"Alright! Today's AAA meeting is now in session!" A man in a white uniform stood on the stage set up in the AAA's personal conference room. The room was large, having a main conference area with a wide table to seat all the members, one stage area equipped with a Net-Comm projector to show data and the like, and one bathroom.

The man, Sergeant Rade Blunner, was a White Knight shipper and co-founder of the New and Old AAA. A menacing scar ran diagonally from his left temple across his face to his chin. How he got it, he refuses to say, not even to his second in command, Slip Snap.

Slip Snap was the first sat on the right, his smile apparent on his face. These meetings were never quite his style as he was a "Warrior", but he could pretend to like the strategy meet-ups and nod his head along every once in a while. In combat is where he truly flourished! A force of uncontrollable chaos, I believe is how Rade once described him. He was toying around with his specialized bat on the table top.

To his right sat Venom Ahab. A quiet man but also a fearsome fighter with one hell of an aim. Officially, he is counted as a foot-soldier of Lancaster. Which is fine because he's damn-good at fighting. He looks at Rade on stage with his eyes hidden behind a pair of dark shades. Venom reached under the table and pulled out a flask before taking a large swig of it. His own pre and post meeting ritual.

Skipping over the empty seat to Venom's right, sat Torrasque, a Tactician of the Legion. His attire was a simple white uniform with an emblem of White Knight, the Legion's upper-management standard uniform. He flipped through several pages before finding an empty page to begin new notes.

On the other side of the table, starting from the top, was Strike. Oligarch and Pilot of Arkos, he almost single-handedly restored all of Arkos' former power during Ship Survivor. At the moment, he was recovering from one of the hardest hitting hangovers to ever come upon him and with that came some memory loss of the night before. A text on his Net-pad caught his attention because of the loud notification sound and the startling message.

To his left was Blue Whale King, the other co-founder of the New AAA and the reason for the first. The Aquatic Mammalian King wore one of his best uniforms with his most elegant royal purple cape. He was the definite brawn to the Arkos Starfleet. His warring ways and rather influential charms made him essential to the AAA's plan for victory.

To Whale's left were Cayde and Vaniellis, code named Sulfur and Cyan, two other Whale-Humanoids. The two were sort of meant to be Whale's helpers but overtime the three have come to respect each other greatly. Wearing similar outfits to Whale's, sans the cape, the two looked toward the man on stage.

On the further end of the table sat McDouggal. The only Milk and Cereal representative there. He sat in his chair with a tired look on his face. He looked at all the men around him with a sense of uneasiness. Why was he here? As far as he knew, there was no need for Milk and Cereal to be there except to honor the old AAA and he didn't even want to be a part of it back then! This was all some big mistake that he just couldn't seem to get out of.

Rade cleared his throat. "We've only got a small amount of time before the Starting Ceremony begins, so we'll just run over this week's most important points! Now then, Generic, read back yesterday's minutes and we can begin the meeting properly!" Rade waited for a while, not hearing anything. "What the?" he turned around to find that the young strategist was nowhere to be found. "Where in the hells is Generic?!" he turned back to the group.

Torrasque raised his hand. "Well…Generic's been gone for the past three days."

Rade looked surprised. "What? Quit messing with me Torrasque, I heard him read back the minutes to Wednesday's meeting just yesterday!" now he looked slightly peeved.

Now Blue Whale King spoke up. "Well that's because we've been using Vaniellis to do his Generic impression for the past three days." He gestured to the Whale next to him. "Though after our incursion to the Karaoke Bar yesterday, Cyan's lost his voice." To prove his point, Cyan opened his mouth and a raspy breath was forced out. "See?"

Rade's eye twitched and he face palmed. "You mean to tell me that Generic's been absent for the past three meetings?!"

Everyone looked at each other around the table and then shrugged.

The man sighed. "Whale, mind going out to look for Generic? The Grand Hostess is announcing the results of the write-in round today and it would look really weak to not have all members of the AAA there."

Whale looked annoyed. "What?! Why do I have to do it? Why can't Slip do it?"

At the mention of his name Slip Snap's head looked up from his bat. "I'd love to go!" A smile formed on his face.

Rade shook his head. "No. We're not risking…." He looked to Slip's clueless face. "…losing another valued member looking for Generic." Slip Snap nodded and returned to polishing his bat. Rade let out a breath of relief, dodging a pretty loose bullet with that one.

"Then why am I going?! Surely, the co-founder should also go and show this alliance's strength!" Whale stood up. McDouggal rolled his eyes, this had become a natural incident in these "meetings" from what he observed. Rade would take charge and attempt to play out leader and challenge Whale's authority accidentally, this would resort to these two bickering until-

"Whale, you have to go because it was your idea to bring him." Strike coolly said without looking up from his device. "Not to mention out of all of us, you know him the best and it would take you less time than anyone of us going to look for him."

Until Strike comes by and shuts one, the other, or both up. It was interesting that neither of them had caught on to this pattern, or maybe they had but ignored it so they can keep their delusions of leadership. McDouggal found this cycle almost comedic, almost. But even he had to admit that these things can get annoying.

