"Starting From the Bottom"
- Date: July 13, 3029; 09:12 Local Time
- Planet: Proserpina
- Location: The Limpet's Bite bar
"Oh yeah. And there were people staked out keeping an eye on it. Plain clothes, but they were obvious. I think it was the Dieron Regulars." The other 'MechWarrior shifted in his seat. "And I may have been followed."
"So you brought them to me. Good." Adamant scowled. "You know I'm not armed, right?"
"Bull. You always have a holdout."
"Two is one, one is none." Adamant scowled. "And a knife doesn't count, because you can only throw it once."
"Considered a bladed boomerang?"
"Yes, I'd like to lose fingers on the return catch." Adamant kicked Deadeye under the table, and glanced to the door. "Heads up." His free hand drifted under the level of the table to the holster inside his jacket and under his shirt. Two figures had just strode in chatting amiably and staggering slightly, but they had sat down at a table with a perfect field of fire to catch Adamant and Deadeye if they tried to run for the front door.
Deadeye followed the glance, and nodded. "Back door?"
"There's always a back door. And it's always guarded before they do this." Adamant sipped his drink, and hesitated before clicking the safety off on his pistol. "Rooftop. Wait for me to finish my next sip, then-" He paused, and his eyes moved. "The hall behind the bar on the right. That's the most likely place for the upstairs access. I'll go for the front when you move."
"They'll definitely have the front watched."
"Yeah but this way they'll only get one of us." He picked up the glass and took a sip, mouthing 'go' before putting the glass down.
Deadeye did not disappoint, the chair clattering across the floor as he took of at a full sprint from his seated position. By the time he vaulted the bar, the two watchers had drawn pistols and were taking aim; so were three other people on the floor, though one of them snapped their head to look at Adamant, who had already cleared his holster and began squeezing off shots. Shoulder, left chest, knee - he'd need to practice again once he got out of the Combine territory. Think about that later, now it was time to just react, as he ducked and wove around confused patrons who were diving to the floor.
It almost disappointed Adamant there wasn't anyone outside as he climbed the steps to the street level. It would have been the perfect trap to catch someone running, but he suspected they had been set to the back door. He began sprinting, as he pulled his comm from a pocket. "Harbingers! Adamant here. We got trouble-" He winced as a bullet chipped stonework nearby, and he ducked down an alley. "I'm five minutes from the house."
"Don't bother." The grim tone made him hesitate. "Get out of here, they dropped DEST on us. We're holding out but it won't be long." There was a curse. "Robert's not going anywhere sedated as he is, so get Deadeye and Sassy and scramble. C will meet you on Kentares in two months."
"I can't just leave you-"
"Adamant, just go." Another voice, her tone acidic. "Take comfort you were right about taking the Cylene job and get the hell out of here while you can. If any of us make it out you can say your 'I told you' over a bottle of Davion Crown."
"You're buying." He said, his mouth dry, and throwing a glance over his shoulder. There were finally sirens, possibly because the tails had given up trying to chase him themselves. He began to consciously slow his pace and quietly slung his jacket over a shoulder to hide the patches. It took ten minutes before he reached a place he felt safe enough to check his comm unit.
Deadeye and Sassy. All he had left now, all the ones who remained of the Harbingers, and the other three Horsemen were gone now with Robert being captured. He was now the last to take command. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. Kentares. They had to get to Kentares, and then they'd learn the next step. There wouldn't be any Combine agents there, for sure.
- Date: August 25, 3029
- Planet: Kentares IV
- Location: The Kentares Memorial
"Commander." The voice was quiet as Sassy walked up, a shorter but stout woman with close-cut red hair. She took his handshake and pulled them together for a brief one-armed hug. "It's going to feel weird calling you that. Do we know for sure?"
"Yeah. As sure as we can. Steel and Cross had their names released sometime two weeks ago while I was taking the final jump here." He breathed in and then out. "Lied about where they died, saying they died on Allestra, but both confirmed dead in ComStar records. Until I can confer with C and have time to regroup we're not going to get paid anything, since his authorization codes may be locked out now."
"That sucks." She hesitated. "My 'Mech went to Addicks, along with Deadeye's. Where's yours?"
