The Bear's Cave - Sedona Station, Baffin (Formerly Freeport 14, Yukon)

[Seekersixone]

Richard Sykes rested with his head down on the bar.

Disembarking the Seeker Six One, the Zoner acolyte, a massive grin painted on his rough Houstonian features, Sykes had been excited about the future, especially for the Coalition. He believed what he had done was right. He believed that he was doing good for the first time in a long time.

He believed wrong.

When he made it to the bar - having to reluctantly surrender two pistols, a sawed-off shotgun and a Bowie knife larger than a normal man's forearms, he had checked his datapad on a whim, only to find that the engagement he had entered with the gunboat in the area had landed him in a lot of trouble. Not just him, but the entirety of the Temporary Autonomous Zoners.

In a long life of dumb calls, beginning with not dodging the draft for the Houston Voluntary Militia in the Nomad Wars, Sykes had concluded that that single engagement was the dumbest. His large, caveman-like brow sank and he cradled his head in his arms.

Several shots, and one message later, the wing leader of the force that he had fought with - Rhade, his name was, or so he had heard during the fight - raised his glass in a toast.

Sykes couldn't bring himself to raise his shot glass. As optimistic as Rhade felt about the Zoners helping out with the war, Sykes couldn't bring himself to join him in the revelry. He had destroyed faction relations with one of the most powerful underground groups in Sirius in one burst of his forward armaments, and now everyone - Doc, Joanna, Concordia - they would all pay the price for it.

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All hail Loken: Queen of grammar.