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“You know, the engineers aren’t happy that they need to clean off a river’s worth of mud and pond scum. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it wasn’t exactly your choice, though.”
Colonel Kinston tried to keep his voice light when addressing Sophie. The kid had been very downcast on her return, and some intensive interrogating for a debrief wouldn’t help her mood any. A soft touch would be much more productive.
“Chin up. You got back, with the General in tow, minimal damage, and your assistance was instrumental in stopping the full destruction of the 56th. Hell, I bet the pilots you got out are singing your praises.”
She mumbles something beneath her breath.
“Sorry, I just missed that pilot. What did you say?”
“The last Dominus pilot I got out. What happened to her? Sir.”
The Colonel scrolled through his tablet for a bit.
“Lieutenant Raine is currently recovering from a concussion, it says here. Probably going to be rotated to a rear line position for a while.”
At least she perked up at that.
“Good. Good. I thought that…..Something else happened during the extraction.”
“Well, you know what’s coming now, Pilot. Walk me through the operation.”
“Yes, sir. We deployed out of the mobile base at almost 1900 hours, and opted to try and follow the western path, assisting survivors……”
He attentively listens to her recounting the troubles with the initial deployment, the offline e-war system and the jamming encountered. The initial enemy contact, and rescue of the Strider pilot. The…persuasiveness of the Core.
Kinston doubts Delta would have tried words first.
As the debriefing continues, he makes notes.
Even hobbled, the Predator array was notable. Punching through the jamming was useful for coordination and control. However, it seems more suited for a Command Walker rather than a frontline fighter.
Either way, that’s the decision of the engineers.
Still, he nods through her recounting of the ambush, the requisition of allies, and the later engagements.
He does note down how much of it was the direction of the Core, rather than her own initiative. Some might say that’s a serious problem.
Of course, those ‘some’ haven’t been synced with a Core.
Nevertheless, she covers details regarding the brief fight, the retreat of the support, and rescue of the second mech pilot, then brief river submersion.
She wraps up with the recovery of the escape pod, and extraction of the last mech pilot, though the details get more sparse as she trails off towards the end.
“Get some rest, pilot. We’ll review your actions tomorrow.”
With the clear dismissal, she stands and leaves, shutting the door behind her.
A message pops up on his tablet, requesting his presence back in the internal mechbay.
He sighs. That kid needed to shut down the core before they exited, next time. It wasn’t like leaving a light switch on, for frak’s sake.
Found art that matched. Kinda. Next thread soon(tm).
