Silver Reign

Six: The Big Time

//Report: Quinn, Jackson
//The Castelporziano State Nature Reserve.
//Resume log.

I landed in the thin grass with a huff, being careful to keep the power converter from striking the soil. The earth was soft beneath my feet.

I stood up from a crouch and looked around.

Laura's Guardian mechs had formed a perimeter of a few hundred yards around the clearing, and her soldiers milled about, prepping both their dropship and our own. I counted at least sixty soldiers, not including the pilots of the Guardian mechs that had arrived to rescue us.

Saint Corp certainly had no intentions of being subtle.

Amani landed next to me with a huff, straightening up and brushing some dirt off of her torn jumpsuit. The pristine armour of the S.P.E.A.R soldiers only further reminded me of how terrible we looked-both our outfits were stained with sweat and blood and torn in numerous locations. We'd been through hell.

As the Erebus marched into the center of the field and the Guardians began to fan out, the assembled soldiers stared at Amani and I. To my surprise, up close I could now see that many were about my age or even younger, and several were smiling excitedly. A few even pointed in our general direction.

"Do they all... know us?" Amani whispered. She suddenly seemed content to stand very close to my side, and I realized that the fearless sniper seemed to be feeling shy.

I knew better than to call her out on that, of course, so all I could offer her was a bemused shrug.

No longer carrying passengers, Darius's Erebus stomped away from us toward the centre of the field, then entered a low crouch. I noticed that the perimeter of Guardian mechs followed Darius's movements with their weapons. Good.

Behind us, Laura's Exodus also came to a halt, rotating its upper torso in our general direction. From down here, the red kettle of death practically blotted out the sun.

"I've got to get this thing loaded up into a dropship," Laura informed us. "Take a moment to collect yourselves while my people get things sorted, then I'll meet you aboard my new dropship."

"Your dropship?" Amani frowned. "What about Dropship 13?"

"We've got technicians heading to repair it now," Laura responded. "They'll send Dan and Lucas your way as well."

As if on cue, one of the white-clad soldiers marched up to us and extended a gloved hand. He looked younger than I was, with a head full of curly hair, and I heard a nervous tremble in his voice as he spoke.

"Power converter, please."

I tentatively handed the boxy metal object over, and the soldier left without another word, hurriedly marching off. I wasn't sure how I felt about Laura's soldiers-their earlier smiles had faded, and now most simply stood around, staring at us without approaching.

It made me miss the Firmament-SPEAR's tower facility had been underfunded and constantly in need of repairs, but the staff had been like family.

"Laura, you're sending someone else to repair our dropship?" Amani queried. A small smirk spread across her face. "I'm not sure if that'll go down well with-"

A distant shout finished Amani's explanation for her.

"Like hell you are!"

Laura let out a quiet chuckle.

"I should've known," she sighed. "Try to cool him down, please, and then meet me in a few minutes."

Her Exodus stomped away, shaking the ground as it departed.