When he sees Blaze and Ghost, Kinner salutes them. Blaze had been his general, if for a short time, and he's relieved to see that she's back in business.They don't know each other well, but she has the little cook's respect. He has questions, but first he wants to make it clear he's glad they're back.

"Hello, Blaze. You too, Ghost. I'm relieved to see you're back all right. Hope those brutes weren't too rough on you." Kinner sighs, sitting down. He has to bring this up, since Blaze is the only one who knows about what the Fallen are and how to deal with them. First, apologies and thanks are due. "Sorry I wasn't there to try and stop you from bein' taken - I was too busy trying not to get shot. Those bastards are good fighters. Barely got outta there alive. But when I heard you were back, I had to try and find you. Thank you for everything."

"Truce aside, there's too many of 'em to kick out." He looks in the direction of the Wilds. "The Baroness doesn't strike me as someone who'd pack her bags and leave if we asked politely, either. Guess we have to learn to live with each other, if she's willing." Kinner's not really happy with the truce. It was made under a threat to murder hostages, and the Fallen still refused to communicate properly. It's better than a war, but that doesn't make it a good option. "I'm surprised after everything she's pulled, that's all it took for her to back off. Do you think the land's what she wanted all along?" Kinner shrugs. In the winter, at the height of Pelsor's strength, he doubts she would have stopped at that. "I still think she'd have killed all of us without a lick of guilt back in Reynard's winter if it wasn't for those torches, but better late than never. You and the other Guardians around might help encourage 'em to keep playing nice for now."

Kinner doesn't like not knowing what the Fallen plan to do in the Nexus, especially since he has a feeling the aliens are keeping everyone out for a reason. They're pirates, Blaze had said. Somehow he doubts the Fallen intend to sit quietly in the Wilds and mind their own business. The way they strongarmed the Nexus into going along with their deal through taking hostages still rankles, and the fact they can go where they please while the Nexusers can't keep an eye on them feels unfair.

"As an idea, I was thinking we could do an inventory of what we know they took. Won't be perfect, but it might give us some clues and we wouldn't have to risk Pelsor's truce. There's just too many unanswered questions for me to feel completely good about this. How they got here, why they attacked us, what their plans are now..." The cook shakes his head. "We should be ready. There'll be another winter, and I'm not sure we can trust Pelsor to keep her truce if conditions change to suit her again. Someone who attacks children and the sick is hardly someone I'm willing to put faith in, and I doubt her attitude's really changed. Ghost, uh, did you see anything or get any sense of what they were up to while you were a prisoner?"

"I heard it through one of my team members, but he could've been wrong." He nods when Ghost says Pelsor claims she didn't attack children. "If she didn't go near children, and there's proof of that, I'm willing to grant her that and tell Van the same. He's a little heated and I think he fed me some bad intel, through his own anger."

Out of all the crew, Van Wall is the most anti-Fallen. Kinner's not fond of them, but he's willing to grant them more leeway than the Chief Pilot. He's just glad Van's misinformation was being corrected now. He'll have a stern word with Van later - it's a good thing it's early.

"I'll stick to two questions. Do you have any clue of what the attacks were about? The Fallen being territorial? A fear tactic? They assumed we were hostile because you were here?" Kinner shrugs, aware his anxiety's showing. "Or they just didn't like us? Secondly, do you think we can trust Pelsor not to restart the attacks next winter if conditions get bad again? We still don't know their long-term plans here in the Nexus, and I don't think they'll tell us."

"At least they're willing to behave themselves now they have that base." Kinner's still uneasy, but he's willing to trust Blaze's judgement. She was his field general and she knows the Fallen better than anyone else he fought beside. "I mean, just 'cause they aren't causing trouble here doesn't mean they won't cause trouble somewhere else. But there isn't really anything we can really do about that. Best we can do is make sure nobody wanders onto their territory and gets themselves killed."

He anxiously looks in the direction of the Wilds. "I would feel better if we had some idea of what they're up to out there." Pelsor hadn't said she wouldn't use the Nexus as a base to attack other worlds or gather weapons for the war back home. Kinner's worried about that, but realistically their hands are tied. Not that he's happy about that, but he's not one to advocate a losing battle. He's not fool enough to suggest they go spy, either. "I was wonderin' if you saw anything that could be a clue to their plans while you were there, Ghost."

