"The hell with your Sagan quotes," Tinker grumbled and swirled the drink in his hand. "No one knows who the fuck Bozo the Clown is anymore, so how do we know he wasn't a genius too? But I guess she might be a genius in the making, no mistake."
"The clown part in it does give it away," the CO pointed out. "And yes, she is. Even if she did decide to take off on her own."
And there it was—the hard edge to his tone that betrayed his real feelings about her escape. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if she’d arrived without the protection of the Knights, the reception would have been exactly what she’d dreaded.
"Don't you punish her too harshly for that, Armstrong7," Tinker replied in a warning tone. "You remember how her father was, which means it’s in her blood to be curious and adventurous."
The man nodded. "Indeed. But he at least had the benefit of being able to run away with you."
"Wait—what?" Jessica13 asked and fixed her attention on the two men. "Did both of you know my father?"
Tinker took a long sip and swallowed before he replied. "Aye, little one. The man was a nutter to start with, but he had a mind for metal, exactly like you, and when they threatened to take that away from him, he ran. I never knew he had left a child behind until after, though, and never understood why he would leave a tiny one like that. It broke his heart every time he thought of it and you."
"Conflict of duty, perhaps, to a higher cause over his duty to the bunker and his daughter," Armstrong7 said and shook his head regretfully. "He grew disillusioned with the bunker but maybe he sacrificed his relationship with you because he knew that Outside is no place for a tiny child. Hell, I could tell you that. Where is he, anyway?"
She pushed back the protest that clamored to be heard, driven by indignation and anger. For her entire life, she’d been told her father had perished in a pirate attack. This seemed the greatest affront of all. It was one thing to lie in a misguided attempt to protect the structure they rigorously enforced in the belief that it was for Sanctuary’s protection. But to lie to a child and have her believe her father was dead when he might well be alive and out there somewhere?
Caution forced her to remain silent, however. She knew that if she so much as voiced a single word, she’d be unable to stop the inevitable tirade. It served her purpose to not confront Amstrong7. She needed to remain calm until they had what they needed and could leave. Common sense told her Tinker would be more understanding and willing to fill in the missing details. She had left Sanctuary because of the lies. That meant she was free and could now choose whether to let them continue to affect her or not.
"I’m not rightly sure where he is," Tinker said. "He spent time with the Knights for a while but one day, he picked his mech up and was gone, out into the Wastelands. He’s likely dead since I haven't heard nor seen sign of him for the last ten years, give or take."
"I'll drink to the crazy bastard," Armstrong7 said, raised his cup, and downed what was left in it. She took another sip and focused on the burn to quell her emotions.
A short silence followed and desperate to fill it and distract herself from the rampant thoughts that bubbled below the surface, Jessica13 looked at the corner of the hangar where Hammerhand sat on the boot of his mech and toyed with something in his hands.
"Think we should get him a drink too?" she asked, her voice a little rough but easy enough to blame on the alcohol.
"Leave him be, little one," Tinker replied and placed a hand on her shoulder. "He needs him some time to think before we head out."
She nodded and glanced at the other side of the hangar, where a group of security guards entered, escorting what looked like the parts they needed.
"I guess that's our answer," Armstrong7 said with a chuckle. "You can take those to the other bunker and help them get started again in exchange for the pieces you offered."
Hammerhand stood quickly and strode to where they finished the last of their drinks. He took Armstrong7's hand and shook his firmly. They cut a fine figure, the two of them, and she wondered what things would be like if they ever fought side by side.
"Your help in this will not be forgotten, my friend," the Knights’ leader said softly.
The CO nodded firmly. "You know, the parts you're selling to us are worth a little more than what you're getting in return. I won't tell the admins, but if you need anything from us, you only need to say so."
"We have what we need as provided by God and Outside, friend," Hammerhand replied with a smile.
Jessica13 raised a hand and stepped forward. "Ah…excuse me?"
The two men turned to her.
"Was there something you wanted?" Hammerhand asked. He seemed a little confused but not disapproving.
"If you would like to stay with us, you'll always have a place here at Sanctuary, Jessie," Armstrong7 said, which she hadn’t expected at all. "I spoke to the admins about you, and they said that you would be welcomed with open arms. We would need you here, though. No more foolish runs Outside."
"You'll also have a place with the Knights," Hammerhand countered. "Tinker might not be the mechanic he once was, although he is still the best. You could do worse than learn the craft at his hand. You won't be as safe as you are here, of course."
"Your choice," Armstrong7 said and gave the other man a glance tinged with annoyance.
The thought of staying did appeal to a small part of her, but after what she’d heard and seen in this visit, she knew that was impossible. Her old CO seemed to want her back, but her suspicions wouldn’t subside. What was to stop him placing her under arrest when the Knights left? Maybe he did want her to stay and work with them, but it was unlikely that those in control would be willing to forgive and forget. He might not have the power to override their decisions.
