What a fucking week.

Bailey should have known the runup to rescuing that UA flunkie, Erin Lavern, wouldn’t be a quick one. Time had a tendency to move slow when you couldn’t stop thinking about things, and Bailey’s mind was being assaulted by things.

The good? She was one sleep and one more stupid little diversion away from getting Nataliza out of the UA’s grubby, demonic talons. Maybe she’d have to wring some urgency out of Kern’s throat with a single hand, but that much was a guarantee.

Bailey was done waiting.

The bad? Too much to truly tackle when she was focused entirely on killing time, *not* killing that wannabe Handler standing between her and having gone to rescue Liz a week ago, and thinking until whatever mess rescuing Nataliza would be.

Bailey’s mind was under attack in a way she’d formerly chosen never to let it be again.

Thoughts about Nataliza brought on concerns and violent, brutal images that only made Bailey’s need to see her unharmed more vital.

Thoughts about her comrades on this mail-delivering bucket of interstellar bolts brought on worries that she was getting attached to people barely worth a minute of her time. 

Nataliza aside, who was, right?

…

Nobody. Bailey had spent her whole life convincing herself of that fact. It had to be true.

Had to be.

…

Bailey let that all slip into a back corner of her mind, hopefully to be drowned in debauchery and pricey liquor when Nataliza was returned to Corvis Base. That was how Bailey dealt with her emotions, and it had worked just fine until getting to that Base.

There was, however, a wrinkle. Worse than the uncomfortable and unfamiliar horror of picturing Nataliza’s predicament. Much worse than Bailey’s concern of unhealthy, doomed-to-die attachments.

Bailey had seen The Devil herself last week, and she didn’t like the mirror held up to her own image. Was Bailey better than that? She had to be, right?

Had to be.

But, as Bailey sat on Sarah’s bed in their tight, shared bunk on the Nightjar, watching as the carefree, pixie cut wearing blonde polished one of Bailey’s lavish combat boots with a cloth and a smile, The Devil lingered in her mind.

The rancid, unshaking smile of confident self-assuredness.

The utter lack of any care for the victims of her conquest.

Bailey saw herself. She saw the woman that commanded fear and disrespect in equal measure. The evil little thing that some of her comrades saw.

She didn’t like that one bit, but like the rest of her imploding thoughts, it would have to wait.

She had a job to do. That job would be made much harder by sappy emotional breakdowns and deep reflections on her mind, state, and opinion of her self.

Bailey Cluanaire was the best of the best. She was a woman who got what she wanted, flaunted it like a Goddess, and never broke down like some weak little prey animal.

That was all she had to be these next few days.

Had to be.

“I-Is that good enough, ma’am?” Bailey’s poor attempts to bury her thoughts and avoid dissociation were thankfully both broken by the slightly meek voice of Sarah.

Bailey looked down at the smiling, flushed face of her new favorite bootblack, admiring the odd, almost drooling cuteness of the young thing’s visage before her eyes turned attention to her left boot.

The former mercenary had high standards. Very high in fact. Very few had ever gotten Bailey’s leather shining just right on the first go. Usually it took a little… encouragement.

Sarah Ducor, though, had taken the top spot from Corvis Base’s own champion, Sasha. Bailey loved a kitten that adored her job. Passion looked good on an obedient little leather lover.

Just a shame Kern hadn’t left some work for Bailey to truly do on her prized pet. Suppose she could teach Sasha to be a little more chatty while working back at Corvis Base, hm?

…

Mh, definitely~.

“Very good work, kitty cat. Get the other one done that fast and I might just spoil you after today’s briefing~.” Bailey made Sarah wait some agonizing seconds for her response, but saw no need to dash the kitten’s confidence. Sarah did good. Good enough that Bailey even rewarded her with a light caress of her gloved hand against the smiling blonde’s cheek.

The caress didn’t last long, Bailey feeling an unfamiliar pang of discomfort she smoothly played off as a need to check the shiny, leather strapped silver watch on her wrist.

She wasn’t exactly wearing that watch today, of course. It didn’t fit well on her cyber-arms, and watches didn’t tend to work well with Bailey’s form fitting, lightly armored stealth suits. 

