Welcome to the hideout.
"Okay, okay, enough already! I admit! I'm a softie alright, but you dont need to..." Jack says in defeat as everyone laughs at him.
"Save it for later, Jack. We're approaching the main entrance." Says Emmett.
The train pulls up to an area in which the ravine widens, and comes to a stop.
"Last stop, everyone get out." Says Emmett as they get off the cart.
"So this is the main entrance?" Asks Jack as he stares down the large wall made of various metal components and discarded AMCWU armor.
"Yeah, we made this fortified position, for... lets say, a rainy day." Says Emmett.
"It seems kind of pointless to me." Says Jack and turns to Emmett.
"I know what you're thinking and I agree with you. Its no good to us if the enemy can simply break down the ceiling and drop straight inside, and yes, perhaps all the material could have been used somewhere else. But its much more likely that the enemy will come through here than through the ceiling."
"You sound pretty sure about that." Says Jack giving Emmett a skeptical look.
"Trust me, I fought the machines for long enough to figure out a few facts. First of which being. They never look under their feet unless you give them a reason to. They could be walking straight above our heads without even noticing." Says Emmett confidently.
"If you say so, I only ever saw these things once, and I can tell you, they are as dumb as they can be, the only thing scary out them is, from what you told me, the fact that theres always a lot of them."
"Not as many as there used to be, but their numbers dont matter, once they identify you, they'll try to send out a sort of distress signal calling in support from nearby patrols, and if those arent available they'll send a unit in a drop ship from the nearest base. Which brings me to what's so special about this whole area." Says Emmett.
"Just tell me already, man. These sensor problems are getting annoying." Says Jack.
"Yeah, that. You know this whole area used to be rich in all sorts of metals, at the very end of the war, when Eden decided on culling the human population he bombarded the whole planet with super weapons similar to the one he used to destroy our defence force at the Dam."
" But while doing so, all the metals in here melted, got mixed together and gained a magnetic properties. Not strong enough to cause any problems for us exept for the nonfunctional sensors, but major problems for Eden's automated forces, as the disruption of this field can desorient them, disrupt comunications and generaly make this place a hell of a pain to get through when you're a machine." Says Emmett.
"Yeah... I can see that." Jack says and looks over to his right where Electra sits with, 'a pained expresion on her face'.
"Wait a mimute... why are we waiting here? Why isnt the gate opening? Hey!" Yells Emmett and waves his Golem's huge arm at a spot in the wall, which turns out to be a camera.
"He dont wave that thing around so much, I dont want you to scratch my rust." Says Jack jokingly, but gets surprised at Emmett's response.
"Yeah that, I almost forgot. We're gonna need to get the rest of that paint off your mech's hull, the green colour is way too easy to spot by the satelites." Says Emmett. And he is right, in a world which has gone gray from all the ash, a green pained AMCWU is as easy to spot as an ink blot on a clean piece of paper.
"Sure, but if possible I'd like to keep my decal." Says Jack.
"I'll make sure that the mechanics dont destroy it, or at least that they'll repaint it back." Says Emmett.
Finally the gate starts opening albeit with horrible screeching.
"They dont need to look under their feet to hear this racket." Complains Jack.
"Second fact I learned is that while they can identify gunshots, they are otherwise completely deaf to any other sound. So its fine, we can be as loud as we wanna be down here." Say Emmett and walks through the still moving gate, with the other 3 AMWUs, leaving Jack behind.
"Electra." Says Jack before he starts walking after the others.
"Yes?" Electra responds.
"In case you're discovered, we need to make you as invaluable as possible." Says Jack, looking here and there at what appears to be traps made out of scrapped AMCWU weapons.
"While I understand your logic, I seem to fail to understand how you intend to achieve that." Says Electra.
"I'll simply have to ask you, what can you do? I've already seen, well not really seen I know you did it, you crack the codes to the maintenance bay door. But that's not enough, what else can you do that makes you special?" Asks Jack.