Aside from that, she couldn't help but wonder what life had waiting for her out there. It was in her blood, as they had said, and as she looked at Mini who attempted to assist the bulletfoot to apply the paint, she couldn't help a small smile.
"I'm sorry, Armstrong7," she said. "But I need to go with the Knights. I can't explain it but I feel like I need to be Outside now."
The man chuckled and nodded. "I can't say I'm not disappointed, but I'm not surprised either. You could do worse than a group like the Knights Mechanica."
"I know," Jessica13 replied. "But, if I could, there is one thing I'd like to take as a memory of Sanctuary."
"Anything," he replied, then paused. "You know, within reason."
She looked around to the pile that had once been hers and located a sheet of light metal scrawled with faint red lettering. Live Free or Die Hard.
"I think I need a little more armor on the chest plate," she said and picked the sheet up.
"It's yours," Armstrong7 replied, although he looked a little confused as she headed to where Mini was still engaged with the frustrated bulletfoot. The CO glanced at Hammerhand. "She always was an odd one."
"Agreed," Hammerhand replied. "She has her father's spirit, though. And that'll take her anywhere she wants to go in the world."
Chapter Twenty
Jessica13 sighed, pulled herself up a little in the cockpit, and held herself firmly in place when Mini took control of the mech. It was slow work to climb the hill that might as well have been a dune given the sandy soil that covered it. The sun beat relentlessly on her back as it slid toward the west and she sweltered unbearably in the tight space. Not for the first time, she wished her precipitous escape from Sanctuary had been after she’d upgraded the cooling system, not before.
Sweat made her flight suit cling uncomfortably and the heat made the smell of used grease around her impossible to tolerate, even though it would have been easy to ignore under any other circumstance.
Despite her increasing discomfort, she still needed to stay focused on the task at hand and remain as close to the ground as possible so she wouldn’t sky-line herself at the top.
Thankfully, this wasn’t all that difficult to accomplish. There weren't man
y mechs that were able to maintain a low enough center of gravity, but the Minato was one of them. And thanks to Mini's skills and abilities, they wouldn’t be easy to see from a distance, not even from the height of the hill they currently climbed.
"There is a twenty percent chance that any insult you offer him when he is found will strike an emotional chord," Mini told her and broke what had been a fairly long silence. The distraction was welcome. "I would suggest something involving his mother. Or perhaps his body odor?"
"I won’t insult him," Jessica13 said, even if she didn't fully mean it. The worst thing was that Mini could probably read her body language and tell that she wasn't entirely truthful. "But…can we move a little lower?"
"I can reduce the height of the mech by twenty percent, but that would also reduce our speed by an additional fifty percent," the AI replied.
"Do it. We don't need to move too fast," she said softly and wedged herself in more securely.
It was uncomfortable enough to remain in place while the Minato was in Bulletfoot mode and doubly so with the new legs that were intended to increase the speed of the mech when they were running. Unfortunately, they didn't do much for comfort, especially when they moved slowly.
And it didn’t help that every step entailed a half-step slide as the loose soil gave way under the weight to send a small cascade down the hill each time they moved forward.
Every movement dislodged a tiny avalanche and raised small puffs of dust around them during their progress to the top. Aside from the fact that it made the climb more onerous, each time the hand grasped ahead to pull them up, dirt piled onto the Minato’s freshly painted green coat, which made her cringe.
While the grubby look would make them more difficult to see at longer distances, who the hell actually liked walking around in a dirty mech? Besides, it would be a horror to clean the joints later.
Mini lowered them a little more before they crested the hill so they almost crawled to the top. The sun was behind them, which meant that if they were any higher, they would instantly be framed against the glow for anyone to see.
As it turned out, there weren't too many of anything to see them so their caution appeared to have been unnecessary. The plains ahead were mostly deserted, sweeping grasslands with patches of dirt cutting in there and there. The trees that rose from the grass didn't grow very tall and were mostly ugly, gnarly specimens meant to survive on the sparse water that was available to them.
The heat was not something to be ignored, of course, and what life there was could easily hide in the grass below.
There weren't any mechs, though. The indentation left by one even as small as the Minato would be seen easily from their vantage point. While there was the possibility that someone was down there without a mech, given the kind of dangers that lurked in the area—which included but were not limited to snakes and a variety of venomous spiders and insects—she doubted it.
The location was thoroughly devoid of human life.
"Do you pick up any life signs?" Jessica13 asked and checked the readings that Mini put up on her HUD. It was difficult not to enjoy the view of the grasslands that stretched out in front of them as far as the eye could see. The tall grass rippled in the wind like it was a large body of green water.
He was quick to reply. "About a couple of thousand, but it doesn't look like any of them are human. Unless someone's piloting a Sherlock with one hell of a shooting eye, I don't think we have anything to worry about."
"Is that so?"
"Do you have anything else to add?" he asked.
She made no effort to answer, and a few alarms pulled her attention to the edge of the hill.
"Movement on the periphery," Mini alerted her.
“Thanks for the update,” she snarked.
