they could at me, while the few others were trying to resuscitate that kid.
	Bad luck… he shouldn't have tried to be a hero. I spent the rest of my time running, rationalizing that I had to kill him, it was him or me. It's not like I could say sorry, I didn't mean to do it, but I had to, no matter how much I wish I didn't. As far as they knew, I was one of the separatists, so there was no way they suspected a foreigner. 
Extraction was as simple as waiting at the shore in the north. It took me about an hour, but no one tailed me, there was no way they could, even carrying the other MUTT I was too fast, and there wasn't another outpost for miles. All I needed to do now was power down and let Carter use his magic to find me. He was a diviner, after all, and the best one I knew.
I was found not long after, and soon I saw a flare lit by one of the crew. Our airship, the Lucerne, was here.

	“Looks like you did pretty good on your own there, Kim,” Carter complimented me on the open comms, “Switch to local channels.”
	“I have movement, southwest of your position!” Tiggs, our resident technophilic pilot, called out helpfully, “Enemy biplane and two MUTTs!” 
	“Listen to this,” Carter scoffed, patching the enemy's open comms through my radio.
	“Attention Crowns, this is Lieutenant Campbell, surrender those stolen MUTTs and I guarantee your lives will be spared. You have ten seconds to comply.”
	“They still think we're Crowns,” Another voice belonging to James, one of my squadmates, laughed.
	“Amateurs.” 
	I checked my scope and sure enough there were two enemy MUTTs heading my way.  They must have spotted the flares, I figured. I looked at my weapon, a standard torch, okay for close combat but it wouldn't be much help at range. The dingo had a rifle of some kind, it was a newer model, something I'd never seen before. It matched the description of those aether rifles I had heard of from the mission dossier, so I figured it was worth a shot. I grabbed it and took aim, lining up the shot before a flash of light came from the enemy.
	I ducked down below it, nearly throwing myself aside.
	“Shit! What was that?” I yelped, regaining my balance.
	“New Feddie weapon?” Tiggs speculated, just as panicked as I was.
	“Returning fire!” I hollered, pulling the trigger on the control. The rifle in my hands lit up, firing a similar red beam of energy straight into the enemy.
	“Miss! Adjust left by point eight degrees! Fire again!” Carter barked his command. I did as ordered and sure enough I landed a hit, the enemy MUTT igniting like a firecracker before falling over itself in a lump of slag and metal. This weapon was insanely powerful, the torch was good but the range and accuracy was nothing to balk at.
	“One more,” I announced confidently.
	“Incoming biplane! They're trying to shoot us down!” James cried out.
	“Fire flares, I need a visual!” I hollered again, and soon enough my team obliged, the night sky lighting up like a Christmas tree. Not on my watch, I thought as I quickly found the plane, its Feddie blue coat of paint shining brightly thanks to the flares.
Another beam fired off and the plane was cut down out of the air, falling like a puppet freed from its strings.
	“Any damage?” I asked as the plane met the earth in a fiery eruption. 
	“Nothing Lucy can't handle,” Tiggs promised, “But hurry up and finish the last one off, we don't need the whole west half of the Federalists hounding us all the way home.”
I dodged another incoming beam, the aether burning through the air. It smelled like ozone and burned my nostrils. Damn, that was close!
	“Firing.”
	My rifle sliced the enemy's arms clean off, leaving him completely defenseless. Victory was ours.
	“He's finished. Let's get out of here,” I called it in, and in a few moments Tiggs was bringing Lucy in to pick me up. I managed to get the extra dingo on board on one of Tiggs’ makeshift MUTT hookups and hooked myself as well. With that, we left as quickly as we came.
	“Good work out there, Captain. How ya holdin’ up?” Carter asked.
I shrugged and shook my head as if he could see me (who knows, he probably could if he was still divining me).
	“I'd prefer if James and Eddie were with me,” I answered.
	“There were only two MUTTs and you managed to snag them both,” Tiggs answered for him.
	“Eddie, then,” I said with a smirk.
	“Hey, you know I can hear you, right? I doubt Eddie would even be able to fit inside that Dingo,” James answered, playing along with our little banter.
	“The thought had occurred to me, yes,” I chuckled, “Now hurry up. We need to be in the Philippines by tomorrow at noon. Think Lucy will manage with the extra weight?”
