Vectus Naval Base

Present Day

"Failure to engage with the implied social compact between citizens and state. And the fact that they stink like shit. Oh, yeah, I forgot – they're mean to people we like."

- Damon Baird discussing his distaste for Stranded

"Bri? C'mon Bri…wake up. Wake up! Come on…you don't want to be late for your first day, do you?"

I groaned and attempted to bury my head underneath my pillow, hoping the annoying voice would go away. I grunted something disapproving and hopefully threatening, and desperately tried to fall back to sleep.

It was quiet for another five or ten seconds. Then somebody snatched the corner of my blanket and quickly yanked it off of my bed. "Hey!" I yelled, bolting awake. Then I groaned as my head pounded in response. My sandpaper tongue rasped against my dried lips and I silently cursed Cole and his stupid drinking games.

The cool early morning temperature made me sit up and glare at whomever had stolen my covers. It was still dark in the room; the sun was just starting to rise. Dom stood in the center of our room – fully dressed in his COG armor, and holding the scratchy, army-supply blanket I had been cuddled underneath just moments ago. "Give it back," I growled at him.

"No can do," he said, far too happily. He threw the blanket across the room to accent his point. My eyes narrowed and I wondered vaguely if Sam would attack Dom if I ordered her to. "I made breakfast!"

He handed me a bowl filled to the brim with oatmeal. My nose wrinkled as I imagined choking down the meal. "Uh…thanks," I said unenthusiastically. I tried to gauge exactly how upset he'd be if I fed the whole thing to Sam. I sighed and resigned myself to eating at least a quarter of the bowl; hopefully that would be enough to avoid insulting him. I picked up the bowl and tried a small bite. It was warm, at least. Thick, flavorless, and bland enough to not upset my tender stomach. The next bite I took was slightly larger.

"Why are you up so early?" I asked him between bites. "More importantly – why did you wake me up so early?"

"Bernie has the rest of your kit ready. I wanted to go over everything with you and make sure it's in proper working order before you head out on your first patrol."

I tried really, really hard not to roll my eyes. He's being nice. You can be nice too. "Thanks…but I've spent years scrapping by with the bare minimum. I'm sure whatever Mataki finds laying around will be more than enough."

Dom pulled out my desk chair and sat in it backwards, so his arms rested atop the back. He rubbed self-consciously at his neck and I caught the vaguely embarrassed look in his eyes. "I know. I just…I didn't want to miss anything."

I smiled as I passed the rest of the oatmeal down to Sam. "It's my first day of active duty, not kindergarten," I chastised him gently.

"Yeah, and I missed that too."

Ouch. Dom really wanted to make up for lost time. The least I could do was tolerate it. I was sure he had all sort of annoying parent-y things planned for me. "Ok," I agreed, placing my bare feet on the cold floor and standing. "Let me get dressed first."


If Marcus ever came to me and – by some miracle – found another long lost family member, I was going to run for the hills.

Dom was tap-dancing on my last nerve. He had ooh-ed and ahh-ed over every piece of armor Mataki handed me. She had decided to start with a bare-bones set of plates, for which I was grateful. The boots alone weighed fifteen pounds – each. Dom kept checking and re-checking every part of my kit for any sort of flaws. And – thankfully - Baird's borrowed camera ran out of film after he snapped picture after picture of me donning my plates.

"Are you sure the straps aren't twisted?" he asked, tugging on the buckles to my chest plate. "It feels like they're twisted."

"They're fine," I said through gritted teeth. I shot Mataki a desperate look. Sure, she hated me, but she had to have mercy. Shoot me, I silently begged. Sam was sleeping on the ground next to one of the workbenches. I gave her a jealous glance.

"You sure you don't want to wear the helmet?"

"You don't," I pointed out with narrowed eyes.

"Do as I say, not as I do." Dom parroted. "I'd sleep better at night if you wore it."

"I'm not going to be the only nerd in Delta wearing a helmet."

Dom looked displeased at that. He started to argue with me, but I shot another distressed look to Mataki. She looked faintly amused, but even she'd had enough of Dom's mother hen routine. "Alright, Dom. There's a reason recruits can't pack their parents in their duffel for basic. Time to shove off."

"But-"

"Get," Mataki repeated in a no-nonsense tone. "I'll have her back to you in a few hours."