Dull green-gray dust puffed and cascaded into a low cloud that covered most of the area before she could even identify what had caused it.
Something moved in the cloud, however, and at an impressive pace.
"Shit!" Jessica13 gasped as Mini reacted much quicker than she ever could have and leapt out of his crouched position. The Minato still didn't have much in the way of weapons aside from the grappler on the right arm, which meant the best thing she could possibly do if she came under assault was to run the hell away.
But whatever it was that attacked them moved much faster than she could have anticipated. The reading from the motion sensors told her it was a mech, but there was no way to determine what kind.
A low humming filled the air as two blades slashed viciously from the dust that billowed around her. The onslaught forced Mini back a couple of steps and the mech rose from their position on all fours. The muted buzz grew louder as the blades moved, and she could make out a couple of assault rifles aimed at her from above.
"Grappler!" Jessica13 shouted and hastily took control of the right arm as rounds pinged off the Minato's armor. The grappler launched with a hiss and the dart struck the earth a few dozen feet down the hill. She immediately engaged the retractor and yanked them down in a rush and away from the volley of bullets.
Mini engaged a couple of subroutines while they were still virtually airborne so they landed on their shoulder, rolled easily, and came out of it on their feet. He used the speed of their descent to jump all the way to the bottom of the hill in a single bound.
The impact was jarring, but she already knew enough to brace herself against it as the AI maintained their balance.
The other mech vaulted upward and a pair of rockets activated to launch it even higher. It streaked forward and landed beside them before they could race away.
She disengaged the air gun from the grappler and turned as the blades thrust toward them and stopped barely a couple of centimeters away from the cockpit.
Only a little closer, and the vibroblades the mech carried would have cut into her suit like a hot knife through a protein patty, and her along with it.
"Not bad," Windchime said. "You displayed quick reactions and good instincts. The only problem I see is that you still choose to fight rather than run."
"Sorry," Jessica13 said. "It's kind of an instinct. Simply running away without making an attempt to deal even a little damage doesn't feel natural."
"Well, I hope that changes before you're engaged in an actual fight again," he said and turned the blades off.
Their humming—from which his nickname was derived—ceased immediately as the hands sheathed the blades behind his mech. The second pair of arms quickly did the same with the assault rifles.
She still wasn't sure how he'd managed to do it. While the Balthazars’ reputation was that they could be adapted to fit the parts of virtually any mech ever made, this had taken it to a whole new level. He had managed to connect the arms and swords from a couple of Difur Design Lab Predator V2s to the back and, perhaps most impressively, had written the code for the AI that operated his mech to take control of them whenever he was in combat.
Of course, it immediately made her curious as to how he had managed that. Most AIs were only designed to operate four limbs and adding a new one made the process that much more complicated, much less two.
The man had steadfastly preserved his secrets, though. He wasn't a new arrival to the Knights Mechanica, and the combat abilities of the hybrid mech he'd created were legendary to the point where they almost rivaled Hammerhand's.
With six limbs, the damn mech resembled an insect and sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine every time she looked at it.
Still, it looked like most of the others in that it was painted green, although the color had chipped here and there. The closer she got, the more she realized that he had adapted the paint to blend with his surroundings a little better. The coating had a sticky quality to it that made the dust adhere more than normal to tint it to match the area he stood in.
Instead of banners over his pauldrons, he wore his like a cape hanging down his back, which served to hide the extra weapons and arms when they weren’t in use. Although ra
gged and almost falling apart, it added to the camouflage. The flutter of fabric could be mistaken for vegetation moving in the wind.
"You need to keep your eyes open all around you," Windchime continued, pulled himself free of the cockpit, and climbed to the shoulder of his mech and tugged a couple of tools out. "Not only above the ground but below it too. Many pirates who use Balthazars like to bury themselves and use the rockets to launch out and surprise unwary travelers. You can usually locate one if you see a conical indentation in the ground."
"And if I see one?"
"In your case, don't engage," he said quickly. "Even if you manage to get in close enough to use that grappler of yours, you'll still be picked off by the assault rifles. You might want to think about adding weapons to that Minato of yours, though. Maybe put a couple of guns on the back that can be operated while you still run on all fours."
"That is not a terrible idea," Mini admitted. "Although some kind of arrangement would need to be made if you wish to use the mag clamps for conventional purposes."
It was certainly not a bad idea and would give her a way to fight back while they ran away, but as Windchime had said, her focus needed to be on the running. The Minato was unique in many ways, but she wouldn’t be able to stand her ground against a combat mech without help.
Especially not the Balthazar-Predator V2 hybrid.
"Are we done with the training for now?" Jessica13 asked as they began to climb the hill again. "Or do you have more lessons to impart to me?"
Windchime looked at her and a deep scowl touched his features as he continued to repair whatever had been jolted free during his landing.
She knew what he would say. He and Hammerhand would never see eye to eye on every issue, but there were many things they agreed on. One of them was also one of Hammerhand's favorite quotes.
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