Cavalier's Gambit -ch 21- (Patreon)

Wayne felt nervous. He was standing inside of the assigned cargo bay that Wendy and Miriam had agreed on for the pickup of Patchwork and a borrowed unnamed Light Combat Walker, on loan from Miriam and the House of Mirkil.

Wendy and the Confed would be providing travel and the dropship to the location since Mirkil was handling the Walker.

Surprisingly, both the Terran Confederation and the House of Mirkil seemed rather pleased that Wayne was working for both of them at the same time.

It’d only required some shuffling of objectives to and from other groups, but it hadn’t taken long.

Wendy was speaking with the administrator and a number of other officials.

Natalie was standing next to the Walker Miriam had supplied for her. Right now she had a manual in her hand and was reading it over.

Tink was working at the left knee actuator of Natalie’s walker. The armor plates peeled away and splayed open for her to work.

Next to her was the tool kit he’d bought for her not long ago.

Natalie looked up from the manual to the Walker, then reached out to touch something in the cockpit.

Tink had indeed gotten her checked out by the medical team and she already looked better. Her skin tone looked correct, and she had a “vibrancy” she’d lacked.

She had also apparently been given a supplement that was supposedly going to help her put on the correct muscle and fat she should naturally have. As well as a number of other things to help repair damage to her insides, given her quality of life up to this point.

Which in the end had been expensive.

The bill had been immediately picked up by Michael and thrown out the window instantly. Written off in what Wayne assumed was some sort of tax break for housing a Cavalier.

Miriam came over with a wide smile and a wave of her hand at him. She had been moving between Wendy and the Administrator, as well as a number of Confed forces who had shown up with the Walker for Natalie.

“Wayne,” Miriam purred at him and walked up to him. She had looked around as she approached. Whatever she was looking for, she didn’t see.

The major stepped up to the front of Patchwork and then leaned up against it. Her uniform was immaculate, and she looked perfectly put together.

“Miriam,” Wayne replied with a smile.

He’d been up for the better part of twelve-hours since she woke him up this morning. Even then, he didn’t feel too off, but he wanted to catch a nap if he could.

“Sorry, I had to take a few pictures real quick and then do a final sign off on your payment,” Miriam murmured. Then she turned around and grabbed the unlocked cockpit and pulled it open.

“No worries. It’s not like I was expecting you to hang out with me,” Wayne countered.

“I mean, I wanted to, actually,” said Miriam and then jumped up, clambering into Patchwork. “My whole job is-well, you already said it, and I was being pretty direct about it.

“I’d rather not say it again though. I do have some pride and self-worth, you know. I volunteered for this, and I took the job, but still.”

“Yeah, I know. This is a job for you,” acknowledged Wayne.

“I mean, yes? But no. It isn’t ‘just a job’ to me. It’s a job I picked. I wanted it. I knew what it all meant,” Miriam argued with a bit of heat. “Don’t denigrate my choice, please. Just because Wendy resents being sent here, doesn’t mean I do.”

The cockpit closed on Miriam and Wayne was left standing there.

Raising his eyebrows, he really had no idea what she was doing in there.

After a few seconds, the cockpit opened again and Miriam shimmied out of it. Reaching up, she closed it once again.

Miriam looked at him with an expectant cast to her features.

Blinking, he finally realized what she was expecting.

“Sorry. Got it. I’ll keep it in mind that you’re here by choice,” Wayne allowed.

“Wonderful,” murmured Miriam, her mouth turning up into a wide smile. “It was surprisingly roomy without the physical controls. I wondered how you managed to carry out a VIP the way you did and still managed to knock out that AA gun.”

“Oh, yeah. It would’ve been pretty fucked if they were in,” Wayne admitted with a laugh. He looked to Patchwork.

Tink had armored it up to the point that it was actually above what it’s weight class would normally handle. She’d offset it by upgrading the engine personally to get more horsepower out of it.

At this point, Patchwork was more akin to a Light or Medium class Combat Walker by armor and engine power, than the original Light Scout it was.

“I’m rather jealous. Your Walker is custom built at this point, and it feels and looks to be rather sturdy. You did a lot of the work on your own, right? That’s what it said when I went over all your Walker licensing paperwork,” Miriam inquired.

