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Lauren was breathing heavily by the time she reached the top of the grain elevator. The five lined skink lifted herself over the edge, and then leaned back against the banister surrounding the roof for a moment. She was still getting used to climbing the side of the building, after a rogue shell had blown out the section of the elevator containing the staircase the week before.

"Everybody in position? Three-Line?"

Lauren sighed, then reached up and touched a finger to her earpiece. "I just climbed a damn building, Richard. Give me a second to catch my breath."

"We're expecting contact within the hour, Three-Line. All civilians have been moved into shelters." Lauren could hear the frustration in that voice, and she didn't try to mask her grin. "Let's try behaving like a professional for once, hmm? What's your status."

Lauren took a moment to force the grin off of her face - somehow Richard could always hear when she was smirking at him over the radio. "Three-Line in position, Command. Proceeding to set up."

"Copy that. Notify once you're set up."

Lauren took a deep breath, then stood up straight. She walked over to the centre of the roof, where a makeshift tower had been set up for their emergency communications relay. She crouched down and pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, running through a quick diagnostics routine.

Satisfied, she stood up and stretched. Then, she shrugged down the long, heavy case that was slung around her shoulders, supported by her long blue tail. She laid the case out on the surface of the roof, then checked the sun's position, low in the sky. It was casting an orange glare over Thunder Bay's smoky skyline that was almost blinding from this angle. She let her eyes follow along the harbour, out to the unending blue expanse of Lake Superior, to the old marina. She could see all of the fortifications that had been built along the docks, trailing the rail line. In the setting sunlight, she could see figures moving about through the wrecked rail cars, repairing and rearming traps. There were even a few of the remaining industrial walker suits moving around, pushing rail cars into place to create makeshift barriers.

She eyed the walkers as they worked for a few moments. She'd been manning one of them up until a week or so prior, when the shells had hit the elevator. It was impossible to get to the top of the elevator inside, now - the staircase was all either destroyed or too full of debris. Lauren was the only one of their snipers or lookouts who could actually scale the exterior of the tall structure, and so the elevator had become her post. She appreciated being out of the middle of the heaviest fighting, but she couldn't deny how naked she felt without a few inches of mechanized metal surrounding her.

The skink knelt down, and then clicked open her case. She began pulling out the various pieces of her rifle and assembling them. The actions were practiced and mechanical - she'd been using this rifle for so long now that she could probably put it together with her eyes closed.

Within a few minutes, Lauren had the long weapon fitted together. The skink steadied it on the edge of the building, and then took a look through the scope, down along the coast to the woodland to the south. There wasn't anything yet, but it was still early in the night.

She sighed, then touched a finger to the coms unit at her earhole. "Three-Line. I'm set up. Not seeing any signs of enemies yet."

"Good. Stay vigilant."

"I was thinking I would just doze off for the night."

"Not funny, Three-Line."

"What? It's cozy up here, what with the wind and the creaking."

Richard didn't even bother to turn off his coms line to mute his sigh. "Is there a point to this contact?"

"Just bored and cold and exposed in a warzone, I suppose."

"Right. I've got the rest of the preparations for tonight to oversee. Command, out."

The line went quiet, and Lauren chuckled. She swung her rifle around, and gazed down the scope at the marina, where everybody else was stationed. Preparations were just about done for the night. She again let her gaze wander to the industrial walker suits; she could pick up more detail now by looking through her scope. The walkers all had visible signs of damage on them - the past few weeks of nightly raids had not been kind to the walkers. The old paintjobs on them, the default white and blue of all Barrett Engineering models or the green and gold of the Thunder Bay militia, were scraped and scored from gunfire. The walkers that the militia had been able to salvage from the rail yard weren't built for combat, and it wasn't like they had appropriate weaponry on hand for them. Fortunately, the armour and power they possessed were more than sufficient to handle most of the infantry attacks that had been launched over the last little while, and they could even survive indirect fire from some of the light shelling. Still, their numbers were dwindling.

She stared down at the walkers, and breathed softly through her nose. Richard would be in one of them, handling coms across the battlefield and getting people set up.

They were all safer with her up there. Hell, she was probably safer here, too. Somebody needed to be the lookout, and she was one of the better snipers in the militia. She took a deep breath, and turned her gaze away down south along the coastline. She hunkered down, and waited.

It was maybe half an hour later, with the sun barely a sliver over the hill crest, that she finally saw movement. She took another deep breath, and then touched a finger to the coms unit in her earhole.

"Command."

"Copy, Three-Line. Do we have contact?"

"Affirmative. Due south along the shoreline."

"Counts?"

The skink was quiet as she carefully moved her weapon, picking out the figures. "Maybe a dozen or so infantry, and it looks like a couple tanks. Wouldn't be surprised if they're setting up cannons further back."

"Copy that. See if you can pick out their locations once the shelling starts. We'll handle the infantry."

Lauren was quiet as she stared down her scope. She could take out a few of those infantry before they reached the rest of the forces. It would be easy. She hated just waiting for the shelling to start.

