Afterwards, food and drink were brought in to the FIP office, and the pilots partied until everyone had ended up sleeping much of the next day away on the floor.

When the members of Section Nine had finally woken up, they carried themselves back to the Blue Steel to clean themselves up.

Fortunately, the medical nanomachines that flowed within their bodies prevented any sort of hangover, but even still, the intensity of the party had left the group exhausted. Rather than push themselves needlessly, they took the rest of the day off and it was only the second day after the great Sigma Hive mission's completion that they start their preparations to leave the Carkul System.

Hawkins was busy selling many of the drops collected after the mission and gathering what antimatter he could without spending too much. He also spent some time on the size studying the markets of the nearby systems, comparing the prices of thing that were available to purchase at Carkul Station.

The other three, on the other hand, were making what preparations they needed to make before leaving the system.

The greatest one was deciding what system to jump to next. While they did want to purchase a remote control module so that Kosmos could directly control the Bounty to cut down the time spent gathering loot after major battles, their greatest concern was finding decent work.

While they could produce it themselves once they took the time to scoop fuel from a star to fill the Blue Steel's massive tanks, it was generally far more efficient to do jobs and purchase antimatter to move around. The particle collider installed on the carrier had a very low yield, causing the wing to have to wait weeks or even months in between jumps.

Back in Stella Nova, time moved twelve times faster, allowing the generation of antimatter through the collider to be reasonable enough that they could rely on that method if they were only going to jump the carrier once a day or two. Though most of the time they simply left it in deep space instead and only had it jump when the wing started straying far in a particular direction, or when they wanted to use one of the carrier's facilities in a mission.

Now though, the members of Section Nine were wary of leaving the ship alone. Though they trusted Kosmos to handle the carrier fine, the laws stated that she wasn't allowed to fight back if someone had found her.

Though the real reason was that they just didn't want to leave her alone. The four saw the AI as a fully fledged member of their wing, so they didn't want to go off to a new system and leave her behind.

With Hawkins in his own world as he worked on the economics side of things, the other three discussed their next course of action.

"So yea, I was thinking, a black bikini. Wouldn't that be perfect?"

"A...bikini?"

A little bit to his disappointment, Kelly noted that his suggestion wasn't able to elicit a change to Kosmos's expression.

"Seriously? Making Kosmos wear a bikini on the bridge? You pig."

Susannah looked at her fellow wing mate in disdain, not holding back at all in insulting him.

"...Pig."

Sherry joined in, matching her best friend's expression. Though right after, she took a swig at the shot of whisky in her hand. Without anything pressing in the immediate future, the newly born alcoholic decided that there was no need to hold back on one of her favourite joys.

"Oh c'mon! That's unfair! I know you two would love to see her in a black bikini!"

"That's that, this is this."

Susannah motioned with her hands, emphasizing the minute difference. Though quickly, she turned to her friend and imagined her wearing just that sort of outfit.

"Hmm...no. A one piece would suit her better..."

"Hmm?"

Sherry looked back, realizing she was being stared at.

"Ah, I was wondering. What sort of swimsuit would you like to try wearing, now that you're a girl."

"Huh. If if was for me..."

Sherry looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the various styles she's seen over the years. Those that she liked looking at, those she distinctly felt envious being unable to wear. Then she thought about what her current figure was like, with the limited experience she had examining her new self, and compared it with those outfits she was familiar with.

"...Maybe a paero..."

The black haired girl sheepishly looked up as she muttered the idea.

"A paero huh? I was thinking you'd look good in a swim romper...But yea. A paero would look great!"

"A swim romper?"

Sherry tilted her head, unfamiliar with the term.

"Ah, it looks like a summer one-piece, but with a short skirt. It's also called a swim dress. I was thinking a black one with white flowers would look good on you."

Sherry's body shook as her eyes lit up.

"There's such a thing?! I wonder if we can get any?"

"We probably can. For that matter, why don't we get both? We can decide which one'll make you look cuter afterwards!"

"Yea!"

"I hope you two are done, because I gotta ask you. Where do you think you're gonna find a pool?"

""Ah!""

"Or especially a beach. Planet side wasn't exactly a thing in Stella Nova, and something as huge and resource intensive as a pool is probably gonna be pretty rare. What do you think, Kosmos?"

"It is as Captain Kelly says. Pools can usually only be found at high end hotels and other entertainment facilities that specialize in water activities. Neither of which are available in any of the nearest systems."

