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Nomads. If it weren't for Harmony and their conflict with the Union, and nuclear devices and war, they would be at the top of Hunter's mind. As it was, though, they'd passed out of his thought process completely for the past few days. Even boarding the shuttle aboard his cruiser, the Lorelei, to head over to the MNS Shadow, he couldn't focus on them. The young man had ignored the odd looks from his crew when he told them he was boarding the small shuttle alone, with no escort to board a Maltese vessel. The Union had a storied history with the Maltese, and none of them would understand that Hunter trusted the man he was going to see. He knew he was safe. He also knew they would be the only two humans aboard his entire vessel - a vessel run by AI.

"I still don't know what he wants to show me. But hopefully, it sheds some light on the subject," Hunter thought to himself as he eased the shuttle out of the Lorelei's launch bay. It was a single-person vessel, really no more than a life pod with a stronger engine. The Lorelei and the Shadow were close enough that he could see the Shadow's hangar bays as soon as he cleared his own ship. He didn't have to wait long before the MNS Shadow's computer took over his approach, however, locking him out completely. "Well this is reassuring...," Hunter thought idly to himself as the vessel was brought down on the flight deck without incident.

As soon as the shuttle opened, Hunter pulled himself to his feet, bracing his hands on either side of the canopy to push against it. As expected, he saw no people. There were AI automatons here and there, attending to parts of the ship, but there were no people to be seen. It was Hunter's first time on a vessel this large, designed for war. Sure, he'd seen Union battleships in action before - the Sirene especially - but he'd never been aboard it. "Is it strange that the first warship I ever set foot on doesn't belong to my people?" he asked himself, his mind wandering as he raised himself out of the shuttle, down the small ladder mounted to its side, and his boots clicked hard on the metal deck as he landed.

And then he stood there. Hunter had been given no directions on where to go once his shuttle landed, nor did he know the way to the bridge. None of the automatons approached him or attempted to guide him. "I guess you're just going to meet me here on the deck...," Hunter said aloud, giving his thoughts a voice. The sound echoed through the near-empty landing chamber, and Hunter grimaced at the sound of his own voice ricocheting back at him. "Great..now I'm talking to myself," he thought, tightening his arms to his sides, his hands into fists, and willing away the nervousness he felt. He needed to show Shadow that he could handle this, and that he trusted the man.

"I need to find out the truth about the Nomads," Hunter thought to himself, leaning back against his shuttle and tried desperately to look relaxed as he awaited his host's arrival.

The sound of the music pulled Hunter's attention, and he stood up straight and brought his hands to his sides just as the doors slid open across the deck, revealing Shadow. Hunter couldn't stop one corner of his mouth from pulling up into a smirk at the sight of his friend, and his body visibly relaxed. There was only time for a single deep, hesitant breath before his boots clicked against the floor and he began walking toward the other man, his smirk tugging into a full smile. "It's good to see you in person, Shadow. Thank you for inviting me."

When Shadow turned and walked back through the doors, Hunter followed, though his smile faltered behind Shadow's back. "Maybe handshakes are not a thing in Maltese culture," was what the young man thought to himself, followed immediately by, "I really don't know much about the Maltese at all. I should have done some research before I came over here." Hunter knew there was little to gain from this internal admonishment, however, and could only hope that any cultural missteps would be forgiven because of his positive relationship with Shadow.

It was only after some silence that Shadow spoke, and when his words reached Hunter's ears, the young Unioner managed to keep walking. He did his best to school his features and mask his emotions, though the revelation that the Maltese and the Nomads had been around each other long enough for that sort of cross-cultural connection was certainly a revelation. Running his tongue over his mouth to combat the dry, artificial air of the ship, Hunter's visible look was contemplative and thoughtful, and he turned his head slightly toward Shadow when he responded to the man's statement.

"I have a lot of questions for you. I'll try not to barrage you with all of them before we get where we're going," he said, mentally calming himself. Everyone he'd talked to about Nomads had always been so secretive, so elusive. He only hoped Shadow would not be the same. Still walking down the hall, the scenery of Shadow's ship became nothing but a backdrop, and Hunter's focus remained on Shadow. "But I'm relieved to know it is possible to interact with them peaceably, without infection. How did the Maltese first manage it?"