“Yeah. Originally. All the new armor and the engine are Tink. She’s a woman that I could never replace.”

“She is most certainly a skilled and highly capable woman. I was talking with her a bit earlier. She’s quite kind despite her background,” Miriam shared, then sighed. “I was originally going to be a Walker pilot. But ah… I was selected for intelligence work instead after my test-scores were taken.

“Is there a reason you didn’t apply for the Mirkil defense forces? It’s obvious you would have been a good candidate, given your success.”

“Ha, I did. I tried. Got told no by the recruiter,” Wayne answered honestly. “My connectivity to military modules was ‘outside of the parameters for acceptance’. Or something.”

Miriam’s brow creased at that in confusion. Then she shook her head, shrugged, and gave him a smile that made her beauty shine.

“Frelk the Faesin Defense Force and their stupidity then. Their loss. Major loss. My gain for the MDF,” Miriam said with a laugh. It was surprising to see such a lovely woman curse like that. “Wayne… they already gave me a bonus and a raise for getting you to agree to working with us, rather than just the Confed.

“It’s like they thought I had lost even before I arrived.”

Wayne glanced over to Wendy who was still schmoozing with the Administrator and other officers.

“I mean, it’s the Confed,” Wayne answered and looked back to Miriam. “I could use a nap. How much time we got left?”

“I think it’s about… an hour on the short end, three on the long end. We’re the last pickup since we’re the closest jump point.

“You know, there’s an officer’s lounge over there. It has a couch. I could watch over you if you like? I have some paperwork to do anyway on my tablet,” Miriam offered. “Want me to go over there and make sure there’s a space for you?”

“Yeah… please. I’ll let Tink know where I’m going. Thanks, Miriam,” agreed Wayne.

Miriam grinned, dipped her head once, and started moving in the direction she’d indicated.

Not waiting, and wanting to get that nap, Wayne moved over to where Tink was. She was currently bent over at the waist and had her head just about inside of the leg of the Walker.

His first impulse was to walk right up behind her, put his hands on her hips, and say hi.

But his brain immediately told him that was too much for Tink.

She enjoyed being teased at some level, but that’d be crossing the line.

“Tink?” Wayne asked in a soft voice long before he reached her. He could just foresee her jerking upright and smashing her head on something.

“Uhm? W-Wayne?” Tink replied going still. She took a step back, got down on her knees and turned to look at him.

Or more accurately, up at him, since he stepped up next to her.

Immediately he went down on one knee to get closer to her current height.

“Hey Tink,” he said, grinning at her.

“Hi,” whispered the mechanic, a smile curling her lips.

“Miriam offered to get me a spot to take a nap. I took her up on it,” Wayne explained and pointed the way Miriam had gone. “It’s an officer’s lounge. I wanted to make sure you knew where I was going and with who.”

Tink’s eyes crinkled at the corners, her smile widened, and she nodded her head.

“Thank you fo-for telling me, Wayne,” Tink whispered, her eyes falling away from his face. Only to leap back and stay there. Her cheeks slowly colored. “And thank you for the tool-s-set. I never thanked you properly. It’s a-amazing! It has tools I didn’t even know I needed.

“Oh, and before I forget. I put several low-grade VIs into Patchwork. They’ll mimic what the AIs would do, just at a lower level, but it’s possible for them to perform above and beyond. Just unlikely. Think of it as cover.”

“Understood. And you’re welcome for the tools! I’d give you anything you asked for, my dearest Tink,” Wayne promised. He reached out and patted her gently on the shoulder.

“I… I’ve been thinking,” she began, her eyes flicking away from him, looking around, and then moving back to him. “I want to-to-to… I want to pursue a relationship with you. I want to go slow, th-though. I want more of your attention.”

Surprised, Wayne’s eyebrows shot up.

“Is that… you don’t-don’t want to date me?” Tink asked, her throat spasming and her face immediately draining of color.

“That’s not it at all. I’d be happy to see if we can see where things go. I was just surprised,” Wayne quickly promised her and put his hand over her grease stained one. “Promise. It was just a surprise. When I get back, let’s go out to dinner or something. Anywhere you like.”

