The skies of Alphonse were always blue. There were never clouds. In some way they meant there was never any rain either so the ground was so dry it cracked and shattered. But those skies, dotted with the brightest sun he’d ever seen. He hated the fact that he could never just stare at it. Looking at that blue sky hurt his eyes. The times he did see the sky. That the sun was blocked by something else mesmerized him. Captivated his mind and almost hypnotized him. The last time he remembered being that enamoured was when his mom died. These skies however were crude imitations. He saw it in its single color nature, the way the steel made it flat and dead. The real sky was a spectrum of blues. All changing blending into each other, only really noticeable when directly compared. The real sky also had depth making it look like an infinite void of blue that coated the heavens. But maybe he was nitpicking. Maybe from the ground the colony's fake sky was more convincing. The clouds were rather convincing however. Probably because they were real. The metro he was riding in made for a nice highlight of the city. A perfect sky line with silver pillars. A sky lined with monorails creating a cage over its entirety. But most if not all places like this were always hiding some kind of underbelly. Jax was sitting against the long end of the metro next to a couple of other people. Most were probably commuting. In some way Jax was doing the same. Just that his job probably involved a bit more death than normal. He was slouched in his seat with his bag clenched between his legs and his note book resting on his lap. The thing was a shell of its former self. The leftover pages were loosely attached to the whole with string and tape. The cover was equally as damaged. The fake leather coating ripped and mostly discarded. Replaced with plastic sheets layered on top of each other to maintain some sort of cover. Inside there were only a few empty pages left. He had already filled some of his current page with faces. Most left before he could finish their likeness. But his current muse probably forgot their station. She was an old woman, saggy skin, old synth clothes that should probably be thrown away by this point and equally as old glasses hanging from the tip of her long nose. She had been there as long as him and basically fell asleep as soon as she hit the chair. The imitation of her in his note book was as crude as the rest with the nose greatly exaggerated and the glasses rings being too small to fit eyes, giving the drawing a creepy no eye look. The sketch amused him more than the rest of his normal work. Its exaggeration had a comedic effect, even if he felt a little bad for portraying this old woman as a long nosed, vacant eyed ghoul. “Platform 40” the automatic announcement said. The standard shuffle of people once again started with Jax joining in with the choir. He stuffed the notebook into the inside pocket of his poncho and slung the bag onto his back. He exited the metro and found himself on a large platform. People hurried and scurried through the platform, some more hurried than others. But between the masses was a single silhouette that stuck out. A robotic figure standing there with its hands behind its back. Jax knew it was waiting for him. Working his way through the crowd he eventually reached the machine who, the second he was within standard talking distance enthusiastically greeted him. The crowds thinned as the metro pulled away and the robot spoke: “Hello there! You appear to match the appearance of the person I am waiting for. Are you Jackson Al-”

  “Yeah, and I’m Jax. Not Jackson.”

  “Ah, it appears you have a different name than the person I’m waiting for then. Please move along.”

  “No, wait. I am… Jackson Alcreed… I just GO by Jax.”

  “Ah ha! Understood. For the purposes of our transactional meeting I will have to refer to you by your full name however.”

  “If you do that I will throw you off the top of this platform and shoot you three times in the chest…”

  “Violence will not be tolerated however I recognise that you would rather go by…Jax… so from here on out I shall refer to you as such.”

  “Great, let's get moving.” Jax said, turning his back.

  “Let us!”

  “So… a couple questions.” Jax said as the two walked through the streets of the city.

  “Please ask. I am here for all Corvus operatives!”

  “Right… First, Who or what are you? Like what do I call you.”

  “I am a service and general purpose autonomous machine powered by a spatially aware N.E.C. While I do not have a name per se you may call me by. I have a service number you may refer to me by; 18-15-66-01.”

  “There is no way I am remembering all of that. How about… douchebag?”

  “Sadly that is not my service number. It is 18-15-”

  “Seccondly. When do I get my Argonaut and work. I was promised one for the purpose of my work. If you have a job lined up do the brief here and now. Lets just get this over with.”

