Karako furrowed her brows. The guy went through all that trouble fucking up her mobile suit only to surrender. She sighed, getting up and opening the cockpit hatch to get a look at the other suit. It was definitely kneeling in surrender, an act she'd witnessed a number of times before. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the Zudah's shark head shield.

"You better not be fucking with me." she called out, "Disable your suit's weapons. You can keep the damn shark."

Kamille saw Karako peer out of her suit and took the opportunity to move in. He'd heard the surrender but if the Zudah pilot tried to pull anything, he would act as backup. He owed the lieutenant that much for helping him, anyway.

"Miss Karako, are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm a hot fucking mess to put it lightly." she yelled out to Kamille, "got grazed and bloodied by those Titans fuckwads, and now my suit is a fucking mess from shark innards and this wiseguy."

Near the cave complex

Inside the Astafanel, Rastun attempts to communicate with High Command. Even if this era has a more stable timeline than the one he just came from, it's still a catastrophe on many levels and contact would more than likely be impossible. Still, there's no harm in trying. Rastun opens up his comm to the usual High Command channels and says, "High Command, this is Rastun. Can you hear me?"

No response, as expected. He tries again, however.

"I repeat, this is Rastun, can you hear me?"

Still nothing. Clearly his signal won't get through at the moment, so he stops and gets out of his Chronoframe. He walks back into the cave complex and goes towards the two Cybertronians. Being around them outside of his machine makes him feel uncomfortably small at times, but he can cope. "I couldn't establish contact with my superiors," he says to them, then follows up with, "And where did all of these computers come from?"

The Base

"Hmm, the computers were stored in an extra dimensional space connected to us for transit to be deployed when we were ready for them so we didn't have to lug the damn things around all the time. Thus I have a fully function lab albeit not as advanced as I'd like for security reasons. But that's not important, there's something we need to discuss..."

"Simply put." Megatron butted in to avoid a long drawn out logical explanation. "The Titans are likely to be after us after that little... rampage through their base. So we're going to need create a distraction for them so we can do our work in peace, yes."

"Truly bad luck on our part." Brainwave continued. "And the most logical way to go about this is to aid their enemies in their war. I assume this shouldn't be a problem for you since they're oppressive overlords that like gassing civilians and the like under the flimsy defense of maintaining peace."

"Aid them in what way?" Rastun asks. He never cared about petty conflicts such as this war, but actively altering the balance of power for one side isn't something he'd do lightly. However, they do have a point. Rastun can't have the Titans breathing down his neck if he's ever to complete this assignment, so he needs a distraction as much as they do. He only hopes that whatever they're planning to do, it won't make things worse in the long run.

"Ah yes well it isn't prudent to tip the scales entirely. We're best served keeping both sides distracted. For now it's best to give them a small technological upgrade. Enough to make them a serious threat but not enough to allow outright domination. I imagine our seriously outdated technology would suffice. Possibly plan out a few operations to get the ball rolling. I'm sure you get the idea."

Do they know what he's thinking, or is he too obvious? He never mentioned being worried about the power balance in his question. Somehow, Rastun knew there would likely be more slightly odd moments like these in the future. Not that this is important to the topic at hand anyhow. He might as well keep pressing them with more questions if necessary.

"What kind of technology are you giving them? Whatever is outdated by your standards could still be too much for any one side to have."

"I'll be perfectly honest here, I expect when the anomalies are dealt with this timeline will end and everyone will go back to their own reality so I'm not particularly worried about misjudging something like this. Having said that I'm nearly 100% certain I can accurately judge just how much of a boost to hand out to serve our purposes. The alternative is we keep fighting them as they chase us to steal our technology and we end up going to war with them affecting the power balance anyways. So I ask what difference does it make?"

"Oh that lovely Transtech arrogance." Chided Megatron. "Logically though you're correct whether anyone likes it or not."

Rastun could pursue this further but truth be told, there really is no better plan than this one. Despite how technologically advanced they are, in the end they're only three people and the other side is an army. They really can't hide forever. "Fine then, go ahead and give them a gift," he says. "Just make sure they keep warring against each other instead of us," he added. Rastun then walks out of the cave to watch for potential intruders and leaves the pair to their devices. If they're so confident in their abilities, he might as well let them proceed with this idea. At the very least, Rastun will be able to see how dependable they are after this is all done.

Random Junk Guild Supply Satellite

Aaron Gentles wandered the corridors of the station, impeccably dressed in his suit, having just completed a major transaction.

As outdated and near-useless as the ship had been, it still represented a sizable amount of scrap, and thus had given him enough money to swim in.

Or have sex with.