Whale looked around as everyone adverted their eyes and sighed. "Fine! But I'm only checking his room and if he's not there I'm going to the Starting Ceremony!"

Venom raised his hand. "Actually, he's not in his room, he went to the Feed Archive on Monday and hasn't been back to the room since." Venom pointed out.

"Great, that's like 20 floors down…" Whale growled and made his way to the door. "Cyan, Sulfur, take notes and relay them to me when I get back!"

Cyan simply pointed at his open mouth.

Whale face-palmed. "Fine! Cyan, take notes and Sulfur, read them back to me when I get back!" Whale delegated as he closed the door behind him.

Two Days before the AAA's Karaoke Night…

Blue Whale King was excited. His good friend, Strike, walked alongside him as they made their way to the "Docks".

The Docks was where armies arrived en masse to be stationed as Minute-Troops. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers all bunked there in small, cramped quarters called the Barracks. Also in the Docks were the ships and aircraft soldiers would be deployed in. The Minute-Troops were always the first to enter the Anomaly Portals and begin the combat until reinforcements could arrive…or not. Every Nation sends in Minute-Troops as well as a select few of Representatives who can fight, to be prepared at a moment's notice for combat.

Today was a special day for Whale as the Arkosian troops were to arrive today. He loved interacting and getting to know the fearless soldiers he was to lead into battle before the fighting even began. It showed a sense of camaraderie in his troops and made people want to work for him as opposed to his soldiers feeling they have to work for him.

"Are you as excited as I am Strike?!" Whale pumped his fist in the air.

"Hm? Oh yeah. I hear that this year has quite a number of promising pilots. I just wonder if they can operate a mech, leading that division singlehandedly has been…irksome, to say the least." Strike typed out a message on his Net-pad.

"It will feel so good to get away from all the meetings!" Whale stretched as the door to the Docks came into view.

It had been about two days since their arrival and while this new alliance they've made with other ships was rocky, it still looked promising.

This plan was presented to them by Generic way back in FNKI after the Whale War ended, he presented them the scenario of a coalition of Ships and factions united to fight multiple enemies, similar to when the smaller ships had teamed up to fight Whale not that long ago. The plan was…simple to say the least, a system of Quid Pro Quo on a much larger scale than Arkos was used to. And yet oddly, this plan sounded very familiar to Strike. Like he's heard this plan before, but his mind had blocked that memory out.

He didn't mind it much, after all, the plan had more layers than originally presented and if things played out correctly then maybe Arkos could land on top with a victory dedicated to the alliance.

Whale reached for the doors to Docks Area-T only for them to open before he could touch the handle. The doors opened to reveal a man in a white uniform with blazing red highlights. Inferno.

"Ah! Mr. Blue Whale! So nice to finally meet you!" The man crossed off something from a clipboard and began walking forward causing the two Oligarchs to walk backwards a bit.

Strike clenched his fists. "Inferno, do you need anything or..?" Strike scowled.

"Just needed to cross another event off my list! And while I'm here, might I ask if the powerful Oligarchy of Arkos would be interested in becoming one of Pollination's satellite ships?" Inferno flashed his brightest smile.

"I'm afraid that won't be happening any time soon, Inferno." Whale coldly said and pushed past the man and into The Docks area.

Strike walked up to Inferno with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about my friend's demeanor Inferno, what he meant to say is, thank you for the offer but we already have some previous arrangements made and it really would contradict our new friends by teaming up with you."

"Ah yes, the AAA." Inferno smiled knowingly much to Strike's shock. "So sorry that our interests don't align this time," he walked past the stunned man. "maybe next year, Strike." He turned his head to face Strike. "Until later, puppy." Inferno grinned deviously as he turned the corner.

How?! The AAA hadn't even been declared yet to the public and the whole operation was under lock and key and on a need to know basis. How the hell did Inferno find out?!

One name crossed his mind. "Celtic!" Strike growled and chased after Inferno. He turned the corner to find the man gone. No doors in sight until the end of the hallway and even then! The distance would be too long for him to escape and not to mention the possibility of not even making a noise to open the door. A hand grabbed his shoulder and he immediately turned around to face a blue snout.

"Whoa! Easy there, Strike!" Whale held his hands up defensively, much to Strike's surprise until he looked down at his belt where he saw his hand on the gun placed in its holster. He lowered it.

"I-I'm sorry Whale…I'm just on edge right now, I guess I have been for a while now…" Whale silenced, ever since Strike's been found he's been…off. Whale worried for his friend but didn't want to pry. "The Minute-Troops. Inferno. Celtic! The Princess has yet-" Strike's breathing began to speed up.

"Hey, hey, chill!" Whale tried to calm his friend down. "I know that things have been stressful lately, but I think that we should focus on the tournament most of all right now." Whale placed a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder.