  “Very good question Jax. Your Argonaut is sadly not ready yet and requires us to pick it up. That will also be your first job.”

  “Excuse me? My first job is that of a postman?”

  “Incorrect! This job requires expertise that you alone possess as well as those of someone else we are going to meet now.”

  “Right… the most dangerous job ever. Paper work.”

  “I assure you, that there will be no paper work in this endeavour."

  “So you need my “expertise” to complete a job that has me acquiring an Argonaut, without paper work, without an Argonaut, and while having this random new guy tagging along for the ride. Safe to say that I'm well and truly baffled.”

  “Once again. There will be a briefing once we meet with our partner.”

  “Nice…” The two then continued to walk through the smaller streets of the large colony. The entire city was a massive space colony floating around the Mariana System. The trek to cylindrical habitation was certainly not worth the pay off in Jax’s eyes. It just looked like every other city he’d been to. A gleaming sky line with a nasty underbelly where those couldn’t afford the luxury bubbles the massive sky towers offered lived and worked. Every city was the same. This particular variation of the classic Orion Arm era city was a layered cage of walkways between the massive buildings, followed by the metro systems and finally the dome of steel that, as much as it hurt Jax to admit, was a bit more convincing from the ground. The streets were rather spacious with houses and bars of the less fortunate making up the foundation of the larger buildings. It was all rather vertically built, not much on the ground level but with entire streets suspended in the air, holoprojected adverts hanging from underneath. But Jax and the robot were not up there with the rest of society. Instead they were on ground zero. The homeless and trash are building together on the sides of its maze-like foundation. Flickering lights illuminating the dingy street. After a brief walk through this less than unpleasant street. The Robot stopped at the door to an apartment complex. A single door with a large row of buttons to the left. The robot then pressed one and a screeching ping came from the speaker. It was followed by the faint sounds of muffling and human mumbles. “Hello Archam Chedder.” the robot politely said

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  “Who, what? How do you know my name… are you looking for… service?”

  “Oh my god he’s a hooker” Jax thought to himself.

  “Indeed, we require your unique service. If you remember I spoke to you over the phone. It is Service unit 18-15-66-01.”

  “S-s-service unit…w-wait you actually came!” Jax then stepped forward, shoving the unit aside and loudly blaring into the telecom “Listen buddy just open the goddam door, we all got places to be!”

  “Who the fuck is this!? Archam asked with a mix and anger and fear

  “Your fucking killer if you don’t open the goddam door!”

  “F-Fine…” Archam said before another screeching ping sounded and the door clicked open.

  “Sometimes all they need is an ultimatum” Jax said walking into the dingy apartment.

  The two walked up countless flights of stairs before reaching the door of this strange man. The robot knocked twice and from behind the thin plastic door were the sounds of rummaging scurrying as on the telecom before it opened slightly, the door being held back by a small chain. "You two are the guys from telecom?” Archam said, his voice was like that of a rat if it could talk. Pausing slightly between words or saying them in a hurried manner as if to make up for lost time.

  “Correct Mister Cheddar. I am service unit 18-15-66-01 and this is our newest operative. Jackson Al-”

  “Jax. Call me Jax.”

  Two blood shot eyes from behind the door looked Jax up and down before replying “Huh, guess Corvus will hire anyone nowadays.” Before the door slammed and countless locks were slowly unplugged. ‘Says you…” Jax softly said to himself before walking into the apartment.

  Inside, the floor was a wash with filth, trashbags, empty wrappers, and mechanical components and cables. The piss yellow walls were adorned with posters and shelves and shoved up to one of the sides of the single room apartment was a bed with some less than hygienic stains all over it. On the opposite wall was a large desk cluttered with tools, small devices and other mystery items. In the center was Archam Cheddar, slowly walking back to his desk. The man was slender, on the taller end of things and had frizzy brown hair that was covered in grease with grey shoots making their way through and a pair of goggles keeping the strands from his eyes.. He wore a long grey coat and shorts, along with a shirt that read “This free shirt was provided by frizzo! The ultimate sweet beverage for your tastebuds!” He sat back down on the chair, slipper covered feet perched on the stool and continued what he was probably doing. “Cosy place you’ve got here.” Jax remarked, closing the door behind him.