Hunter couldn't stop himself from scoffing involuntarily at Shadow's words. "That's kind of you to say, my friend, but considering everything going on right now, keeping my tongue and my thoughts to myself may prove my wisest course of action." It wasn't detail, but it was an explanation for Hunter's restraint against his normally open emotions. Every day since he'd taken his first seat in the cockpit of his fighter had been a learning experience, and he'd begun to learn that he was his own worst enemy. His lack of experience in Sirius and his childhood spent entirely aboard a single space station had done nothing to prepare him for the cold, harsh realities of space.

As they continued walking, the sound of Hunter's combat boots impacting against the floor would change with the density of the alloy underneath his feet. It was mostly consistent, but occasionally the sound would change. "Probably a ventilation duct," he'd think to himself, mentally trying to map out the huge ship in his head as they moved from place to place. Despite this, he kept his ears on what Shadow was saying. Hunter didn't respond immediately, though, letting thoughts of the Nomads blending so heavily with the Maltese population and their social interactions between them fill his thoughts - or perhaps his nightmares - until they reached the bridge.

Walking into the huge command center - which was a sight that Hunter had never seen before - took his breath away. When he finally caught it again, there was an audible gasp, exposing how impressed he was with Shadow's setup. "Nice ship, my friend," was all he could think to mutter, before looking over the seats across the bridge. In the end, he took one that only had a small display off to one side and that rotated 360 degrees, allowing him to ignore the display completely and turn back toward Shadow standing near the window. He wasn't here to spy on the ship - he was here to get some answers from his friend.

"You're not the first person who I've heard use that exact word - joy - to describe a relationship with the Nomads. The woman I know who used that word also advocated on a peaceful relationship with them...and then led me into their space, where I was nearly killed." There was no hiding the mild bitterness that seeped into Hunter's tone when he spoke. "What I really want to know is if true, collaborative peace with the Nomads is possible...without allowing oneself to be infected, or unduly influenced by their mental powers. Is such a thing possible?" Hunter's mind flashed back to the two times prior he'd felt a Nomad's mental power.

Once, a Nomad in Bering attempted to deceive him into believing one of his own people's command ships was on fire and requesting assistance, just to drag him away from the safety of Pacifica. If it hadn't been for Gunda calling out to Hunter, he'd have never stopped to think that it wasn't real. The second time, he felt pure curiosity about his nature, about himself as a person, when he visited Omicron Lost with Katherine Pennybrooke. And then, John Silverstone destroyed that curiosity, making himself a loud, obnoxious enemy, and they had both paid the price for it. Hunter was not willing to relive that experience, or that danger. He would go home to his family one day - his mind still his own.

So, as he waited for Shadow's response, he sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, doing his best to show interest while still making sure Shadow understood his hesitation regarding the Nomads and their intentions.

Hunter noticed the frown. He had a tendency to pick up on subtle changes in people, and the frown wasn't even remotely subtle. The flash of other emotions on his friend's face was harder to interpret, though, and Hunter's own expression turned curious as he wondered what was going through Shadow's mind. "Maybe we're not as good of friends as I thought we were," Hunter thought to himself as he turned toward the display indicated by Shadow.

The light-skinned Rheinlander's attention was pulled back away from the display, however, when Shadow spoke again. "I haven't ever seen a vision from them. I've felt an emotion, sort of distant, like pressing against my own emotions. And also, I've heard them pretend to be another. In neither case did I feel myself being directly emotionally affected, but I certainly felt the presence and the pull of it. The situation where they pretended to be a Union capital ship officer in need of immediate assistance...that one was scary. I could almost feel the fear they were trying to portray through their falsehood, to spur me to action. Thankfully, Gunda stopped me...," Hunter said.

The lack of anything more forthcoming from Shadow caused Hunter's eyes to flip back to the display screen, without even moving his head. He felt the need to be constantly wary right now, not only because he was aboard a Maltese vessel that he had no control over, but also because of everything else going on in his life in that moment. Between interactions with the Lane Hackers, the Cohort, Natio Octavarium and even his own beloved Alster Union, Hunter's entire consciousness was seeped in emotional and mental turmoil. His expression visibly faltered for a moment, his shoulders slumping as some of that weight made itself visible, before he set himself right again as the video began to play.

Even despite the almost ethereal beauty of the starscape in the video at first, the debris floating in a cloud of dust, Hunter's attention was jarred the first time the camera turned against the planet, a clearly barren place with volcanic activity still prevalent even after six years. Hunter couldn't have stopped himself from speaking out if he tried, once Shadow mentioned the death toll. His eyes pulled away from the camera. Anger rose in the younger man, and he stood hard enough that his boot slammed into the floor with a loud click of his heel. His expression was raw and full of accusation as he stared at his friend.