"Impounded on Klathandu. There was an excuse about some sort of insect infestation and they wanted me to show up in person to sort it out. I'm sure it was DEST work, though, so I was able to use the codes Steel gave me to get the Atlas out instead." He paused. "I don't feel right, yet, with it."
"He'd have wanted you to have it." She started.
"No!" Adamant snapped, harsher than he wanted, suddenly. "You don't know what he'd want." He breathed in and lowered his head. "I'm sorry, it's . . . I went to school with him. With Cross and Solomon too. I don't think any of them really thought I was worthy to take charge of their 'Mechs." He started walking, Sassy falling in behind him. "I didn't mean to yell at you."
"It's all right, I understand the feeling." She let them walk a few paces before she spoke up. "Though I would appreciate you not doing that again, because then I'd have to hit you." She glanced around and saw a slim figure coming towards them wearing a black cap. "Deadeye. What is that idiot wearing?"
"Disguise?"
"It looks terrible."
Adamant shrugged and waved Deadeye over, pointing at the cap. "Sale on Capellan goods?"
"Oh shut it, I found at the transfer station in Raman someone circulated a surveillance picture of me so I had to ditch everything. DEST must have not had much time to narrow down where we scattered to, because it was clumsy." He looked around. "Are we it?"
"Chalk one up to the Snakes." Sassy curled her lip. "They got seven out of the ten from Allestra. C is lucky he didn't take the trip. Of course now we have to rendezvous with him at Addicks."
Adamant pointed a finger at Deadeye. "I'm not resting until we're on Basalt, because I don't think they'll chase us that far." And then pointed the same finger at Sassy. "You two are going there ahead of me, because I'm not putting all of us in one place until I'm sure no surprises are waiting for us."
"Safety in numbers, Commander." Deadeye commented.
"Not when a cheap bomb could make us all disappear."
"Always a positive thinker."
"I'll settle for a living thinker, thank you." Adamant prodded his shoulder. "Your only orders right now are to make it there safe, reclaim what equipment I send along to you, and wait for me at the old watering hole. If you don't get a message from me by February-"
Sassy raised a hand. "How do we know it's from you and not a trap?"
Adamant glared at them both. "You'll know. Now go, and try to make what money you have count. I still have to manage to get paid for that debacle, before I submit the recordings to show we'd been set up to fail." They nodded, giving a vague sort of salute in the vicinity of their foreheads before wandering off.
As Adamant walked away, he felt the itch between his shoulderblades returning, a sign of the paranoia in this last month having grown a bit wild. Even so, he wanted to get back to Addicks and link up with C before they got any further out of sorts. Before they could figure out where to go from here.
- Date: February 11, 3030
- Planet: Addicks IV
- Location: Rented Apartment, Bronze District
"It wasn't a setup, not exactly. The contract was to recover some scouts who were spying on Cylene and its moon, Allestra. Specifically, they were there to try to estimate how productive the mines were." Adamant sat down and sighed. "I was to run the Cylene side, but the garrison already knew the general location of the scouts and tracked us in order to find them. We got out, but they hit our rear guard in the process. Steel, Cross, and Solomon were leading the Allestra part of the contract, but they got caught by a sensor post which hadn't been known to exist by our employer. I had to bail them out with a distraction against the mercenaries keeping the facility safe."
C nodded slowly. "Okay, so on the way out, you lost someone."
"Yeah. Solomon wound up falling behind, and Steel took a PPC shot to the head from a Griffin. he managed to remain conscious until we boarded, but it didn't look good. We got to Fellanin and found they were waiting for us there with special ops teams trying to keep it quiet, so they managed to ground one of the DropShips. On Proserpina we ran out of luck when they found the other one, but we'd already sent the 'Mechs ahead."
C stood up and paced. "I caught those, moved them to Basalt where nobody's going to be looking. Maybe the Capellans, but they're busy right now. The Atlas, the Awesome, and the Cataphract. That's all we have now, not even a DropShip, and the pay deposit was half of what was promised since we wound up losing the extracted people in the process." He ground his teeth. "I don't know what we are going to do next, boss."
"Same thing we did when Steel- when Robert started this outfit." Adamant stood up slowly, and sighed through his teeth. "Start from the bottom. Start looking into new contracts we can take, once we get to Basalt I'm going to need something for the rest of the crew."
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