Honestly, she probably shouldn’t have gotten all dressed up in her combat gear for a briefing, but better to anticipate a mess that required it than to be comfy for nothing.

“Of course.” Sarah was quick to respond, either failing to notice or outright ignoring Bailey’s unfortunate stunt. The caress made her smile a little wider, and she was off to cleaning the right boot with her brush.

So simple.

So fucking… mh, well, stupid didn’t seem all too fair now, honestly. Sarah Ducor may have been an easy to control pet, but she was a decent chat these past weeks. Turns out a girl with a thing for polishing her rightful superior’s boots and astounding gun maintenance sessions was quite passionate about both.

Oblivious little thing, sure, but certainly not stupid. Bailey just wished, deep down, that it didn’t take her ramming a loaded gun into the girl's mouth and almost pulling the trigger to see that.

Truthfully, Bailey felt as close to scum as she could ever let herself feel for that. She tried to… well, not apologize for it. Apologizing was beneath her. The very first thing she learned in the Arcadia system was to apologize for nothing.

Bailey did, at least, try to explain that what she did was wrong, and that, perhaps, she held some regret for it, and maybe regretted doing it. Obviously, none of these were apologies, but she came close.

Closer than she would have liked, frankly.

Yet, all these attempts and more failed to reach Sarah on any level. She didn’t seem to like what she remembered of that near-death experience, but she insisted it was fine.

Hell, she insisted if Bailey needed that again she’d do it. A rare threat of a good time that Bailey, for reasons becoming uncomfortably clear to her, didn’t enjoy.

Kern had gotten her good. Perhaps Bailey could get some of that Sasha backbone into Sarah while she was here, though, hm? Maybe she’d just steal her back to Corvis Base outright, even.

Mh, that’d piss that tiny little cosplayer off good. Bailey took note to see if she could pull that off without pissing Nataliza off too much.

Perhaps she could get another round with that pretty girlfriend of hers, too. Sarah could do with another lesson in how to please Mari properly.

Yes, Bailey was just full of good ideas when she was burying all those terrible thoughts rattling around her brain box…

KNOCK! KNOCK!

That train of thought was suddenly dashed by a knock to her temporary bunk’s steel door. Whoever could it be?

“Hey. You two dressed in there, or are ya plannin’ on flashin’ me?” The door knocker spoke with a tomboyish voice riding the perfect line between serious and playful.

That was Sierra, alright.

“Why don’t you open the door and find out, Major~?” Bailey replied loudly with her typical tone of sweet, saccharine confidence.

Sierra responded by opening the door without a hint of hesitancy. Bold girl. Bailey should make sure she’s balls deep inside Sarah next time she pulls that one.

Sierra stood at the bunk’s door frame with a facial expression curiously mixed with a serious sense of urgency, some slight judging, and a third cockier emotion Bailey couldn’t quite place.

She liked a pretty thing she couldn’t read. Such a shame about the whole fucking up and getting her partner kidnapped thing!

“You’re actually dressed. Surprisin’ me more every day, Bailey. Figured I was walkin’ into another Aoi situation today.” Sierra gave Bailey a light jab, leaning against the frame of the door and shooting Bailey a calm smile a moment later.

Ah, back in the ill-fitting tank top and tight jean shorts today too. Good. A well-built woman like Sierra looked so much better showing some skin.

Maybe she could apologize to Bailey by bouncing on her cock when this was all said and done, hm?

“Don’t sound too disappointed. You could always slip out of that little outfit and join me for a while, you know~.” Bailey was never one to take a jab and not fire one back, though. Would she actually fuck the woman who got her girlfriend nabbed by fascists?

…

Mh, yeah, probably. But she’d still be rationally annoyed with her.

“Thinkin’ I’ll pass today.” Sierra shot back quickly, but a very slight smirk did grow on her face.

Maybe she liked the view. Bailey sure liked Sarah’s precious little smile as she moved from cleaning her right boot to diligently polishing it. Sierra did seem the type to enjoy the smell of boot polish. Anyone who could stomach being covered in mech oil for hours a week seemed the type.

Wouldn’t it be rude not to invite her?

