Bonding

The trees had started to turn color, and when you're up to your eyes in hundred-foot-tall trees the universe takes on a different feel.

Even if only for the planet you're on.

I spent a month straight with my family. Sleeping in my bed with my fiance, helping dad hand-to-hand train everybody and refitting a Sabre I bought. Gah I missed my old ship so much...

I messaged Kreyla and asked if she needed help with anything, yeah to get out but also to spend some time with my daughter.

Her group was running around my old home of Microtech clearing bunkers because in my absence and probably because of recent events, they had been stepping up their assaults. She and two of her squadmates picked me up in a Cutlass Red: Callsign Diverian and Lily. The jump was oddly smooth for a Drake ship, but we weren't complaining. As soon as we enter Microtech's orbit our mobis go APESHIT! Bunkers for days, bodies to be made and birth certificates to revoke.

The four of us are in heaven.

Our first bunker was standard procedure, set down, clear the surface, work our way in and down the elevator to make good on "what's done in the dark." Security looked relieved to see us, but one look at me and there was hesitancy.

Damn...it feels...good to be feared?

Everybody back home is watching my Morozov's helmet cam while taking notes. Arcantha could easily keep up with me, if not go further and kill more but she's taking notes.

I'm carrying my trusty P4, stowing every P6 I could find that will make it home with me, Kreyla is carrying her beloved Deadrig shotgun, Diverian is using whatever his hands get while Lily is doing all the wetwork with a coda like a proper lady.

Life is good!

For us though, not the guys we're obliterating.

We ran bunkers all day, even into the night. Took the Polaris into Pyro to help the headhunters and I met one of her crew running on his own.

Callsign "NoobPTFO", decent guy, but we had a moment of true bonding at Seraphim where he managed to trip over his own feet and fell on his face. Something deep awoke in my soul and I dropped down to lay down facing him on my belly.

He barked at me like a dog and I reflexively barked back and we looked like dogs barking at each other through a fence.

This carried on for a solid ten minutes in front of the ASOP terminals, strangers walked by and either stared or laughed at two idiots barking through helmet mics while Kreyla questioned our sanity.

My new best friend and fellow spacedog carried on with a separate crew on a Hammerhead while I carried on my own for a bit. a high-priority target back at the Sakura Sun Goldenrod Workcenter had shot his way in, took over everything and was wreaking havok stealing what he could with a small platoon.

I load up in my C8R to take it on when Kreyla pings me.

<K: You good on your own? Need backup?>

<C: Nah, I got this! Keep my seat warm!>

It feels good to be back in the world. Gun in my hand, armor on my body, and two bottles of juice in mom's backpack.

The trip was spent talking to the crew back home and seeing their faces just...fuck I missed my family so much and I was only gone four days.

"I love you all, every single one of you! FUCK it's good to be home!"

I drop in to atmo and route to the distribution center then set down outside the entrance, before setting my regen point here.

I don't plan on dying, but Murphy is a bitch.

Local security is dead, a quick scan and there's zero vitals or chance of reviving, these criminals mean business.

Mom has been pent up with murder, she held herself back in the asteroid to avoid an early death and needs to release more people from the mortal coil.

The small side door opens, and there's easily forty guys in sight, and they barely noticed me as I dip out.

There is no way of telling how many jackasses are in there aside from stopping time itself and tallying them on a clipboard.

"Callie you need help, that's too damned many!" Grendel says with a shake in her voice. "You can't do this alone!"

"Yeah, well Kreyla is back in Pyro and you're all back in Terra!" I whisper. " I GOT THIS!"

I tap my mobi and run a script Ravi made for me that gives direct control of cameras for me to peep through.

3d holographic map comes up, I squint at the main area and the cams show a damn army! A quick radar ping and there's 70 motherfuckers grabbing what they can get and my work is cut out for me.

<C: Ravi, are there any UEE patrols or local cops coming in?>

<R: Nope, the navy isn't coming for a distribution center. Cops are sitting in an M2 with their thumbs up their asses because you're basically in a giant bunker>

Fuck.

