As the soft hum of the holo died with the device's deactivation, it was replaced by that of a thick awkward silence. Cameron’s eyes wandered over the faces of the crew of the Fenris before settling on the back of Priya’s head, watching her shoulders slump as she inhaled deeply, likely taking a moment to center herself as she turned to face the group.

  “Well…” She said with a heavy sigh, “I’ve done my part. I’ll leave the rest up to you all.”

  “By the rest,” Aurora began, “You mean find two pilots either stupid or desperate enough to join up with our GAC in order to take a job with less than twenty-four hours notice?”

  Priya shrugged, “Yep. That about sums it up.”

  “Ah. Gotcha. Just making sure I got that right.”

  “Is it really going to be that difficult?” Cameron asked, “Isn’t being part of a GAC a freelance pilot’s dream? I mean, you get better pay, always know your teammates, I’m sure you get some protection of some kind like an old world union… I mean, how hard can it be?”

  “We’re not an established organization yet,” Logan said, crossing his arm as he looked over at him, “We have no ace pilots of notable renown, nor do we have a lot of cash flow to attest to our prowess in mission completion. As much as freelancers want to be a part of a GAC, they also want to be a part of the right GAC. So in actuality… very fucking hard.”

  “Though not impossible, I assume,” Marcus interjected.

  “This is true,” Logan said, acknowledging the butler, “But we need to be realistic about our prospects. I wouldn’t even say that we’d be scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. We haven’t even reached the barrel. We’re… scraping the pavement right now.”

  “Alright…” Cameron said, shaking his head in confusion as he blew a raspberry, trying to think, “Where exactly are we scraping?”

  ***

  Cameron found his answer a few minutes later, as he and Logan sat together on one of the couches aboard the command bridge, scanning through a seemingly never ending list of names, units, and ranks that made up the Freelancer Pilot Registry. His brows narrowed and eyes glazed over as the minutes ticked by, with each entry of meaningful information slowly transforming into a mass of jumbled symbols before they’d even made their way a quarter of the way down.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Cameron groaned with a stretch, “None of these metrics mean shit to me. I can’t judge potential teammates based solely on a document.”

  “Okay, first of all,” Logan shot back, eyes still focused on the screen, “Stop thinking of these guys as teammates or more like meat shields. Secondly, quit your bitching and just choose some already. We don’t have time for you to be picky.”

  Cameron frowned, “Maybe it’s easy for you to view these people like spare bodies, but I’m not that much of a nihilist… yet.”

  “It’s not nihilism, it’s realism,” Logan shot back, “It’s not like I’m gonna intentionally put them in needless danger. I’m an asshole but I’m not that asshole. Besides… let’s not act like these fucks wouldn’t do the same thing to us.”

  As Logan spoke, Cameron’s eyes, slightly unfocused as they were, lit up with recognition as two particular names among the thousands that ran across the screen.

  “Wait!” He called, breaking Logan mid rant.

  The older pilot looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, “What?!”

  “Scroll back,” Cameron said, “I thought I saw something, but I can’t be sure.”

  “Okay…” Logan said, slowly navigating back up the list.

  “There!” Cameron exclaimed, forcing Logan to stop. He leaned in, blinking away the proverbial sleepiness that had started to coat his eyeballs. Upon doing so, a smile broke out on his face as he pointed to two names.

  “Look at that,” Cameron said, watching Logan look at him for a moment, before he too leaned forward to get a better look. To his satisfaction, Cameron watched Logan’s brows go up in surprise, doing a double take before looking back at him.

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  “You gotta be shitting me…” He said after a moment of checking and double checking the sheet to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

  “I thought the same thing,” Cameron said with a shrug, “How accurate is this registry?”

  “It was last refreshed this morning,” Logan said quietly, his words slowly trailing off, “Damn, their Alpha-Sirius already? Good for them. I’d figured they’d be dead by now.”

  Cameron chuckled, “From a job? Or from each other?”

  Logan scoffed, shaking his head as a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth, “Why not both?”

  “Well,” Cameron said with a shrug, “We already know what they’re gonna say… Send them a message.”

  “What if they don’t show up?”

  “They will… trust me.”

