We had to go through fire, water, and brass thrumpets... well, or rather prison and wallet to get our hands on key information that could provide access to the enemy's citadel. We were ready. And finally, after all the shooting and fighting--

  - we sat in a bar and drank.

  Well, "drank" is a strong exaggeration. There was some alcohol on the table, but the bottle of whiskey remained mostly untouched, and most of the alcohol in our bodies was there with cupcakes and candy.

  Here were the rest of the bar patrons celebrating the bandits' demise thoroughly, with face salad and drunk tears. We'd locked the infiltration specialist in his girlfriend's cabin for now, with food and booze to spare, so they had other options for entertainment.

  I glanced over at Lily studying the foam in her coffee cup and then taking notes. Nah.

  I glanced at Jim, who had molded little men out of bread and was now biting their heads off with obvious gloating satisfaction. No comment.

  Man, I'm the only sane person here.

  - Well, and you, maybe - I muttered, filling a couple shots. Robo-Bear carefully accepted his with a pair of claws, nodding appreciatively, the turret had no hands, so just nodded, soaking up the machine oil. By the way, it was not something used on Earth at all, this was as different from it as a cartridge block was from a clip. Well, or from a magazine. Pandorian "machine oil" is actually a suspension of repair nanites, and it's a rare and inexpensive thing these days, since it's easier to use digital repair, but our mechanical friends deserve it.

  One of the bar patrons gave me a strange look.

  ...Actually, this is the second day we've been stuck in this bar.

  The reason is that Moxie suggested, and Roland, habitually assuming the role of commander of a small "rebel army", agreed, that we should coordinate our actions for maximum effect. Simply put, our attack on the Citadel would have to take place at about the same time as Roland's forces attacked the ECHOnet control center and the facility where Tannis was being held, so as not to be able to send reinforcements and possibly break the enemy's morale. More precisely, first Roland returns normal communications and pulls out the quest archaeologist, and we cause trouble for Crimson Lance, and then the Pandorian militia launches a coordinated strike on the headquarters of the "planetary commandant's office". In my opinion, we're just saving Atlas the headache: the Dahl were smarter than that, and got off that crazy planet on their own for a reason. But Atlas is kind of a last hope operation, though. More like last hopelessness, even.

  Either way, until Moxie gives the signal - tomorrow at best - we have downtime. "Hurry up and wait," as Roland hummed. The army, it never changes... At least with different corporations, even when you're not in the army at all.

  Anyway, we occupied the bar, and were doing... important things. Yeah. That's what my testimony will be if they question me.

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  I'd gotten a new skill point from the last fight, and now the question was where to put it. Defense against electrical attacks? Damage enhancement? Improved assembling? Choices, choices...

  Given the upcoming case, I was leaning towards upgrading Field Medic or Assembling, but everything else was tempting too.

  ...Eh, okay. Since I'm not working alone, I'll invest in medicine rather than industry or defense.

  - When you sew on limbs, the arms must be on top and the legs on the bottom, no other way! I realize it's fun, but ammunition is designed for a specific setup of users, and commanders complain too.

  - Old man Olaf sings odes to medical glue, but you can glue a cute babe together without it, but you can only do cute, cheerful, uplifting embroidery with good thread...

  Uh... Medicine is scary, and power.

  ...Well, at least now I can take care of the seriously wounded and even the dying.

  And not just with a bullet.

  What should a hero (well, or at least a protagonist) relaxing after a case be most afraid of? Sudden sidequests, obviously. No, they are useful, but you need to rest too, no matter what AlBa writes. So our table was adorned with a sign that read "Angry drunken mercenaries, stay away!" and a few empty bottles. Jim looked at the sign once, raising an eyebrow, but ignored it, and Lily asked if she could have it as a souvenir. Well, I'm not greedy, I even suggested asking the four Vault Seekers to sign it - it would make a really nice souvenir.

  - Hmm. We have a young beauty, two strong men, and time to fill - Lily said. - Do you see where I'm going with this?

  - Why don't we get a room? - Jim suggested it.

  - We can do it right here, on the table - said the girl. - Just make room.

  With these words she slipped her hand into her cleavage.

  - Wow, these are... gorgeous - the mercenary said with admiration, and I agreed with him: the miniatures on the table were really good.

  Board games... no, just games on Pandora, or rather in this world - something with something. "Jumanji" is not a surprise to anyone here: such things are on sale.

  In the here and now, however, we were chopping into "Bunkers and Badasses", a popular franchise, on "fast rules without immersion". At first glance, it was just a regular board game, with a game board, dice rolls, and stuff like that. In fact, it was a whole little virtual world: when the pieces hit the square of battle, that's exactly what happened, in automatic mode, but we could watch the action through a virtual screen and give our characters commands. Oh, and the characters, in this game, were simulations of ourselves - or rather, simulations based on the data Lily had collected, which had an effect: I'd seen my character pull out a spellbook a couple times when he thought no one was watching.

  It was more fun to play that way, though.

  - Your character is cheating - Jim said.

  - Yup - I agreed. - He's really good.