Okay, so some game-changing stuff happened in today's session. This time I'm really gonna go to bed instead of writing it all up like last time, but whoever gets here first of me and Arvid will. Or Martina will write some in-game story of it. Or all of the above.

New session today. Arvid can do the full write-up if he wants to. The summary, from Nero's perspective, goes like this:
He snuck back into the army camp to rescue Canaveral, who didn't want to/need to be rescued, at least not without her weapons. Fox was very annoyed by this whole notion that Canny was important, and despite being sent back to warn Daimyo she returned to pull Nero out. Their relationship was not very good, as Nero consistently ignores her or just doesn't give her any affection back.

Back by the hardhold they get the chance to intercept Rolfball as he's approaching the fort. Nero figures he's the one responsible for Rolfball not getting paid for the doctor, so he sends Fox to get all barter the crew can muster. Rolfball takes this and is appeased, and thus content with raiding just the tech guy in the house outside the settlement. During this time Daimyo has talked to Fox, who told him that Canaveral has joined Newton's army. Daimyo gets an improvement from threatining the people not to desert the city and discoveres a last-ditch reserve of old-time weaponry under the fort to give his gang "armory".

Nero, tired from riding all the way from Mudkips just to end up in the middle of a biker gang, is immediately questioned by Daimyo who asks him to open his brain and find out what the deal with this Newton is. Despite a 12 on Daimyo's manipulation roll, Nero refuses, reminding him that he's no goddamn slave. At least let me have some sleep, dammit. The next day, however, Nero opens his brain in some kind of séance with Two Moon to guide him, but screws up anyway. A short vision of a decrepit woman and a shadow silhouette of Canaveral, as well as imagery from Sunken City, ends the session. Last I checked, Daimyo was planning to gather up his newly-armed, 4-harm large gang and go help the Sunken City hardholder fend of Newton. I guess he prefers other ruthless hardholders to potentially violent freedom fighters. The former can be traded with.

This session had three particularly interesting moments for me, and I think I finally got a glimpse into what Nero's up to. The first was when he could hear Fox sobbing in her bedroll when camping on the way back to New Jerk. A perfect opportunity to show her that the hard talk really was just from pressed situations and things that had to be done whether we liked it or not. An opportunity to finally hold her and tell her everything's all right and he actually does like her, and always has. Except he didn't.
Second was when Nero decided to face Rolfball, even if it was just to hold him there until the crew got all the treasure out to bribe him with. Still, Nero is like me in that he prefers waiting and checking and examining possibilities, but that's so boring after a while. And riding up to a biker gang and stand there coolly while they started circling reminded me why the PCs have a "cool" stat - or rather, why we're playing the guys with a "cool" stat.
Third was when Daimyo wanted me to open my brain, right here, right now, 'll give you one barter. I didn't think that much of it until Arvid started whispering "whore, whore" from the other end of the table. Then I realised opening your brain really isn't something you just do because someone tells you to, least of all when you're someone like Nero. He wants to know the whole picture, to be in some degree of control. He was tired, and a bit confused. And in hindsight, probably a bit upset over the whole Fox situation.

I'd been thinking before about why Nero even stayed around at this place, and realised it'd had to be that he'd grown tired of moving around and thought that a powerful hardholder should be a good main employer. But there's still freedom for him and his crew, and even when they'd spent all their private barter they kept their horses, so if Daimyo had pressed on that I should obey, I'd packed and left. Possibly just to join Newton instead just to make it more interesting as I'd stayed where the other PCs were.
So yeah, Nero'll stay around as long as he can see the benefits of working with Daimyo. Not that he's on the verge of turning against him and try to usurp or overthrow him, just that he remembers the life on the road and how that, too, was a passable existence.