"Sometimes they are," Wash says quietly, and he can remember all too clearly York bleeding out after being hunted for so long, North dead, and South turning on him until he'd killed her. And Maine, always Maine become the Meta. "From what I've heard, at least the mercs here have the chance of having backup instead of relying on a chain of command that doesn't give a damn unless you have rank and influence."

He shrugs. "But what can I say, I saw my whole team killed because our CO was more invested in us as experiments than as people."