Sirius swung their legs off the bed. Sleep had come quickly the previous night, but it was pgued by brief fres of nerve pain. It had gotten bad enough that they had considered walking to the hangar and connecting to the Morningstar. Inside the einherjar the pain couldn't reach them. Their body's failures, severed by steel and circuitry. Yet, they had stayed in their room, unwilling to put on their leg braces or ask Freya for help. They were definitely not going to risk colpsing in the hall again.

  They looked over to the seat that Freya had used for what passed as sleep for her whenever she stayed in the same room, but it was empty. After their talk the previous day she had mentioned needing time to get the captain on board with joining up with Jotunn. It didn't seem like it would be too difficult a sell; Sirius and the Ofnir were ultimately another deniable asset for Penrose. Cecile could easily shift the task of hunting Draugr to one of her adoptive children, Freki and Geri.

  A notification blinked in their vision, a comms request from Freya. “Yeah? Noticed I was awake?”

  “I do have your biometrics monitored, yeah. I've got news about Jotunn, and something a bit less enjoyable.”

  “Bad news first.” Sirius began dressing, pulling on a pair of boxers.

  “We've been requested to attend a private ga Cecile is hosting. Its timing coincides with the window for our earliest contact window with Surtr.”

  Next piece of clothing was a sports bra, simple and easy. “Think she's sussed us out?”

  “No. The purpose of the ga is to shore up Penrose's alliance with Necker, and to fold in a faction of Mobius Sci-tech that is seeking to defect.”

  “Mobius didn't have a hand in Breidablik,” Sirius pulled on and began buttoning up a bck top, “it was all us and Jotunn.”

  “The truth of the matter is not important to anyone there.”

  “I assume they wouldn’t care about Cecile’s pet Draugr either.”

  “Why would they? None of the higher ups actually care about the Draugr other than Cecile. They don’t understand the threat they are.”

  “I’m still unclear on that. Sure, they’re capable of a lot of destruction, but so are any of the council members.” Sirius felt a knee wobble and sat back down on their bed. “From the ones we’ve fought, I just don’t see them as any worse.”

  “Cecile believes that they are going to return in force soon. And she thinks that this war will help get the expanse ready for them.”

  “That's a shockingly old school of thought.” Sirius stood back up. “I had expected she would understand that the mercenary system was more suited to cultivating actual talent, unlike this meat grinder she's got fired up now.” They grabbed a pair of jeans and set them on the bed. “So, what’s the good news on Jotunn?”

  The door to Sirius’ room opened, revealing Freya stood in the doorway. “We have an opening in a couple hours.”

  Sirius sat and began pulling on their jeans. “Are you here to make sure I can dress myself in time?”

  “Not for this meeting. You’re meeting an old associate, but,” Freya stepped inside, pulling a length of a tailoring tape measure taut between her hands, “I need to have you measured for that ga.”

  Sirius pauses, top of their jeans not quite over the curve of their rear. “What? Why?”

  She closes in. “It’s a high society event, Mx. Kemp–”

  “Sirius. I don’t need the other name,” they said firmly.

  “Even so, Sirius, Cecile has certain standards of presentation.” Freya’s hand pressed into Sirius’ thigh just slightly. “And I’ve wanted to see you in a dress too.”

  “Hah,” scoffed Sirius.

  “I mean it.” She grabbed the edge of the pilot’s jeans and pulled them back down a little, exposing their thigh. “It’s also time for your shot.”

  “Been a week already?” asked Sirius, leaning back on their bed.

  Freya walked over to where the injection supplies were kept, a small refrigerator near the bathroom. “It has. Don’t tell me you’ve developed a fear of needles?”

  Sirius ughed, head back against their bnkets. “No such thing! Now, you gonna give me my shot? Or am I going to have to rely on my own, limited medical training?”

  “Pushy.” Freya set the kit and vial down and swabbed a section of the pilot’s bare thigh. “You could manage these on your own if you wanted me to stop.”

  “And miss out on your touch?” Sirius asked with a smirk.

  Freya drew up the estrogen into a syringe. “Uh huh. Does this mean we’re going to finally do it?”