Dom didn't look happy about it, but he patted me on the shoulder. "I want to hear everything later!"

"Ok, fine, just go!"

Dom finally picked up his lancer and headed out of the armory Mataki had used for our first meeting. For a moment we just stared at each other warily. I saw her eyes trail down my body – checking my armor and kit – before coming to rest on my longshot. "You carry a sniper, but can you shoot like one?"

"I haven't worked with a spotter in years, and I had to burn my ballistics notebook one winter so I didn't freeze to death, but yeah. I'm a sniper."

She nodded slowly as she walked a slow circle around me. "So say there's a target in your scope that appears 3.5 mils high, with wind blowing at 45 degrees from left to right. How do you adjust your shot?"

"Elevation?"

"None."

I thought for a second. "If my target is human sized-" there was an edge to my voice; she hadn't specified the height of the target, which was the first step in calculating the ballistics of a long-range shot. She had definitely done that on purpose. "Then 3.5 mil dots means they're roughly 500 meters away. So 28 clicks up, and 8 clicks into the wind."

She grabbed the sling of my rifle and ripped it off my shoulder. I had to physically fight the instinct to grab it back – and punch her in the face, for good measure. Sam rose to her feet, growling slightly in the back of her throat, but I shook my head at her. Mataki watched me as if she expected me to protest, then stepped back and started field stripping my gun. She pulled the bolt back and removed the round I had loaded earlier, then pressed it against the take-down pin. Once she removed the carrier group she stuck her pinky down the barrel, then 'tsked' disappointedly at me when it came back blackened with gunpowder residue.

"I haven't had time to clean it," I said defensively.

"You had time to clean yourself, haven't you?" she put the rifle back together expertly. "You want to make it in my army you keep your rifle and kit maintained – and maintained well." She slammed my longshot against my chest as if to punctuate her words.

"Yes ma'am," I spat the words out like they pained me.

"Ooh, are we doing the pissed off Drill Sergeant routine?" a familiar voice said from somewhere behind me. "Do I get to order her to sweep sunlight, or mop up rain? Maybe make her do pushups until I get tired?"

Baird. I could have kissed him right then. All the tension Mataki had been building in the room immediately evaporated. I started to crack a grin that was quickly wiped off of my face when I saw the look on Mataki's face. "There hasn't been a 'boot camp' since before E-day, but she seems to know more than the poor saps I used to have in my classes." I blinked in surprise; it almost sounded like a compliment. "Mount up."

Mataki crossed the room to pick up her own sniper rifle. Baird leaned against the workbench in front of me. "Has she given you any good cat recipes, yet?"

"Pretty sure all she wants to give me is shit," I groused in a voice too low for her to hear.

"That means she likes you," he said with a wink. "Just wait until she starts pulling your pigtails."

"Are you two coming or not?"

"Yeah, yeah," Baird answered in his signature acidic voice. "Keep your panties on."

"Didn't know you were so interested in my panties, Blondie."

Oh, yeah. Today was going to be interesting.


At its heart, Vectes was a naval base. And that meant lots of boats – big ones.

The pier near Pelruan was mainly fishermen and small trawlers. The military port, on the other hand, was filled with warships, gunships, destroyers, and – as Baird pointed out excitedly – one lone submarine. Pelruan hadn't had the need for any of these ships, nor the crew needed to run them, so they had sat dormant in the waters since E-day, like sleeping giants. The advanced team of Engineers Hoffman had flown out were now crawling over these machines like ants, trying to evaluate what could be salvaged, scrapped, or made active duty again. Dizzy had been merchant navy before the war started. I wondered if he enjoyed being back on the water.

We were patrolling the dry side of the port. There were lots of docks that spider-webbed their way between the ships, which meant lots of places for Stranded to get into trouble. If they wanted to make another attack before the rest of the COG arrived then their window was closing quickly. The first ships were slated to arrive tomorrow.

Mataki was teaching me to keep my head on a swivel – what to look for, how to spot anything out of order, keeping an eye out for potential ambushes – but Baird could hardly peel his eyes from the submarine. "Nice boat," he said. "Wonder if they'd toss me the keys."

"Have fun," I said with a subconscious shiver. "Underwater is too close to underground for my taste."