Or to buy a good deal of parts and knick-knacks for his work

Or to buy a good deal of parts and knick-knacks to have sex with

Man, he needed to get his mind off his issues. If he wasn't careful, at the rate he was going he'd fall in love with a gynoid.

Developing toaster fetish aside, the Guild Tech wandered the halls of the satellite, running over numbers in his head as he worked out a budget.

"-Gentles!"

The man was used to working alone. And what a great deal of time wandering the depths of space alone had taught him was that whenever something annoying appeared, if he ignored it, it would eventually go away. Like his toaster fetish.

"Yo, Gentles!"

Juuuuuuust like the toaster fetish

"Hey, I know you can hear me!"

Anytime now

"Lowe, I think he's just ignoring you."

"Dammit, Liam, I know!"

Wishing he had an axe, or a toaster, on hand, the tall blond turned towards the source of his growing headache, namely a taller Japanese man with reddish brown hair that came up in a mullet so tall that it almost compensated for the height difference between the two. The hair was so massive, that the shorter man had wrapped a bandanna around it so that it would hold up rather than collapse upon it's own weight.

"Good day, Mr. Guele." He mutters, tilting his head slightly in acknowledgment.

"Heya, Gentles!" The younger engineer declares enthusiastically, "Been awhile!"

Since the last time you badgered me, or when you left my comrades to die before deciding to spare their murderer on a whim? "Indeed it has. What business brings you here?" And how did you know to find me, you annoying little shit?

The hot blooded genius places his hands behind his head, expression cheerful, "Ah, you know, just resupplying after picking up a new contract, it's pretty hush-hush, but we've gotta apparently go escort some big shot for another big shot down on Earth. What about you? Saw you towing in that hunk of scrap when we docked, asked the Cap, and he said you were still filling out the paperwork, lucky we caught ya!"

The faceless man stares at the teen incredulously for a moment, before shaking his head in surrender, "Actually, it's the ship belonging to my former contractor. After I retrieved their parts, they wanted to...renegotiate our terms."

Lowe whistled in appreciation, "Poor guys. I hope you didn't kill 'em, we're Junk Guild, after all."

"Of course I didn't kill them, Mr. Guele." Gentles stated flatly, "I simply evicted them from their ship," Forcibly, "I made sure that they had their normal suits on," Even if they did not have them on entirely at the time for some, "Sent them off into space," Without an escape pod, "And last I checked, they still had their distress signals going. With any luck, they should be picked up within a day or two."

Whether or not they'd live that long? Something the elder Engineer did not know, nor care.

The younger man shrugged, his face turning serious, "You know, isn't this kind of thing happening a lot with you, lately? I mean, I know that the recording always exonerate you," Much like every other instance of attempted mugging, Aaron had ensured that he recorded proof of the threats on his life before commencing the hijacking of whatever vessel his would-be extortionists had been using for transport. It was rather common at this point, since he had inherited the Nava-Hoe and Astray Gold Frame and restored them to mission ready status. "But a guy can't help but be worried. And, well, I know you can take care of yourself, Aaron, but the Guild's like one big family. And family watches out for one another."

Gentles was floored by the statement, his face remained impassive, but he found himself frozen, staring at the younger man for a moment, processing what he said. A hot feeling began spreading through his chest, as his hand unconsciously curled into a fist, "I appreciate the concern, Mr. Lowe. But do not worry, I am in no danger. My ship is more than capable of defending itself."

Lowe blinked, his face turning into a frown as he stepped forward, "Now listen-"

A beeping sound interrupted whatever the bandanna'd man was about to say, as Aaron reached into a pocket to withdraw his tablet. Flicking the notice that had popped up, he read the message he had just been alerted to.

Re: Federation Contract

Mr. Gentles, it has come to our attention that as a member of the Junker's Guild, you are a man with a unique set of talents ideally prepared to handle a certain job that we of the Atlantic Federation need done here in space.

Please contact us at frequency number 9342586-67LKUWARN-JASFB-3874Y87YT2-8347KB-SUEKBV for further details and with your answer

We look forward to hearing from you

-Muruta Azrael

...I have no idea who this is.

"By the way, Mr. Guele, do you know who Muruta Azrael is?"

Lowe blinked slowly, a thoughtful look crossing his features as he looked to the side, attempting to solve the problem before him.

"Actually, I may know." The younger man's friend, an older youth with long blue hair...Liam..Gar-something, "Muruta Azrael is.." He reached behind him, withdrawing his own tablet from his white shirt, "The leader of the Natural Supremacist Group, Blue Cosmos. They're particularly known for their open support of the genocide of all Coordinators."