	“Oh, she'll manage,” Tiggs assured me, “Welcome aboard, Captain.”
	“Thanks. Make sure to get that aether locked down, I don't want to make this trip completely worthless.”
	“It's just experimental, so there's no guarantee it will work,” Carter cautioned us.
	“It'll work,” I said, more to convince myself than anyone else. If that frequency tuner didn't work we would wind up at Dwarkov Robotics with just the MUTTs, the aether would simply disintegrate. Without a power source like aether, the MUTTs were as good as junk metal. Mana engines could only get them to move for so long.

	Our trip over Indonesia led us into the territories of Russo-Dwarva in the Philippines to the north, one of our many benefactors that were part of this new conglomerate, Oceana Venture, or Oh-Vee as most people called them. The Russo-Dwarva, Russian dwarves to state the obvious, were going to be leading the industry behind our forces through their company Dwarkov Robotics. MUTTs were certainly nothing new by now, but for some time the only two companies manufacturing them were Auscorps and Harrier Heavy Industries, both of which were native Australian companies. 
	After Mexico, some countries sought to purchase MUTTS of their own, but Auscorps was government owned and they didn't play ball, and while Harrier was a private company, the regulations were so strict and the Federalist ironclad grip on them was nearly impossible to break, that is until the civil war began. That didn't mean we didn't get anything from them, in fact, several engineers and technicians with some know-how were smuggled out of the country looking to defect, that's half the reason we even got the job.
	I sat inside the cockpit of the Harrier I had captured the entire trip. I needed to get used to traveling this way. It would be a lot different than trudging around in Mexico.

	We arrived at the Dwarkov Robotics facilities with time to spare. Good for me, because I needed some shuteye. It wouldn't last, though. Someone was needed to steer the things into place and that someone was me. I was happy enough to see that the experimental frequency tuner was keeping the aether intact. I had heard the thing had been outsourced to some techie in America. I thought to thank them myself but then they probably were being paid better than we were right now. Either way, Tiggs was as gleeful as he could be, managing to anchor Lucy down and release the MUTTs with no problem. The shock absorbers in the legs and cockpit were incredible, I hardly felt a thing from the forty foot drop.
	“Dwarkov's got a lot to live up to,” I warned with a grin.
	“Will not be a problem, we have expert consultant,” I heard a gruff voice with a heavy Russo accent answer through the radio.
	“Ferron Boznik,” my smile widened, “You're still breathing.”
	“That's Ferron Holkov-Boznik. Our clans merged last summer, in case you have forgotten,” the dwarf corrected me, “We work together again, you deliver the goods and now it is our turn to deliver.”
	“Who's this ‘consultant?’” Asked Tiggs, a twinge of worry in his voice.
	“She is best gremylkin in the business, do not worry, friend,” Ferron answered.
	“No. You didn't.”
	“They did,” I answered. “You got Skitz Mitznovik, didn't you?”
	“They got me!” A woman's voice answered with a cackle, forcing a groan out of Tiggs.
	“This whole thing better not end up in smoke, you hear me? We went through too much trouble getting these two MUTTs just for you to muck it up with your idiotic experiments!” Tiggs badgered her.
	“Lay off, aftermint, I am the one who figured out the whole aether and gunpowder thing, am I not?”
	“You did. You also destroyed the gun and the MUTT you fired it at.”
	“It was an honest mistake! No one has used gunpowder for nearly seventy years! How was I supposed to know how much charge to put in it?”
	“I don't see the point in using gunpowder anyway, aether weapons are plenty powerful as it is,” Tiggs shot back, having seen me firing one for the first time just last night.
	“That's why you're stuck as a mechanic and I'm off testing theories and inventing weapons for Dwarkov Robotics. Everything you learned about MUTTs you learned from me!”
	“Shaddup already! Where's Kim taking these things?”
	“Bay three, there should be space for both of them.”
	“James, get in the Dingo and follow me,” I ordered, “Shouldn't be too different from the old ones.”
	“Got it,” He quickly obliged, and we were off. Bay three was a large door to the workshop where our two stolen WarMUTTs managed to fit through and walk into place. Inside was the motor pool, where there were several machines and gantries in place to hold the MUTTs while they would be worked on. I walked mine into place and James did the same with his. As our feet stepped onto the gantry they each were locked into place and a lift was brought over for us to exit onto.