Strike looked at the hand. "Yeah, you're right. It's just been one hell of a week." He eased up. "…Anyway, let's just meet the Minutes and go back to the AAA conference room."

Whale smiled. "Chin up, friend!" He turned around and wrapped an arm around Strike. "I heard from Slip that Rade went all out and made a reservation at some restaurant to celebrate the Alliance!" The two began walking towards the Docks. "Not only that, but I have someone I want to introduce you to! I'm sure you two will hit it off well!"

The two opened the doors to the Docks. All around the loading area were ships of Arkosian design with many pilots and soldiers making their ways from the ships to the Barracks. Standing a little ways off from the group was a man in a pilot's suit. The man looked anxious but in a good way, his hair was grey on the sides with a fluff of black on top despite this however, the pilot seemed very young. Whale made his way to the pilot and Strike followed.

"Strike, meet Mr. Penguino!" Whale gestured with his hand.

The man stood up to attention, being in the presence of two Oligarchs and what not. "S-Sir!" The pilot offered his hand to the Oligarch. "Pleasure to meet you, sir!"

Strike put his hand up. "There's really no need for all this 'sir' stuff! Please, just call me Strike!"

The pilot nodded furiously.

"Strike! Penguino here graduated as top of his class in the Academy! Which Academy was that again Penguino?" Whale asked with a smug smile.

"The Arkosian Freedom Flight Academy, sir! I mean….Mr. Whale!"

At this Strike smiled. "Huh, I guess around this time the first batch of graduates would be joining the forces." The Arkosian Freedom Flight Academy was founded a little bit after Ship Survivor in memory of Strike who, at the time, was MIA. Long story short, he was found but the Academy stayed, much to his embarrassment. "So, tell me Penguino, what courses did you take? I'm just curious as to what is offered at the academy."

Whale smiled. "Wait for it…"

"I- uh…took all of them! Air combat, Naval combat, and even some Mech Piloti-Are you okay sir?!"

Strike looked up at the ceiling, a single tear making its way down his cheek. "Thank you…"

Whale laughed as Penguino anxiously tried to figure out what was wrong with Strike.

"-neric! GENERIC!" A voice interrupted the Strategist's dreams.

"Mhhh?" The man lifted his face from the book with some difficulty as some of the drool made the pages stick to his cheek. "Whu…Whale? Hey buddy!" The Strategist gave a dopey smile.

"'Hey Buddy'?! Generic, you've been gone for three days!"

"Oh, was I?" he looked around the desk he had invaded and made his own with many books and discarded papers thrown about in no particular order. "I-I'm sorry, guess I got a little carried away...hehe."

Whale picked up a document seeing multiple familiar names. "What's this?" he flipped through a couple of pages. Images of maps, multiple old and new weapons, terrain facts, mud conditions. It looked like a sporadic mess.

"Oh that! I've been here developing multiple strategies the army of Lancaster can use for when they arrive tomorrow!" He picked up some books and with a long yawn he put them on some nearby carts. "I looked at over 55 different Anomalies, their war-based origins, and thought up a few strategical plays!"

Whale looked at the binder that was labeled Strategies. The binder was stuffed full of unorganized papers."55 huh, that's quite a lot…are you sure you're okay?" He turned to see Generic already tilting his head back and nearly falling asleep. "Generic!"

"Hm! Wha-huh?! I'm awake!" He opened his eyes.

Blue Whale King looked at his friend with a worried expression. He was tired, and it showed. Bags under his eyes, slumped shoulders, constant yawning. Whale sighed. "This is no good, the Starting Ceremony begins in a few minutes and you're ready to collapse!"

Generic shook his head furiously. "Nu-uh! For you see!" Generic began, a little tipsy. "This is exactly the kinda thing I trained for in the academy!" He nearly fell over but regained his composure.

"…you did?"

He nodded his head as he finished grabbing his research and began stuffing it in his book bag. "I trained myself to sleep walk!" he walked past Whale.

"Sleep…walk?"

"Yyes!" He slurred. "See, I would always stay up late to study for my classes but when it came down to it, I would always fall asleep once the teaching was done making me miss my next class!" he took one step forward. "To remedy this, I learned to walk in a straight line while asleep so I could rest up in between classes!" another step.

"That sounds…entirely unhealthy." Whale worried for the young man.

"It was!" he took another step forward. "So, Whale," the Oceanic Monarch raised an eyebrow. "I still can't turn corners so I'm relying on you to steer me!" another step as Generic closed his eyes.

"Wait wha-"

3 days before the AAA's Karaoke Night…

The warrior in Bee armor looked at her reflection in the mirror through her helmet. Her Bee uniform was drenched in purple soda, someone had found it immensely hilarious to throw their drink at her when she went out to dining hall.

It was her fault, really! She should've had at least a small group go with her! She shook those thoughts out of her head. Her sisters and brothers were all finalizing their bunks and personal battle crafts, and asking one of them would only impede them from doing so. The last thing she'd want is to be a bother.