The blond nodded, "I see. Then I guess I'll leave you two to your business." He nodded in their direction once, before turning on his heel and departing down the corridor once again to oversee the transfer of his salvage, leaving Lowe still standing absently, a look of extreme concentration on his face as he stared at the bulkhead.

Ignore this doublepost

Marcus let out a relieved sigh. "Much appreciated Ms.Federation pilot." As requested Marcus disengaged his Zudah's Beam Smartgun and Anti-MS Shotgun. Both dropped to the ground and Marcus had the Zudah stand up. "I'm guessing you don't have any functioning cameras. I can send over my Cockpit cameras feed so you can see." A second later he spotted the MKII. "Well. Either he's your back up or I'm dead." The Zudah rose its Shark Shield in a defensive posture.

The Zudah's caved in head did its best to angle forward. Ready to charge if need be.

Kamille took on a defensive posture as well, though relaxing somewhat at the sight of the shark head being used as a shield. So there really had been a shark involved in the fight.

"What the hell are you doing with a shark's head?! Do you kill animals for fun?!" Kamille yelled.

Well, that kid was a bit of a firecracker now wasn't he. Karako quickly jumped out into the Shiki's hand, waving at Kamille and whistling at him to get his attention.

"Hey! It's okay, Kamille. Chill out. It was just one whale shark. There are plenty more, kiddo."

Kamille backed down, grumbling somewhat.

"The kid is my backup. He won't do anything unless you give him a good reason to. We clear? I'd like to get out of here now."

Marcus laughed at the commentary from the MKII pilot thumbing the comm. "Kid when I fell into the ocean the Shark came at me full force, all I did was defend myself." Turning his attention back to the Federation pilot he responded, "We're clear. I'll transmit my camera feed so you can see, lead on."

The Zudah began transmitting still holding the shark head and falling in behind the still blood and viscera covered suit.

'I am so grateful I can't smell the outside now, or else I'd be retching my breakfast up.'

Kamille just mumbled a growly "whatever". Karako hopped back inside her Hyaku Shiki, closing up the hatch and sitting back down at the controls. With a few button presses she received the Zudah's camera feed.

"Thanks. Now, any ideas on where the hell to go? Either of you?"

"I'd like to go to space." Kamille said.

"Yeah, uh good luck reaching escape velocity, especially in a Titan's suit..." Karako chuckled.

"Well, Captain Bright arrived in a shuttle, maybe we can hitch a ride with him?"

"If we do, let's fucking wait until he's away from the damn base. I'm not throwing myself into the fucking wolves den to talk to him. C'mon."

The Shiki's thrusters started up and the suit picked up its fallen arm and took off, Kamille following closely.

Marcus was following close behind keeping pace with the other suits while trying to figure out a way off planet. 'Theres no guarantee we can reach Bright, for all we know he might have already left. Since we're in Texas, there's a good chance we could reach the drop zone the 603rd used to test their one off Ground Units. They littered the place with HLV's and we could probably rig one up to get us off planet.

Calling up the location and sending a ping to the HLV's he knew about, Marcus had to wait about a minute before he got a response. Most of them had been disassembled or were just out of service, except for the final HLV that had been sent down on December 30th. The carrier had touched down and had been abandoned by the crew, it still had a quarter tank of fuel, enough to get them out of the atmosphere but just barely.

Opening a comm line with both the Fed pilot and the Kid, Marcus started filling them in, "I do know of a place about six hundred kilometers from here, there's an old Zeon test ground that has a bunch of HLV's there, I know that one of them is still functioning, so if we want to break atmo we have another option should Bright be unable to help. If we do take that option we can head to my base and repair our suits as best we can." He sent the Location as he was speaking.

The mysterious robot from before was standing outside a residential area close to a nearby base, though this time it was vacant of its pilot. Walking along the road, the mysterious martial artist was looking for a particular spot in which to wind down. Dropping that Mountain on Preet had completely drained him of all desire to do anything else in the day. It was for that very same reason that he decided to pay a visit to the local bar, deciding that a drink...or 57 were probably the best way to spend the remainder of his days. As he entered the bar, he spotted what looked to be a Los Betas officer looking at a photo of something. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the picture seemed to have been taken from an internet forum, and that the photo depicted someone called Fujita. Said main looking at the photo looked completely and utterly depressed as the mysterious martial artist sat down next to him and ordered 5 shots of his favorite drink: Tequila.

"Why...why doesn't she understand? I'm only trying to show her my love!" The Betas officer howled in anguish, causing most of the bargoers to begin staring at him with mild to extreme annoyance. "It's all those other people's fault! If they were all gone Fujita would love me!" The officer once more howled, and at this point Yin rotated his seat to face the officer.

