Ukko had been staring at the company account for the past few hours. He was riding in the same transport as the Vice Admiral, so he was trying very hard to not start cussing. “Stingy bastards, their people should have checked our job an hour ago.” He wasn’t doing a very good job.

            “Stingy? What’s that mean Admiral?”

            Ukko breathed a painful sigh of relief as he realized the stupid word managed to distract her from ‘bastard’. “Well, uh, it means that they don’t want to give us money. They have it, but they just won’t hand it over.”

            The Vice Admiral made her ‘thinking sound’ which was louder than one might hope, “Hmmm, but you never give me money when I want stuff, so doesn’t that make you stingy too?”

            “Nice try kid, but not quite. They owe us the money for what we already did. It’s like going to work and not getting paid, see?”

            “Uh-uh I don’t see. I work for you all the time and I do way bigger things than blow up cities. I beat that stupid House Keeper guy didn’t I?”

            “We beat him. And, if we’re being fair, I did most of the work.” Ukko nodded his head toward his gauze-covered body, “You don’t deserve a brand new MLRS system just because you helped out.”

            The Vice Admiral made quite the pout-y face. She’d been wanting a big box of missiles ever since seeing footage of the defense MACs that the Atlantis pilots used before the siege. “First off, it is a nuclear MLRS system. I have taste y’know? Secondly,” she took a large breath before shouting loud enough to get laughs out of the drivers in the cab, “YOU’RE A STINGY BASTARD!”

            Ukko couldn’t help laughing either. He probably wouldn’t make a very good parent.

            The laughing did quite the number on his injuries though and he ended up with an expression of pain that he couldn’t quite hide.

            The Vice Admiral was holding onto his arm with a sudden look of worry. She didn’t say anything, but clearly she wanted to.

            “Come on kid, don’t worry so much. You know I’m invincible don’t ya? Or do I need to tell you about the fight with five custom MACs back when I was just a run-of-the-mill pilot?” He kept his voice jovial and did his best to hide the immense pain that was still ravaging his body.

            She wasn’t quite convinced. In a voice that was ominously quiet for a kid her age she said, “Last time you said it was six…”

            Normally, that would have just been a casual jab at Ukko. She would have gone on about how he was getting old and couldn’t keep his stories straight. Then she would talk about how she was going to mutiny since everyone liked her way more (which Ukko had to admit was true). But her voice still didn’t have any merriment in it. She was scared for him, and it kind of scared Ukko to see that, “Ah, no I guess you’re right. This head of mind, huh? Must be from all the knocks and dents.”

            He nodded at her. It was a serious nod. He tried as hard as he could to not always treat her like a child. She was a warrior after all. But Ukko always had a hard time treating her like the warrior she really was.

            “You better not be lying Admiral. Liars and traitors both go to the gallows.”

            He gulped audibly. Little girl or not, she was a certified killer. “Now now kid, let’s not be hasty. Actually, where did you even hear something like that?”

            “Alexi. Most of what he said was always stupid and boring, but I like that one.” She smiled, clearly feeling a bit better now that Ukko was chatting a bit more normally with her, “Also, stop calling me ‘kid’. What would the troops think if they found out I was a kid, huh? I wouldn’t get any respect around here, that’s what!”

            Ukko almost laughed again, but he held back. Partially because he wouldn’t be able to hide the pain and then this whole ordeal would start over, but also because Ukko was a bit afraid of her. Best not to poke the bear, that was his philosophy. At least with this bear.

            It really was a trial though. The little girl, as normal looking a little girl as you can imagine, wore an oversized trench coat dotted in medals that stood out strikingly against the white leather. She also insisted on wearing a captain’s hat that reached about a foot into the air at its peak. She looted the stuff off some general they were paid to kill once upon a time and she decided he looked very professional. When Ukko tried to convince her to at least let him get it altered so it fit properly she nearly took a swing at him saying the exact same thing ‘what if they found out I was just a kid’. Now she has a hat nearly bigger than her head and a good few feet of trench coat that trails behind her everywhere she goes. Hilarious. Dangerously so.

            Ukko calmed himself down and, only once he was certain the risk of laughing had passed, checked the account again, hoping that the payment had finally gone through.

            And there it was, with all the extra zeros The Alley promised them. The payment came in with only hours to spare. Ukko had a decent amount of loans that needed payments by the end of the day.

            It seemed like The Stragglers were always running on fumes, and he was hoping this pay bump would finally start changing things.

            The Stragglers were a well-known and well-regarded mercenary group, but like many other mercenary groups they were consistently operating in the red. At the end of the day Ukko realized it was just business. It was all just a way to move money around for whoever the hell was benefitting from this madness.

            Mercenaries have to borrow money to get the proper equipment. They have to borrow money to maintain that equipment. They have to borrow money to maintain themselves. And when payday comes around, if the leader can make all those outstanding payments, they can hand out paychecks to their soldiers instead of watered-down liquor.