"I can accurately detect the movement of Eden's forces within the range of my sensors, but for that to function, we'd need to vacate these enclosed, magnetic field contaminated, spaces." Says Electra.
"Threat detection and complete situational awareness, good that's more like it! What else is there?" Asks Jack.
"I can also tap into Eden's inteligence server network and download data, but I only have limited access to his secret servers as I didnt have enough time before leaving the Garden city to finish fully integrating the Spy Code into the network, if I wanted to finish it remotely, that would take a lot of time and effort." Says Electra.
"Nice..." Says Jack before his train of thoughts and movement abruptly screeches to a halt, as the news fully sink in. He slowly turns to her.
"What? You... What?" He says not knowing how to properly respond to this type of information being thrown at him basically out of the blue.
He takes a deep breath, calming his mind, ignoring the fact that everyone is already far ahead and says.
"I just want to confirm, you're saying that, you have the capacity to get into Eden's... pretty much his brain, now that I think about it, and pull information from there?" Asks Jack.
"Yes." Electra simply says.
"You do realise that you should have just said that at the beginning, this doesnt just make you invaluable, you're far past that point, this just makes you a weapon pointed right at Eden!" Jack says.
"I understand that you compare me to a weapon, but as per human saying, this ability is a double edged sword." Says Electra.
"What are the drawbacks?" Asks Jack.
"Eden is aware of the spy code, and he can feed us missinformation to lure us into a trap." Says Electra.
"Damn... that is quite the draw back... No mind though, the advantages of this outweight the drawback ten timesfold." Jack says and starts walking as he realizes that he got left behind.
He continues untill reaching a better lit area, which unlike the the rest of the place he saw is more lively as small crews of mechanics walk around and take care of standing AMWUs. Jack's presence had attracted a few odd looks but ultimately nobody as much as flinched at his arival.
"Jack, welcome to the hideout." Says Emmett.
Jack turns to see the Golem standing in an alcove like the rest of them surrounded by retractable scaffholding.
"Looks like you really made this place your own." Says Jack glancing around.
"The best is yet to come, go to alcove 9, wait till they surround you with supports and scaffholding and then lock your joints, I'll take you on a grand tour of this little oasis we have here. I also want you to meet our pilot teams... in person." Says Emmett and his Golem slumps a little as the joints lock and the whole machine goes offline.
"Well... Guess theres nothing left to do..." Says Jack and walks further inside, occasionally stopping to give engineer crews and small supply transport carts the righ of way, eventually finding an empty alcove with a huge number 9 on its inside wall.
He walks in turns around. Not long after he stops moving a loud but not that unfamiliar voice booms at him.
"Hey, new guy!" The familar voice says.
"Yeah?" He responds after a few seconds.
"You cant have that hand-held weapon when you're locked in, its gonna get in the way of the maintenance crews. Just set it down in front of the alcove, well collect it with a crane and take care of it as well." Says the voice.
"Okay." Says Jack and sets the weapon down in front of him, getting a strange, uncomfortable feeling and then realizing that this is basically like surrendering. He pushes the feeling asside and proceeds as he was instructed. Not long after he sets the weapon on the floor and straightens out again do the movable scaffholding structures move in to surround him. When hes completely surrounded he locks his AMCWUs joints.
The structures holding his machine wobble and groan a little as the try to hold the new weight. After it stops Jack severs his connection with the machine deactivates all systems and turns to Electra once more.
"I'll lock the inner hatch behind me so noone can get here and find you... This is probably the worst possible time to ask but... what do you need to survive? Will you need me to bring you something?" Asks Jack.
"No, all I will need is access to your AMCWU's power grid to recharge my energy supply." Says Electra.
"Okay you can find that there." He says and points to his left side at the cockpit's wall panels.
"Anyhow, while noone will be able to open that hatch I recomend staying as quiet as possible. We need to gain these people's trust before attempting to introduce you." Says Jack.
"I understand." Responds Electra.