Right now, she was in one of the single-occupant restrooms in Docks Area-B. She wiped at the purple stains on her armor. What a pain. She'd have to change some other time but for now she could deal with the bare minimum.

She pressed the two buttons on the back of the helmet simultaneously and with a hissing sound the metallic plates began to unhinge with a series of clicks and whirring noises. The plates pulled back and the woman was able to extract the helmet. The helmet came off with a horrible splotching noise.

The woman looked at the mirror and saw her face for the first time in a long time. Psiah.

Psiah was ranked as "Bee Keeper" in her platoon making her in charge of the Minute Troops in this Ship War. This would be her first time leading, and she was nervous. She excelled heavily in Hand-to-hand combat, group tactics, marksmanship, and aerial combat, these feats have made her one of the fastest among her peers to rise ranks. But with that came downsides…there always were.

Psiah wringed her hair out, dripping Purple soda into the sink.

One of the downsides was that she didn't have much of an idea how to lead. Sure, she could take down entire troops by herself if she had the right equipment. And she has too! But when it comes to giving orders, she was a novice.

She shook her head and wrung out what remained of the purple drink from her hair. Not that it would've been noticeable in her already purple hair, or behind her helmet, but it was more for her sake than anything else. She looked back at the helmet on the sink counter with a thoughtful glance.

The Helmet was standard for any Worker Bee, except the golden trim that served to outline the "eyes" and "mouth". That trim and a few other adjustments to her uniform is what set her apart from her peers. And yet these slight aesthetic changes reminded her even more of her new responsibilities.

Another back draw to her new rank, was the attention that came with it. Not only that of her peers, or her higher ups, but also of any attackers. She took the full brunt of it whenever people decided to lash out at her or her squadron. It was always in the most indirect ways too. Cowards the whole lot of them.

But it was of no matter to her what people thought. It didn't stop these childish attacks from being annoying, but Psiah knew that this was only a small price to pay for salvation.

A smile crept up to her face.

Yes, no matter how many people threw fizzy drinks in her face, or lashed out verbally, the Bees have finally gotten their edge. After two whole Volumes of near nothingness, it all came back full circle and the turns have tabled! It was there for all to see this Volume! THE BEES HAD THE ADVANTAGE!

People could lash out and whine and cry for all she cared! For all she cared, was that her and many of her brethren's prayers have been met with a bountiful reward~! The Bragg mines have never produced quite as much as they have all this past Volume and that number would only increase exponentially from now on! There has even been rumors of a secret celebration project the Hive has been preparing for and that they need as much Bragg as they can get!

Psiah's face steeled with a smile and a new found sense of resolve. This small victory in this year's Ship War would be a great push in the right direction and an easy thing to accomplish no doubt!

With Eclipse's forces all but going into hiding, there was only but a number of forces that could even pose a threat to the Hive!

A loud banging and buzzing from the other side of the door interrupted her train of thought. Instinctually she grabbed the opened helmet, wiped down the insides quickly, and placed it on her head as the plates begin whirring and connecting around her face.

She sighed with relief once the helmet finished closing around her face. Not wearing your helmet was a severe punishable offense if not under special circumstances. As Bee Keeper, Psiah had some leeway but not all of it.

The inside of the helmet hummed to life and lit up, showing her a bunch of holographic displays. Psiah went to the door and opened it to show a Worker Bee anxiously mid-knock. Upon seeing Psiah, the other Bee took a step back and a Psiah heard a voice inside of the helmet. The built in Net-Comms only accessible through the Bee's helmets.

"M-m-miss Psiah! I am so sorry! All the other b-bathrooms were occupied s-so I knocked on the first one I saw!" The worker bee nervously waved her hands frantically in front of her as if to shield herself from the Warrior Bee. "I-I-I can wait for another one!"

Psiah sighed. And one more downside, her troop feared her.

Psiah connected to the other Bee's helmet. "It's fine. Don't be unreasonable, go in this one." She walked off as the Worker Bee saluted and ran in. Psiah muted all outside noise as she walked to the barracks to get a change of clothes.

While she walked she was reminded of all the buzz her Workers were causing, pun, fully intended. She looked at all of them, working to the best of their abilities.

'That's right,' she thought, 'This War is just one more hurdle we need to pass.' So in the grand scheme of things, what's one or two more bullies with soda really gonna do?

Generic woke up, falling backwards.

He landed and opened his tired eyes to look up only to see a giant insect head looking down at him as if ready to attack and an equally menacing hand reaching out for him. "AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" He did what any sane person would do an began to back up, while still sitting down on the floor, until he ran into a pair of legs. He looked up and saw a giant whale head, this one however didn't freak him out.

The Bee soldier, who had her hand extended to help the young strategist out of his spot on the floor, took it back and clenched her fist before walking away with an aura of disappointment.

Generic wiped at his eyes as he saw the Bee soldier turn the corner. "Wuhappen?"

Whale, who's legs Generic had stumbled back on, sighed. "Well, after navigating you about half-way there, you walked into that Bee soldier."