  “We can’t all afford the luxury apartments, "weapon "."

  “Weapon?-”

  “Jax. This is Archam Cheddar, he is a freelancer that my specific Corvus division has contracted many times. He has worked with countless operatives and before and will be your team mate. As his previous team was slaughtered a few days ago.”

  “I survived because of my superior intelligence!" Archam said, whistling a finger into the air as if to support his claim.

  “Alright… nice to know that everyone under Corvus has a few screws loose.”

  “Oh, it's required weapon! That is what makes Corvus so special to me.”

  ‘Can you drop the whole weapon thing by the way. I am a person.”

  “Oh please all Argonaut pilots are just weapons. They kill and kill and kill until they break and end up causing more harm to their allies than their friends.”

  Jax took a slight step forward, ready to grab Archam but the robot quickly chimed in, catching Jax’s attention “Now, Archam, you have already received the briefing for our new operatives mission so why don’t you relay the information to him and then we can start making our way to the ship.” Archam sighed, dropping whatever he was working on before and spun around to meet Jax’s eyes. “Okido. So, our mission is to steal this fancy-pantsy Argonaut from this scrap yard. It's being shipped to some snob-nosed buyers over at Aries and we need to snatch it up before the ship arrives to pick up their package." The mention of Aries piqued Jax’s interest, seeing everything that has happened, so did the nature of its current location.

  “A scrap yard? Don’t tell me the Argonaut you people have lined up for me is a hunk of junk.”

  “A hunk of junk was pulled from some kinda abandoned research facility in the anti-sector. And the buyer is offering some serious cash . They put 590,000 Vaux on the table for the chassis alone. The scrap yard has actually employed three separate companies to refurbish its internals. Adding up to a total of 940566 vaux in total.”

  “What?” Jax says, snapping his head back to the robot. “What the hell was a thing doing in a scrap yard if a buyer is offering almost a million Vaux for the thing?”

  “The Corvus big wigs aren’t certain why” Archam continues “But that's half the mission, finding out what this thing is, and getting you a machine.” He steps off his stool and hands Jax an ID card with some sort of mechanical attachment covered in wires with a battery attached to the back. “The plan is rather simple, assuming you got your head screwed on straight. We enter the facility using these ingenious fake IDs I've been working on for the past week posing as the delivery crew. We gain access to the delivery schedule, change it to our ID’s and drive away where we meet up with an exact vehicle and get off world. A rather flawless plan if i do say so myself”

  “Ok…” Jax said, slightly perplexed by the whole ordeal “Right so we’re gonna break in, switch up some files and just drive out.”

  “Sort of.” Archam said, rustling some things together and stuffing them in a bag. “This company basically just stumbled upon it when they bought an old research facility to suck dry of spare parts. Details are…fuzzy to say the least but that's why we're jacking this thing.”

  “Correct!” the robot says “Raymond mechanical engineering is-”

  “Spare me the details robot. Just tell me why you need me?” Jax says, turning his focus to the machine.

  “Ah, understood, fast forward through back round information…. Complete. Jax, Corvus requires your augmentation to pilot the machine if necessary. Raymond M.E has contracted local mercenaries and PMC’s to guard the area because of the high profile buyer and high price of the machine. They have many Argonauts and ground teams so in the event that we are caught you will pilot it to combat the enemy.”

  “Happy to hear you all have such high expectations of me but if you want me to take on an entire PMC by myself then I'll have to disappoint you.”

  “Oh don’t worry, weapon, my expectations are borderline bottomless. That’s why we're going quiet.. Here take this.” Archam says as he throws a jumpsuit at Jax. “Besides, if things do go Tits up. You’ll get to go out in a blaze of glory.”