"Good, makes it easier." He says and opens the hatch and starts climbing out once he's outside the first hatch closes it behind him and types in a few numbers onto a hidden keypanel, locking it behind him.
Once that is done, he continues to climb up untill he reaches a second hatch this one leading to the outside, he takes a deep breath and opens it.
His vision once again became a bit better as he could see to thw other side of the hideout's maintenance area without his eyes getting tired from trying to focus.
But when he looks around he immediately spots an issue. None of the platforms from the scaffholding are close enough to get on them. Luckily he spotted a new maintenance crew which apparently came to take a look at his machine on one of the platforms above him.
"Hey! Over here!" He waved at them. "Can you guys get me a ladder?"
They noticed him and looked down confused.
"What are you doing down there?!" One of them shouts back.
"The cockpit hatch is here on the shoulder area!" He says and immediately mentaly facepalms for outright telling them where to search to find one of the machines he brought here. "I dont have a rope here so I cant get down on my own, can you get me a ladder?"
"Stay there, we'll get you something." Shouts one of the maintenance crew and leaves with his coleagues trailing close behind.
"As if I even have the option." Jack grumbles.
After the crew returns, they put down a ladder for him to get on to their platform.
"Thanks, I was starting to grow old down there. The name's Jack, nice to meet you all." He says after climbing up and over the, extending his hands towards the nearest crewmember. Who takes it and gives him a small shake.
"Nice to meet you as well, my name is Denis. We are the maintenance crew 24." Says as he lets go. And looks over the railing. "Nice mech, old Brass model, right?" He asks.
"Yeah, Assault type, but its heavily modified." Says Jack.
"Modified? Interesting... Not many people have the equipment or the knowhow to do that these days, well exept for us at least. Not to mention it looks almost pristine, exept for the bit of rust, it even still has the remnants of the original paint on it. Where did you come across it?" Asks Denis.
"In the Dam city, or what remained of it." Jack says with a hint of regret.
Denis whirls around surprise and shock clear on his face. "Dam city?! That cursed place?! In that case you are either deranged, or you have the biggest balls for a man your age." Denis says.
"What's the big idea? And why is the place cursed?" Asks Jack
"You're pulling my leg, right? You mean you dont know?" Asks Denis.
"Know, what? Just answer the damn question." Says Jack.
"T-that place is crawling with Eden's patrols and Hunter units, he has at least 3 bases within 50 kilometer radius of that place. Its a death trap for any unfortunate fellow who thinks he can find anything in the Dam city." Says Denis.
"I did ran into one of these Hunter units you talk about, but they werent that dangerous." Says Jack
"Did you run into them before or after you found this mech?" Asks Denis.
"After, obviously." Says Jack.
"It seem that not just deranged, but also lucky. Trust me, if you ran into them before you found that mech, you'd be talking differently now... *sigh* No matter, since we are supposed to be assigned to this alcove we will be working closely together, if you stay here that is. We had a few individuals who got taken here only to get maintenance in exchange for some help or intel and then went on." Says Denis.
"Dont worry, I fully intend to stay here, as long as I'm welcome. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going, I have a meeting with an old friend. This time hopefully under more pleasant circumstances." Says Jack.
"We'll be going too, we didnt get any instructions so we cant do anything with your mech, we just came here to see what we'll be working at. And lets be honest, she might be old, but shes still a beauty." Says Denis giving the AMCWU one last look.
Jack turns and leaves them to their business, once he reaches the right most side of the whole support structure he finds three cage elevators, taking one down to the ground level.
He takes a calm look at this place, and while it wouldnt exactly pass the old military standart regulations, he could definitely see that it works efficiently enough, albeit on slower pace. And since the best was yet to come, as per what Emmett said he couldnt but feel a bit excited.
The elevator comes to a stop and Jack has just enough time to get out before it takes off for the support structure's higher levels and platforms.
"Now then..." He says. "... where do I go now?"