Generic noticed that her uniform's design was different than the other Bees he'd seen around the Ship Hall and on his first day here. "Who…was that?"

"That would be Psiah of the Hive." A voice called out from behind them. The two turned around to see Celtic approaching the pair with a holographic video pulled up.

"Celtic…" Whale glared at the man while Generic covered his mouth on instinct.

"At ease Whale, and child," Celtic laughed as he threw the video he was watching at Generic's face. It stopped just a few seconds away and Generic saw him, sleep walking, and Whale, a few steps behind as who he now knew was Psiah, turned the corner. The two collided but Generic was the only one to fall back. "And you don't need to cover your mouth, this little video is payment enough."

Whale looked down at the video and then looked up to a security camera. "I see you hacked into the security camera systems." He turned to face the man. "I wonder what the Grand Hostess would say about the fact you're hacking her security systems."

Celtic simply smiled. "And I wonder what she'll say about the fact you have a smuggled representative, despite his nation's wishes!"

Generic looked at the ground with a guilty look. "Fine, what do you want Celtic?"

The hacker smiled. "I've been tracking your predicament for a while now," he crouched down to look at Generic's face. He cupped his face and shook him, the strategist was too tired to stop him. "Yeesh, he looks like crap. Well, more than usual that is. You know, as his babysitter, you're supposed to put a reasonable bed time for this little guy!" he ruffled the strategist's hair before standing up straight.

"For the last time-" Whale began but was cut off by Celtic.

"Whatever, I've lost interest." Celtic waved off the Whale's explanation. "Look, I can help you with your problem, if you want my help?" He extended his hand out.

Whale looked at his Net-watch and sighed. "Fine." Whale shook the hacker's hand.

A large smile made his way to Celtic's lips. "Wonderful!" He reached into one of his coat's pockets and pulled out a permanent marker. He crouched down and held Generic's face. "Alright kid, close your eyes." The marker neared the boy's eye. He did so and the world suddenly got dark.

"This might tickle a little bit." Celtic sneered.

Day of the AAA's Karaoke Night…

Celtic sighed in frustration at the rather noisy party that just walked in. He had chosen this bar because for as close to the Ship Hall as it was, it also was rather secluded.

"First round's on me boys!" A deep voice called out.

'Just ignore them, finish your drink and leave.' Celtic thought to himself as he took another sip of his beer.

"Alright," A song began to play in the background. "This song goes out to everyone out there tonight, who just wants to have a good time!" A familiar voice yelled behind him.

Celtic, despite his best attempt not to, looked behind him to see his old acquaintance, Strike, clearly drunk and slightly roughed up, on the dinky stage singing some foreign song that he couldn't recognize. He also took the time to look around room to find it mostly empty save for Strike's group and like, maybe 4 people all dispersed throughout the bar. Celtic held back a laugh as he saw Strike slurr out some syllables.

Actually, Celtic noticed that most everybody in Strike's group looked recently roughed up. Save for the Whale dudes.

"Aw shit." Celtic sighed as he ordered another drink, this he had to see. "Carl," ( ' U ` ) 7 "Start recording, this will make for some great black mail!"

4 drinks later….

"WOOO! GO SLIP SNAP!" Celtic called out as the odd soldier exited the stage. d ( */* ) b .Carl was also drunk...somehow. The rundown bar had somehow become more crowded as more and more people flooded in, curious as to what all the commotion was about, some even being Representatives Celtic knew. The man on stage, Slip Snap, had just performed a wonderful solo of I Will Survive and the entire bar filled with a cacophony of applause. This was getting a little out of hand.

Celtic could tell he was fairly wasted. As a familiar Aquatic Mammalian Monarch made his way up to the stage, Celtic took this as his sign to go. He paid the tab just as the epic power ballad music began, not really wanting to stick around for this part. After pushing past lesser peoples to reach the outside of the bar he saw a Karma on the floor.

"Heh, don't mind if I do!" he reached down to get it only for the Karma to elude his grasp. "What the?" He tried again, and again the paper avoided him.

Now, normally, Celtic would use his thinking muscle to reason that the Karma was making its way to the alley was clearly a trap.

"You get back here!" Now was not normally. The very drunk hacker made his way to the dark alley way and reached out for the now flying karma only for someone else to hold it in his hand.

Celtic immediately scowled upon recognizing the uniformed man. "Inferno.." he said, venom dripping from his voice.

"Ah, Celtic! What brings you by this neck of the woods?" the man smiled.

Celtic extended his hand out, like a child, waiting for someone to give him his toy back.

"You've always had such little patience, my friend." Inferno sighed and stuffed the Karma in his friend's palm with a handshake. As Celtic went to pull his hand away he found it rather hard to escape the uniformed man's handshake. "It's been a while since we talked, wanna catch up?"

Celtic, not having full brain capacity to make words just shook his head and yanked at his hand.

"Come on, I promise to make it worthwhile!" Inferno said with a wink. The man sped up in his attempts to escape his grasp. Inferno sighed. "Look, I just wanted to do something nice for Munkee!"