Baird crooked his head to the side, like he hadn't considered that. Then he shrugged, like he'd weighed the risk and decided it was worth it. "I'll have to see if they'll give me a ride. That sub is a thing of engineering beauty."

Anyone who thought Baird was incapable of love hadn't seen how he looked at machines. He was watching the sub – the Clement, based on the name scrawled across one aft fin – with nothing less than pure lust in his eyes.

"Navy boys are going to have lots of things to repair," Mataki jumped in. "I'm sure you could barter your way aboard."

"I think I could manage that," he agreed easily.

I blinked. Baird was in a good mood. Probably for the first time since I'd met him. It made sense; from what I could tell he like repairing the impossible. He'd just been given a whole shipyard of new toys to tinker with, with no pesky grubs threatening to interrupt his playtime.

Baird caught me staring at him. "Take a picture – it'll last longer."

"Just trying to commit your face to memory. Once you get your hands on those ships nobody will see you for months."

"Yeah?" he tilted his jaw to the side. "Make sure you get my good side. A little something for your spank bank."

I could feel the blush start to creep up my face. "You've got plenty of 'spank bank' in this harbor. I'll see if I can find a centerfold of the Clement for you. I guess you like the ones who go down easy."

Baird almost cracked a smile. "Are you jealous? If you ask nicely, I'll let you come along for the ride."

"I wouldn't want to interrupt you playing with your seaman."

"I'm much more interested in your sea-legs."

"In your wet dreams."

"Will you two knock it off?" Mataki snapped at us both.

Baird cocked his head at the Sergeant. "What's her problem?"

"That time of the month?"

"Got to be. PMS – the silent killer."

"I will fucking shoot you both if you don't shut up!" Mataki growled at us both. That effectively ended the conversation, but not the sniggers of amusement from Baird and me anytime we managed to catch the other's eye.

"Hold up," Mataki held one fist in the air to stop us both in our tracks. "What's that?" She pulled her Longshot around so she could look through the scope. I followed the point of her barrel, then mimicked her to see what had caught her attention.

Far off on the other side of the port there was something moving on the underside of the dock. A dark figured ducked between the pilings, pausing at intermittent points. I watched for a long moment through my scope until the figure stepped into a brighter patch of sunlight and I could confirm it was a human. "Someone repairing one of the docks?" I guessed hopefully.

"Not friggin' likely," Baird muttered.

"Control, do you have anyone tasked to be working the western docks?" I heard Mataki's voice from my left, but also much louder and closer in my right ear. I jumped slightly until I remembered the earpiece I was wearing.

It only took a second for Anya to answer. "That's a negative, Bernie. I'll check with Pelruan, but approach with caution."

"There's two," I realized suddenly. Further out, on the shore, another figure was scuttling around one of the ships. "What's he doing?" I mused out loud, watching him pause and adjust something against the hull.

"Nothing good," Mataki sighed. "Baird, head around and prepare to cut them off if they try to run into the woods. Santiago, you stick right on my ass and follow me. And do try to be quiet."

"Sam, heel," I instructed her. "Quiet."

Baird took off at a light jog, back-tracking a bit before circling around again near the edge of the woods. We kept an eye on the two men while they worked their way down the row of ships. Once Baird was in position Mataki ordered me to "Move out," and we hurried in, half crouched, to ambush them. I swapped my longshot for my lancer as we moved; if this boiled over into a fight, I would need more than one round at a time.

Rules of engagement, I remembered Marcus saying just the other day. Remember we have them.

It was a hundred meter sprint to get in range. Mataki paused next to a pile of old shipping crates – decent enough cover – before calling out to the two strangers. They weren't civilians, that much was clear by how they were dressed. And now that we were closer, I could see what they were attaching to the hull – bricks of C4, complete with detonators. "Put your hands up and step away from the ship, asshole!"

Without turning around they both booked it for the woods. It was instinct to give chase. I bolted out of cover and sprinted into the woods after them. "Bri, get your arse back here!" I heard Mataki screaming behind me, but I ignored her.

"Sam!" I yelled out, then pointed to the man on the right, "Sic 'em!"

It took only seconds before I heard Sam's galloping paws crashing through the forest floor. Once I heard the man scream I knew she had him pinned. I kept sprinting after the second man. I would have been on him, but I wasn't used to running in Gear boots. The plates of armor were heavy, and I found myself losing steam far too quickly. "Stop!" I heard someone yell through my earpiece, and figured someone had joined in the chase.