Jack looks around, and while the place doesnt seem complicated, there are at least a hundred people currently moving around and working. He doesnt know where to go, not untill Emmett's voice echoes throught the maintenance area.
"This is a message for the, surprisingly not-dead, young lad who doesnt know where to head next. If you look to your left you will see 4 large cargo lifts embedded into the wall, board the next one heading up and then ask the guards for directions to the operations center. End of message." Says Emmett.
"Couldnt have made it more obvious if you tried, couldnt you Emmett... Oh well..." He says as he heads to the wall made of natural stone, passing more alcoves and more inactive AMWUs, and waits for the nearest lift's doors to open, the passengers and transport carts to get off before boarding and waiting untill the whole place fills up.
Then the large door closes and the elevator starts rising.
The place was full of people, who knew how long this elevator ride would be so they all gathered into small groups, with even the transport cart drivers getting out of their seats to enjoy this short moment of calm.
Jack just stayed at the back of the elevator and observed, trying to figure the whole place out. Thus far, the place looked a military base, but obviously didnt function like one, most people didnt look like soldiers, just people. That thought intensified after he accidentaly listened in, on a conversation of two young looking mechanics, a little more than he'd like to admit.
"Hey, you saw that monster?" Says one of them.
"You mean that new mech, in alcove 9? Yeah, that thing looks cool." Replies the other one.
"I know right! You saw of that massive gun it was carrying around too?" Asks the first one again.
"I was standing right next to you, of course I saw! It was carrying it in its hands, thats pretty rare, you think its a pre-war mech?" Says the second one.
"Woudnt doubt it for a second, I mean... It looks like straight out of a history video. I gotta tell you, I'm jealous of the alcove 9 crews for getting to work with that thing. While we're stuck fixing Juno's little Grasshopper!" Says the first one.
"Hey, keep his name out of your mouth, Juno isnt even 13 and he already accomplished more than the two of us combined!" Rebunks then second one.
They continue to talk, this time in a more bickery manner. But Jack stops listening, as something has finally clicked in his head.
"Now wait just one sec... Emmett kept calling Juno a kid, even one of the twins called him as such, but it didnt make sence to me untill now... That kid's just 12 years old?! Emmett, oh, Emmett, you've got some explaining to do." Jack thought to himself as the very thought of allowing a 12 year old to go fight seemed preposterous to him.
While he understood that, he is without without proper intel and, the situation for them could be quite dire espetially if they rely on banditry of Eden's convoys to survive. But still, sending a kid same age as the kids they sometimes had in their base on field trips, seemed like something that should never happen.
....
The elevator came to a stop, and before the door opened the small groups dissolved and the drivers were back in their seats ready to continue their work, exept for those who's shifts had ended and they were heading home for the day.
The passengers of the elevator spilled out into a quite large looking storage area, at this point Jack really couldnt tell how deep underground they actually were with how tall the ceiling was made.
He walked around for a while observing, but when he caught a glance of an armed guard he immediately made a break for the person, thinking that he could return here anytime and continue his little explorations.
"Excuse me, sir." Says Jack attracting the guard's attention.
"How may I help you?" Asks the guard.
"I am looking for the operations center, can you tell me where to go?" Says Jack.
"Eh... Go that way untill you reach the end, then to the right untill you see an elevator, right next to the elevator are stairs, the elevator is broken, so you'll have to take those." Says the guard pointing behind his back. "If that is all I have to return to my duties, so long pilot." He says and turns to leave.
"Wait, how could you tell that I'm a pilot?" Says Jack.
"I put two and two together, a new mech shows up and the next thing I see, is a guy I never saw before wearing clothes that the oldtimers used to wear. I'd be more surprised if you werent a pilot..." Says the guard as he leaves.
Jack stands there for a second mulling the guard's words over.
"Oldtimers? So there is more of us, than just me and Emmett, here? Thats good." Jack thinks to himself, in his eyes having one or two more profesional pilots is better than if it were just the two of them, the 12 year old, the twins and whoever else they have here.