At this Celtic stopped trying to get loose. "…Alright, I'm listening, just let go of me." Inferno released his grip.

"Munkee's been so stressed out lately!" Inferno explained. "I just wanted to maybe…give him a reward for all he's done for us!" Inferno looked sincerely to his friend.

Celtic sighed. "What did you have in mind?"

"I say we make him a ship!" Inferno smiled.

"…A ship?" Celtic backed away a bit.

"Yes! A ship! If we ship him with a God he can stay for the whole Ship Wars even if the ship he currently is supporting falls! AND! Any Bragg gained by his Ship will go to him!" Inferno proposed. "

"…I don't know…It doesn't really sound like something Munkee would like.." Celtic mulled the idea over.

"But come on! Imagine how high of an honor being Shipped with a GOD would be!" Inferno tried to persuade his friend. "It'd be the ultimate sign of appreciation!

Celtic felt something bubbling up in the back of his throat. "Heh, Okay. Let's say that theoretically we get this Ship made. How do we get enough votes in the Write-in round to even give it a chance to be in? Let alone what God do we ship him with without stepping on anybody's toes?" Celtic felt a laugh begin to build up…or maybe it was vomit.

Inferno began laughing. "Haha, leave that to me old friend! I just wanted to see if I could borrow some of your Renoran troops to give it a fighting chance!" Celtic also began laughing. The laughs echoed throughout the alley.

Celtic didn't really know what was so funny, but he kept laughing. "Alright! Sure, you can come around 7 tomorrow and just tell them I sent ya!"

Inferno stopped laughing but still smiled. "Great! Hey, can I get a video of all of this? You know, just to show your troops tomorrow so that they listen and don't shoot me?"

Celtic tried to catch his breath. "Sure!"

Inferno wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulder and led him out the alley for a better lighting, all while discreetly crossing two items off his list.

Unknown to Celtic, just behind the alley's dumpster puking his guts out was Strike, who was a lightweight when it came to heavy alcohol. He separated himself from his group a while ago and overheard everything and soon an idea began to form in his drunken head.

"I said, leave him alone Celtic!" Generic heard Strike's voice from the darkness. He opened his eyes to see Celtic running off, all while flipping the double bird to Strike, and dropping a marker on his exit. Strike sighed and turned to Whale who was looking at the damage Celtic had caused to his friend's face. "Whale, why the hell was Celtic drawing a mustache among other things on our strategist's face?"

Whale wiped away a rather obscene drawing that decorated Generic's left cheek. "Well, at first he said he was going to draw fake eyes so if Generic fell asleep he'd look awake!"

Strike face-palmed.

"But after I noticed he was making one too many "missed strokes" I realized something was up!" Whale posed dramatically.

"And you did nothing until I arrived?!" Strike looked at the practically catatonic boy who had many marks across his face.

"Well…I was about to!"

Strike shook his head and pulled the boy up. We don't have time for this! Whale, just use your strength to carry him! The Starting Ceremony begins in 5 minutes!" Strike nudged the boy over to Whale who just had a look of realization on his face as if the thing just revealed was something he could've done about 3,000 words ago.

Whale picked him up and followed Strike with a little bit of a fast pace. The bumpy trip lulled Generic to sleep once more.

1 Day After The AAA's Karaoke night….

Melanie had one the biggest headache she has had in quite a while. The reason?

"So you're saying that I somehow did this shit?!"

"I'm not saying that at all! All I said was that whoever did this made their way to the security cameras, had advanced access to areas, and new when and where the security personnel were stationed!"

Melanie looked as her two closest friends and co-workers were argueing…again.

"Torvald, that's me! I would know all those things!"

"Your words not mine!"

Melanie stood up from her chair. "Alright, that's enough! This is getting childish!" Melanie silenced them both with an intimidating presence. She turned to the scientist, Torvald. "Torv, maybe try the presentation again in a way that doesn't seem like you're accusing one of us to be a spy?"

The man sighed and pushed a button on his Net-watch to make the holographic slideshow go back a slide.

Melanie sighed as she sat down. Her head hurt so much. A hangover, she figured, but trying to remember the events of last night made everything whirly for her so she attempted to work through the pain.

"Alright, as we all know four days ago an intruder broke into the Anomaly Portal Connection Machine. This assailant made it all the way to the Power Core level unstopped and stabbed a foreign crystal into the Bragg Core." He swiped in the air to go to the next slide, a picture of the dark purple crystal.

"After much careful consideration and many a rough drafts we at the Research and Development department have settled on the name, D-Spairium. The D, stands for Damaging," Melanie rolled her eyes. "-which is exactly what this crystal does." Torvald pulled up some files on the hologram. "As studies have shown, Bragg has an effect on people's mind. It can give people vast amounts of pride and confidence and even more so if in direct contact with it."

He swiped up to show a chemical compound. "This is what Braggtonium's molecular compound looks like." He swiped up again and a similar, yet vastly different image came up. "And this is D-Spairium's compound. Look familiar?"