I watched the man skirt around two trees, instead of running through them. Mistake, I thought greedily. I'd be able to gain on him by taking the short cut. Just before I came to the first tree someone tackled me from the left. We fell to the ground – hard- and my elbow immediately screamed in pain. "Mother fu-" I started to curse, raising my fist to get a few good shots in, when I recognized the blonde hair. "What the fuck, Baird?"

"Are you deaf, or just stupid?" he rolled off of me and glared down from his knees. "Stop friggin' means stop!"

I started to argue, but he pointed one finger emphatically at the ground next to the tree I had almost ran through. I saw now what I had missed: a silvery border of fishing line roped between the two trees. I followed the line over to one of its tie-off point, and saw that it was attached to the pin of a frag grenade.

Booby-trapped.

"Oh, well…thanks for giving a shit," I said smarmily, getting to my feet. Embarrassment brought out my bitchy side.

Baird wasn't done chewing me out. "You see these?" he snapped, reaching forward and plucking my COG tags from my chest. He gave them a heavy tug and the chain jerked me forwards like a dog on a leash. "These are why I gotta give a shit! You get yourself killed while I'm supposed to have your back, and suddenly I gotta explain to Fenix how I lost his pet project!"

"Get the fuck off of me!" I shouted at him, violently shoving myself out of his grip. I ignored the sharp sting as the chain caught.

"Or what?" he spat at me. His chest rose as he took a few quick, angry breaths. "Shit, you're not even worth it." He turned and stomped away from me, heading back towards where Mataki was waiting with Sam and the one assailant we had caught.

"Asshole," I muttered after him, rubbing the slow burn on the back of my neck. I took a deep breath – trying to let the anger and embarrassment fade – before I pulled my knife off of my belt and gingerly cut the thread between the two trees. I plucked the frag grenade from between the roots of the tree and examined it closely. It was COG made, but a much older model. There was no chain attached to fling it into an e-hole. It had to have been manufactured before the war – probably stored inside the base, then ransacked by the Stranded. I added it to my pack, then turned and trudged back to where Mataki and Baird were waiting.

Mataki had one finger pressed to her earpiece – I could hear her requesting backup to search the woods – but she decided to point that finger accusingly at me once I got close. "You run off like that again and I'll sink a round in your back. You're going to learn to follow a god-damn order even if I have to reach up your arse and carry you around like a damn puppet. Do I make myself clear?"

Damn. "Yes Ma'am," I said gloomily. I fixed my gaze on the Stranded man currently hog-tied at our feet. He had an oozing bite mark around his bicep where Sam had dragged him down to the ground. "Good girl," I muttered, scratching behind her ears and ignoring the blood on her muzzle. She let out a few self-satisfied barks before licking the mud from her paws.

"Hey, buddy," Baird squatted down and got in the assailant's face, nonchalantly using his knife to clean beneath his fingernails. "I don't suppose you want to fill us in on where your friend went, do ya?"

The Stranded worked up a mouthful of saliva and spat it at Baird's face. "Screw off, you COG fascist!"

Baird's nose wrinkled and he rocked back on his heels. "Well, that's just unsanitary." He started patting down the man's pockets, checking for weapons at his side, his boots, and the small of his back. Out of one of his pockets Baird fished out a small, black rectangle with an antennae. "Well, looky here. Remote detonator. I hate it when vermin get high-tech." He passed the remote up to Mataki without rising out of his squat.

"Now where did you find a toy like that?" Mataki asked, looking it over.

I pulled the frag grenade out of my pack. "Probably the same place you stole this from, right?" I spoke up. "Let me guess – you rolled through the base and stole anything useful?"

"Go to hell."

I squatted down next to the man, making sure I was directly in his eyeline. "Listen, man, I feel for you. The COG's going to come in here, steal away all your land, protect all your easy targets, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. But this shit? This shit is just going to get you all killed. You'd be far better off to pack everything into those nice boats you stole and find some other island to marauder."

"We have nowhere to go!"

"So you're going to blow up our ships? You think that's going to change anything?" Baird interjected.

