"Hammerhand," Armstrong7 said an took a step forward. "It's been a while since I've seen that big ugly mount of yours, old man."
"I'll bet you were counting the days, my friend," the Knight leader replied and extended his right hand forward, closed in a fist. The Sanctuary OC tapped it with his own before they turned toward the elevator.
Jessica13 couldn't tell if they didn't recognize her or if they simply didn't care. Either way, it didn't really matter. She was far more intrigued by the fact that Hammerhand seemed to be on friendly terms with her erstwhile boss. Although she wracked her brain and sifted quickly through her memories, she couldn’t recall a single moment where the CO had mentioned personally knowing the Knights Mechanica or their leader. For the life of her, she couldn’t understand why the truth of the matter had been clouded and perhaps even deliberately obscured by the myths and legends that filtered through to the rank and file.
Not only that but for the first time as far as she could recall, traders were actually invited into Sanctuary. This seemed entirely contradictory, and she could only assume that the CO was, in fact, well aware of who and what they were—to the point where they were given an open invitation. She wondered how in hell they would explain that to all the folks who suddenly saw one of the most basic rules being broken. It honestly made no sense at all.
Once they were inside, Tinker moved to where Armstrong7 stood and nudged him in the shoulder the same way that he had with her, although the Argonaut was nowhere near as affected as her mech had been.
"Xander, you son of a bitch, is that you?" the CO asked and turned his mech to face the man.
"Hah, I thought you wouldn't recognize me in this little fucker." Tinker laughed. "How the hell have you been, Armstrong7? Do people still call you Xander?"
"From time to time, yes," he said with a chuckle. "Not nearly as much as you did, though. How did you end up with Jessie over here?"
Her ears perked up when she heard her nickname mentioned. There had been no indication that they recognized her, but who else would wander Outside in a Minato?
Tinker leaned over and nudged her shoulder. "She came into the City-That-Was trying to help the bunker we mentioned in the message. And, mind you, tangled with a few bad eggs while there and killed a handful of them too before we had to step in and teach them a lesson."
"How did you—" Armstrong7 turned to her. "How did you get that right? Installed new weapons on the Minato, did we?"
She was almost stunned that they acted like she hadn't even left. While she appreciated the fact that she hadn’t been tossed out, she hadn't expected them to react like nothing had happened.
"I…well…" she started, stopped, and tried again. "We were in a scrapyard. There were weapons that could be used around us so I improvised. It didn't work out great since I still needed to be rescued."
"Well, that's why you don't fight combat mechs with a support mech but hey, that's still better than what most would have been able to do," he replied.
"It was mostly the work of the AI but I guess I did contribute a little."
Tinker laughed again as they continued to descend until they reached the hangar. Reeling from the apparent contradictions and feeling way out of her depth, she simply remained silent and hoped something would be said to clear up her confusion.
It was all so familiar and yet, as she stepped inside, it seemed that what had once been home was now utterly strange. She looked at the lines and lines of mechs set up on their harnesses while the bulletfoots she had worked with for years labored studiously on those they were supposed to fix, upgrade or clean. The scene was vividly familiar but it was still somehow foreign.
She acknowledged with both a sense of relief and a slight pang of regret that she wasn't a part of this world anymore.
When they saw the foreign mechs approach across the causeway, the workers began to pull away, a little nervous of the newcomers. More than one astonished glance flashed over the visitors and it was obvious that they had no idea what to make of this unprecedented bending of the rules. They didn't run, though, as the Sanctuary mechs remained close and escorted them through until they could find harnesses for the new mechs.
They didn't bother trying to find one for Hammerhand, though, and he simply deactivated his Excalibur and climbed out.
The bulletfoots and other mech pilots still regarded the newcomers with suspicion but seemed to have adopted the stay away approach. She understood the feeling and knew it wouldn’t pass. There was a mistrust of anything from the Outside embedded in them, and from what she remembered of her own education, she couldn't blame them.
No explanation was given as to who the newcomers were, which certainly didn’t help. It seemed that even now, with an obvious opportunity to present the truth, the status quo would be perpetuated and the Knights Mechanica would remain mere legend. She’d been present on a few occasions when a caravan had been allowed access to the plateau but they didn’t arrive often and it was usually peddlers. While she’d heard that other bunkers had sent a trade deputation, she’d never seen it herself.
Little wonder then that her erstwhile colleagues felt uneasy and discomforted by the arrival of these unusual visitors. She could already imagine the CO’s brusque explanation—probably that they came from another bunker and he knew them personally, which was little more than a partial truth—in the tone that precluded argument. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t introduced them or mentioned the Knights Mechanica. He could