Orin quickly spoke up. "It's inversed!"

"And negatively charged. This shouldn't change much if anything in normal Bragg, but it seems to have made an entirely new element here. And with its own effects on people too."

A swipe onto the next slide and a video popped up. It was of a man in an intern's lab coat, sitting on a stool in the middle of an empty room.

"Torvald, what the hell is that?!" Orin stood up.

"Just a simple test, nothing the intern didn't want to do. No need to get all worked up Orinthia." The scientist answered.

The intern looked about the room anxiously, worried.

"What is going on with him?" Melanie got closer so she could look at the video.

"That's the thing! It seems that D-Spair has a very similar effect to Bragg! But the complete opposite at the same time!"

The intern began standing up from his stool and started pacing around the room.

"What's he doing?" Seth, the towering man who was silent up until just now spoke up.

"Hold on, this is where it gets weird."

The man began looking at the walls before settling his gaze on one area. "Forgot to mention," Torvald spoke up as the man touched the wall. "We hid a small sample of D-Spair in one of the walls, so as to make this a blind-test." The intern immediately backed away and made his way to the door but found it to be locked. He knocked on the door frantically and looked back at the wall. He started tugging at the door with great force until the door was opened. "Similar to how prolonged contact with Bragg seems to give people a sense of invincibility, it would also appear that a prolonged effect of D-Spair is a sort of primal panic."

Melanie made a swiping motion in air and shut the presentation down. "This only further proves our worries that whatever this is, this is dangerous." She sighed. "Alright, we need to stop messing with this stuff and contain it somewhere where it won't have the chance to infect more Bragg."

Torvald nodded. "I've already contained the D-Spairium in a maximum-security storage room, and I've also taken the liberty to line the walls with Lead, it seems to cancel out its gloomy aura effect!"

"Good. Let's make sure that we have a few security cameras set up in there and someone standing watch on the outside of the vault incase our friend decides to stock up on more supplies." Orin picked up her Net-pad and began typing some objectives on a list.

"And back to my second proposal," Torvald began, much to Orin's displeasure.

"I already said no! My team doesn't need tracking, I have full faith in every single one of these people!" Orin stood up, ready to fight again.

The scientist sighed. "You're putting your faith and pride in your team before the safety of others." Orin hesitated. "Look, it's not just your team that would get these tracker passes, it'd also be Seth's chefs, and lobbyists, and whatever! And my programmers and engineers!" the man swiped up to show another holographic display.

The rough concept of an ID badge type of device was projected. On the left hand corner was a stock photo with sample information and a barcode written on the side; and on the right side was a metallic slab with a small protruding red dome. It looked…creepy. Like someone slapped a big, metallic red eye on a normal ID.

"I know how it looks, but this is a basic concept here!" Torvald reassured the other members of Melanie's inner circle. "It will be able to track every person at all times and tell us exactly if anyone's reaching restricted areas and we could send security to go to that person's location and well…beat em' up!"

Melanie looked at the ID, as horrendous looking as it was it was for a good cause. "And anybody found not having the new ID we can count them as suspicious…"

"Exactly! My development team can have these made as soon as tomorrow!"

Melanie leaned back in her chair and sighed. "…Orin?" she turned to the head of security.

"…As inhumane as this seems, if it's to maintain the safety of the guests, then yes do it."

Melanie nodded, and turned to the head of human resources. "Seth? You in?"

The intimidating man with an eyepatch nodded his hand.

"Alright, you have my permission Torv."

The man nodded and exited the conference room.

"Was this the right choice? I don't think the staff will be all too pleased that we're telling them we can't trust them." Seth spoke up.

Melanie shook her head. "Then we don't." She stood up and walked to the door. "We just tell them that we're updating our security to keep up with the times." She walked out the door and the two followed her. "We need to hurry, we're late for the Starting Ceremony."

Generic woke up as he felt a rather hard slap on his back. "Ow!"

"Oh hey, you're finally awake sleeping beauty!" Slip Slap laughed as the Strategist looked around his new surroundings with confusion on his face.

The room was gigantic, with several stages set up all through out the place with one big stage in the back of the room taking most attention at the moment. The walls were all white, with a trim of gold. Right now the AAA were all gathered in a group, near the center of the crowd.

"Would you two shut it?!" Rade looked back at the two making them stand at attention. "What's taking The Grand Hostess so long?" Rade impatiently began tapping his feet.

"Patience, Rade," Strike reassured the man. Melanie walked from one of the side doors that lead to the "behind the scenes area" as the guests usually called it, to the stage everyone was looking up to. "See?" Two other people took to Melanie's sides. A very stern looking woman on the right and a very tall man with an eyepatch.

