"Stay down," Jessica13 whispered to Windchime as she helped to pull him out of the dried riverbed.
"Oh, shut up," he retorted sharply, but she could hear a hint of mirth in his voice as they all huddled together and hunkered as low as they could while Mini mapped the streets they could use to reach the checkpoint.
She would have preferred to circle, but the AI pointed out that those manning that particular checkpoint would be able to see them the whole way until they reached the bunker and if an alarm was raised, that would be the end of it. Or, at least, the end of any attempt at stealth.
No lights were on in any of the buildings they passed, which made her think there might have been a curfew possibly dictated by their electricity, or maybe it simply meant the good folk of Auburn were already in bed.
Remaining silent on the streets was a little more difficult, and Windchime quickly decided that moving faster was their best choice if they wanted to avoid notice.
Movement was, however, considerably easier as hurrying from one street to another while they tried to keep to the shadows was better than crawling through dried mud. Mini kept the mech in Bulletfoot mode, which allowed them to rush ahead of the other two and move quieter to ensure that they drew no attention.
Windchime pinged at her to halt as she approached the checkpoint. The electricity flowed freely for those within, by the looks of it. She wasn't sure how she had missed it the first time around, but searchlights swept across the field between them and the bunker. They also moved randomly like their pattern was generated by a computer.
Not only that, but the lights traversed their side of the checkpoint too.
"How do we get across?" she asked in a whisper. Mini brought them to normal mode and she peeked out of her mech to talk to the other two.
"If a light shines on any one of us, we've had it," Tinker said grimly and pointed out the obvious.
"Do we need to move through the lights?" Windchime asked.
"Any path in would take us through the open stretch where the lights pass randomly," she said.
"I have studied the patterns," Mini interjected, his voice soft and calm as always. "I calculate that there is a seventy-five percent chance I could move the Minato across the field without being seen."
"You mean there's a twenty-five percent chance that you'll be seen?" Windchime asked.
"It’s a better chance than we'd have if we go in there blindly," the older man grumbled.
"Tinker is correct," Mini said. "I calculate…forty-seven-point-three percent chance of success."
"We can get across," Jessica13 said. "Once there, we can alter the patterns a little to make it easier for you guys to come across as well. "
"You'd still need to disable the men inside that checkpoint without letting them raise an alarm," Tinker reminded.
"I'm in a mech, and they aren't," she said. "The odds should be in my favor. We'll send you a ping on the comms when it's safe."
Windchime reached to his back, drew one of his swords clear, and handed it to her. "You won't be able to activate the vibro-function but the blades are still sharp enough. It would be quieter that way too."
She nodded and let Mini adjust for the extra weight before she put the sword on her back.
"It appears to be down to us," the AI said as they settled into Bulletfoot mode.
"Like I wasn't feeling the pressure already," she said softly and shook her head as she settled into her position. She had become a little more accustomed to how Mini moved while on all fours, which enabled her to adjust accordingly, but she still ended up with bruises here and there.
They stepped cautiously from the cover of the buildings. While she watched the calculations that ran across the screen, Mini quickly identified the pattern of the lights and pushed forward at a brisk pace but remained as low as possible. In this way, he was able to prevent even a hint of a reflection from catching their armor as they pressed forward.
Her heart thumped painfully and her body tensed every time one of the floodlights approached, cut through the darkness, stopped, and swept on again. Her mouth was dry and yet her palms sweated onto her controls of the mech, which were thankfully released to the AI so he could direct their movement.
Jessica13 wiped her hands quickly on her shirt and took deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself when they reached the edge of the area scanned by the lights. Mini remained on all fours as darkness engulfed them and the mech eased toward the mostly wood and concrete building that housed the lights and the men manning the checkpoint.
They inched forward, slipped through the open door, and paused to listen. Men talked and laughed in the next room.
There was no room for error in this. The mech resumed the bipedal stance, which enabled her to retrieve the sword Windchime had loaned her. It felt a little unwieldy in her mech's hands but it was better than simply swiping at the men with fists.
Mini inched them toward the door where light streamed through.
"Are you ready?" he asked and pulled up a visual of what was happening on the other side of the wall they currently hid behind based on the noise that came through.
She nodded and he whipped them around the corner.
It was more or less how he had plotted it. One of the men sat at the radio in the corner of the room closest to them, while the other two looked through cameras that gave them a view over most of Auburn and laughed at some footage they were watching.
Bottles of spirits stood on the table between them and smaller glasses, which accounted