“You’re sure, hm? I know you’re a bit of a pleather princess, but I’m sure Sarah could make those things on your feet sparkle. She’d be so happy to, as well…” Bailey made a full swipe at Sierra in an attempt to get her to break and possibly join in before their hopefully not agonizing briefing, smirking away with a boastful confidence that fit Bailey like a glove. “Might even let you… apologize to me for the whole Nataliza thing~.” Bailey swiped again, this time making a small jerking motion with one of her robotic hands.

Sierra simply smirked harder, chuckling quietly without as much as a huff or a groan.

Mh, Bailey loved a girl who didn’t break.

Loved a girl that didn’t violently fuck up and ruin her life too.

“Yeah, maybe another time. Got a busy few days first, don’t we?” Sierra kept up her smirk, either by choice or because Bailey had tickled her a bit. Her voice, however, had returned to the tomboyish cocktail of professionalism and confidence.

If that tone made Sierra better at her job, then Bailey could just about stomach it.

“Throwin’ that aside for a second. This concerns both of ya, so is Sarah… y’know… in there?” Sierra seemed thrown for how to phrase that question, but asked it confidently regardless.

Reasonable as the question was, it offended Bailey ever so slightly. Sending a girl to fucked-up brainwash subspace for the fun of it was so eight months ago of her.

Mostly.

“Of course she is. Have a little faith, Major… I’m pretending to have some in you, after all, hm?” Bailey almost hissed her words at Sierra, but she noticed a lack of venom inside her that betrayed her spiteful, insulting efforts.

Sierra had actually done well correcting her violently moronic mistake. Perhaps the woman’s sharp efforts to make amends, and commanding pressure on Kern about allocating Nataliza’s rescue resources before the Lavern effort had put some hidden faith inside Bailey.

…

Perhaps Bailey would bury that thought and hope such foolish, trusting attachment would go away if ignored.

Still, even ignoring that, Sierra seemed unsurprisingly unfazed by Bailey’s spiteful swipe. Even Nataliza would have rolled her eyes at that one.

Mh, one of them would break the other yet, but Bailey’s focus on that was interrupted by Sarah promptly standing up and turning to face Sierra.

“M-Mhm! I’m w-wide awake Major DeSoto, Sir… M-Ma’am!” Sarah blurted her words out with a level of slight, shaky nervousness that very well might not have left Sierra convinced.

Bailey knew better than that, though. She knew Ina, Sierra’s doting, pretty little girlfriend decently well by now. A shaky, sweaty salute spoken through a cocktail of eagerness to please and hesitance?

Sierra was smart enough to know the only drug causing that was anxiety.

“At ease, girl. Just call me Sierra. I’m not lookin’ for honorifics or anythin’.” Sierra dealt with Sarah with the polite, quietly chuckling tact Bailey had seen woo Ina and Sasha both. The smirk on her face was almost infectious.

The chuckle downright was.

“R-Right! Sierra. H-Hi!” Sarah replied with more likely-familiar and cutesy nerves. Ones that got Sierra smiling and Bailey snickering.

They also got Bailey to brush a hand against Sarah’s arm out of some mysterious instinct quickly followed by some pointing back down to her boot. Sarah was, admittedly, being cute.

Job wasn’t done, though. Bailey hated a girl who left a task as important as making her sparkle unfinished, and she was fortunate that hate didn’t need to be communicated to Sarah.

On her knees and diligently polishing again in barely a second.

Good little kitty cat~.

“Atta girl.” Sierra seemed unbothered by Sarah’s undoubtedly fetishistic, loving boot work, but any woman who’s invited a girl like Sasha to a threesome with her newly crowned girlfriend was unlikely to be too judgmental.

Unfuck this Nataliza mess and maybe there’d be apologetic room for you one day, DeSoto. 

Meow.

“So, our briefin’ is in a half hour. Kern also wants Sarah for some private crap afterward. Thought it might be nicer hearin’ that from me.” Sierra finally managed to get to business through Bailey’s onslaught of sly swipes and strange thoughts, keeping up her smile even as she moved to their approaching, less valuable mission.

Presumptuous as she was, Sierra was right. It was a tad bit nicer hearing she’d be sleeping in this bunk on her own tonight from a charismatic tomboy instead of a miserable little wretch.

A tad bit.

