August 15th, 2148. It was the day that the Supply Drop for Spearhead was due to arrive, and Shin watched as the heavy cargo plane lumbered across the old runway, bouncing on the cracked and uneven asphalt. Fido stood motionlessly beside him as the aircraft came to a halt, brakes squealing from poor maintenance. Lev would probably have some strong words for the crew when they started unloading.
When the cargo ramp dropped, he expected that the replacement Juggernauts would be the first off, accompanied by the typically scornful Albas who always flew these runs. Instead, he found a grinning woman stepping down, a crate that would normally take two men to carry propped on one shoulder and a large bag slung over the other. She quickly spotted him waiting on the strip and approached, even as he signaled for Fido to go help unload the plane. "Mornin' Captain," she greeted him with a familiarity that almost surprised him.
"I'm Hecate, Army Captain according to the Palace Blancneige, and I'll be working with and under you from now on!" He raised a single eyebrow, but before he could say anything, she kept speaking. "I know, you're probably wondering why the Army would send one of their precious Alba out here to risk their lives with the scummy eighty-six, right? Well...let's just say I've been abroad, and my opinions on the way they're running this war didn't exactly agree with them. I'll give everyone the long answer later, assuming you'll have me."
Shin opened his mouth to deliver an answer, but once again he found himself interrupted, this time by the air crew. "Hey, 86! There's one more crate here for you! A present from your 'master', apparently. As if a pig deserves a present from a human... How much did you have to beg her to sign off on this?" The Alba speaking scoffed, "We're busy with the festival, too..."
Shin just sighed and flipped through the manifest the woman who called herself Hecate conveniently had for him, raising an eyebrow at the listing simply saying 'Special Ammunition'. Hecate piped in again, "I think you'll like what's in that, Captain. Major Milizé really does mean well."
As the other survivors of Spearhead slowly filtered out into the morning heat to begin shifting supplies, Shin took a moment to observe the woman in more detail. Instead of the typically grandiose Army uniform he would have expected from the Alba, she instead wore a simple grey tanktop with a flaming hammer of some kind emblazoned upon it and orange work pants not unlike what Lev wore when he was working on the Juggernauts. Her bared arms were covered in more scars than he would ever imagine someone surviving to gather, with burns, bullets, and blades having left their marks everywhere he looked. "Talk with Lev Aldrecht, he'll get you set up somewhere until we can figure out where to bunk you. He's our engineer around here."
If anything, her grin widened. "Ah, another Gearhead? It's been far too long since I've had someone to talk shop with. Point me in his direction, and I'll get out of your hair for now."
As he pointed towards the old hangar they used as a workshop, she grabbed her apparent belongings and strolled off. Some small part of him couldn't help but feel he'd just unleashed something terrible upon poor Aldrecht.
Written 03/29/22