MX Hub had proven to have challenges that Zander hadn't anticipated.

Accidentally getting tagged by a rogue element, he thwarted corporate espionage at Maverick Mecha Manufacturing. Lavella Hemoesta, the owner of Maverick, met with him to work out a deal so her company wouldn't be given bad press. That meeting changed the future for both Lavella and Zander.

After a few false starts, including a multiple homicide in a hedge maze, the pair finally found time for intimate fun. Zander flipped the script on Lavella, making the Vampire prey instead of the predator, firmly setting their budding relationship in stone. After the whirlwind sex, Zander proposed a crazy idea that set the stage for something unseen by galactic society: a mecha tournament.

During the tournament, Zander led his team to victory using his training as a military contractor. In doing so, he flouted the training left by the Antecedents, but his squad won handily every time. Some of the losing squads took it badly, but none as badly as Smaztil Hammish, the lead pilot of Proud Axe. When the Dwarven pilots lost, they physically attacked Zander's at the end of the tournament.

With the tournament over and a party waiting, the crew stopped only long enough to try collecting their bets. The organized crime group who'd taken the bet refused to pay up. Instead of a bloody confrontation, Zander just forwarded the video evidence to the magistrates and they left the gang behind.

What would come from Zander's flagrant disregard of the Antecedents' training? Would the criminal organization take umbrage at being called out? Only time will tell…