“Might wanna make sure you’re finished with your bondin’ moment soon. Quicker we get into the Lavern rescue, the quicker I can cook us somethin’ up before the mission.” Sierra clearly knew her offer was tempting, assuming this ship had any kind of kitchen in its mess hall in the first place. That playful smile oozed confidence.

A fine meal before a big mission? Mh, either Sierra liked her comrades a lot, or tomorrow was about to be a total clusterfuck. Bailey was prepared to believe either.

“Tempting me, DeSoto? It’ll need to be quite the meal for me to accept it as an apology, but I guess I can let you try, hm?” Bailey toyed back at Sierra, but the cloying tease of her voice had the slightest, jokey undertone that Bailey didn’t even remember planning to incorporate. “Sure you’re not game for a boot clean up before you go, though? Plenty of other ways to apologize to me while Sarah works her magic. I can be just as quick as your little girlfriend~.” The sleaze in Bailey’s voice after her swiped, though, was all intentional.

Besides, it would have been unfair not to offer Sierra a chance to make it up to her twice today, no~?

“Eh, maybe another time. Assumin’ you can behave yourself… Cluanaire~.” Sierra shot back with some fire that, just barely, managed to catch Bailey off guard. It didn’t read like an outright flirt, but it read like something alright.

Poor DeSoto must have missed her girl bad to entertain sleeping with a gorgeous reprobate like Bailey.

Mh, something like that, at least~.

“More for me, DeSoto.” Bailey gave one more shot back before she watched Sierra exit her bunk, leaving the former mercenary to her thoughts, her kitty cat, and an almost flawless pair of combat boots.

“She’s nice…” Sarah spoke under her breath to Bailey, focused and enraptured enough in her final round of polishing for her voice to sound almost dreamy.

Quite cute, honestly. Beat Chalybe’s boot blacking expert refusing to even look her in the eye, that was for sure.

“Mh, when she’s not fucking up her intel like it’s her first day on the job… she’s fun~.” Bailey toyed back with Sarah and earned herself a giggle at her joke.

But was it a joke? Did Bailey actually mean what she said?

The best comedy came from blunt honesty, accidental or otherwise. Bailey knew that.

…

Bailey let that thought join her growing stew of attachment and trust concerns in the deepest recesses of her mind, and simply focused on admiring Sarah’s five-star work before that briefing.

It would make not wringing Kern’s neck before her use was up today that much easier.


***

The stroll to the Nightjar’s briefing room was, fortunately, brisk. It was a short distance from Bailey’s bunk, shorter even than the distance from said bunk to Kern’s sad, lonely office.

That short amount of distance already didn’t leave much room for unwanted thoughts, and, even more fortunately for Bailey, Sarah had become quite the yapper towards her in the last week. In between light, tasteful praisings of Sarah’s ability to polish a pair of knee-high boots while only drooling on them a little, there was chatting Bailey felt oddly nice about.

Thoughts about asking Kern if she could customize her mech to be a little bit more individual? Precious.

Musings about Sarah’s pleasant little dairy cow of a girlfriend, Maribel, lining up farm work outside the Arcadia system for when Sarah was retired? Cute. Almost enviable in a way.

Distance had a habit of making the heart grow fonder, after all.

…

Before Bailey could properly link that to her own, much crueler partner distance, they were there. The door was already open, and both Bailey and Sarah were met with gazes both friendly and professional from the briefing room’s occupants.

The crew was tight-knit today. Aoi and Scotch were stood by the door, the former giving Bailey a wide smile and cheerful wave as she entered the room. Bailey returned both, and both of the Nightjar’s current bubbly little fuck toys seemed happy about it.

Cute.

Stood at the other side of the room were the mission’s three higher ups. Sierra smiled at Bailey too, though the documents in her hands made clear her cheerful charms were only for the entrance.

Still, they were better appreciated than Minerva Amato’s more formal greeting of a salute.

And…

…

…Kern.

“Ah, our nearly-late ones have turned up after all. Ms. Cluanaire. Sarah.” Kern’s face wore a self-assured smile, and her words wore a level of professional bitchiness that Bailey found all too familiar right now.

The tone.

The mannerisms.

Bailey may have had her concerns about the mirror held up to herself last week, but being met with a soulless, imperial trash bin like The Devil made it all the more clear to Bailey what Kern was.