            This system kept them fighting and fighting and fighting, hoping to finally pay some things off. But, of course, no one ever does. They die before they start turning a profit and then repo crews come to salvage the equipment. If those crews are lucky, all they have to do is spray out some human remains and put the MAC back on the market. Other times they have to salvage what they can and weld it back together. Those MACs, the run-of-the-mill MACs any mercenary would start out in, are barely more than an inner frame and corrugated metal armor with a cannon or two bolted on. The dream is to build up enough reputation to convince a company to loan you some money to customize your machine.

            The dream… Ukko was tired of that dream. Not many pilots got to the point where they want a dream after a custom MAC. But when they did, nobody liked having them around anymore. When so many pilots were operating with heaps of junk… well, they certainly didn’t want to hear Ukko complain about his shiny MAC. But Ukko just wanted to scrounge up enough money to pay off his debts… maybe her’s too, and then leave this bloody, rotten, mad world behind.

            He turned his head while he was in the middle of sending out e-payments and draining their funds fast enough to make a man cry. There was the Vice Admiral, shouting through the window that separated them from the cab of the truck. She was bragging about her battle and they were bragging about their own. The Vice Admiral was sure to convince them that, even though they did good work, they weren’t nearly as impressive as her. And, sure enough, those soldiers would wholeheartedly agree.

            Ukko smiled. After that was usually when she would offer to give them a ride on her MAC. The soldiers still hadn’t figured out a way to decline and not piss her off in the process.

            When the only way of getting around a four-story tall metal behemoth was swinging around on ropes or clinging to jagged metal rungs, no one was going to jump at the opportunity.

            A new notification popped onto the screen and got his attention.

            A new mission as per that re-negotiated contract with The Alley. Ukko was happy enough to see the updated pay rate, but the location was a dangerous one even by a mercenary’s definition. It was a mission to head northwest and cut their way to the coast.

            The Alley’s ultimate goal had never been too hard to understand. Although they had the Mississippi river, they really wanted a proper coastline to expand on. It was the main reason for the mission in Atlantea, they were trying to make their way to the east coast. But that was proving to be more effort than they thought. Civilization was still going strong out this way, which ultimately led to drawn out fighting. West, however, was a bit more sparsely populated, but Ukko had heard the people who did live there were… a bit wild. As long as when you heard ‘wild’ you thought ‘a murderous group of antisocials’.

            Ukko didn’t understand why The Alley couldn’t just be happy with the river. It was truly impressive and probably the only reason why a nearly landlocked country like The Alley prospered as much as it had. Ukko figured this ‘Sippi’ girl they named the river after must have been one hell of a woman. Ukko couldn’t even imagine how much killing and conquest she would have needed to do to get a river like that named after her.

            The Vice Admiral had apparently given up on trying to convince the soldiers up front to ride on the gun barrels while she fired them. She looked down at his face, standing over his make-shift hospital bed, “Whatcha thinking?”

            Ukko thought for a moment, “About water, I guess.”

            “Hm, sounds boring.”

            “Yeah, it probably is. I’m actually just trying not to think about this next contract.” He put the device he’d been using off to the side and fully leaned back into his steel-wire bed.

            “We have a new contract!? We can’t sit around not doing anything Admiral. Come on, hurry up and get better so we can do some practice!”

            “You just want to fire your cannons, don’t you?”

            They had these kinds of conversations before, so she didn’t miss a beat, “Yes.”

            Ukko was always impressed by her unabashed love of big explosions. But ultimately, it was an expensive love and Ukko didn’t want to keep blowing money on ammo, “We have to wait until the mechanics get done with our MACs. And that Atlantis lady is going to be tinkering around with them too. Looks like we’ll just have to wait.”

            The disappointment on her face was clear as day.

            Ukko hated seeing her like that. Partly because it ended up turning from disappointment to being an annoying brat, just like any other child. Anyway, Ukko realized, he would need to start doing some planning for this upcoming operation. That Guinevere was older than the Vice Admiral, but she was a lot closer in age than Ukko was. It might be good for the Vice Admiral to get to know her.

            And, if Ukko was allowed to hope for a bit of good news once in a while, it might make Guinevere a more willing member of The Stragglers. Everyone has a soft spot for an annoying child, right?

            He reached over, nearly grimacing from his wounds, and tapped her lightly on the cheek, “Tell you what Vice Admiral, how about you go keep an eye on our new friends. Who knows, they might just need you to test out some fancy new weapons.”

            Her face lit up almost immediately, “Do you think they can make another one of those leg beam cannon things that the lady had? It was so cool when she kicked out and fried stuff with it.”

            “Your machine doesn’t have legs.”

            “That,” she threw open the door of the moving truck, ready to jump out and make her way through the convoy, “is a problem for the mechanics.”

            Ukko said a quick prayer of apology to Guinevere. They’ll get used to each other though.

            Probably.