A Whole Lot Of Paperwork

**A Whole Lot Of Paperwork** is the second episode of No Home in Twilight.

*The remnants of the ARCA construction company regroup with new information. They crack open some mechs, deal with military bureaucracy, and do a whole lot of paperwork. Then, they must answer the most important question of all when starting a business.*

## Summary

A trio of UEA soldiers sit in a trench on lookout. One of them, Corporal Gromby, high on stimulants, begins nonsensically ranting about a variety of conspiracy theories relating to the glassing of Angresst. The group is soon joined by Forsetti Galerian, who Gromby excitedly ropes into his rabid theorizing.

Meanwhile, back at Angresst Spaceport, a group of ARCA employees are dissecting the salvaged alien mechs they recovered the previous day. Helena Roost, an engineer, attempts to interface with the first mech, a large, roughly humanoid machine with a bell-shaped torso, but it teleports away after she tries to break it open. Unable to find its location, they bring out the second mech, a frame of similar make to the previous, consisting of a variety of unattached parts that seem to be controlled with the mind. Helena manages to open this one without it teleporting away, and finds the corpse of a pilot inside the cockpit. The corpse undergoes some kind of death throe mechanism and reaches towards Helena, after which it is shot by Raoul Auclair and stops moving. The team then brings in the third mech, a strange frame that seems to be a mix of metal and various organic materials. When they open it, they find another dead pilot, seemingly of a different species, who is attached to various fungal growths. Helena is unsure that her engineering expertise will be of any use with these mechs, but she goes to attempt to kickstart it with a generator. However, before she is able to, a squad of UEA troops stoms into the room. Their leader, First Lieutenant Aloay, angrily orders the team to shut down all investigation of the mechs. Sylas DePayne angrily argues with the Lieutenant, insisting that he has no authority over ARCA. The conversation continues to go in circles until it is stopped by Pops, who tells Aloay that they'll shut down their mech salvaging for now, but that they'll need to check with their superiors for any further orders they want to give to ARCA.

Back in the trenches, Gromby continues ranting to an utterly enraptured Ceti. After Ceti talks to the more lucid members of the UEA deployment about their goals and aspirations, Asher Halloween arrives to take her back to base to fill out paperwork. They arrive at the engineering wing, where an incredibly stressed Moon begins rapidly doling out orders and attempting to rein in the situation, complaining the entire way about UEA beureaucrats. After much discussion, they manage to settle on a shape for ARCA to take as a company going forward. Led by a tripartite board of Pops, Moon, and Sylas, ARCA will act as a mixed salvaging/mercenary company that will allow its employees to take on personal freelance contracts, with oversight from the board. After Moon asks the group around her what motivation they have for remaining at ARCA, she realizes that they have to choose a new name for the organization, as some higher-ups are probably still alive and withold copyright. After heated debate, the group present decides to put all the non-copyrighted suggstions up to a company-wide vote.

## Characters

### Player Characters

* Forsetti Galerian
* Asher Halloween
* Helena Roost
* Raoul Auclair
* Sylas DePayne

### ARCA

* Pops
* Moon

### UEA

* Aloay
* Gromby
* Bandy
* Aganno