Pathetic little wannabe dictator~.

“Right on time by my account, Commander. If there’s an issue, take it up with my real boss, hm~?” Bailey smirked in Kern’s view, taking her place next to Aoi and watching Sarah squeeze into a tight space between them.

Precious.

“No use in litigating something this pointless, I suppose. Ms. Amato, would you start us off please?” Kern took little but noticeable offense from Bailey’s undermining of her authority, already delegating her second briefing of the Nightjar’s rescue objectives to Minerva and stepping back to let her second-in-command talk.

Bailey was starting to think this little girl didn’t do much of anything here. She had to wonder if Minerva was thinking the same thing.

If she wasn’t brainless, hopefully she would have been.

“You got it, Commander.” If Minerva was aware she was doing this fun-size-dictator’s job for her, the professional candor in her voice let none of it bleed out.

Instead, Minerva simply got her files in order, placed them on the large, round, metal table separating the leaders from their loyal followers, and cleared her throat before speaking.

“Scotch and Aoi have already worked a lot of this one out, but I’ll repeat the full plan for all of your benefit.” Minerva flipped the first document in her pile over and slid it over to the opposite side of the table, prompting the four pilots to stroll over and get a look at it.

The first document was a detailed satellite map of the small UA outpost they were raiding on Orsus, though if the lines drawn all over it were any indication, it was less a raid and more a quiet infiltration.

Clever, but if the goal was just to secure Dr. Lavern, then surely it would be easier to simply level the place and grab her, hm?

“Scotch and Aoi are handling the first objective. Scotch, with the help of an unarmed delivery frame and Aoi spoofing a delivery to the outpost of some blood samples, is going to walk right in through the front gate.” Minerva spoke softly, moving her hand to the map and placing a finger on the location of the outpost’s entrance before moving that finger along a drawn, orange line. “Scotch is then going to make her way to the base’s mail depot nice and slowly. While she does, Aoi is going to hit the north side of the outpost with an EMP. The commotion should let Scotch walk right past the front desk and into the back of the depot. If she’s quick, nobody will even know it happened.” Minerva was smiling right at Bailey after she finished. Odd.

Curious.

The intel looked good, but was Bailey supposed to be impressed? It took more than competent planning to make Bailey clap like a seal for a woman.

Mh, usually took a whip, a gag, and the love of her life for that one.

“Well, if stealing Dr. Lavern’s letters to her mom are that important, that’s a fine plan, Minnie. What are you hiding, hm~?” Bailey clawed at Minerva, and the second-in-command’s smile only grew a little more confident.

“You’re on the right track, but I’ve got something better than that for ya.” Minerva reached over to the small document pile and pulled out a shipping manifest, handing it to Bailey with that same, unwavering smile of confidence. “Aoi found us a golden goose. Dr. Lavern’s shipping some kind of prototype drug right to Liz’s holding facility tomorrow. The address on the manifest is redacted, but you can’t redact the package itself, right?” Oh, Bailey understood that smile now.

Hell, she shared it.

Clever fucking girl, Minnie. Clever indeed.

Minerva knew she had nailed it, too. She looked at Bailey for some kind of approval, and with something this good, it would have been far too harsh of her not to give it.

“Starting to think you might be holding up your end of this deal. Might just invite you back to my bunk for this one, Minnie~.” Bailey gave her approval the only way she knew how, and Minerva simply snorted in response.

Kern, however, saw a need to butt in.

“Am I not a woman of my word, Ms. Cluanaire?” Kern spoke with a smug undertone of someone looking for a change of heart.

Bailey certainly wasn’t giving that.

“A little girl with hardworking adults in the room, maybe~.” Bailey accentuated her point by resting the elbows of her cyber-arms on the table, leaning down, and resting her chin against her skeletal prosthetics.

Kern growled quietly. Fucking perfect.

“So, what about our little rescue mission tomorrow? Surely we’re not just rescuing Lavern’s email history, right?” Bailey spoke again, this time directing her attention to Minerva, who nodded her head quickly in response.

