The Council eventually called the two back in to read their verdict - almost twenty minutes after Cee-Ay's lack of power would have rendered him inert.
Pérez - her helmet once more in place - had moved to the seat offered by Sokoloff.
John moved to stand slightly behind her - the two forming a seemingly united front against the colonists.
With any member of her former unit, she'd have found solidarity in that gesture. But with a former-IMC Pilot - even with the recent change in their relationship - it simply made her shoulders itch.
"Pilots, I'm pleased to inform you that the Council has come to a decision," Sokoloff began. "I apologise that it took so long."
From the almost smug looks that passed over Dubois' and Billings' faces, she presumed the delay had been intentional on their part. There was some dynamic at work here she simply wasn't getting.
It was going to take some careful thought…preferably after at least one shower, three cups of coffee, and a few hours sleep.
For now, the only thing to do was disrupt their plans as much as possible.
"No problem," she said in a brighter tone than she truly felt. "Thanks to assistance from Pilot Tanner, Cee-Ay has a few hours left in him."
She felt a slight rush of exhilaration at the suddenly darkening expressions on some of the Council's faces. Billings and Dubois she had expected. Parvati's sudden scowl was more of a surprise than it should have been.
Aiko however, seemed to brighten at the news, whereas Sokoloff took it in his stride.
"That's good to hear, especially given the Council's decision," he said, taking his glasses in hand and beginning to wipe them with a section of his coat. "We've voted in favour of your protection of our colony, Pilot Pérez. In exchange for your room and board, and one battery unit a week."
Pérez looked over her shoulder towards Tanner. He stood at parade attention and gave no sign of what he thought of the offer.
Pérez knew what she thought of it though.
"No deal," she said, turning her head back towards the Council. "You supply room and board, all of Tanner's gear back, you meet the power needs of both of our Titans as and when required, and…"
She braced herself for the storm to follow.
"We want unrestricted access to the facility, and any communications and sensor equipment you have."
Billings slammed a hand down on his table, his face near purple.
"Unacceptable!" he said. "Access to communications? What would stop you from calling your Militia as soon as our backs are turned?!"
"Not a damned thing," Pérez said, her voice calm. "and that is exactly what I plan to do."
Sokoloff started to object, but was silenced as Pérez raised a hand.
"You can't be naive enough to believe that we'll stay here indefinitely to protect you. We have a war to fight, and we can't wait it out baby-sitting."
Billings stood, even as Sokoloff tried to wave him back to his seat.
"How dare you," he shouted, trembling with anger. "You'll accept our offer, or you'll bloody well leave with nothing!"
"We'll leave with whatever we want to take," Pérez said. "I want to make clear to you, Councillors, that the only things we need from you is processed uranium batteries and food. And both our Titans have enough power to flatten this entire colony to obtain them."
She watched the colour drain from more than one face as she stood slowly, placing her hands on the table as she leaned forwards.
"I don't want to do that," she said, her voice firm. "But if it's the only option you leave me with, I will take it."
"Please, please, this is all so unnecessary," Sokoloff said, managing to curtail another explosive outburst from Billings. "Your demands are not so exceptional-"
"Like bloody hell they aren't, what-"
"-not so exceptional that we can't come to some arrangement, I am sure," Sokoloff finished, glaring angrily at Billings for his interruption. "I'm sure that Councilman Billings - and the people of this colony he speaks for…" he added pointedly, "…would not want to see everything they've built here undone over such a trivial matter."
Billings' face retained its purplish complexion, but he slowly lowered himself into his seat. Sokoloff nodded in satisfaction with this victory. Pérez felt a smile tug at the edges of her mouth as he turned his attention back towards the two Pilots.
"And I'm sure you can understand that we're not stupid or desperate enough to send out our location to every IMC Titan on this planet," Pérez said. "We need access to those comms in order to coordinate an effective defence of this settlement."
Sokoloff hesitated, before turning to look at Dubois.
The Security Chief's expression was thoughtful.
He eventually gave a minute nod.
"I am sure something can be arranged," he said. "But it would not be unrestricted access, just what you need to organise yourselves."
Pérez frowned. It was more than she and Tanner had expected, but less than they had hoped for.
Still, baby steps…
"Alright, Foreman. Councillors," Pérez said, standing. "You have yourselves a deal."
It was nearing dawn before they had hammered out the finer points of the agreement.
Cee-Ay and Sam had both had their power supplies replenished, Tanner had received all of his gear back and seemed to relish the chance to wear it again. Like her, his helmet had rarely been removed once it was on - and both Pérez and Cee-Ay were tied into his communications with Sam.
Eventually they had agreed with Dubois - the only Council member aside from Sokoloff who had remained after the initial agreement was struck - on a sensible patrol route for the two Titans which allowed them to cover the most likely approaches any IMC forces were likely to take to reach the town.
In theory, it should give them a few hours of warning at least, but it wasn't perfect. Two Titans could only cover so much ground after all.
By this time, Pérez had been awake for the better part of ninety hours, if you counted the few short hours of restless sleep she had managed since the attack. She'd been managing to stay awake until now on stims - and it had been a long while since her last.
It was only when she realised everyone was staring at her, apparently waiting for the answer to a question she hadn't heard, that she called a time-out.