"Ya know, I knew a Fuji once. Big piece of shit. Granted I dropped that shit on some pansy lookin' motherfucker in a gay ass mech" The martial artist said with a smirk that belied how inhebriated he still was.

Of course, his mention of knowing a Fuji inmediately set the officer of the Betas off. 'HOW DARE YOU SPEAK ABOUT HER, ONLY I CAN TALK TO HER LIKE THAT. ONLY I KNOW WHAT SHE TRULY LIKES!" He roared as he brandished his .45 caliber sidearm at the martial artist, only to find himself losing about 6 teeth to the instant front kick the man delivered to his face.

"Ya know...Kid's should nae play with guns. Ye coul' hur' someone." said the martial artist as he walked over to the fallen officer and delivered an axe kick to his ribs. "Git the fuck out' herre b'fore I smash ya to bits,"

"I-I'll never forget this. I'll hunt you down and kill you!" The Betas officer screamed as he limped pathetically out of the bar.

The martial artist quickly retook his seat and began the slow process of enjoying his previously ordered tequila shots.

Karako looked over the coordinates as she listened to Marcus.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go." she said, "Perhaps we can hit a bar along the way? It's been a rough day."

"I'm 17, Miss Karako."

"Shut-up-I-want-a-drink-goddamit-and-I'm-gonna-get-one" Karako hissed through her teeth.

This silenced a very worried Kamille.

* * *

"Now wait a god damn minute...." Karako said, eyeing a certain mech outside, "It's that asshole..."

"What?" asked Kamille.

"It is a long and ridiculous story that I will most likely tell you shortly but come on." Karako yanked Kamille inside the building.

"Miss Karako!"

"You know what? You need a drink. You're really high strung."

"I'm under age."

"I really don't give a fuck right now. You're getting some adult koolaid. Now sit your squirrelly ass down at the bar like a man!"

Kamille wasn't about to put his manliness on the line. He sat down next to Karako as she shoved a glass toward him while mouthing "drink the fucking koolaid". Kamille began to question what the hell he got himself into as he took the glass and slowly sipped at the drink. It actually did taste like koolaid...

A man sitting in a distant corner saw the events that just unfolded, and satisfaction is plainly on his face. He was growing annoyed at the Los Betas officer's whining and would've eventually done the same thing the martial artist did to him. Alas, he was beaten to the honor, but at least the job got done sooner rather than later. He takes another sip from his glass of vodka and walks towards the man who kicked out the unruly officer. He sits next to him and says, "I have to say, excellent technique there. You handled that moron well, saving me the hassle of dealing with him. And isn't Fujita a guy's name anyhow?

"Ah, here I am talking about names and I haven't given mine out, such poor manners! The name's Adam."

As Yin sat at the bar downing his shots of tequila after chasing out the Los Betas officer, he was approached by one of the other customers, a man named Adam to be precise. Seems like he'd made an impression with the way he'd kicked the teeth out of the officer, and now the man was striking up a casual conversation over drinks. Now this was something Yin could get behind, shooting the shit with other alcohol entusiasts like Adam. "Yin, Yin Feilong." The Martial Artist quickly gave the other customer his name before raising one of his shots and clinking glasses with the man. "To mankind's best friend, booze." At that point the doors to the bar opened once more and what seemed to be a Titans officer walked in with a kid, sitting down at the bar and ordering drinks. Yin couldn't help but chuckle at the current situation and directed his attention to the new arrivals. "Man up kiddo. It'll put hair on yer chest." He told the boy known as kamille proudly. Drinking could help some people forget, and others could remember whatever memories they chose to bury deep underneath their normal facades. For Yin Feilong, the bottle was a constant companion in the world.

The Martial Artist now turned his gaze to the female with the kid. "It's great, ain't it. Being able to just come here and relax after a hard day?" He asked her with a small chuckle as he downed another shot of tequila.

Schnapps is one of those sneaky drinks. It goes down like candy but then bites you in the ass. Next thing you know, you're either passed out on the floor or the Tazmanian Devil. There was no in between unless you didn't drink enough. Kamille was now on his second glass and giving Yin a really shifty side-eye. Suddenly it seemed to him like everyone was out to make a crack about his manhood.

"You don't have to be hairy to be a man." he grumbled.

"Ignore the kid. He's a bit jumpy." Karako said, "I'm trying to get his scrawny ass to relax, too. Alcohol is wonderful like that."

She grinned, sipping at a colorful martini that had what was probably too many of those little paper umbrellas.

"Now where'd that Zudah guy go..."