Chapter Eighteen
Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn wandered aimlessly through the base. She’d taken the ID card from her pocket and clipped it on, like she was supposed to have done at all times. The clearance level was one of the highest, and this meant she had access to basically anywhere she felt like.
Although it wasn’t her intention to snoop, eventually she found herself wandering over to the metal hangar-like buildings that housed the majority of the battlesuit division assigned to Fort Banner. This was what all the fuss was, and why she’d made a trip thousands of miles across the world. At the very least she should get an up close and personal look at them.
She stopped at the first hangar, the bay doors wide open to allow anyone to see inside. The middle of the hangar was empty, a solid concrete floor. The perimeter however was lined with bays that housed the suits themselves, along with a number of other pieces of equipment. She was no expert on the situation, but it looked like each tube-like bay contained racking that would allow the suit to outfit itself in different configurations.
Soldiers moved about, inspecting, working and cursing at themselves, each other, and the equipment. Their banter was good-natured and light, but even Kaitlyn could detect the nervousness frothing just below the surface. These men—and women, she corrected, noting several female forms inside the hangar—were all trained professionals, equipped with some of the most advanced technology known to mankind.
And they were scared.
“Charlie, quit knocking around and get that actuator replaced. We’re out of here in two hours max.”
Kaitlyn’s head followed the noise, her attention drawn not to the speaker’s target, but the speaker herself. A woman. Not only that, but she was in a position of authority as well. Interesting. Without thinking she stepped into the hangar and over to the robot-like metal suit that the woman was working on.
“Whatever you’re selling I don’t have time for,” the woman snapped before Kaitlyn could speak a word.
“Not selling,” she said with a smile. “Nor peddling, offering or begging.”
“Proselytizing?”
Kaitlyn huffed with laughter. “No, absolutely not.”
“You’ve got thirty seconds then. What can I do for you?”
During the entire exchange the woman didn’t look up once, yet she seemed to operate with complete certainty that Kaitlyn wasn’t a superior of some sort.
“I don’t really know,” she admitted, turning her thoughts back to the reason why she’d entered the hangar. “I guess I just find it fascinating to see a woman not only in the combat arms, but operating one of these suits as well.” She glanced up at the nine-foot tall robot head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to waste your time. You’re obviously going somewhere important.”
The woman finally looked up at this, her attention landing on Kaitlyn’s badge, then her face. She stood, and Kaitlyn was forced to look up at her. The soldier was tall, thick in the shoulder and obviously well-muscled. Her eyes were naturally hard, the gunmetal coloring of them giving her a cool stare without effort.
“You’re the one who came in the other day with that d–” She cut off abruptly and looked away.
Kaitlyn blew out air in a hard sigh. “You can say it,” she urged. “Douchebag.”
The woman laughed. “Not entirely what I meant, but close enough sometimes.” There was a brief silence while she grunted and worked a wrench or something on the left calf of her suit. “How’s it going between the two of you anyway?”
Kaitlyn gave an unseen frown before answering. “How the hell did you know that?” She figured there was no harm in being truthful. Whatever there had been going on between her and Aric was over now anyway. She could be open about it.
“Women’s intuition?” the woman replied carefully.
She laughed and pointed at the metal monstrosity. “I think your intuition is a little bit different from mine if you have the tits to operate this thing and take it into battle.”
The woman stood up and looked at Kaitlyn for a moment. “Maybe,” she said in the softest voice yet. Then she stuck out her hand. “Carla Giannone.”
Surprised by the sudden familiarity, Kaitlyn hesitated for a moment before responding in kind. “Kaitlyn Harver. And you really are one of the battlesuit operators?”
Carla grinned. “That’s a pretty bland way of saying that I’m the second-in-command of the Steel Scales.”
“The what?” Kaitlyn frowned.
Carla grimaced like she’d bitten into a sour orange. “We’re the best of the best. We train for all sorts of, um, weird scenarios.”
They were interrupted by the approach of another tall man. He rivaled both Aric and Kallore in height, with his general thickness halfway between the two. Long wavy hair of bronzed blond fell down the sides of his head, at odds with the low fade at the sides. Kaitlyn glanced at him, eyes of topaz focused entirely on Carla. He strode right up to her, gave her a passionate kiss, and then turned to Kaitlyn with a nod.
“Kaitlyn, this is Thorne, my, um, partner.”
Thorne looked her up and down briefly, evaluating, not checking her out. “Welcome aboard. It’s good to have another bonded, or soon to be I guess, bonded pair around.”
Another what? Bonded pair? “What do you mean?”
Thorne smiled. “Carla, how are things looking? We’ve got our orders and we’re moving out ASAP. The longer we wait the bigger the head start this thing has.”
“Half an hour if Charlie can get his shit together.”
“I’ll be ready!” a voice sang from across the hangar.
Around her more bodies were filing in now, including a handful of men who looked like Thorne and the others. Kaitlyn couldn’t help but wonder what it was with tall muscular men and this military base. She might not have noticed it, except they were all exceptionally good-looking as well. Beautiful beyond normal standards, each in their own way. It almost wasn’t fair.
“Sorry, we need to go,” Carla said. “I’ll see you around. Have fun.”
“Huh? Have fun with what? And what did you mean by bonded pair?” she asked, but Carla ignored her, climbing inside her armored suit and powering it up.
Kaitlyn stepped backward into the middle of the hangar as the suits came alive around her. As she skittered out of the building her eyes were drawn to the center of the concrete floor. In its middle was a black painted emblem of a huge armored suit. In one hand it held an equally large gun of some sort, but in the other it wielded a shield that looked straight out of a medieval era. Most ridiculously however, was the even larger outline of the creature it seemingly rode into battle.
A dragon.
What an interesting mascot for a unit of robotic battlesuits. Kaitlyn determined then that she would never understand soldiers. They were just too foreign to her way of thinking.
She cleared out of the hangar, leaving the soldiers to do whatever it is they had to do, and continued her walk, winding her way through the various areas until she came to the central hub of the base. All of it was centered around a giant hole in the mountainside that led deeper into the earth.
Soldiers came and went, as did others wearing what appeared to be scientific equipment. None of them appeared in a hurry, though they didn’t linger either. Curious about what was going on, she walked up to the lip of the tunnel. A few soldiers eyed her, but when they saw her badge she was let through until she stood on the very edge, looking down the smooth slope.
What was down there? It didn’t appear dangerous, and she had the clearance for it obviously, or someone would have stopped her. Turning she looked behind her, wondering if anyone would stop her. A familiar figure caught her eye, talking to yet another gorgeous giant.
Kaitlyn wasn’t ready to deal with Aric yet, and so she made up her mind and headed down into the tunnel, eager to see where it led, but more importantly, anxious to get away from Aric.