  A blush fred up on Sirius’ cheeks. “If I can get my body to behave long enough.” They hissed as Freya pushed the needle into their leg, focusing on keeping it from twitching. “Don’t just jam it in!”

  She ughed as she depressed the syringe’s plunger. “Are you aware of what you just said?” She leaned over Sirius and met their eyes with her own, the shifting hues of the eitr that powered her hamr dancing with the same mischief that filled her thoughts. “If you want, I can be gentle when I push it inside you.”

  “Very funny.” Sirius gnced away. “Besides, if we ever do it, I’m on top.”

  “I’m just saying, we can always experiment too.” She pulled the needle out and the injection site started to leak blood. “Ah, fuck.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Sirius, sitting up and tensing the muscle making a little bit of blood spray out onto the bed and Freya’s forearm.

  “You’ve got a bleeder.” she replied, unwrapping a swatch of gauze and pressing it against the bleed. “Lift your leg and hold pressure on it.”

  “Got it,” said Sirius, complying.

  Freya applied some medical tape over the gauze. “There we are.” Then she wrapped the tailoring tape measure around SIrius’ leg.

  “Ah. So that’s why you wanted my leg up.”

  “I’ll need your top off too, the dress I’m thinking of for you is going to be very fttering. Probably backless too.”

  ______

  The Ofnir emerged from the Ginnungagap in a section of space far from any pnets or stations of note. It was not, however, empty. Cast against the backdrop of the milky way was a small fleet of warships, their make bearing simirities to older Blivet models. Captain Ailin Maes looked over to the Lady Freya, dressed in her officer's uniform, accompanied by Sirius who wore a simple cream blouse with bck jeans, their red hair loose around their shoulders.

  Across from the trio a rge screen dispyed the personal emblem of Surtr, the leader of Jotunn. The image of the burning man brandishing a sword flickered, and was repced with a feed from the man's office. It was a bit less orderly than it had been in the recording that Sirius had received, but still had the look of a learned man's study. Surtr, for his part, had visible bags under his eyes and his suit jacket was open.

  “I'm gd you could join us, Captain Maes, Sirius, Lady Freya,” the rge man bowed briefly, “I understand that there may be some trepidation, but I wish to extend an offer of hospitality aboard the Muspell should your schedule allow.”

  Captain Maes shot a gnce over to Freya. “I've little desire to leave my ship. However, if you were to decide to turn on us it won't matter where I am.”

  Surtr inclined his head forward. “I trust Sirius’ judgment enough to take the risk. None of our void-sealed einherjar are deployed, and our weapons are currently offline. The Lady Freya may check our systems to confirm.”

  The three standing at the head of the Ofnir's bridge look between each other, a private comms channel open.

  “I'll be back shortly,” said Freya, her hamr closing its eyes and standing stock still.

  “Surtr didn't seem too surprised to see you looking so different to the old promotional videos.” Ailin smirked at Sirius. “You give him reason to think you'd be switching teams?”

  Sirius rubbed the side of their hip, trying to soothe an ache. “If I did, it wasn't while I was sober. Then again, Aria certainly suspected it of me, and we only drank on special occasions.”

  A series of red lights fshed on a console embedded in Surtr’s desk. “I see that the Lady is being quite thorough.”

  “If he wasn’t running the most successful anti-corporate force to date, I’d call him a moron,” said Ailin, giving Sirius a sigh.

  Freya’s eyes flicked open. “It’s clear.” She faced Surtr. “We accept your invitation, and will arrive by shuttle.”

  ______

  True to his word, there had been no issue boarding the Muspell, Jotunn’s fgship. Surtr himself, along with a small entourage of armed guards, met the trio in a hangar defined as much by the function-first style of Blivet design as by the contrast with the highly personalized einherjar that stood docked throughout.

  “I’m gd you decided to take me up on the offer.” Surtr smiled warmly. “Welcome to the Muspell, the staging ground for our war against the council; and, my home.”

  Captain Ailin gave a brief salute. “Appreciated.”

  Freya nodded.

  Sirius stepped forward toward Surtr. “It is good to see you, old friend.”

  “You as well! Come, walk with me,” said Surtr, heading back down the hall he had come from.

  “I came unarmed, are the guards necessary?” asked Ailin, hand briefly going to rest where the butt of her gun would normally have been.