"See? Though I won't object if you two decide to wear swimsuits on the ship even without a pool."

Sherry and Susannah looked at each other for a brief moment before turning their looks of disgust straight at Kelly.

""Pig.""

But the large man wasn't particularly disturbed by the word at this point, and simply shrugged his shoulders.

*Beepbeepbeep!*

"Oh, a call."

Susannah swiped at her arm tattoo and a holographic window appeared.

"Hi Gregory. How are you doing?"

The wing commander started talking to the man beyond her comm window.

"Hey Sherry."

"What is it?"

While a little annoyed that her chance to go back to drinking was interrupted, the little stealth expert turned to her friend.

"How long do you plan on hiding in Susannah's shadow when in public?"

"What do you mean?" She turned away to take a sip of whisky.

"What I mean is, all of us are now minor celebrities. The more we work, the more we'll stand out. We were top players back in Stella Nova, and we'll end up standing out over here too. You can't just pretend to be invisible and make Susannah handle everything for you."

"She's the leader, and she actually likes the spotlight. I don't see what's wrong with letting her take my share too."

"It's not about letting. It's about you deliberately trying to evade it despite already having some hardcore fans."

"Ugh. I don't need fans." Sherry visibly shook for a moment as memories of two days prior came flooding back in.

The pilot wouldn't consider herself a sadist in the slightest. Rather, she shirked away at the sight of people treating her that way and enjoying it.

"It's not about what you need, it's about how others act regarding you."

But despite his words, Kelly ended up sighing.

"Well, whatever. You'll have to confront it someday, even if you're sprinting away from it at full strength right now."

"...We'll see about that." Sherry mumbled before filling her glass again and taking a large swipe of it.

"Step on me, mommy! Hehehe!"

"You fucker!" Sherry threw her nearly empty bottle at Kelly, who deftly caught the half-hearted assault. He continued to laugh as the other slumped down in her seat.

"...alright. I'll talk to the others about it."

As things quieted down between Sherry and Kelly, so too did Susannah's call end soon after.

"Is something up?" Kelly asked.

"Gregory got a call from the Amauron FIP branch. It seems that they're making a call for pilots for a major operation in the Amauron system."

"The Amauron system?"

Sherry glanced up at Kosmos's figure, who promptly erected a star chart.

"The Amauron system is one hundred sixty five light years away from the Carkul system. Population: twenty nine million. Economic specialization leans towards industrial components, though there is also a strong star ship production ecology as well."

"Looks like it'll be worth checking out just for shopping." Kelly noted. Though the other two didn't exactly show as much enthusiasm there.

"Did he say what sort of job it was?"

"Ah yes. Apparently they're going to start a major sweep of pirates, so they wanted experienced pilots to help out."

"Isn't telling us that basically the same as telling those pirates to hole up and hide somewhere for a while?" Sherry asked, skeptically.

"Gregory said that it's pretty hush hush. He's not allowed to talk about it outside of those he recommends, it seems."

"Would that really be enough?"

"No. Not even close." Sherry affirmed Kelly's suspicion. "I bet the real job is something much bigger."

"Like what?"

"A void raid." A smug smile floated up on the little pilot's face.

Susannah's heart skipped a beat as she looked on at her friend. For a moment, she cursed at how distant the seats were spread apart on the bridge. She was unable to satisfy the urge to pat or hug her friend.

"You really think so?" Kelly leaned in as he grew excited as well, though for a completely different reason from Susannah.

"I think it's the only real explanation. Normal pirate subjugation operations can't be announced as they'll just find out about it and hide. Besides. There's little benefit to FIP to make a concentrated effort to wipe out pirates in an area. It's better to just let pilots hunt on their own and reap the long term benefits as they'll never over hunt pirates without external pressure."

"How callous." While Kelly grinned and called Sherry out, he too felt the same. In the end, pirates were just a source of income for the members of FIP. He, just like the rest of Section Nine, did have reservations regarding the idea of killing actual people, but his instincts as a gamer was also very strong here.

Void raids themselves were special events that players of Stella Nova could initiate through the discovery of a void base, usually through hunting pirates and collecting their data. Void bases were bases made by outlaws in the deep space in between systems. Due to how vast deep space was, it was generally impossible to discover something hidden there through any normal means. Only through finding solid data regarding the location of a void base could you find them.

And void bases, due to their nature, tended to have large populations of outlaws, usually pirates, though they could be other types of outlaws. And a large population meant that there was a high difficulty to crushing one of these bases. For Stella Nova, cruising a void base was their version of an MMO's raid, having to bring both quantity and quality to complete these events. Hence, they were known as void raids.