“O-okay. Okay. Yes,” agreed Tink in a quiet voice. She smiled at him as the color returned to her face. “Also… also I spoke with-with Miriam. She actually sought me out. A little bit ago.”

“She did?” Wayne asked, curiously.

“Yes. I like her. She’s very kind. I don’t think she means ill for us,” asserted Tink. “Though i-if you end up doing… doing the… with… with Miriam… be sure to prevent the possibility of kids. Just-just in case.”

Wayne grinned, nodded his head, then squeezed her hand.

“Anything else? You alright otherwise?” Wayne asked.

“Yes, I’m having a lot of fun,” Tink looked at his hand. “Just w-wipe the grease off on my coveralls. Your clothes are nice, and the grease would ruin them.”

“Is that an invitation to rub my hand all over you?”

Tink blinked.

Blinked several more times.

“Yes. My s-shoulders, or back, though. C-cameras are always watching. You need to be d-decent for anyone watching,” she said finally in a firm tone. The determined young woman who wanted to fight someone for taking ‘her job’ appearing again.

***

“Lining up on drop point,” came a voice over the mission specific communication system.

AKA, a cheap walkie-talkie that would be worthless once they turned the Walkers on and the communications were available again.

Wayne had no idea who the speaker was, and it didn’t matter. He was unlikely to ever meet them again.

They were a fairly run-of-the-mill Confed pilot doing their job. Chances were they would be cycled out to somewhere else before the day was out to do a different mission.

Sitting there in his cockpit, in the dark, with everything unpowered, Wayne felt ill-at-ease. Both Wendy and Miriam had given him the final details of the mission together.

Both had stressed to keep everything off until they were at least planetside. If anything, it’d be best to wait thirty minutes till after they landed before powering up.

In his squad was himself as the lead, Natalie, and surprisingly enough, three other Walker pilots. He hadn’t worked with any of them, but Wendy and Miriam had personally selected them to join him.

They would be a mile to the west in another drop point.

Alright… alright.

Settle in, Wayne. Settle in.

Hit topside, check in with the Assault group, go from there.

Wendy and Miriam said I needed to work with them and provide some recon, but otherwise my objectives were mine. That’s not a problem.

Recon is definitely something we can do.

“Dropping,” crackled the voice on the walkie-talkie.

There was a clank, and then the doors began to open around him. The platform beneath him retracted as well.

Sunlight spilled in from outside and Wayne could begin to see everything.

Glancing up, he saw that he was indeed now only hanging by the carrier arms that had kept him in place for the ride.

There was a bang and Patchwork fell.

The Walker pilot harness held him tight to the cockpit.

By the time Wayne started to panic, Patchwork slammed into the earth. The knees bending and absorbing the shock as his harness and the cockpit seat touched the ground.

Standing there, sunlight streaming down onto him through the cockpit, Wayne found himself oddly at peace. As if he were suddenly getting a drink of water after having a dry mouth for several hours.

I think… maybe I should book time in that atrium that gets sunlight in the future.

Growing up on a planet, I’m rather used to having gravity and sunlight.

Tink is a station girl. To her, she’d likely feel weird not being on the station. Such that coming down to a planet such as this one would be the weird part.

Looking around through his cockpit, Wayne saw that it was as the maps had depicted.

Open grasslands running endlessly in every direction. There were a few hills, and maybe what might have been a forest, as well as a creek, but that was it.

They were truly in a part of the planet that didn’t have a heavy population.

“I missed the sunlight,” Natalie said over the walkie-talkie. “I think I need to start booking time for planetside trips.”

“There’s an atrium on the station,” Wayne replied over the walkie-talkie. “I was just thinking of booking some time with it myself. I’ll add you to my own bookings.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” Natalie whispered. “And thank you for everything. I didn’t think you’d just… that you’d… show up.

“I honestly had sat down there thinking that it might be easier to not get up again. That really the world was just too… too hard. Too hard and against me.”

Wayne sat there, listening to Natalie share her heart with him.

“Then you just popped up. Appeared.

“As if you were sent in direct response to my own silent prayers,” Natalie said, her voice dropping down to nearly a whisper. “You walked up, saw me, knew me, and rescued me. Took me away and-and… and put everything back in order in no time at all.”

