[center][h1][color=00a651][b][u]NERO KAYAKOS[/u][/b][/color][/h1][/center]

The reaction of Gabriel brought a wicked grin to Nero's as the straight-edged bodyguard delivered a stunning blow to Joey Ego.

[i][color=00a651]Heh heh heh...  A well-timed outburst.  Eat crow, ya piece of shit![/color][/i]

He continued to chuckle as the guy attempted to downplay and talk his way out of it, but he had been judged.  Ain't no Ascendancy morons, no matter [i]what[/i] their sympathies may be, gonna force them to be good little soldiers ever again.  Anything like that goes on, and they'll be finding bits of remains for [i]weeks[/i], guaranteed!  Apart from that, conversations got a little dry.  After all, alot of this was just window dressing until 'Hey, so here's your mission!', let's be honest.  OR at least, it [i]would[/i] be, if a few ummm...odds and ends hadn't walked in.  Topping the list appeared to be a small mecha, and 'small' wasn't exactly true.  It was big, just not [i]Big McLargeHuge[/i].  Naturally, there were some questions about this thing as it passed everyone on its way to the cafeteria.  Nero decided to follow everyone else's curiosity as they attempted to figure out what the wandering war machine was all about.

As it turned out, 'wandering war machine' was probably the right thing to call it, as Nirrti answered earnestly that 'she' was a fully-independent battle machine - rather, an AI in charge of that robot body like Natasha was in charge of the Xuanxang.  Something about it appealed to Nero.  This wasn't like that business with Realist at all.  This was more like talking to a born killer, which he liked.  Not so pleasant was the strange trio - kid included - that was finishing each other's sentences like that.  Yeah, you take turns, but [i]not like that![/i]  So, while others were busy being diplomatic with them, Nero decided to sidle over to Nirrti and see if he could deliver a useful tidbit of information to her.

[color=00a651]"Hey, just so you know...  You see that blondey, over there?"[/color]

He was pointing over at Joey.

[color=00a651]"That guy isn't part of the official command structure.  He's a freakin' dumbass, and he doesn't know what the hell he's doing.  I wouldn't suggest taking any orders from him unless it makes sense to you.  You should just [i]pretend[/i] to follow 'im, and do what [i]you[/i] think is right."[/color]

[i]That[/i] might plant a seed or two the way he liked it.  After all, if she's an independent thinker, she can see when someone's out of their head.  Anyway, things moved on and Nero merely pocketed his MRE.  An MRE was for emergency.  He'd probably end up doing what he did in wartime when someone handed him this piece of shit: Bide his time and steal something better!  All in all, things moved on - Nero didn't care much about the stock market talk - until Maria came in with Alan and uhh...more trouble.  It actually filled in a few blanks about what REALLY happened down at the Bazaar.  This was all basically a setup, and the ones responsible seemed to have some abilities of their own.  This led to one clear decision.

[color=00a651]"Talk to Moonstrike?  No shit!  Seems we've been in the crosshairs since Plenty when Squad 0 showed up.  First, [i]they[/i] start dogging us, then a pair of bounty hunters show up at the Bazaar looking for Mr. White Flames, and then the guy himself [i]mysteriously[/i] loses control of his powers and everyone's attacked by monsters and shadows while these new guys fuck around with the ship.  If you don't see a goddamn link by now, you need new eyes and [i]a new head[/i] to match!"[/color]

What seemed clear to Nero was that they might indeed all be linked, that someone might've been paying them all off - Squad 0, bounty hunters, pirates, etc. - to make life hard an an independent mercenary company of rebellious soldiers.  Well, [i]fuck them![/i]