"Look," I continued like Baird hadn't spoken. "You see this dog? She's my dog. She's got a pretty decent bite, yeah?" I motioned at the wound that was still pulsing blood. "And tracking somebody down in the woods? Well, that's just about her favorite thing." Sam's head tilted to the side when she heard me say 'tracking', emphasizing my point. "So tell me where your friend went – because we know he's not stupid enough to head straight back to the Stranded camp – or Sam gets to go play."

His eyes trailed between my gentle smile, and Sam's mouthful of blood-stained teeth. "There's…there's a shack in the woods, about a mile east of here. We're supposed to meet there in case we got separated."

I could hear a 'Dill just on the edge of the woods, and our backup dismounting and coming to our aid. "Was that so hard?" I asked, getting to my feet.

"Get him out of here," I heard Mataki order one of the Gears that came with Hoffman to the island. "See if anyone from Pelruan recognizes him. We'll dump him in Prescott's lap tomorrow. The rest of you – you're with me. We're sweeping the woods to find the other one."

Baird was packing his knife away into its sheath and had his back to the small squad of Gears who had come to our aid. "So…that wasn't so bad, right?" I tried to sink back into our easy back-and-forth banter. "Who knew all I had to do to get my way was threaten to feed people to Sam?"

He didn't even glance in my direction. Baird walked past me to join the search line, not quite shoulder-checking me, but close. I tried hard to ignore how his brush-off made my heart sink in my chest.

Yeah. I thought miserably. I screwed up.


I paused at the door to the bar. I really didn't want to walk in, but apparently Dizzy had arranged some sort of dinner in honor of my first official day as a Gear. He'd even arranged to have Gettner drive me down to Pelruan after we had finished sweeping the woods. We'd found the abandoned shack the Stranded man had mentioned, but no sign of his buddy. I had let Sam follow his scent and we'd gotten as far as the river before she lost the trail. Apparently he had heard the dog and decided to keep running, leaving his buddy behind. The rest of the afternoon had been spent harvesting C4 bricks off of the hull of the ship.

It was now an hour or two after sunset, and all I really wanted to do was head to my room, shove my head under my pillow and forget this day ever happened.

But instead I sighed, pulled open the heavy wooden door, and tried to fix a smile on my face. The inside of the bar was a single, low-ceilinged space that looked more like a living room than a liquor establishment. There wasn't a chair or a glass that matched one another. In the center of the bar was a long table. Mataki, Dom, Marcus and Cole were already seated. Apparently Baird had decided to skip this little celebration. I tried hard to not feel the disappointment. "Hey everyone," I greeted as I strode up and took a chair next to Dom. "Where's Dizzy?"

"He went to the base to pick up his girls," Dom answered. "He should be back in a minute."

"So how'd it go?" Cole asked, as subtle as a freight train. "Tell me you kicked some serious ass!"

My eyes dropped to the table. "It was…well, it went, I guess."

I felt the flame of embarrassment rise in my cheeks. I hated to imagine the face Dom would make when I told him I almost ran head-first into a booby trap on my first day. Maybe it was a good thing that Baird hadn't shown; I'm sure he would have loved to lambast everything I had done wrong today in front of everyone.

"She did well," an unexpected voice answered. "She's got the instincts, just needs to work on listening better. And her dog is bloody useful."

I glanced up at Mataki in surprise. She was the last person I expected to utter a word of praise in my direction, but she tilted her beer as a toast. "Give me a couple more weeks with her and she'll make a damn good soldier."

My hesitant, plastered-on smile was exchanged for a real one. "Thanks," I said, giving Sam a few pats. "That means a lot."

"Told you she had what it takes!" Dom exclaimed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me in for a sideways hug. "That shit is genetic!"

We almost missed the opening of the bar door as laughter washed over the table. Every head in the bar turned towards the entrance to get an eyeful of Dizzy and his daughters as he walked in. "Well, ain't this nice," he said as he walked up to the table. "Can't remember the last time I saw somewhere peaceful." As he wandered up to the table I caught the heavy scent of whiskey. Evidently Dizzy had decided to start celebrating early.

I stood and grabbed two chairs from a nearby empty table and arranged them next to me. Maralin and Teresa shot me a grateful look as they sat. Maralin immediately touched the plate of armor on my shoulder. "Wow," she breathed. "You're really a Gear now!"

"I'll get the beer," Dom offered. "Juice for the girls?"

"Are you going to get armor for Sam, too?" Teresa asked innocently.