	Skitz was there waiting for us, her pinkish skin redder than usual as she ogled the heavy machinery we had pilfered. Her tail flicked wildly back and forth, while her red-furred ears stood as tall as they could. If I didn't know any better I'd say she was an average gremylkin technophile, but she was anything but average. Ferron was there as well, electrical equipment stacked twice his height on his back.
	“Well, aren't they handsome?” The red gremylkin said, grinning ear to ear. Ferron watched helplessly as her tail whipped at the air, harder and more erratically as they got closer, “I can't wait to see what kinda output these babies have!”
	“Knock yourself out. I can already tell how much more power they have compared to the old ones,” I said with a shrug and got myself out of her way. The two of them began going through the inside of the cockpit, plugging things in and figuring out the control layout and wiring.
	“I'll be back, gotta go get paid,” I said, taking the controls for the lift.
Skitz rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah, if you stuck around you might learn something!”
	“Kim, come to the meeting room, it's out the big doors and down the left hall, I'll be waiting outside for you,” I heard Carter say in my earpiece.
I shook my head, “You can fill me in later. Don't scratch it up, now.”

	I found my way to the meeting room in no time, finding Jonah Carter standing outside the door waiting for me as he said he would. He was human, though far from a simple man. He was a mage, a diviner specifically, and a good one at that, though you would never guess from the way he had his skin tanned and his hair dyed black. The five o'clock shadow with sunglasses propped up on his forehead made him look like a tourist. His clothes didn't exactly scream diviner either, as he was dressed in blue jeans and a red, nylon jacket, our company logo emblazoned on the back; a blue, lopsided, five-pointed star with a white outline that streamed behind it like the tail of a comet. That was our team after all, Star. 
	Eddie was standing beside him, towering over him a good head and a half. He was another gargoyle like me, but it was obvious even to an outsider that he came from a much different clan on account of the shape of his jagged ears and horns. His skin had a greener tint to it than the blue-ish complexion that I had and his jaw line looked as strong as the rest of him. Naturally he kept his head neatly shaved, something that his clan had done traditionally. He gave me a nod in greeting, taciturn as always.
	“What's this about? Are we getting paid or what?” I asked, worried that we had gotten stiffed.
	“The Colonel wants to speak with all the merc teams involved with the last job, apparently he has a proposal for us,” Carter explained.”
	“Colonel?” I parroted.
	“You haven't met. He's here from the good ole U-S of A,” he explained, “Guess they want a piece of the pie, too.”
	“Makes sense. The war in Mexico must have hit a little too close to home.” I guessed, which got a nod from both Eddie and Carter.
	“Let's find some seats.”

	There were about forty faces I didn't recognize, each representing their own mercenary crews, although in fairness I think they kept us in the dark about one another's comings and goings in order to keep other operations under wraps in the off chance we were captured during our own jobs. At the head of the room were some OF officials. There were men in uniforms from other national militaries from all over southeast Asia, a few from the Russian empire and the Russo-Dwarva as well as Great Britain, not to mention that colonel from America that Carter mentioned before. He took the lead as far as speaking went it seemed, and soon enough he was standing at the front of the room.
	“Good that you all made it. It seems our little operation went off without a hitch,” He began, “My name is Colonel Dunahan. I've been assigned to this little party to make sure everything is going smoothly. These men to my right are General Baldwyn and Colonel Sterling. 
	General Baldwyn is the man in charge of everything. He also fought in the Great War before The Scouring, so he knows a thing or two about warfare. I don't care if you're mercenaries, show him some respect and we'll all get along just fine. General,” Dunahan stepped aside to let the General take the front. He was an older man who I guessed was in his early eighties by now, his hair gray and thinning beneath his officer's cap, his nose a little more crooked than most, which told me he had been in more than a few fights, but he looked in shape and had his wits about him which was impressive to say the least.
	“Good evening,” he greeted us with a well-mannered smile, “A rousing success in capturing those MUTTs, all of you. I am happy to have some of the finest dogcatchers in the business.”
	There were some chuckles at that, which General Baldwyn smiled a toothy grin at.