The walkie went silent.

“Tink did most of the work,” Wayne argued. “You should give your thanks to her. Not me.”

“That’s not true,” hissed Natalie with anger. “Miss Tink is a wonderful woman and I’m blessed to know her, but without you, she wouldn’t have been able to help me.

“It wasn’t her name on the card that was handed over to buy me a phone. To pay for my medical treatments. To get me clothes and a bed.

“It was your name, Lord Hesh. Your name. You showed up when I had given up and gave me back myself. Through Miss Tink, in some ways, but still you.”

Wayne shook his head but didn’t want to argue with Natalie.

She was admittedly just about the same age as he was, but they were worlds apart mentally.

“So thank you, Lord Hesh. Thank you. I will make sure to return all of your kindness,” stated Natalie with absolute resolution to her words.

“Fine. Do that by making sure you live through this so we can get back to the station,” Wayne ordered. He wondered what time it was and dug his phone out. A glance at the screen told him that technically they should wait, but he was starting to feel a bit odd.

He wasn’t sure if it was because of Natalie’s words or something else, but he genuinely didn’t like just sitting there.

“I’m going to power up. I think we should get moving,” Wayne advised.

“Yes, Lord Hesh.”

Wayne sighed, grinned, and stuck the walkie down into a small storage pouch that hung off his seat. Reaching over, he flipped the power switch to the starter.

Opening a cover to the main engine, he thumbed the button for it to power on.

There was a cranking noise as the engine turned over and began powering the Walker’s systems and booting the computer up.

“Power-supply, online. Sensors, online. Weapons-systems, online,” reported a voice inside of his head as his implant began receiving information. “All systems reporting online.”

Wayne ordered the ECM, FCS, Radar, and Com-Array online. Even going so far as to reach out and make sure all the settings were set manually for them.

Adjusting the FCS to a lock-hold until confirmed, the Com-Array to the right frequency, and turning on the fan Tink had installed for him.

Several screens that were dark flickered to life.

Frowning, Wayne looked down to his FCS system’s display screen. It wasn’t a screen that needed to be looked at often since it really was just a readout of its settings, system, and any errors it encountered.

Stuck to the corner of the screen with what looked like tape were three pictures.

Two of them were of Miriam.

One of them was in her smiling at what was most certainly her own camera in her full uniform. In the background was the lounge he’d taken a nap in with Patchwork just on the side of it. Wayne even spotted himself standing in front of it.

The second picture was somewhat surprising, as it was a bit older picture of her in a bikini at what most certainly was a beach. She filled it out in a way that was impressive and gave him pause. This was also a selfie she took on her own.

Surprisingly beyond that though, the third picture was actually of Tink and Miriam standing next to one another. The former actually smiling and waving at the camera with Miriam’s arm around her.

Wayne had no idea when it had been taken.

Or even when Miriam had all three of these printed out.

All three photos were high quality though and were on thick photo stock paper.

“Uh… kay,” Wayne keenly deduced with infinite understanding of the situation. He was staring at Miriam in her bikini. “Fuck she’s got a killer smile.”

Shaking his thoughts free, he briefly contemplated ripping the pictures down, but decided not to. Miriam was playing her little psyops game with Wendy.

So long as the two of them actively fought one another, he benefited.

Tink benefited.

If he played them off one another, and did it kindly, he could only gain from it.

Wayne activated his coms channel.

“Ready, Nat?” he asked.

“I’m so ready,” Natalie confirmed. “Oh, and Lord Hesh, Tink put me in for an appointment to get an implant similar to your own. She said she found the same model and the same doctor.

“Please keep that in mind for whatever training you plan for after this mission. I’m sure you’ll see things we need to work on during it.”

Sighing, Wayne didn’t quite like that.

He half wondered if it was Tink’s way of testing out if Natalie could also “eat AIs” in the way he had been doing. If she could, he had no difficulty in believing Tink would do the same to herself.

Always the gear head, my dearest Tink.

“Alright. West. We’re meeting up with the rest of our group, then north. We’ve got a coms rendezvous with that Dreadnought squad.”

“Yes, Cavalier. I’m ready.”