I chuckled at the thought of heavily-armored Sam rushing into battle next to me. "That's not a bad idea," I mused. "I'll have to see if anyone can sew Kevlar."

"Two beers," Dom requested from the short, brunette woman taking orders. "And do you have anything that isn't alcoholic?"

I was distracted by the two girls, so I missed the tension brewing just behind me. But my good mood dropped when I heard her hiss: "They can't be in here."

Shit. It was Rezzie's sandwiches all over again. I was a Gear now, but apparently not in the eyes of Pelruan. My hands balled into fists as I realized the faces that had turned when Dizzy walked in hadn't looked away yet. "We've got to go," I said in a low voice to Maralin and Teresa.

"Hey, I'm sorry," Dom continued in a too-loud voice. "I forgot the age thing."

"That's not it. You know the rules for their kind."

Dizzy caught wind of the conversation and his face dropped. He picked up his hat from where he had laid it on the table and moved to leave.

"What kind?" Dom asked innocently. "Gears?"

It was quiet in the bar. The low buzz of conversation had dwindled to a stop, and I could feel everyone's eyes on the four of us. "You know what I mean. Stranded." She said the word like an insult. "I know they're in uniform but we can see what they are. They're lucky nobody shot them as soon as they got into town. They have to leave before we get into trouble."

"Look, I'm sorry," I started to rise from the table, my hands held up non-threateningly by my side. "I forgot. We'll just go now." Maralin and Teresa started to follow my lead – although I could see the confusion in their eyes shifting to quiet shame. I wanted to tell them that they had nothing to be ashamed of, but I wanted to get them out of here before anyone said what they really thought of Stranded. Dizzy started to rise from the table as well, but Marcus's hand shot out and gripped his forearm like a vice.

"This man saved my ass," Marcus said, his voice cutting through the bar like a knife. "If you're attacked by Stranded again, he'll save yours."'

There was a tense moment where we all just looked at each other. I could feel the tension pinning me to where I stood. I almost wished someone would throw a punch, start a fight, or do something that was pure, honest, and simple. Being caught in the middle of some classist bullshit where people debated if you were human or not just pissed me off.

I almost died today for these assholes.

Dom shifted suddenly. He reached into his armor and pulled out a few minted coins that had to be at least a decade old. "Two beers and two juices," he repeated, dropping the coins in the bartender's hand. "That's still legal tender. It'll buy you something useful at any COG base."

The woman held the coins in her hand like they might decide to bite her. She glanced awkwardly around the room – waiting for someone to say something – then tucked the money into the pocket of her apron and gave a slight nod. "I'll be back with your drinks," she said like nothing had happened.

Dom put a hand on my shoulder and pushed me back into my seat. I still felt the urge to leave, but Maralin and Teresa were watching every move I made. If I left now it would reinforce the idea that being Stranded was somehow shameful, instead of a simple means of survival. The girls settled back into their chairs but they were perched on the edge of their seats, like at any moment they would decide to bolt for the door.

"First thing we do," Bernie said, "is make sure there's a sergeant's mess set up in Vectus."

"We save the world, and this is the thanks we get?" Cole muttered after a moment. "Some people need a lesson in gratitude."

The bartender returned and set two large, amber glasses in front of Dizzy and I, and a couple coffee mugs filled with pink juice in front of Maralin and Teresa. She darted off again like she was afraid we'd ask for something else. "Well," Dizzy said, lifting his glass and raising it in my direction. "To your first day."

I raised my glass in turn and took a sip. The beer was lukewarm, flat, and far too yeasty for my taste. Still, I took a second deep gulp and made sure to act like it was my right to do so. The girls watched me before hesitantly sipping at their own drinks.

Marcus glanced at his watch. He looked like he was trying to judge how long we had to sit here before we could leave with our heads held high. "So, is being a Gear all you dreamed it to be?" Dizzy asked.

I shrugged. "It's…different," I answered honestly. "I'm used to just doing whatever I want, whenever I want. Getting ordered around is going to take some getting used to."

Cole chuckled as the volume in the bar started inching back up to a dull roar. Most people were turning back to their own conversations now that the show was over. "You get used to it. So long as you got a decent enough sarge, it ain't so bad. Wait until you get a real hard ass barking orders at you."

My eyes widened. "You mean Mataki isn't a hard ass?"