She reached into her coat's pocket, pulled out a microphone, and brought it to her face

"Hello and welcome everyone to the fourth inaugural Ship Wars Tournament!" A round of applause roared across the room. Melanie raised her hand and the audience hushed. "Now then, we have some very interesting results from the Write-in Round but as usual, I have to remind everyone how this Tournament works!" A holographic display appeared behind her where everyone can see. "Once all the contestants have been announced they will be placed in a bracket! Each "war" is called a match and will be fought by two armies in what is called an Anomaly Zone!"

Images of armies fighting in a foreign terrain was shown in the projection.

"Anomaly Portals are natural occurring events throughout the cosmos we inhabit. In these Anomalies lies Bragg, and lots of it too! But of course, it's dangerous to go into the Anomalies as you can seriously suffer a lot of physical and mental injuries and not to mention that they are hard to find too." A swipe of her Net-Watch and the next slide showed.

"That's where I come in! The Anomaly Portal Connection Machine, or APCM for short, tracks these natural events, makes a portal connected directly to that same Anomaly very close by and that's where your armies go." Melanie points at the crowd. "All of you send in your Armies to fight in one of three objectives until completion," an animation came up on screen of a soldier shooting a high-tech pistol at something. "And don't worry, if your body takes too much damage it will instantly be transported into the infirmary, but you are now eliminated and can't return to the fight!" The soldier got shot and as his body phased out the scene changed to an infirmary where he phased in and was safe and sound. "After an objective has been completed the Anomaly closes and pushes out anyone else remaining in the Anomaly zone, and whoever accomplished the objective first is who wins the match and moves up in the Bracket!"

"There will be two matches a day on Monday and Friday so we can speed this up a little. Any other questions you may have please feel free to reach out to Seth," She gestured to the man behind her with and intimidating aura. "who has this entire system memorized front and back!"

Melanie reached into another pocket and pulled out an envelope, "Now for the moment you've all been waiting for!"

Celtic looked up towards the stage until he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned and came face to face with Inferno. He immediately scowled "Ugh, what now Inferno?"

"Easy there, buddy! I just wanted to see if you still doubted my powers of precognition?" Inferno smiled

"Hmm…let me check real quick." Celtic held up his fist and then began to wind it up like a music box until his middle finger popped up. "Hm, interesting! I still think you're pulling this out of your ass! Who would've known!"

Inferno smiled smugly as he flipped a page and showed a very crude stick drawing of a man flipping him off. "I did."

Celtic rolled his eyes. "That's just because I'm predictable when it comes to dealing with people I don't like."

Inferno acted mock-hurt. "Oh how your words wound me, old friend." He recovered rather quickly. "How about this, we make a wager! I bet I can name all the winners of the Write-in Qualifiers!"

Celtic laughed. "Ha! I would, buddy, but I just spent all my Karma the other day at the bar! Fraid' I can't really bet if I have nothing to bet!"

"Oh really? But what about that fifty-six Karma Strike and Whale paid you the other day for doing that odd job?" Inferno smiled smugly at Celtic's shock as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"How did you-…Fine, go ahead." He pulled out a sheet of paper. Write em' down, hurry too, I want to see your face when you're wrong and this whole prophetic Bullshit is out of your system."

Inferno pulled out his own piece of paper. "Because I knew you'd already agree." He handed in the list of Ships.

Celtic looked at the list and smiled. "Oh, it's going to be great when you pay me fifty-six Karma because of this stupid act!" The hacker pulled out his wallet.

"Now, the Ships that made it in were!" The Ship Names all popped up by which one had the highest votes in a list. Monochrome. Pink Rose Gold. Sea Munkees. Arkos of Erusea. Iceberg.

Celtic looked from the screen to the piece of paper carefully re-reading the names all in order too. Monochrome. Pink Rose Gold. Sea Munkees. Arkos of Erusea. Iceberg. "H-how?!"

Inferno simply smiled and extended his hand out. "I'll be taking those fifty-six Karma now."

Before anything else happened a yell was heard throughout the room Telecomm Room.

"GODSDAMMIT STRIKE!" Whale bellowed as he turned around to follow Rade and Slip who had begun chasing a retreating Strike leaving behind a sleeping Generic, a very annoyed McDouggal, a nervous Torrasque, and a smiling Jannis for everyone to see.

From the back of the room the Various Rodents collective saw all of this. "Interesting…" the Porcupine spoke up before ordering his companions to turn their disguise mech around and go back to the room.

Psiah noticed the commotion but kept her view facing forward as she was trained to. Still, she activated her Helmet's back cameras. "Buffoons…" She muttered under her breath.

Munkee looked at the group and stifled back a laugh. "This year's gonna be an interesting one, huh?" He looked at the board. Ice Berg and Sea Munkees. The second one made him feel dread but he appreciated the gesture with a smile. Outcast grinned as he felt a familiar, warm feeling rise up from his chest. "Let's get started."

"Thank you all for voting! We will have the Bracket out by tomorrow and the first match ready by Monday! And remember:"

"Nobody ever dies in Ship Wars." The group of representatives, well, the one's not chasing a pilot, droned back.

"No matter how much they deserve it…"Celtic scowls as Inferno walks away with his money.