After some more walking he reached the end of the storage area and found the stairs, on a wall there was a board with floors and their names.
"Fire station, no... Electrical manifolds, no! Operations center, here we go, at the very top, great." He grumbled to himself. "Well... more stairs, more cardio... ugh..."
And so he began walking up the stairs.
...
"Eh... eh... Just one more flight of stairs, we're almost there, come on, you weak f*ck!" Jack berates himself as he slowly reaches the top floor and comes into a hallway which ends in double metal doors. Only to hear the elevator door open behind him and someone to quickly walk past him.
But he didnt see them, or his mind at least couldnt perceive the person walking past him, at the exact moment he heard the door open, his mind went blank and he just stood there paralyzed. He slowly turned around, and saw the elevator, open, lights on, in full working order.
"It took him a few second to process what was happening and his brain came up with two possible solutions.
One, the guard made fun of him as Jack is 'the new guy' by saying that the elevator is down.
Or two, Emmett in his infinite wisdom, took the piss out of him, just to see how spewed out he'd look after getting to the top.
One or the two, Jack didnt feel the exhaustion he did before, instead he felt indignated. So he swept the beads of sweat off of his forehead and at brisk pace walked up to the double door only for the metal door to go flying into his face.
"Oooow! Sh!t!" He yelled as he staggered back dazzed by the sudden hit.
The next thing he knew, apparently the very same person who not so long ago walked past him as he was turning to see the elevator was working, quickly brushed past him and walked away perhaps in a foul mood as they didnt even stop to say, sorry.
As running after them to seek an apology seemed pointless he decided to shove it into the back of his head, groan at the pain, wipe away the thin stream of blood that was coming down from his nose and finally enter the operations center.
The place was large and most of the walls were covered with maps, there were several windows overlooking the maintenance area, and several computers all ocupied by operators receiving and delivering information from all around the hideout. In the middle of the room was a strange circular aparatus and next to it stood two people one of which was Emmett.
Emmett and a certain woman, both well past 50, were arguing about something. Ignoring that Jack simply says. "Mark my words Emmett, if you told that guard, to tell me that the elevator is broken just to take the piss out of me. I will skin you alive!" Says Jack pulling the two out of their argument.
The woman simply huffs.
"While I wouldnt put it past him, the elevator did experience some malfunctions today, but a few minutes ago one of our engineers came in and fixed it. So he's innocent in this regart at least... Do you need something for that nose or..." The woman says as she notices a stream of red going down Jack's face.
"Its fine, the blood will stop on its own." Says Jack, wiping the blood away again.
"Fair enough, but whatever you do not get the blood on the floor, it and absolute nightmare to clean I can tell you." Says the woman.
"Jack, if you didnt figure it out already, this is my better half, Maxine. Head of the operations center." Says Emmett and puts his hand over Maxine's shoulders as she stares at him.
"Heh, so its true then, when Emmett came here and said he found a dead man walking outside in the area I didnt believe him. But look at you, you havent aged a day since 25 years ago. You really need to tell me you skincare routine." Says Maxine with a grin.
"Perhaps the 25 year long nap has something to do with it." Says Jack.
"Maxine... that does ring a bell you were the head of meaintenance bay on the first level of the Dam, right?" Asks Jack.
"I sure was, recon that Emmett already filled you in on why were living under ground like rats?" Says Maxine.
"He told me about the Dam city, the rest isnt too hard to figure out. We got our @sses wopped." Says Jack
"Heh, thats an understatement and a half. Well, enough of that lets concentrate on the present. You're alive, thats a surprise but we cannot afford to remain surprised for long, for the past month we didnt get any good transport convoys, and our supplies are running thin. I'm talking fuel, spare parts, ammunitions, chemical medicine, basically everything we cant grow. While we can accommodate you here, you will have to work to earn your stay. I expect you will want to remain a pilot." Says Maxine.