  “Alright,” Logan said with a nod, “Now who else?”

  “What do you mean?” Cameron asked, “We found our team. No need to keep looking.”

  ***

  “You better be right about this,” Logan grumbled next to Cameron as the two of them strolled down the streets of the main-line, making their way towards DaraLit headquarters.

  “I swear by the stars kid, if they don’t show, we’re fucked.”

  Logan had been on edge ever since last night, when Cameron, certain in his decision, refused to consider any other option in terms of personnel. The two of them went back and forth with Logan cautioning keeping their options open, against Cameron’s decision to trust in the options they had already decided on. It was only when they were a few blocks out from the headquarters, and a mere fifteen minutes before their meeting, that Logan had made his true feelings known.

  “Oh will you stop being so dramatic?” Cameron said, looking over at him, “They’re gonna show.”

  “You don’t know that!” Logan exclaimed.

  “No…” Cameron acquiesced, “But I can feel it.”

  Logan sighed, “We did one job with them a year ago, how are you so sure that they even remember-”

  “That you, Boss Man?!” A loud, twangy, bombastic voice possessing a unique asset to only a few regions on earth cut through the early morning crowd, and Cameron could barely hide his knowing smirk as the two of them turned in the direction of the question.

  Standing before them, just outside the doors to DaraLit Headquarters, were two men of contrasting appearance. The first man, the one who had first drawn their attention, was the equivalent of a shaved bear. With a barrel chest that strained the fabric of his sleeveless muscle shirt, and shaggy red beard, he towered over both Logan and Cameron, though the goofy, happy-go-lucky smile on his face gave away his easy going temperament.

  The second man could only be described as the opposite of the former. He was of average height and skinny as a whip, with a mop of shaggy dark hair, and possessed an exasperated frown directed at his companion.

  “Cayde! Royce!” Cameron shouted back, jogging over to the pair, “Good to see ya!”

  “Cam!” The redheaded Royce exclaimed, reaching out to grasp Cameron’s forearm, before pulling him into a firm hug, “How ya been buddy!?”

  “Jesus Christ,” Cayde groaned, “Can you please stop trying to cause a scene and act like you belong around here?”

  “Can you smile for once instead of acting like someone pissed in your corn flakes?” Royce shot back, releasing Cameron.

  “Good to see you too Cayde,” Cameron said with a chuckle, reaching out with a hand.

  Cayde smiled softly and nodded, taking Cameron’s outstretched hand and giving it a shake, “Likewise Cam. Happy to see you guys still kicking.”

  “We can say the same about you two,” Logan said, smiling as he approached, “Those threads look good on you.”

  “Finally got out of those stuffy Squires and moved up to the big leagues!” Royce said with a booming laugh, reaching over to slap Cayde on the chest “Now look at us! We’re bout to be full fledged members of a GAC! Ya gotta love it.”

  “I’d love it a lot more, if you’d start acting like a professional,” Cayde said, rolling his eyes before turning to face Logan, “What he means to say is, we’re very grateful to be considered for membership. Just the fact that gamma class remembered us was enough to feel like we’d done some good work. But to be offered a job is something altogether more exciting.”

  Logan smiled and nodded, patting the wiry man on the shoulder, “Don’t mention it buddy, but I can’t take all the credit here. Make sure to thank my co-owner for pointing you guys out on the registry.”

  “Co-owner?” Both the men said in unison.

  Logan nodded, and gestured to Cameron, “It was his idea. I was all for it of course, but he’s the one to put things into motion.”

  A low whistle came from Royce’s lips as he looked at Cameron, “Well I’ll be… guess we’re not the only ones moving up in the world, eh, Cam?”

  Cameron smiled back, and gave a shrug, “Something like that. A lot of shit has happened since Qal’Gar. Think I’m due for a little good fortune. We all are.”

  Royce noddled, before thumbing the direction towards the revolving door leading into DaraLit, “Speaking of fortune, how about we get this little shindig kicked off? Then you can tell us about all that shit that happened over a cold pint?”

  Cameron looked from Royce to Logan, who simply shrugged, before turning back to the redhead, “Sounds like a plan to me, let’s go get us a job boys.”