The door near me slides open, suddenly I am acutely aware of breath leaving somebody's mouth and I need to put a stop to that.

I spin around and grab the pirate's throat and squeeze which causes him to flail. The morozov gloves are extra plush and great for cushioning explosions but I can see this guy's eyes through the oracle eyeholes and they are turning bright red. The life drains from his eyes and he finally stops moving. The group call disconnects and I'm starting to think I may need to consider diplomacy.

Today is not that day.

He brought me an FS-9 and four spare mags.

It would be a shame if I didn't repay him for this gift.

I take off the P6 mags and strap the LMG drums to my chest then cock back the charging handle to make sure it's still loaded. Suit does a handshake with the weapon's systems, full mag.

The door opens again, and so does my death grip. I dump two shots into his chin and watch as the blood spatters against the inside of the glass through the eyeholes, and I now have a human bodyshield, but his buddies don't care. They open fire and I rest the LMG on his dead shoulder while firing into the crowd.

One by one they fall, one by one they have spent ammo inside their bodies and my ammo counter keeps dropping.

Call to Arms pays 500UEC per stopped pulse, and I just made 21500...by my count that's 43.

Overpenetration and barrel climb makes headshots easy peasy but 75 rounds used that efficiently was dumb luck. The incoming fire has slowed a little bit but now I'm starting to realize my "cover" is getting a bit ropey. I duck behind a crate after dropping the body and the gunfire slows. I see a lake of blood pooling under him and I realize the man's body is a macabre ocarina.

I hear feet on metal grating to my right and on reflex my coda comes up to spot eight guys trying to flank me, and after six squeezes six are dead and the survivors scurry like bugs.

Fourty-nine bodies.

Another group comes in from the floor above me down the side stairs, some on the right where the last group tried to flank and another coming straight down the walk in front.

One peek around a corner and I see a massive cluster of orange tanks and my brain ran to the age old addage of "red barrels are fun barrels".

I poke the P4 around the crate with one hand and magdump the whole thing, I hear screaming, running, panicking and the fear is palpable until everything feels warm and fuzzy in a bright orange light.

Silence. Oddly blissful silence.

I peek around the corner and of all the horrors I've seen in life, this one took the cake and splattered it everywhere.

<A: We went audio only, but are you okay?>

<C: Yeah, babe. Just uuuhh...oh hey contract complete!>

<A: Come home. Please.>

I walk around the DC after dusting the giblets off me, grabbing any loot from whatever unguarded boxes I can find and find a single orange gas cylinder and a bad idea crashes a car in my mind.

One cylinder. ONE. I stand ten meters back and squeeze the coda with a fresh reload on it.

Everything went dark after getting very bright. The warm and fuzzy embrace from before is now 32SCU of tungsten hitting me at full speed.

My suit is beeping at me, beacon activated, and I can't see who picked it up.

And BAM! I'm staring at the ceiling and T1'd all over my body. I look and see Lily putting the Hemozal pen away and Kreyla a few meters away looking around.

"Mom, were you playing with explosives?" She says with an irritated tone.

"mmm...no?" I weakly reply.

"There's a big red spot and char marks at the door, and there's tank shards everywhere over here. You shot a nitro tank didn't you?"

"Is...is that what that was?"

"So you did. Good job, ma. Good thing we were in the area, huh?"

I miss Noob right now.

Mother daughter time ended at a bunker and that's when I knew it was time to stop.

No goons at the surface and get below. I hopped over a stack of crates and mowed down two guys. My adrenaline is GOING! I hear a scream and I think a bottle got stepped on, but Diverian assures me Kreyla snapped a guy's neck. He goes on to murder everything in sight while Lily ends existentialism with a Coda like a true lady.

Local security walked away, but in 10 seconds they saw half a ton of armor and gunpowder take care of a problem in less than 10 seconds.

I've been billed for therapy for each one of them.