"...I mean, of course skill is involved, but in the end, we really owe it to the Ascendancy's unmatched technology," Claire and Blythe could hear Solomon boasting as they entered the cafeteria.  Instead of standing on a table and bragging about his heroism, he was 'playing it cool', and pretending to be humble, as he talked about the battle to a group of engineers and point defense gunners who happened to be on break.  "Still, not everyone can pilot a cog, there are only seven of us in the universe, and we were handpicked to fight for the ideals of the Ascendancy, isn't that right, Israfil?" he said while giving Israfil, who was sitting next to him, a hearty slap on the back, causing him to choke on his drink slightly.

The amount of people crowded together in such close proximity and the attention he was receiving made Israfil feel very uncomfortable and awkward, but he stayed because of the social pressure and up and leaving would only be more awkward.  "Yeah," Israfil agreed weakly, wiping his chin with a napkin.

"But now that we've demonstrated what cogs are capable of, I really hope High Command gives us the order to take the fight to FAS," Solomon continued, "I mean, we all know, as much as FAS officials deny it, that Homeworld  is being funded by FAS.  I wouldn't be surprised if Horizon was in on it too.  As much as we conceded to them in the treaties, they still wallow in their inferiority, using their resources inefficiently, no doubt they crave more, while we've been sustainable, excelling even, despite our limited resources.  I don't know why we even agreed to the treaties, we should have known that they'd never be satisfied until they'd fulfilled their hatred towards us and wiped us from the galaxy."