"For the love of....Shadow! A million lives!? That is what these Nomads are capable of, and only minutes ago you were describing the joy that you experience when you meet them and see them in space!? I don't know what's wrong with you, but I'm starting to think you're just like Admiral Shultzsky, and you believe that blackening your soul and ending lives is a necessary evil. Well, it isn't! You can have peace without destruction!"

He wasn't really mad at Shadow. Hunter understood, somewhere in the logical part of his brain, that Shadow was simply portraying facts and presenting a history, and that Shadow's emotions toward the Nomads would have been influenced by many things in the intervening six years. However, the logical part of his brain didn't get a voice in that moment. In that moment, the mention of even more death, more destruction, brought everything that had happened to Hunter in the last few weeks to a boiling point. His eyes moistened first, and then his jaw fell open and his voice cracked, a pathetic sound, before the young man dropped to his knees, dropping his head into his hands and struggling not to bawl.

Hunter's rant made clear that his emotions had nothing to do with the Nomads. Not right now. "Why, Shadow!? Why the hell is this all necessary?! Why do Union leaders believe we have to kill so many, cause so much destruction, just to survive!? Why can't anyone take some damn responsibility for their actions!? Why do I have to spend my life fearing that my entire family's going to be killed or I'm not going to be able to go home again for something I don't even believe in!? The Union...," Hunter was nearly screaming at this point, into his own hands, yelling and his voice echoing against the deck plates and filling the empty command center almost loudly enough to hurt the average person's ears. The end of his diatribe, however, was barely above a whisper. "...the Union isn't what I thought it was, Shadow. Its leaders don't stand for what I stand for. What the hell am I going to do?"

Every action he'd taken in the last week - speaking to the Cohort, speaking to the Lane Hackers, speaking to Aoi Oono, sharing information with those he shouldn't, trying to convince himself to have faith in the Union's leadership - it all collapsed on Hunter's psyche. It turned his flames of sadness and frustration into anger. Eyes still wet, he balled his hands into fists and pulled himself to his feet, glaring at Shadow as if he were the face of all the forces swirling around the young Gefreiter. "It has to end."

Sadness and frustration ripped from Hunter as if by physical force, Shadow's raised voice wiped them out and only inflamed his anger further. The young man didn't even notice the lines of moisture down his cheeks, or the fogginess of his vision. All he could see was red. But he didn't speak. He trembled. The black-haired commander's body trembled with his rage, his boot heels clicking against the floor and the fabric of his outfit rustled from the force of the tremors. But he didn't speak. He continued to listen to Shadow, for no other reason than that, if he acted in that moment, it would not be words - but actions - which defined their relationship going forward.

As quickly as Shadow's voice yanked Hunter in one direction, the slap on the back of his head - a gesture of antagonistic affection he'd shared with his little brother on countless occasions - pulled him in the opposite. For a moment, he could almost see his little brother's blonde hair and blue eyes, like a mirage over Shadow's vastly different expression. That same feeling that slammed into him right before he sat down to watch Shadow's taunting video and hear his eerie narration returned. Hunter's entire body slumped, his fingers relaxing and falling open at his sides, and his entire frame sinking as if into the floor, losing at least a couple inches of height just from the change in posture. Shadow's last words ricocheted between his ears and his brain for nearly a minute before he took a deep breath to respond.

And when he did respond, Hunter's tone was determined. There was no doubt of the resolution of his heart and soul into what he would say next. "It can be done, Shadow. And I am going to make it happen. I'm going to find peace for my people in Bering, so that we can go back to doing what we do best. I'm going to put the Union back on the path to our glory - our technology, and our protection of the innocent, blue-collar workers of Rheinland."

It then occurred to Hunter that his response wasn't a complete resolution of Shadow's words, but only a statement of declaration of his own feelings. He straightened himself, tugging on the hem of his jacket to smooth it, pulling his shoulders back. There was pride in his eyes, but the set and tension in his jaw was something else entirely. "Shadow, I'm not afraid of war. I didn't come out here expecting innocence. I came out here expecting to serve people who believe what I believe. I came out here expecting to serve people dedicated to the cause instilled in me by my parents. And I don't," Hunter said frankly, reaching up and dragging his fingers through his black faux hawk, never breaking eye contact with Shadow.

"You're right. The Nomads are not a concern. But I don't need to see a war zone, Shadow. What I need is to find out how to dismantle one." Another pause, this one loaded with heavy emotion, before Hunter took a deep breath and locked eyes with the other man. "Will you help me?"