That finally broke most of the tension as we all laughed. She shook her head at me, but she was smirking. "I ain't even started with you, yet," she vaguely threatened. "Just you wait."

"I'd believe her if I were you," Dom advised. "Survivalist instructors can get creative."

"Shoulda joined the engineers, then," Dizzy said. "So longs you show up in the right place at the right time, there's less people around to yell at you."

"With my luck I'd end up working for Baird," I gave an over-exaggerated shiver. "Can you imagine that micro-managing hellhole?"

Cole guffawed. "Ahh, he ain't so bad. Just let him winge and whine until he gets it outta his system. He comes around, in the end."

I hope so, I though desperately. I glanced at Marcus and saw that he was watching me with a knowing expression. I furrowed my brow at him and he looked away.

"So how y'all know each other?" Cole asked, motioning between me and Dizzy's family.

Dizzy chuckled. "Damn near raised her! I mean, ol' Ace put in some man hours, too, o'course. 'Tween the two o'us we managed to keep her from growing up all buck wild."

I rolled my eyes and turned to the rest of the group to explain. "Maralin, Teresa and I had some classes together in school. Sometimes kids would give them a hard time. Ace had taught me how to fight, so I put his lessons to good use."

Maralin had the tiniest of smiles on her face. "Remember Jake?" she said softly. "Man, the look on his face."

I tried hard to keep from looking too prideful, but I could tell I didn't quite make it. "Oh, he had it coming." I explained. "Jake was fifteen and thought he was hot shit."

"Don't say shit," Dizzy interrupted.

"Sorry. Anyway, he liked picking on the younger kids in the classes – weren't enough students around to keep ages separate. And one day-"

"He was messing with Teresa," Maralin interrupted, eyes glinting with amusement. "Shoving her, calling her names."

"He was mean," Teresa agreed.

"I kept trying to get him to quit." Maralin continued. "Then Bri comes walking up – cool as you please – and taps him on the shoulder. He turns around and WHACK!" She mimicked the punch, slamming her fist into her other hand for sound effects. "She almost snapped his neck! Knocked him out with one punch!"

"Not my finest moment," I said, properly abashed.

"Are you kidding?! That was so cool!"

Teresa nodded. "He never bothered me again."

"Ace made me clean the bathrooms around base for a solid month for that one," I said fondly. For once the mention of his name didn't bring the same stabbing flash of guilt. "It was worth it, though."

"Bri would keep an eye on the girls for me, 'round the base. I'm grateful."

I shook my head. "Please. You've literally saved my life like half a dozen times. I owe you way more than I can repay."

"Nah, you don't owe a thing," Dizzy took an eager mouthful of his drink. "Shit, I can't imagine what kinda SOB a man would hafta be to not help you out," his voice suddenly became more somber, more melancholy. "I still think about that night – ya' know the one – you crouched under Betty's steering column, all bruised up, dirty, bloody – and a damn broken arm."

"Broken collarbone," I corrected him. I rubbed the left side of my chest as a ghost-like memory of pain flashed through my chest and shoulders. "That one still hurts sometimes," I admitted.

Dom's face had gone pale. The expression on his face made him look like he was miles away. "You lived on base," he repeated in a pained voice.

Immediately the mood sobered. "I mean, yeah," I said when I understood what he was thinking. "Under an assumed name, in completely different social circles. Not to mention Ephyra was a lot more populated back then. It's not like we would have ran into each other." That was true, at least. Soldiers like Ace and Dizzy weren't quite at the level of Embry-star awarded Gears.

The table fell quiet. No one seemed quite sure what to say to Dom to ease his guilt. I watched him warily, waiting to see if he'd pull himself out of this downward spiral before it got too dark. He set his jaw and met Dizzy's eye. "Thank you," he said earnestly. He didn't need to elaborate; Dizzy understood. He held out his hand and Dom grasped it in a tight handshake. It was an odd, almost primal moment between two fathers, one thanking the other for protecting his child while he wasn't around to do so. Dom gave him another meaningful nod before letting go.

"What are the chances we could get some food here?" Cole wondered aloud, looking around the bar and breaking the moment between Dom and Dizzy.

Marcus got to his feet. "Better not push our luck. We'll find something back on base."