  “The other members of Jotunn’s leadership insisted they be present, I’ll dismiss them once we’ve settled at our destination.”

  “Which would be?” asked Freya.

  “The orrery room. I wish to discuss the nature of our operations, and how your forces would fit into them.”

  “Is this your whole fleet?” asked Ailin as the group turned down a hall that looked out over a fabrication area.

  “Most of it. We’re operating a highly elite force.”

  Sirius raised a brow. “Just how many mercs chose to join up?”

  “More than I had expected, and less than I had hoped.” Surtr paused in front of a door and entered a code into a pad at its side. “I did get most of the ones I’d hoped for.”

  “I saw your personnel list. There are some very interesting names there,” said Freya as the door opened.

  The circur room was rge with three levels; the central one that the group stood on, a balcony and a lower level that seemed to be more for maintenance. In the very center were a pair of projectors, one on the ceiling and another on the lowest level.

  “Helel, if you would,” said Sirius, presumably to another Jotunn member listening in.

  A moment ter the projectors kicked on and a three dimensional map of the expanse took form with several locations highlighted. Some were obvious inclusions like the nine major bifrost nodes and several of the manufacturing and mining hubs used by the economic council. A more notable set of inclusions were a few isoted pnets, a couple sections of empty space, and one of the Nastrond listening posts.

  “Impressive. Freya mentioned interesting pilots that joined Jotunn?” Sirius stood next to Surtr, looking up at the projected map of the expanse. “Don’t tell me you got a hold of Sigurd or Cu Chuinn.”

  Surtr shook his head. “No, I didn’t hear back from either. They're both mark one era pilots, so they're likely dead, afflicted with sync syndrome, or just done with the whole affair.”

  “I can believe the first two,” Sirius scoffed, “but not wanting back in the cockpit sounds insane to me. Why would you ever want to be apart from your machine?”

  “You've taken rather drastic actions to get back, so that's why you think that.” Surtr put a hand on the pilot's shoulder. “Not everyone is quite so unhappy with their flesh.”

  Sirius shrugged their shoulder, dislodging Surtr's hand. “You assaulted Breidablik too, it wasn't that extreme.”

  Surtr ran a hand over his hair. “Not what I was talking about.”

  Sirius looked up at him, eyes narrowed. “Do you mean the tits?”

  Surtr coughed, covering his mouth for a moment. “Er… Yeah.”

  “Ha! These?” Sirius framed them with their hands, ughing. “They're no big deal. It’s what you pay to fly again. You'd do the same if it let you back into your einherjar.” They pointed a finger inches from Surtr's face.

  “I wouldn't,” said Surtr ftly.

  Sirius growled. “No, that's a load of crap. You’re just–”

  “I'm not fucking with you, dumbass!” shouted Surtr, facing Sirius.

  “Ridiculous.” Sirius ran a hand through their hair. “Just because you didn't get sick like I did.”

  “I!” He grumbled, backing up out of Sirius’ face. “I do have a degree of sync syndrome, Sirius.”

  “I don’t see you needing fucking braces for when the symptoms fre up.” Sirius stamped a foot. “You didn't nguish for a decade as your body continued its lifelong betrayal! Before I started taking the shots, I could barely do coordinator work. Sometimes it took a fucking hour to just put on a shirt and pants!”

  “Sirius, calm down,” said Ailin.

  “What?” shouted Sirius as they turned to look at the captain.

  Ailin spped Sirius across the face. “I expected better from you. We are here to discuss military operations, and you're having a shouting match like a hormonal teen.”

  “I’m not…” mumbled Sirius.

  “Not to excuse the outburst, but Sirius is going through puberty,” added Freya.

  “I am no– Fuck.” Sirius sighed, shoulders slumping. “Guess I am. In my damned forties and I’m behaving like this. Mortifying.”

  “I'm surprised you didn't recognize it,” said Surtr.

  Sirius pinched their brow. “Why is that?”

  “Your daughter, Aria Raskopf. She went through transition while under your care, didn’t she?” He ughed softly. “I'd have thought you'd notice, having prior experience.”

  They grit their teeth. “How do you know her?”

  Surtr waved a hand. “She works for Jotunn, as do her partners. We had previous contact with her partner, Koschei, and through that connection we offered the three of them a position within the organization.”