"Yeah, I'd like that very much, because its all I can do." Says Jack.
"You're a soldier with standard training, not just a pilot, we could make you a guard, that job's avaliable too." Maxine smirks.
"Yeah... No, staying inside all day, that wouldnt be any fun." Says Jack.
"Well, lucky you, we just so happen to have a raid team that lacks one pilot. The poor man got himself nearly killed during his last engagement with a transport convoy that was a tad better guarded than anticipated. Incidentaly that was their leader." Says Maxine.
"Let me guess you want me to take over his position as a leader of the team." Says Jack.
"Initially we wanted the best pilot of said team to take command, but then this man came in here with the proposterous idea of appointing you." Says Maxine pointing towards Emmett.
"Granted, he didnt tell me your identity so I thought you were some stranger he met while out on patrol. And add to that, that today we were supposed to officially hand over the comand to said pilot, and when she came in, this man threw the wrench into the machinery. On top of that he asked her to gather the rest of the team and get them here for introductions. While I have no doubt that she will get them, if she will attend herself... I'm not so sure." Says Maxine.
"I can handle that, and I actually have and idea, according to what you've said she's one of your best pilots, right?" Asks Jack.
"Heh, soon she'll be our best pilot period, I'm just not cutting it anymore." Says Emmett.
"Wait... am I hearing this right? Something that isnt absolute nonsence came from this man." Says Maxine, not impressed.
"Well anyway, my plan is that I'll have her take command and follow the team, observe how they operate, act on my own as I see fit if things go awry, and make sure that we get the supplies. When can we expect the next convoy?" Jack says.
"Straight to the point, eh? The last convoy to come through here was small and we didnt get much from it, however they come through here around every 3 or 4 weeks, the last one was 2 weeks ago, so we can expect the next one, hopefully bigger, to come by the end of this week. Which in turn gives us just about enough time to modify you mech and outfit it for 'modern' combat" Says Maxine and starts working the apparatus in the middle of the room.
Then looks up from the keyboard and says.
"Can someone dim the lights a little... Thanks." She says as the lights dim.
For a while nothing happens but then the machine starts projecting light, after that pictures and finally a model of Jack's AMCWU.
"Whoa, what is this thing?" Asks Jack as he looks in awe at the light show.
"We simply call it the light projector, scrapped it from one of Eden's Indocrinator mechs. Those things wander the around the world in areas with recorded human presence and spread propaganda. We try to destroy any we find and take these projectors for ourselves, they are surprisingly useful." Says Maxine.
"Why would Eden need propaganda? When he can just kill us and be done with it?" Asks Jack.
"We're not sure actually, but Eden probably thought that just hunting humans was a waste of time, so he opted for propaganda. Because why chase your prey, when it can come straight to you of its own volition. Besides living humans can still be somewhat useful to him." Says Maxine.
"Anyways we use them for planning. So your mech..." Says Maxine but before she can continue she gets interupted.
"I've been meaning to ask, why do you keep calling the AMWUs, mechs?" Asks Jack.
"Simply easier to pronounce, and it sounds less official, because if you havent noticed we arent an army anymore, so there's no use for all the official naming crap. Now lets get back to what we were about to discuss." Says Maxine and taps a few keys on the light projector.
"So, your mech. Assault type Brass model, already heavily modded for all distance engagements. Thankfully we dont need to change much, well just scrape down the remains of the original paint job, get rid of the rust on the hull and repaint it with grey camo." Says Maxine.
"Oh, wait. Can you preserve the decal?" Asks Jack.
"The number? Sure no problem, well repaint it with white." Says Maxine.
"On top of the paint, well add a few weapons to you, trust me you'll want the additional stopping power. You're well acquainted with hand-held and shoulder mounted weapons, but you dont have any backup if they get dissabled or run out of ammunition. Well, exept for going hand to hand. For that reason..." Says Maxine and the light projector zooms in on the mechs arms.