"And some better company," I muttered under my breath. Maralin was the only one to hear me, and instead of smiling like I hoped she would, she frowned. Once outside the bar, our group made a bee-line for the large truck Dizzy had driven down from the base. Cole expertly snaked the keys from Dizzy's hand and motioned for him to take the passenger seat.

"They hate us," Maralin observed once the bar door was closed behind us. "Is it going to be like this everywhere?"

My jaw clenched. None of the Stranded-recruited Gears were unfamiliar with the stigma that followed them around, but it dug at me that the girl's had to go through it as well. But the worst part was I wanted to reassure them that no, it wasn't going to be like that everywhere, and that people would get over their prejudice. But I couldn't lie to the girls.

Before I could figure out a way to answer her, Mataki had a hand on Maralin's shoulder. "Not if we have anything to say about it," she reassured her, then helped her into the bed of the truck.

Dizzy gave a sheepish look. "Some Stranded are halfway to bein' real people, sweetie. Domesticated." He climbed into the passenger seat of the truck. The rest of Delta filed in – either in the cab, or the bed – and Cole turned over the engine and pulled away from the small town. It was chilly in the back of the truck, so I wrapped an arm each around Maralin and Teresa. The wind noise cut out any chance of a conversation. I kept shooting furtive glances at Mataki as we rolled up the mountain towards the base.

Cole parked the vehicle outside the motor pool. "Y'all have yourselves a good night, now," Dizzy raised a hand to us all and swept his girls away to bed. "Congrats, there, darlin'," he said to me in passing.

I nodded to him, but instead of lingering around to chat I jogged a few steps to catch up to Mataki. "Never thought you'd have time for any of us Stranded," I said the words conversationally, but there was an accusation just under the surface. If she wanted to be biased and bigoted towards me I could tolerate it. But I'd be damned if I let her toxic attitude make the girls feel like they were less than. She had been decent enough tonight, but I wanted to ensure she'd stay that way.

"Don't recall seeing any Stranded in that bar," she said. "And don't think that Dizzy didn't make me feel guilty, either."

"I've pretty much accepted that you hate me, and that's fine. But if I find out that you did or said anything to those girls to make them ashamed of who they are – you and I will have a problem. Understand?"

We were far enough away from the group that no one could overhear our conversation. I could see Dom watching us from back near the truck, but I kept my face relaxed and pleasant – just a simple conversation between two Gears. Mataki was the one who stopped walking first and turned to face me.

"I've been shitty to you, and I owe you an apology," she said sincerely. The grizzled old sergeant façade vanished for just a moment and I realized just how old she seemed. "I saw a Stranded girl – with a longshot – hanging around the people I cared about, and I made a lot of snap judgements. None of them turned out to be true. And I don't hate you."

I blink a few times in rapid succession. "So…apologize."

"What?"

"You said you owe me an apology," I pointed out. "But you didn't actually apologize."

She cocked an eyebrow as she tried to decipher if I was taking the piss. "Alright. I'm terribly sorry for how I've treated you, Bri. You haven't deserved any of it."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

I shrugged. "You were worried I was taking advantage of Delta. I get it. I'd probably react the same way. I'm actually really glad we don't have this weird tiff between us; you're like the coolest old lady I've ever met."

"Call me an old lady again," she said with narrowed eyes, "And I'll have you running laps until you puke."

"Goodnight, Sergeant."

"Goodnight."

I headed back to Dom with a small smile on my face. It was strange how readily I could forgive Mataki, but I truly didn't feel any hard feelings towards her. I found myself looking forward to training with her again come morning.

Dom gave me a concerned look as I fell into step beside him. "Everything alright?"

"Oh yeah," I said as we strolled back to the barracks. "Everything is perfect."


Author's note: I have no idea how I resist putting Baird in every single scene. Writing him and Bri trying to out-snark the other is so much fun! Side note – do you guys have any idea how hard it is to write a flirty scene about a submarine?

I really love this odd sort of relationship she and Bernie have with each other. She's forming bonds with everyone in Delta in her own way, and those relationships are developing in so many novel ways.

Also, this is chapter 40! I can't believe I've managed to write this much - and I can't believe so many of you have read through it all! Thank you all so, so much! Hopefully you enjoyed this nice, long chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Sorry to those who kept getting multiple notifications about this chapter. I kept trying to upload it, but the site would glitch and not display it. Hopefully it's working properly now.