“Right. Sierra’s going to get into that in a second.” Minerva replied quickly and calmly, getting another map out from her pile of documents and placing it next to the map of the outpost. “Ideally, this mission goes perfectly. In case it doesn’t, Sarah’s going to be positioned a few minutes out from the base’s west side. That’s okay with you, Scotch?” Minerva glanced over to the soft, sunflower-skinned girl standing near Bailey with a more familiar, fond smile than was given to the former mercenary.

Such bias in this room, not that Bailey could even pretend to be immune from it.

“Fine by me! I’ve trusted the gal with my life plenty already, right?” Scotch beamed towards Minerva, and then moved that beaming’s focus to Sarah, who looked the slightest bit nervous.

Well, more so than usual, at least.

“Sarah, Commander Kern will brief you more on this after we get some food, okay?” Minerva’s voice took an odd turn that Bailey hadn’t heard before. Professional still, yes. Rather boringly, there wasn’t an unprofessional bone in that redhead’s body.

There was, however, something protective in her voice. Something that returned Sarah’s gaze to the leaders in front of her, and then to Bailey.

Something Kern didn’t seem to like, based on her slight change in expression.

Good.

“Alright. Sierra, are you good to cover the rest?” Minerva turned to face Corvis Base’s head engineer a moment later, not even waiting for an answer before stepping back and giving Sierra the stage to detail the actual, far less valuable mission tomorrow.

Bailey knew well that Sierra was always good to talk. Right now, it was about whether that talk could fix her mistake or not.

Something Bailey may have started believing could be possible…

“On it!” Sierra reached for the last two documents left in Minerva’s pile, her smile finally fading into an expression of professional neutrality as she spread them out next to the two satellite maps. “So the good news is that Dr. Lavern isn’t personally guarded when she’s on base. Assumin’ the outside security and lack of people left on Orsus is why. Bad news is that the outpost itself is full of rank and file grunts.” Sierra pulled the same move as Minerva did a moment ago, resting a finger on a blue line drawn on the map of the outpost itself.

“Mhm!” Aoi surprisingly butt in a moment later, interrupting with her typical, energetic cadence before continuing along when she knew she had the room to speak. “The grunts themselves seem to be the last few troops they keep on Orsus! They’re cold, dumb, and also probably only answer to Sasha’s old Handler now, so talking around them should be easy-peasy.” Aoi finished with a grin and then left a smirking Sierra to continue her speech uninterrupted.

Adorable. 

Bailey really needed to hear that girl yapping while bouncing on her again. Sarah was tight, but nobody was Aoi.

Mh, soon~.

“Damn right. That’s why our best course of action here is sendin’ in one of us to grab Lavern and get out with one of their mechs.” Sierra skipped ahead on her plan chatter, but Bailey was in agreement with the woman’s confident statement.

Mostly, at least.

The fewer bodies on the ground for this, the less chance of things looking suspect when they were guiding Dr. Lavern around like a lost child.

Bailey, however, knew there were few suspects for a mission like this. Aoi was a talented little kitty cat, but she was no covert spy. Sarah was a write-off, and it didn’t sound like Minerva was going to be their infiltrator.

That left two women in this room.

Before Bailey could assume the worst, Sierra would interrupt her with the best.

“Given I ain’t on posters, and wasn’t a high rankin’ merc for a decade, this one’s on me.” Sierra, much like Minerva, looked at Bailey with a confident smile, but DeSoto needed no validation from her to continue. “I’m gonna ride shotgun in a PostTech outfit with Scotch. I’ll hop out before her with a package of nothin’ to deliver personally to Lavern, and, when I’ve got her with me, we’ll slip into one of the outpost’s unmanned maintenance mechs and zip out before anyone notices. Easy.” Sierra smiled, and the confidence in herself and her plan was, much like her smile, infectious.

However, something inside Bailey felt a need to press for more info on the mission’s safety. Even if it didn’t involve her outright yet.

“Mh, a lot could go wrong there if your intel’s bad, Major. More useful to me alive than dead, you know~.” Bailey batted cattily at Sierra, but she felt something lurking underneath her own petty bile.

Was it concern?

…

No. Bailey ignored whatever it was.

The mission was all that mattered.

“I mean, they could just blow my head off at the gate. I’m gamblin’ here, but I’d rather gamble on myself this time. Aoi’s got us the best intel we could possibly get, too.” Sierra looked over at the pink haired hacker girl, who was beaming proudly and getting ready to speak again.

