"A helm shaped like an owl?" Tinker asked. "Did they say that specifically?"
Windchime, who finally acted like he was being heard, caught her hasty glance and said, "I questioned them about it. It's in the file I sent to you while Jessie and I made our way back."
It still irritated her when they called her Jessie. She hadn't been too happy that the nickname had followed her into the Knights Mechanica, but she supposed it was less clunky to say than her full name.
Windchime pulled up the audio file he'd recorded of the conversation. The SOS signal was heard first, and when he responded, the man on the other side asked for help and described the mech that led the attack on them.
Both Tinker and Hammerhand appeared affected by what was said, and so was every other member of the Knights Mechanica. The silence that settled over the group was almost palpable once the description reached the part about the cloak the mech wore.
All eyes turned to the leader and the man’s face paled visibly, although there was no other sign of a reaction in his expression. He might as well be listening to any other conversation about a group in peril.
Jessica13 zoomed her HUD in on him and saw that he grasped the arms of his chair tightly enough to turn his knuckles white.
It was not a comforting sight.
The audio came to an end but the silence remained. A calm yet determined look now defined Tinker’s features. He set his jaw and his almost vacant stare indicated that he was deep in thought.
“Right then,” he grunted and tugged gently at his graying beard.
She had tried to talk him into shaving the damn thing since the hair would be caught in the filters and make his mech overheat, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He did his own cleaning and he wouldn’t even talk about losing the beard.
It was an odd thing to think about in these circumstances, but it was what almost always came to her mind when she saw him out of his mech. All the other knights were clean-shaven—almost religiously so. All except Tinker.
“What are your thoughts?” Hammerhand asked, his voice a little lower.
Tinker sighed deeply and nodded. “The description matches that of an Excalibur-class mech, so I don’t think there’s any doubt as to what we have to do next. I don’t think there’s anyone else Outside who wears a shawl of tattered flags.”
“Agreed,” Hammerhand said with a firm nod. “So we will help them.”
“Yes, I suppose we will,” he agreed but he didn’t look happy about it. “We’ll need to parcel our resources out to make sure we get there intact. What do you think?”
“We should send a team ahead to verify it,” the leader said. “At least to have a good look at what we might have to deal with out there.”
Tinker nodded. “I can lead that team. Maybe…Windchime, Jessie, and myself should be enough to cover that kind of distance quickly.”
“I can run the Beast at a slow crawl to conserve fuel on the way,” Hammerhand replied quickly.
This was something that she liked to see. They had come to an agreement, all the arguing had stopped, and they put plans for the future forward together.
She still had no idea what had shocked them out of their disagreement. It was obvious that they recognized the description of the mech, and hearing it described as another Excalibur was more than a little worrying. That at least explained why other mechs hadn’t been able to deal with it. The Excaliburs were practically walking fortresses.
“Right then!” Hammerhand ordered the rest of the Knights. “Get ready to move out. I don’t keep you all around so you can lollygag. Get the Beast ready to move again. Scout team, start gathering what supplies you’ll need for the journey.”
That was Jessica13 and Windchime, and she followed the man as he moved to their supply shed inside the Beast. The other Knights hurried into action as well, which generated a fair amount of confusion before she finally reached where her teammate had already begun to select what supplies they would need. Tinker joined them moments later.
“What’s the matter?” she asked while she helped him and loaded the bulk of what they would take onto the mag grab on her back. “What are we saving these people from? Who are we saving them from?”
Windchime didn’t answer and Tinker appeared reluctant to talk about it.
“I won’t be able to help much with recon if I don’t know what we’re looking for,” she insisted.
The older man finally sighed and shook his head. “We’re heading in to deal with the worst of the lot—a nightmare, a monster, and worst of all…family.”
Jessica13 paused and realized that his explanation hadn’t explained anything at all but also that insisting wouldn’t do her any good at this juncture. She would have to ask later once they were on their way to find out exactly what kind of family he was talking about.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Windchime was able to push his mech at a speed that was both interesting and surprising. Most could move at that pace but not for long since they would risk overheating. They could sprint over shorter distances at a higher speed than Jessica13's Minato could unless it was in Bulletfoot mode.
But Tinker had worked with the man and put considerable work in to make it a prime combat hybrid, and it showed. Jessica13 and Tinker carried the bulk of their supplies, which enabled the other man to move forward constantly and function as a scout almost a full klick ahead of them, although he remained in contact.
There was little information to share with the other two, however, and they continued through the grasslands
