"Long-term repair pieces for a Minato mech," Becker3 said, took the parts out of the pack, and placed them on a nearby table. "Food, supplies, and tools. It looks like we have a runner here, boys. What do you think?"
"A runner?" the guard asked and finally pushed past the other two pilots.
"All the supplies you'd need for a long-term stay in a mech," the pilot said with a firm nod. "Not a terribly good mech, mind you, but it still looks like Jessica13 here planned to run away from the bunker."
"Run away?" The guard stopped alongside them and shook his head. "Why… What?”
“I remember her talking about what a nice day it was outside,” Becker3 continued. “It seems like she’s one of those sun-lovers who can’t get enough of the Outside until it’s too much.”
The security man seemed entirely bewildered. “I…huh. Well, that is more serious than only stealing food. What’s the protocol for this?”
The other two security guards realized that he was talking to them, and one of them spoke quickly. “We don’t really have something specific for it. Endangering the bunker to outside contamination, maybe? Or possibly heading up Topside without a permit?”
"Well, you heard that, bulletfoot," Becker3 said with a chuckle. "Do you have anything to say for yourself? Anything in your defense?"
"There's no need for a defense," the guard snapped. "She's been caught red-handed. The report will be submitted to the admins, who will decide her fate. For now, she should be remanded to the control of the security guards and that will be that."
This was it. She would never get out of here. Then she wondered if they would even want to keep her around, knowing what she did. Even someone with her skills could be seen as too disruptive to be a beneficial member of the Sanctuary bunker.
They could all feel the causeway shake a little. Jessica13 assumed it was only her shaking as the realization took root. She had somehow fucked up her only chance to get free of this place and wouldn’t have another.
Maybe she should have waited a day or two for her chance to get outside with minimal supervision and then make her escape. She could stomach staying here for a little while longer, right?
None of that mattered now, though. She would have all the time in the world to contemplate what she had done wrong and what she could have done right while she rotted in the Hole and then in one of the lower levels. From now on, there would be no more looking out at the open horizon for her.
All she would see was the cramped, narrow concrete hallways of the bunker she had been born in and would likely die in.
No, that shaking wasn't in her hands. It was stupid to even think she might have caused it. She could see the pilots and guards who weren't too distracted by her looking at the causeway they stood on.
Something moved across the steel walkway and it was heavy enough to make it shudder with each step.
"It makes me wonder if she forged the form from Armstrong7 to get here in the first place," the guard said. He was still talking to Becker3 and shook his head, not realizing that something heavy approached. "Such a waste of good resources. That on its own is another year, easily. Okay, Jessica13. I’m sorry, but I hereby place you under arrest for the crimes of endangering Sanctuary, theft, and forgery."
"Hold up!" one of the other guards shouted and stared at something over Jessica13's head. "The situation is under control. We don't need any mech assistance."
There was no answer, and Jessica13 turned and forced herself free of Becker3's grasp to see what moved up behind them.
Mini was smaller than the mechs they had in their hangar but still stood well above seven feet tall and towered over the men who surrounded her.
"Who's piloting it?" one of the guards asked.
The pilots shrugged and took a step backward, more as a precaution than anything else. No one wanted to be close to a mech if it malfunctioned. That was a good way to get oneself killed.
The guards had not been similarly drilled and stood their ground while they looked for someone to help them order the mech pilot to stand down.
And, as it turned out, it looked like the mech would give her a chance too. A surge of excitement filled her stomach as she moved to the table where her items had been placed and slowly began to replace her belongings in the pack. She used the case with her tools to cover the hole before she crammed all the other items around and over it.
She had no idea what would happen next, but if there was ever a last-ditch effort to get herself free from this place, this was it.
"Who is piloting that?" Becker3 asked and stepped forward. Jessica13—and anyone else—could have told him it was a bad idea.
"No one was given authorization for mech duty," one of the other pilots said and they continued to back away, leaving Becker3, the three security guards, and Jessica13 alone to deal with the mysterious mech.
Although she had an idea as to who might be piloting it, she still had her doubts.
She also began to move in an attempt to get away from her would-be captors and to the mech. While she wanted to get away, she didn't want to risk having anyone hurt in her escape attempt.
"I'll need you to stand down now or you will be written up for obstructing justice," the guard said, stepped forward, and drew the taser gun from the holster on his hip to aim it at Mini. "This is your last warning."
He looked like he was merely putting up a brave front when he aimed a weapon that wasn't even that effective at subduing humans.
Mini