"We will implement some wrist mounted weaponry, on your left wrist you will have a semi-automatic scattergun, at close range this thing can obliterate all but heavy armor. Becarefull though, the ammo it can carry is very limited so you will only get about 6 shots when you get into a fight, and we can only replenish it here in the maintenance area." Says Maxine and the projector shows the changes that will be done. "As for your right wrist, we're gonna give you something a little different, since its your trigger hand and its unlikely that you'll let go of your hand-held weapon. We call it the power-spike, you ram that thing into any mech and it will fry it's systems, it takes a few minutes to recharge but, its a sure-fire way to deal with one enemy when they get within arm's reach... Now, I know both of these things are nice and all, but I'll say this once and dont make me repeat myself." Maxine says and crosses her arms.
"While by all means do kill any enemy mech you see, do it in a way that will result in as less damages to the enemy as possible. I know it sounds weird, but when our only option to keep our own machines running partially depends on scrapping the carcases of our enemies then we want to inflict as less destruction. So if not absolutely necessary aim at their chest where their AI housing units are located or the head, to destroy most of their sensors and comunications making them unable to navigate and shutdown. That way we can preserve the cabling, targeting computer, motors and all the other things we need. Are we clear on that?" Asks Maxine.
"Yes ma'am. Kill it, but dont completely obliterate it, got it!" Says Jack.
"Alright, that'll be all the moding we'll be doing for now, all you need to do is synchronise the new weapon controlers with your cockpit controls after its done." Says Maxine and the light projector turns off.
"You're gonna be connecting everything from the outside right?" Asks Jack.
"Yeah... Oh wait, here you go." Says Maxine and hands him a wristwatch. With several coloured sections. Usually red and green, but there's a large section coloured completely black. There is a second digital display with normal time.
"What's this for?" Asks Jack.
"Important, dont lose them, we've made these watches so that you can, not just, measure the time, but also to know when its safe to enter and leave the hideout. Green means safe, red means dangerous, and black is the night, which is danger in and of itself."
"Why is that?" Asks Jack.
"Because, come night fall, the satelites up there switch to thermal cameras, lucky for us this area is a 'natural' hot zone so they cant detect the hideout itself, but there is much more of them up there and the mechs produce more heat than the area so they're easily detectable, the rest is the same as with the day, just more satelites, almost no windows and higher danger of detection." Says Maxine.
"A profesional tip from me Jack. If you ever get left out there during the night, the best thing you can do is. Stop on the spot, sit your mech down and either shut it down completely or keep it in low power mode in case you need to change positions or run. That way you minimalise the chance of being detected. Then just wait 'till the sunrise and get in through the firts window." Says Emmett.
Just as he says that, the double door opens and a bunch of young people walk in and stand in a line.
A yound woman with short, silver hair steps forward and says. "Everyone has gathered as requested." She looks over in Jack's direction and then proceeds. "Permition to asks a question?"
Upon hearing that, Maxine sighs. "Granted, but for next time keep all of this soldier roleplay nonsence for someone else, namely you father."
"Is this the replacement for R14?" Asks the silver haired woman.
"Ind..." Emmett tries to say but Jack interrupts him.
"There has been a slight change of plans... Sorry Emmett, you wanted to say something?" Asks Jack hinting for Emmett to let him handle it.
"You go ahead Jack." Says Emmett.
"Alright... As the smarter of you might have already assumed, I'm completely new here. Although I think, I would have no problem leading you on a mission, I think, I should stay back for a while. You there." Jack point at the silver haired woman standing at the front and walks from behind the light projector. "I assume that you are the talented pilot these two have told me about. You will be from this day, untill said otherwise, assuming command of the raid team. I will follow you on each and every mission from this point on, to study your tactics, your combat behavior and I'll add something of mine to the mix as well. I hope our cooperation will go smoothly." He stops when he is face to face with the woman and holds out his hand.
"Oh, and by the way, he already said it but its better coming from me. The name's Jack, nice to meet you."