"Do you copy that, Three-Line?"

"Yeah, yeah," she replied. "I copy."

She kept her scope trained south, clenching her jaw as she watched the enemy's forces moving out of her field of vision and start towards the marina. She tried to instead focus on her task of picking out the cannons. It was the game she'd been playing with herself ever since she'd been reassigned to sniper duty every night. She always told herself that maybe this time, she would be able to find their position before the shelling started. Maybe she could call in a strike before there was any serious damage to the city. Hell, if it was close enough, maybe she could take out the cannon team on her own before they even started.

The skink flinched as the sound of gunshots broke out near the marina. She tried to ignore it and keep her attention focused forward, but a moment later she heard the unmistakable roar of an explosion.

She managed to keep her focus forward, down south along the coast, for another few seconds. Then, she decided that it couldn't hurt if she looked away just for a moment. The skink turned her rifle, using her tail to brace herself as she swung the weapon around and down to point towards the marina again. She could see the force that she'd spotted before, trying to make its way through the train cars that were blocking their path. The two tanks were hanging back, and she could see that one had just fired to blow away an entire car for the infantry.

A moment later, an explosion erupted from the earth just next to one of the tanks. It wasn't enough to actually damage the vehicle, but Lauren could see it lurching from the impact. More gunfire broke out from the defenders, peppering the attacking infantry as they began slipping through the barrier of train cars.

Lauren sighed. They would be fine. Of course they would be fine. They always were. She turned her rifle back around, her eye still to the scope. Her view swept over the marina, then out over the dark surface of Lake Superior and towards the south.

She blinked, then stopped and swung her rifle back. She gazed down the scope, confused. She could've sworn she'd seen something out there in the water. Not that it made sense for anything to be out there, but she couldn't deny that she thought she'd seen...

Lauren stopped her scanning as she spotted it again. Way out beyond the breakwater, she could just make out something that didn't fit. Amidst the constantly shifting black waves of the lake, there was a solid surface. The skink stared at it for a few moments, before she turned her rifle, following the hard surface. As it came up, her breath caught in her throat. That was too human-like to be a ship.

She turned her rifle a bit, gazing down the scope. Now that she knew what she was looking for, she was able to pick out another similar structure, and another. She started counting in her head, trying not to let her panic overtake her.

Her hand was shaking as she pressed a finger to her earpiece.

"Richard--"

"We're in a combat situation, please follow some damn protocol, Three-Line."

"Fine, Command, dammit, they've got fucking mechs in the lake!"

There was a very long moment of silence. Then, Richard's voice came over the line. "...repeat that, Three-Line?"

"Mechs! They've got frigging battle mechs out in the lake."

There was silence again, and Lauren had to fight the urge to sarcastically ask Richard for a status update of his own. At length, she took a deep breath, and spoke.

"We can't hold against them alone, Richard."

"We don't have another choice." He responded almost immediately, his voice too level over the line. Lauren couldn't hold back the laugh when she replied.

"Fuck yes we do, and you know it."

"We've held this position for months on our own. We don't need support."

"That was before they started sending fucking battle mechs at us! If you don't call in some support then we're all fucking dead."

"Three-Line, we-"

His radio cut out abruptly, and Lauren heard gunfire breaking out back at the marina. She swung the rifle around and refocused on the site. The harbour was lighting up with muzzle flashes, and yelling was breaking out. Lauren leaned forward, and forced herself to take a deep breath. There was a small group of soldiers that had managed to slip through closer, past the rail cars. She watched for a moment, getting an idea of where everybody was as the defenders started returning fire. Then, she began picking out her targets and lining up shots.

The skink was able to fire three times before the fighting stopped. She could see people moving behind the improvised fortifications, and she swallowed back a lump in her throat as she saw a pair of figures rush out from the command station bearing a stretcher.

She took a few steadying breaths, and then touched a finger to her coms device. "Command?"

There was a long moment of silence while she waited. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the line hummed to life. "I'm still here, Three-Line."

Lauren let out her breath at the sound of Richard's voice. She turned her attention back to the lake, trying to find the spot of darkness amongst the water that she'd noticed earlier. "What are we doing about the mechs?"

"The only thing we can do. We pretend we didn't see them, and hope that we aren't their target tonight."

"Are you fucking joking?"

"It's our only option."

"Hope they aren't coming for us? And if we are the target tonight, then what? We just... fucking die?"

The silence that greeted her on the line was all the answer she needed. Lauren kept scanning over the water with the scope, until she finally caught sight of that irregular bit of solid surface among the fluid. She focused on it, and kept staring down the scope for a short while, waiting for Richard to say anything.

After a few more seconds, she pulled back from the scope, and then glanced over her shoulder at the makeshift communications tower they'd erected at the top of the elevator. The skink looked down at the console built into the base, and then gulped.

"Command."

"This discussion's over, Three-Line."

"I'm going to send out an all-band SOS."

"Negative on that."

"I'm not leaving us to fucking wait to die when they decide to roll over us."

