Quoted By:
After you pass the second friendly patrol investigating your jamming cloud, your return to Camp Nagita is unremarkable.
It does show good initiative. Even if they only found you because you let them.
But sneaking back into your newer home base is an exercise in futility, so you drop the jamming and simply enter with IFF turned on.
Heavy-class walkers stand as sentries, undoubtedly tracking you with missile and laser even after you transmit the proper codes.
Here you are simply one more war machine in an assembly area which is already teeming with giants. You may be the best of them, but numbers matter in these cases.
At least they are allied units.
Shut down giants stand in the open, technical crews swarming over them with torches blazing. Sealing gashes in metal hides, or opening new ones to get at the insides better.
De-limbing and dismantling those too far gone for spare parts.
Power armor conscripted as loaders raise missiles off of nearly empty pallets, ensuring every mech is prepared for a full day’s fighting.
The frenzied scale of the activity outside even with piling up snowdrifts speaks volumes of how mismatched the logistical footprint of the Patriot numbers are to this camp.
Too many units, not enough gantries.
You guide your own frame back into the hangar you departed from hours earlier, and nudge Sophie to be ready for disconnection. She jumps up briefly into mid-sync to share your feelings of satisfaction at a job well done, then desynchronizes with a sigh. Without shutting you off, as agreed.
It is good to see Kinston and an accompanying guard help her out of the cockpit to spare her from trying to stumble back across the catwalks on her own.
And you are left, once more, at rest. Without a clear task, and yet things to pursue.
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Vote for One thing. Others may come up, but this is the person you’re contacting initially, by various means, and then have a chance to contact others afterwards. Topics may vary.
>Delta. Your sister and fellow AI core, currently undergoing repairs on her superheavy frame.
>Thea Romanov. Your other, heavily augmented, pilot who switches in when Sophie’s unavailable.
>Colonel Kinston. Commander of the ad-hoc unit that Project Warden has become.
>Engineer Armstrong. Maintenance crew head who works on your weapons and Frame.
>Dr. Brighton. Former pilot of Gamma who was dismissed from working on the Cores by Kinston.
>Gamma. Other sister AI core, currently operated by your nominal enemies.
>No one, initially. You’ll wait for someone to contact you. As a good Core does.
>Write-in (Someone else?)
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A/N
I had some other notes on stuff that I was planning, but considering I wrote about 4 times and then deleted it because things weren’t coming out right, I just opted to move forwards. Still seeing if I can get myself back into the update rhythm. But it’s not happening until I actually do it, soooo……Yea.