"Well, either way, I think it's worth trying out. It'll be a good experience for us, on top of the fact that I'm betting the pay is good, regardless of if the description really is accurate or not, right?"

"Ah yes. It says they'll pay a hundred thousand per person just for participating."

"See? A half mil, and vital experience fighting a different type of enemy. No matter how much experience we have from before, it doesn't mean that it'll translate well in this universe."

"Right. Who'd have thought that we'd face a rank ten Sigma Hive."

The others nodded to Kelly's words.

In Stella Nova, Termite Hives had ranks attached to them to determine the difficulty of defeating them. Ranks one through four were all considered beginner raids. All of them were accomplishable without too much customization for the players' ships, though the higher ranks needed either better ships and pilots, or simply more of them to compensate. But at rank five, that was where sheer numbers couldn't compensate for the difficulty. They required specialized weapons to break through the hardened shields employed by these hives. Things like Kelly's unguided torpedoes or Susannah's mass driver were enough. Sherry's antimatter torpedoes were considered overkill, though nobody would complain if they were used, as it did speed up the raid considerably.

But at rank ten, no quantity or quality of firepower from normal ships piloted by players were enough to deal with the defences of the Hive. At that point, the weapons of a capital grade ship was required.

Actually, Sherry's antimatter torpedoes were considered as part of the lower end of a capital grade weapon, and was enough to breach the shields of most capital ships when used properly. However, the quantity her Valkyrie carried wasn't enough to break through a rank ten hive's shields. That was because the shield was hardened beyond normal, but in exchange, rather than being restored when it was taken down by being over saturated, these sorts of shield generator were destroyed.

A normal ship's shield generator would simply need to recharge over a period of a few minutes to bring its shields back online. Even an hour was enough for most capital ships' shields. But since a hive's shields continue to operate until they reach their saturation limit, once that happens, the amount of energy flowing through a shield's system would cause the generators to burn out or even explode. Modern shield generators had safeties to prevent such an event, so that was why while they were far less powerful, it was quick and easy to bring them back online.

Due to this, the ships engaging a rank ten hive would need to be specifically equipped to output sufficient firepower as part of one single burst. That was what Sherry attempted by firing all her antimatter torpedoes at once combined with Susannah's gauss cannon. That would've been enough for even a rank nine hive, or even excessive. No member of Section Nine predicted that they were facing a rank ten hive. Such a thing was quite unusual, and unlike during the days of Stella Nova, you didn't get some menu showing you what sort of mission you were accepting with perfect accuracy.

"But...wouldn't we only get four hundred thousand? I don't think they'll count Kosmos as part of our numbers."

"That is correct. I am an asset of Section Nine, not a member."

"No way! I don't care she's an AI! Kosmos is one of us!"

Jumping up to her feet, Sherry stepped over to the holotable the AI's avatar was being projected from and looked up, her eyes exuding intensity. How much of this was due to the alcohol, none of them were really sure, though her flushed cheeks were quite telling.

"I feel the same way. I don't care if legally she's a possession. Kosmos is part of our crew!"

Slamming his chrome fist onto the bridge council, Kelly added his own sober feelings to the mix.

"The sentiment is appreciated. However it wouldn't pass, legally speaking."

"I don't care." Sherry shook her head. "You've been with us for years. Even if your origin is a bit different, we're still proud to call you a part of Section Nine!"

"I...I thank you."

Sherry gave an ear to ear grin as the ship's onboard AI lowered her head. A warm smile crept up onto Kelly's lips at witnessing Kosmos's response. But it quickly disappeared and his jaw gaped a little open when he noticed for the first time a Sherry patting a little white stuffed bunny in a military uniform was sitting on the holotable. He had no recollection of it being there, nor when it had appeared, but he was sure it wasn't there a few minutes ago.

But the fact remained, it was still there as the stealth expert returned to her seat and went back to drinking.

"Well, legalities aside, how does everyone feel about this job?"

"I'm all for it." Kelly responded, forcing his thought from the mystery surrounding the toy.

"Me too."

"What about you, Kosmos?"

"I have objection."

"Alright then. That's four out of five for the job. I'll talk to Hawkins and if he agrees, we'll head off to the Amauron system next."

After that, the four continued to talk until their missing member arrived. And once the job request was explained to him, they were left with a unanimous vote to accept the job.