  Sirius’ right knee wobbled. “Where are they posted?” Freya moved next to them and put an arm under theirs to support them. “Tell me.”

  “Tiwaz,” said Surtr, turning toward the projection of the expanse once more. “I'll go over her assignment.”

  Sirius’ legs gave out and they colpsed against Freya. Her hamr body, of course, was more than capable of supporting the pilot's weight. Wordlessly the pair shifted so that Sirius was supported by draping an arm over Freya, and in turn she supported them with an arm behind their back.

  “If you would, Surtr,” said Freya.

  He nodded and the orrery zoomed in on one of the pnets near Nastrond. “This is Tiwaz, and we have reason to believe that Penrose has a research facility somewhere in this marshy region.” The projection dispyed an industrial park with a nding strip. “Supply vessels have been seen arriving here since shortly after the war began. Aria and her squadmates Koschei and Avalon are set to assault the location between resupplies.”

  “Wait, I thought Aria’s callsign was Avalon?” said Ailin.Surtr smirked, pulling up imagery of a new einherjar. “Aria is quite the ace pilot, after all. And with her history? We felt that a little onboarding gift was in order. It was her choice to adopt a new callsign to go along with the new machine.”

  The projected image from the orrery switched to a digitigrade machine, a rge shield and spike assembly on its left arm, a rifle in its right. Next to the model was a list of additional shoulder units and supplemental armaments it was approved for.

  “I’m not entirely surprised by the new design. She did always favor getting in close,” said Sirius, nodding with a slight smile.

  “The Caliburn and Koschei’s Deathless have simirly received retrofits and upgrades to their systems. We at Jotunn take care of our pilots.”

  “What is Aria going by now?” asked Sirius.

  “Fenrir. As for her old one, it was given to a woman in a full body prosthetic like Lady Freya,” said Surtr.

  Freya nodded. “Ah! So that would be Nimue inheriting the Avalon name.”

  Surtr leaned back, waving a hand to switch the projection back to Tiwaz. “Now, do you have any other questions?”

  “What's the supposed facility researching?” asked Freya, moving her hand a little further down from the small of Sirius’ back as she noticed them becoming more able to support their own weight again.

  “An object Penrose intercepted as it left the Nastrond anomaly.” The projection switched to an image of a cylinder of dark metal. “According to Aria and her partners, they encountered a vessel of simir design on a job before their run-in with the Penrose founder. She said it contained a Draugr.”

  “Last time she faced one it nearly killed her,” said Sirius, shooting Freya a gnce as the woman’s grip settled on their ass.

  Freya didn’t move her hand. “I assume this is where the ones we were meant to retrieve intact were going to go, Sirius.” She squeezed slightly and linked directly with Sirius’ ARC. “A problem?”

  “You’re groping my ass during a briefing.” Sirius pointed at the projected image. “Just how did they capture that?

  “As it emerged, they did something to interrupt its sleipnir drive; kept it in pce for one of their bigger ships to lock it up for transport,” said Surtr.

  “Tech like that is a paradigm shift for naval combat,” said Ailin, brows push together.

  “I was unaware that that project was completed, it disrupts the stability of the tear into the Ginunngagap. From what you said, it still requires several smaller ships to use.” Freya sighed. “And? You did say you were mine to wield.”

  “In battle! Is this because I gave you a hard time about the dress?”

  “Yes,” Freya replied, giving another squeeze.

  Sirius rolled their eyes. “So, that’s what you’ve got Aria on, what was the job for us?”

  “Necker Group has some Draugr tech at a research facility near Kovam. I want you to take out their defenses while an infiltration team extracts it.”

  “And what do you intend to do with it once you have it, Surtr?” asked Freya.

  “Our head of R&D wants it,” said Surtr.

  “We have some Draugr material on the Ofnir. Sirius killed the creature inside.”

  Surtr paused, his lips twitching slightly. “We’ll take a look, but the operation is still a go. We do not need Necker’s capabilities to grow regardless.”

  “Especially not with Draugr tech. I agree to work with you Surtr,” said Freya.

  Surtr cpped his hands together. “Then we’ll hammer out the details over a meal.”