Sierra didn’t continue, so the mouth of Corvis Base’s unshakable beast began to open again.

“Sierra’s plan is actually kinda great this time! The only suuuper worrying wrinkles are that their maintenance mechs are unarmed, and that my drones spotted an armed Raptor mech flying in last night.” Aoi’s smile never wavered, but she did give Bailey the closest thing to a serious expression of concern she could muster. Cute as it was. “It’s gonna be really risky, but if we wanna have our best shot at getting Nataliza out soon then we need to do this!” Aoi’s voice was similarly not entirely equipped for a rousing, concerned speech of military comfort.

Yet, it left a nice feeling in Bailey’s stomach.

One that, bizarrely to Bailey, didn’t cease when Sierra’s mouth opened again.

“Trust me. I ain’t invincible, but I got this.” Sierra joined Aoi’s unasked for reassurances and continued a moment later, smirking a bit. “Besides, if you’re that worried, you’ll be coverin’ me if somethin’ goes wrong on the east side. Figure I’m in safe hands with ya, right?” Sierra was stroking Bailey’s ego, and right now, that was a damn fine strategy for getting her on board.

And, perhaps, a little more.

“Well I suppose someone has to keep you in one piece, hm? But if you wanted me to sit around with my cock in my hand while I wait for you, DeSoto, I’d look better doing it in your bunk~.”

Bailey let a cocky grin adorn her face. One that grew wider following Aoi's decision to cheekily interject. "It's my bunk tooooo, y’know~!" Her smiling, lustful interject was appreciated, too.

Very much appreciated~.

“Mh, even more for me, then~.” Her cyber-hands running themselves down her hips while her organic set stretched above her head. Fun as that was, Bailey supposed this was an important briefing. Better to at least pretend to be professional about. “Good job, though. No complaints from me. Pull this off and I might just forgive you one day.” With that, Bailey ceased her clawing at Sierra’s ego and possible urges both.

So far from her girlfriend. Bailey wagered she looked like a five-star meal to Sierra right now. Assuming the woman had taste~.

“Hey, if you’re happy, I’m happy. I’ll need ya all here in eight hours on the dot so we can get things rollin’. Earlier deploy means we should have less to deal with there. Ya with me, girls?” Sierra, finally showing some kind of interest in her military role, gave a salute to the women in front of her.

One even Bailey, almost, reciprocated. An unknown instinct she managed to suppress.

“Oh, I’m with you. But I think a certain someone should make sure that her end of this deal is held up after.” Bailey turned her attention to Kern a moment later, glaring her down without letting her cocky grin break. “I want to hear her say it~.” The grin grew a bit cockier.

“Woman of my word, Ms. Cluanaire. You’ll all have your weapon back once Dr. Lavern is safe and sound.” Kern shot back at Bailey with a sly, slight smile that, frustratingly, made Bailey’s blood boil.

In a rare showing, however, Sierra and Aoi seemed to join her in glaring down of Kern, who simply seemed to wave the exchange off like she hadn’t said anything at all.

Like Bailey wasn’t going to snap her neck when this was all said and done.

Focus, Bailey. No taking her bait.

“Not long until your mission. I would take the chance to eat up while you have it. I believe Ms. DeSoto has a surprise for you this time.” Kern turned around focusing her view on the circular window at the back of the room, admiring the starry view through it while she yapped and yapped. “Sarah, do rejoin me here afterward. You are all dismissed.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!” Sarah responded meekly, but the others didn’t need to be told to leave. Aoi had already begun pulling Scotch out of the room, and Sierra walked past Bailey with a light tap given to her temporary guardian devil’s shoulder.

Bailey managed to stroll out with Sarah not long after, feeling an urge to join her comrades in the mess hall proper for the first time on their little Nightjar vacation. The prospect of Sierra’s cooking being in front of her again was a promising one, and she had an odd hankering to talk to those comrades right now. Aoi had been especially busy these past few days, after all.

Besides, she might get to learn a few things about the pilots beneath her.

Might even deign to let a few tidbits about her vastly greater self slip to her comrades, too.

For reasons alien to even her, spending time with them sounded kind of nice today.