	“I am pleased to announce that we will be needing your expertise in the days to come. You and hundreds of other mercenary crews, if you so choose, will be joining us in the expeditionary forces into West Australia. The enemy is locked in a vicious battle with the separatists on the eastern side of the continent and so is unaware of and unprepared for our imminent strike. Operation Concordia. I'm sure many of you have already heard about it.”
	“Won't the Feddies be expecting something with how many MUTTs have gone missing in the West? Not all of us were exactly subtle with our… 'dog catching,’ sir.” One of the mercs asked. The thoughts of that kid I had shot and the MUTT patrol I destroyed came flooding back to me.
	“A good point,” the General admitted, stepping aside as he motioned for Sterling to turn on a projector at the back of the room. When an image appeared behind him on the wall, the lights in the room were dimmed to reveal a map of Australia, with the frontlines and enemy positions and territories marked out for us. The Federalists were in blue and still held a majority of the continent, with the west colored in a faded blue to indicate fewer forces. 
	There was a blot of violet in the southern half of Queensland that became a deeper shade of purple the further south the map went all the way past New South Wales into Victoria. General Baldwyn motioned for Sterling to continue with the slides, several red arrows coming down onto the northern parts of Western Australia from Indonesia.
	“The operation will be commencing within a few days now, there is no way for the enemy to mobilize enough men to repel our attack, even with all their MUTTs they could never move the men or fortify their positions in time. We will be overwhelming the few forces they have stationed in New Vaelyn and push both to the east and southwest with our unrelenting forces. Our WarMUTTs will be provided by the Russo-Dwarva, production has already gone underway, and new models will be out before the month is through, or so I am told. Are there any more questions?”
	“Why New Vaelyn?” Someone else spoke up.
	The General nodded his head toward the man, “That’s quite simple, really. It is an abundant source of raw and processed aether. Can't fight with our MUTTs if we don't have the fuel, eh? Once New Vaelyn is taken we can begin phase two of our invasion. We will be setting up a wall here, north of the Great Oasis to keep back any retaliatory forces the Federalists might send our way while the rest of us get to capturing the rest of the west. Once that is done we can focus our strength on the federalists and crush them while the separatists hit them from the south.”
	“Are we working with the separatists?” It was a good question, I thought. From what little I’ve heard about Sovereign Convergence I definitely didn’t want to work together with them.
	“No. But we aren't going to let them go to waste, either.” That was a relief.
	Carter cleared his throat beside me, “You say their forces will be minimal, but we were pretty quickly followed by an enemy MUTT team after stealing a few. What are the chances their numbers are greater than we plan for? Are we going to just walk into enemy fire?”
	“The chances are slim, but… everyone should be using their own judgement. Do not underestimate the enemy, and don't go getting yourselves killed. I recognize that warfare has changed in the last sixty years, but the objectives remain the same. We are going to cut the enemy off from the east and plant our feet firmly in New Vaelyn.”
	“What exactly are our numbers, anyway?”
	“The exact number I am unsure, but with our combined forces in Oh-Vee we are well in the hundred-thousands, with eight thousand MUTTs ready to ship out in three days.”
	“How much are we making off this expeditionary force?”
	That was the question that was on everyone's mind, we weren't here for charity or the goodness of our hearts, we were here to do a job and get paid.
	“Ah, yes, the most important detail,” General Baldwyn smiled politely. He stood upright and turned to face the projection before giving Sterling a nod. He waved an arm over the projection and looked back at us, all while still smiling. The amount listed had shut everyone up. It was enough that our small team of five could live off it for the rest of our lives. And it was for each crew? That was absolutely ridiculous, where had they gotten that amount of gold? But there it was. That alone seemed to quell any misgivings anyone had about the mission.
	 “Each of you will be happy to hear that Oh-Vee will also be providing the MUTTs as part of the package and any Aether required to power it for the foreseeable length of this war. It shouldn't last much longer than a month or two when we arrive. So am I to assume you are all on board?”
	“Yes, sir!” The room replied in a chorus, which elicited a chuckle out of the General.
	“Splendid. That is all. Enjoy the new year, Operation Concordia will happen on January fourth.”


	“What do you think?” Carter asked me as we made our way back to the warehouse where Tiggs and the others were waiting for us.