"Game." Kinner laughs with a hint of veiled contempt. "So, all that was a game to him, more or less. Well, Reynard had his fun with all of us. I just hope he goes easier on us next winter."

He's intrigued when Blaze mentions the Fallen code of honor. "What's this code of honor about, anyway? I've heard of it before. Thieves and pirates aren't usually the honorable sorts of people, but from what I understand they aren't the same sort of pirates my world had. What kind of rules do they have?"

"You're confident you and the team that came a while back can beat them." Kinner nods in respect. It's a statement. "You're braver than I am. There's a lot more of them out there than the gang which attacked us out on the convoy, from my guess." He sighs, not expecting much intel from Ghost. Pelsor wouldn't have been that sloppy. "It's okay you didn't see anything, Ghost. What's important is that you're safe. So we have no idea of what their larger plans are here? That's unfortunate, though it can't be helped. They don't want us to know what they're up to. Either they don't trust us either or they're hiding something. Maybe both."

When Blaze mentions the dregs, Kinner smiles, a little bitterly. "You weren't supposed to run from battle in my world, either. Though for a lot of people it was less honor that kept them on the field and more the fact that if you were caught deserting, you got court-marshaled or shot. Reckon if any of Pelsor's Fallen didn't want to fight, they wouldn't last very long, either." Kinner hadn't seen an execution for deserting happen, but had heard of it in other countries. "I guessed they were stubborn bastards. You'd have to be to fight a war for sixteen hundred years. The war I was in lasted four years, and that was bad enough. I can only imagine how exhausting and bloody a war that long would be."

Kinner smiles. "I'm glad you and the others are here to look after us. I put up a good fight, but I couldn't even take a vandal one-on-one. Made 'im bleed, though." He isn't discouraged that he lost, since from all the stories he heard the creatures are vicious fighters and deadly hand-to-hand combatants. "I'm just glad I didn't get my head torn off. Back in the Great War, people on both sides sometimes took things from enemy soldiers they killed. Weapons, belongings, body parts, even. I didn't do it, but there were people in my unit who did. I guessed the Fallen have a similar tradition."

Blaze's comment makes Kinner think as he walks. "So I guess all the 'nice' Fallen, or any of them who might've been willing to make peace with us from the start, are dead or in hiding back in your world. The vicious and distrustful, like Pelsor, are the ones who are left. Humans're like that sometimes. When people are fighting to survive and there isn't enough for everybody, they get mean." It's not how Kinner thinks the world should be, but if wishes were horses and all that, and he's no idealist. "At the meeting, some of us thought living here, where she doesn't have to fear territory or resources being taken from her, might show Pelsor things don't have to be like that. I'm not one of them. There's too much bad blood between all parties involved, and I'm guessing her attitude towards us hasn't really changed. The way Loki talked about it, she's making a truce for practical reasons, not a change of heart."

"Well," Kinner says darkly, "I reckon they'll have some replacements for the trophies they lost after they killed all those people this winter. So the Fallen worship machines?" That's not something Kinner's familiar with. "We have different faiths in my world, and I reckon they'd probably sound strange to you and the Fallen."

"When they first turned up here, they sure didn't act like all they wanted was to be left alone." Kinner breathes in deeply. "You're right, they're up to something out there, and probably not anything good. Unfortunately, I can't think of a way to keep an eye on them and learning what they're up to that wouldn't carry the risk of getting caught. Is there anything we can do to figure out their plans? We don't want Pelsor to operate completely unchecked."

Kinner’s heard of stranger things. He knows the Fallen made use of machines, and from their perspective the gods humans worshipped, gods you couldn’t see or directly interact with, would probably be just as alien.

“No problem. I’ll let you know what I see, though I’ll be staying out of their way if I can help it. They almost killed me once, I’m not in a hurry for it to happen again.” Kinner’s not a coward, but he stays out of unnecessary battles and fights he can’t win. “I’ll leave the Fallen to you and your allies, and I’ll tell McReady that the Guardians have the situation under control. McReady’s my team leader. If he talks, my crew will listen.”