Grak sat silently in front of one of his Hoplite battlesuits. The machine was currently offline, standing like a statue in the center of Grak’s workshop. The Chirix turned to the right, looking down at a metal counter top and all the tools that rested upon it. Greak rumaged though the piles of tools, looking for his welder. After an annoyingly long amount of time spent looking, he eventually found the tool he needed and turned back towards the Hoplite. Grak flipped the metal welding mask over his face and activated the ancient device.”Alright, Raz. Lower it.” Raz, standing behind the Hoplite, used a pully to slowly bring the grenade launcher down on the Hoplite’s left shoulder. Raz turned away just as Grak went to work welding the weapon onto the Hoplite’s shoulder. After a few moments of silence except for the buzzing of the welder, Raz spoke up.”Hey, Grak?” Grak stopped welding for a moment and looked up from his seated position at his brother.”Yes?” He asked.”Well- You can keep welding, by the way,” At this, Grak returned to his work as Raz continued speaking.”I've been thinking. What do all the great criminals of Babylon own?” Grak sat thinking about the question for a moment.”What, Raz?” He decided to ask.”Land, Grak. Land!” Raz responded enthusiastically.”Land? What are you going on about, Raz?” Grak asked, annoyance obvious in his voice.”Just hear me out on this one, brother. All the best of Babylon’s underworld: they all own a chunk of land [i] in [/i] Babylon. I mean, we spent all day today moving from Babylon to Shanty Town today. Do you know how much more we could get down if we didn't have to go anywhere for our transactions?”

Grak stopped his work and flipped his mask up, motioning for Rak to remove the pully with his hand.”How do you expect us to hold more than a tiny chunk of land in Babylon? There’s only five of us, Raz. Most of us aren’t the…physical types, either. We’d need men. We’d need money. Where are we suppose to get all that?” Raz shook his head.”I’ve got a plan, Grak.” Grak looked uneasily at his brother as he raised a device and sprayed cooling air at the heated metal. Raz looked far too excited about this whole thing.”Well, go on.” Grak said impatiently.”There’s this Chirix-only gang in the Projects. They own three levels of one of the towers. Well, I’ve got a buddy on the inside, see? He said there’s been some..disagreements among the top ranks. Says that everyone’s distrustful on the leader after that incident the other day. He seems to think, and I agree, that you could show up with your mechs, kill the leader, and take his place. We’d have land, a source of income, and all the manpower we’d need.”

 If what Raz was saying was true, Grak could see why he was so excited. That was quite the oppurtunity he was talking about.”Wait, you mentioned a source of income. What are you talkin’ about, Raz?” Raz shrugged at that.”The gang taxes the occupants of their territory for protection. That, and apparently, our guns would sell for quite a bit more in the Projects.” Grak nodded at that.”Ya know what, Raz? Let’s give it a go. Call up your mate and see what you can do. Take as many Hoplites as you need when you go to take over.” Raz looked surprised at that.”You don’t want’a be there yourself?” Grak turned from the Hoplite and began to rapidly type away on a holographic keyboard.”No. I’ve got work to do. Besides, what if something happened to me over there? No, you have to go.” At that last phrase of Grak’s statement, Raz seemed to jump.”W-what?” [i] Does he really not care what happens to me? I’m his flesh-brother![/i] “Uhm, yeah boss. Whatever you say.” Raz quickly shuffled out of the room, quite unnevered by the experience.”Boss..?” Grak whispered out loud, looking back at the door after Raz closed it behind him.”You always call me brother..” Grak shrugged it off and went back to programming the Hoplite, just as Robert Sinclaire popped up onto OLNN. Grak glanced up from his work at the broadcast.”Kira, who is Robert Sinclaire?” There was a beeping sound as the machine acknowledged his request before the AI answered.” Robert Kruschev Sinclaire, in his fourties, Former C.E.O. of Multinational Corporation Yggdrasil Industries, current politician in CGB office..” Grak became absorbed in listening to Kira read Extrapedia’s entry on Mister Sinclaire, working slower than he would if he were only half paying attention. Who was this man who stood against BESC so openly?