	“I don't know. It just feels too good to be true. There has to be some kind of catch,” I speculated, not willing to place my bets on it just yet.
	“We'll go through with it, but we'll play it by ear,” he replied, looking at me. I couldn't see his eyes through those aviators he wore, but I could tell by his expression he shared my concerns. That was good enough for me, he was the diviner, after all. We arrived at bay three where our captured WarMUTTs were being worked on, both Skitz and Ferron still going at it while Tiggs was familiarizing himself with the machinery. James was standing nearby. He was one of my two squadmates, a gargoyle like me, but a little more on the scrawny side with short, black hair. His wings on his back were pretty small for his size, not that I could talk, I thought, considering my own shriveled wings. 
	Eddie was there, too. He was silently observing while James was smoking another one of his cigarettes. 
	“Can you believe the amount of power this baby has?” I overheard Skitz excitedly blab to the dwarf who seemed to be tuning her out.
	“So what are we lookin’ at?” I asked, happy to humor her if it meant learning more about the MUTT I'd be riding in. I waved Eddie and James over and they quickly joined me, James flicking the butt of his cigarette off to the asphalt outside.
	“Oh, good! You're back! Now I don't have to repeat myself! This big dog here packs quite the punch!” She was practically glowing as she prattled on.
	“I can see that,” I said, noticing the twisted and dented steel gantry overhead, its beams in a perfectly knuckle-shaped bend matching the MUTT's.
	“She nearly tore that one off with the big arm,” James noted, pointing to its left hand.
	“Well now you know that punching is an option!” Skitz retorted with a grin.
	“Focus, Skitz. What's the output of this thing?” I repeated myself.
	“Oh that's easy! This MUTT, designation H-M dash oh-one-D, Harrier has a Tarrant two-two-ten in the back, that means it has two two-hundred and ten carat aether crystals installed within the engine that can generate an output of about one-hundred and fifty-nine thousand, seven-hundred and seventy-two kilowatts without overloading the core!”
	The amount of information shotgunned at me was almost overwhelming, but I got the gist of it. It was at least ten times more powerful than the Harrier Bs we rode in Mexico.
	“How big is two-hundred and ten carats? And why measure it like that anyway?” James asked.
	“For aether? About the size of your thumb,” Skitz explained, “They’re measured that way because aether has to be cut like a gemstone. There's a lot of excess glass from the sand and other chemicals that the crystal lets out as it burns, they can interfere with the energy levels and the more pure the aether the better, just like gems! Not to mention they're incredibly lightweight. Those two aether crystals inside that engine don't even weigh a pound together! It was the only measurement that made sense!”
	“Alright, Skitz, what are the weapons we're lookin’ at? Is the torch the same as the old model?”
	“Yeah, it still draws on the power from the aether pack both in the weapon and from the MUTT's engine, and it has an adjustable cartridge for aether flow there at the front,” she pointed out, “It's basically just for changing the length and width of the blast, so be careful with your team! I'd get some practice down range with it, personally. Don't wanna accidentally cook yourself in the field!”
	“What about that rifle?” James asked, more interested in trying that out himself.
	“I don't have too much info on it besides what I learned from our reports,” Skitz admitted, upset that she didn't know everything about it already.
	“It seems like it fires a concentrated beam of aether at long ranges.”
	I gave a nod, “I've used it myself, I'd say it's pretty accurate. Deadly accurate.”
	“Then it's perfect for a couple of crack shots like yourselves!” The gremylkin said with a toothy grin. She beckoned me closer with one of her claws, and I bent down within earshot.
	“I heard a few of the other mercs managed to bag some Mules, too. Want me to snag you one?”
	“One of those lumbering artillery pieces? No, I think three Harriers should do us fine,” I answered incredulously.
	“Suit yourself! They'll be ready by tomorrow at the latest! I'll let ya know, then we can run some tests to make sure they're to your liking! Oh, I also got a few ideas kickin’ around for some weapons if you’re interested!”
	“We’ll see about that tomorrow,” I answered, cautiously curious at the thought of testing something for the danger-prone gremylkin.
	She gave me a grin that sent a shiver down my spine, “Tomorrow it is!”
I silently hoped that I would at least live long enough to see Operation Concordia.

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