She was shown to a three-room suite on one of the administrative building's upper levels that would be her quarters. A quick glance as she entered showed it was expensively furnished - a fact Pérez found more than a little interesting - but the moment she saw the large, comfy looking bed, all other thoughts went from her head.
She managed little more than throwing her small bag of possessions by the bed, removing her helmet and placing it on a nearby nightstand, before she collapsed onto the soft sheets and fell asleep.
It seemed far too soon before someone was knocking on the door to her suite, waking her from her deep sleep.
Pérez groaned in reply, pushing her head under her pillow.
"Make them go away," she said, voice muffled.
"PILOT PÉREZ," Cee-Ay said, his voice sounding from her helmet. "IT IS NOW PAST LOCAL MID-DAY. I SUGGESTED THAT YOU MIGHT WISH TO JOIN PILOT TANNER FOR A LATE LUNCH, AS YOU HAVE EATEN LITTLE EXCEPT RATION BARS OVER THE PAST SIX DAYS."
She groaned and threw one of her spare pillows at the helmet. It missed.
"I BELIEVE HE ALSO HAS COFFEE WITH HIM."
Pérez pulled the pillow off of her head and glared at the helmet.
"That is completely unfair," she said, her words still slurred as she struggled to wake up.
Her helmet remained quiet, but she caught the vague feeling of amusement through her neural link. She glared at it for a moment longer before - with reluctance - she rolled from the bed and stood up. Grabbing the helmet by its inside rim she made her way out of the bedroom and to the door of the suite.
She opened it with a press of the switch by the frame, and barely gave Tanner a glace before heading back towards the bedroom.
"Not a morning person then?" Tanner said. Letting himself into the suite, his amusement almost as irritating as her Titan's.
"'S'not morning…" she managed.
"Well, that much is true," he said. "I hope you're hungry at least."
Pérez stopped at the bedroom entrance and turned to look towards Tanner, who was in the process of placing a large selection of foodstuffs onto the table in the living area. Her stomach growled loudly in reply.
"Shower. Coffee. Food. In that order." Pérez said, placing her helmet on a nearby chair and heading towards the en-suite bathroom.
A few moments later and her shower unit was filling the small room with steam.
Pérez had already taken off her somewhat soiled pilot gear and under-suit and was now working with one hand to undo the suspension harness that connected her other arm to her shoulder. After a moment more, the cybernetic-prosthetic unlocked from the socket with a quick twisting motion, and she set both the appendage and the neural linkage harness aside before standing under a blissfully hot stream of water.
It seemed like hours before she started to feel human again; washing nearly a week's worth of sweat and filth her from body, and working the knots from her shoulder-length hair.
When she finally stepped out of the shower, she felt like a new woman. Still exhausted, but at least clean and more relaxed than she had felt since before the battle six days ago.
After spending some time similarly wiping down and cleaning her prosthetic, she entered the bedroom wrapped in a ridiculously fluffy towel and placed it on the bed. After a moments searching, she located the grey duffel-bag she'd thrown beside the bed the night before, or rather, this morning.
It was standard practice to keep a spare set of underclothes and hygienics in your Titan in case of an unexpectedly lengthy deployment. She'd only rarely been on a deployment so isolated as to need it, but now she was glad for it.
She frowned at her cybernetic arm lying on the bed for a moment before deeming it too much hassle to reattach for the time being. Being a combat-model arm it was built to suffer extreme stresses and react at least as well as a real limb, but the trade-off was the weight and subsequent strain on her shoulder. It was actually nice not to be wearing it for a change, although she'd likely miss the convenience of it before long.
For now though, she would do without. Cee-Ay would be able to warn her of any dangers with enough time for her to reattach it and suit up again. Even one-handed it took her only a few moments to slip into a simple pair of fatigues and a grey tank top, and - giving her hair a final quick shake - she returned to the living area.
Tanner stood from one of the armchairs as she entered the room, immediately holding a cup of steaming coffee out to her.
As she accepted the cup she noted he didn't stare at her missing limb - she supposed he'd seen his share of amputees as a medic. She shrugged mentally, and decided instead to focus on her coffee.
She settled into the large sofa, leaning back into the plush material and sipped deeply from the cup. She closed her eyes as the warmth of the drink seeped into her body and made an appreciative noise as she savoured the bitter taste.
"Better?" Tanner asked.
"Getting there," she said, eyes still closed in bliss as she took another sip from the cup. "Oh my god, you have no idea how much I needed this."
"I have an idea," Tanner said, seating himself back into the arm chair across from her. He picked up his own cup of coffee from the table between them, cradling it in his hand "after spending five days in Sam, they had to cut me off before I burned through the whole stock."
"If you had, we'd be having a very different conversation right now," Pérez said, giving him a rare smile. "I don't think you'd have enjoyed it."
Tanner laughed.
"I expect you're right," he motioned towards the table, on which there were a few selections of local meats, cheeses and breads. "In the meantime, I thought you might want something to eat. Stims can only get you so far…"
"True enough," she reluctantly set down her coffee and started loading up a plate with food. "But after this, you and I need to figure out what the hell to do with this mess we've landed ourselves in."
A/N: Well over a year since my last update! I'm sorry to those that liked and commented on my story so far! Things have not been too good for the last 12 months (well, longer actually, but who's counting!) but they are slowly getting better. I'll try and keep new chapters coming at a quicker pace going forward. Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it!
~Tekkno