“Thank you,” she replied in surprise. It appeared the upgrades Red had made weren’t just limited to the outer shell. She’d also done something to the operating system. It was faster and way more responsive than before.
“You’re very welcome. Would you like me to engage upper torso systems?”
Her lower body locked into place. She bit her lip as a prickle she’d never thought she would feel again raced along her limbs. The suit was interfacing with her neural implants, but the link was stronger and faster than anything she’d felt before.
She closed her eyes as it hit her. She’d thought her life was over, that she was just a washed-up old veteran, drinking and reliving the glory days while in her cups. That her mother was right and no one would want her anymore unless she got herself fixed.
She’d thought that, deep down, until Zero and the Warborne had come along. They’d made her realize she didn’t need fixing. She needed family. Not a white knight to come and save her, the role her mother had cast so many would-be suitors into, but someone who saw her as an equal.
A partner. In love and life.
With a smile, she opened her eyes and looked around. Zero smiled at her and Skinny gave her a thumbs up. Even Sparky grinned. Her heart overflowed. Her new family were all around her and that was all she needed.
It would be all she would ever need.
Checking her harness with practiced movements, she slid her arms into the arms of the suit. The clamps wrapped around her arms just above the elbow and then over her wrists as her hands closed around the controls.
“Engage upper torso systems,” she confirmed. “Close unit and armor up. Go weapons hot.”
The torso folded into place around her, heads-up display live almost immediately.
“Damn, girl,” she whistled as she saw the changes. “You’re looking good. Red did an awesome job with you. Remind me to thank her.”
“Thank you, Sergeant. Weapons are hot and targeting systems are active.”
Eris grinned as she rolled her shoulders and arms. The spotlights snapped off, and the guns on her shoulders rotated in their firing racks, the laser sights tracing a 360 on the walls of the ruined lab. Perfect.
“Ready to rock and roll,” she told T’Raal as she turned, heading for the doorway. “Stay behind me and try to keep up.”
Watching Eris go into combat fully suited up was awe-inspiring. Zero grinned as she barreled through the lab like she was an armored wrecking ball, using the heavy guns mounted on her shoulders and her suit itself. She took out walls and doors, keeping SO13 soldiers off them as they raced toward their objective.
Zero checked the schematics of the base his onboard helpfully showed in the corner of his vision. He merged the feed with the heads-up display from his suit, cycling through covering the flanks and the rear with the rest of the team.
Finally, they reached the last corner and Eris slowed, her hand signal making them all freeze. Then she chuckled, and strode forward, straight around the corner and into a hail of bullets.
“What the fuck?”
“Is that a… tank?”
“Where the fuck did that come from?”
Zero and the rest piled around the corners, taking position around Eris, weapons trained on the small group of SO13 soldiers, a human male in a lab coat in cuffs being dragged along with them.
They froze and winced, squinting and trying to aim despite Eris’s spotlights blinding them. The Scorperio’s guns spat momentarily, and several of them swore as bullets tore through their weapons, yanking them from their grasp.
Zero blinked, surprised and awed. He’d known the targeting system on the suit was excellent, but dayum… That was some next-level shooting and then some. He couldn’t help a sideways glance at Skinny and a proud grin. That was his girl.
“Let him go,” Eris ordered, her voice hard and rendered mechanical by the suit’s speakers. Rolling her shoulders, she brought all her guns to bear on the small group. “Or…”
There was no need for the “or.” Each and every soldier in the group came to the same conclusion at the same time. Their faces paled as they took in the armed group behind Eris.
All bar one. A dark-haired human held a handgun pressed against the neck of the civilian in cuffs. It took him less than a second to recognize both of them. The aggressor in the combat uniform was Mills, the guy he’d let arrest him on the station so he could get closer to Eris.
A plant. SO13 undercover.
Dammit, he should have just snapped the guy’s neck when he had the chance. But even as he thought it, he knew it wouldn’t have been any good. If it wasn’t Mills, it would have just been another face. Another “soldier” with questionable morals and even less honor than a mercenary.
His attention turned to the doctor. Tall and slender, his features were familiar. They were the same as Eris’s but written in masculine coding over a larger frame. There was no mistaking them as twins.
“Mills. Put it down or I won’t just turn you into swiss fucking cheese. I’ll turn you and your team into fucking jam.”
“See!” Sparky called out from the back of the group. “Preserve-based threats are so much more impressive. Now I suggest you do as she says. You’re out-numbered and out-gunned.”
Mills lifted an eyebrow, his expression tight and eyes shining with an edge of desperation. He yanked Eric closer, trying to fold himself behind his human shield.
“Yeah? I count ten of us and only six of you,” he shouted. “We can take you.”
“Boss…” the trooper to his left murmured. Zero’s enhanced hearing picked up his whisper loud and clear. Clicking the tab in his helmet, he broadcast it to the rest of the team. “Did you miss the fact that’s a Scorperio? And I dunno what the fuck they are… I’ve never seen suits or weapons like that before.”
“We’re your worst fucking nightmare,” T’Raal growled,