"Three-Line, you are not to send out that signal, that's a direct order."

Lauren ignored him. Instead, she got up and walked over to the console at the base of the coms tower. She began typing in her message.

"Three-Line. Three-Line, respond."

She had finished writing it up, and was selecting her frequency when Richard finally drew her up short.

"Lauren."

She hesitated, considering whether to just send the message or not. The temptation of responding when Richard had broken protocol was strong, but... she sighed, then hit the send button. Fuck Richard and his pride about having never had to call on support from the military. She watched the screen for a few moments, and then let out a breath as the message went out.

"Oh for fuck's sake, Lauren."

"You know we were fucked if they came for us."

"'If'! 'If' was the important word there! Now-"

He fell silent as a great, roaring noise came up from the lake. Lauren turned, already stepping back towards her rifle, but then lights came up out in the water, and suddenly she didn't need the scope to see anymore. Out in the water, she could see the hulking forms that had before just been shadows on the dark surface. They weren't trying to crouch down, now - they were rising up to their full heights, and lights were coming up all along their bodies. There had to be at least a dozen of them, maybe more. Lauren found herself taking a step back despite herself, and her heart was jumping up into her throat.

Richard's voice came over the line, low and too even. "An all-channels SOS signal goes out over all channels, Lauren. Including theirs."

Lauren sucked in a very deep breath. "Oh."

Everything was quiet for a few moments - it even seemed like the fighting down by the harbour had paused as the mechs rose out of the water. Then, with a rush of displaced water, one of the machines started moving. Its movements were faster than Lauren would have expected, with it half-in and half-out of the water. It was sliding through the deep water with ease. Even from this distance, Lauren could see that it was smaller than the rest. It only took her a few seconds of watching it move to realize that it wasn't moving towards the marina. No, it was making a direct line for her.

"Oh," the skink repeated, her breath suddenly coming short. Of course. The first target would be the source of the distress call. "...oh."

She moved forward, and had to stop herself from diving for her rifle. She got herself into position, and then put her eye to the scope. Her tail coiled itself on the ground behind her, preparing to brace her. She focused on the mech that was approaching her, having no trouble picking it out now with the lights and the movement. In her ear, she was distantly aware of Richard's voice, sending out orders across all their lines and redistributing forces to try to hold off the assault that was no doubt coming from the mechs. Lauren was only dimly aware, though.

The skink was focused entirely on the mech that was approaching her. It was just reaching the breakwater, a good kilometre or two out from shore. It was with an almost calm, academically detached attitude that she watched it leap up out of the water, clear the rocky wall of the breakwater, and then slide back in on the other side. A mobility model. She noted that none of the other battle mechs had started moving yet. Of course - send the fast, agile mech to take out communications.

She was dimly aware of Richard giving the order to start evacuating civilians. Most of the militia would be going to assist with that, with a thin line staying behind to try to hold off the mechs, whenever they came. She kept her scope focused squarely on the mech as it drew closer and closer, and as it finally came within firing range, she pulled the trigger.

The gun roared, and Lauren watched as sparks burst off of the mech's chest plate with the impact. She almost could have laughed. There was a small score in the metal, but that was all. It hadn't even slowed the great machine down at all. Maybe, if she could hit the exact same spot a dozen more times, she could penetrate that armour, but it was almost upon her. She sighed, and lined up her shot again. May as well put a few more scratches in it.

She pulled the trigger once, twice more, watching as the hulking machine drew closer and closer. It was about half as tall as the grain elevator on its own, and its movement was sending out great swells of wake in the water. It leaped free of the lake, and came up onto the land in one graceful motion. Lauren pulled the trigger once more, sending another shot ricocheting off the machine's hull. She went to pull back the bolt on her rifle, hoping for one more shot, but the mech was already raising its own firearm and beginning to fire. Lauren's hand slipped on the bolt as the grain elevator began shaking with the impacts, big chunks of the building being blown off higher and higher as it tilted that weapon back.

All at once, there was a horrifying crash as another hunk of metal slammed into the mech from the side. The gunfire cut out as the mech reeled, caught entirely off guard. Lauren blinked, and then stared as the industrial walker launched itself forward again, slamming itself against the side of the much larger and heavier-armoured mech. It managed to catch the arm holding the gun between its body and the mech's side, and metal scraped against metal as it held it there. The walker's arms came around and grabbed at the mech's armour plating, pulling and digging its fingers in.

"Three-Line, move." Richard's voice was harsh as it came through Lauren's earpiece. She could hear the sound of alerts going off on his end, no doubt notifications from his walker about overheating or impacts.

The audio cut out. Lauren gave her head a shake, and then lifted her rifle again, training it on the combat mech. The mech, for its part, appeared to have completely forgotten about the skink with the rifle on the grain elevator. It was turning and trying to get itself into a better position to directly confront the walker. Richard kept himself moving, always slamming the fists of his walker up against the more powerful machine.

The mech raised an arm, and a long blade slid down from the underside of its wrist. Lauren winced as a soft, unpleasant hum hit her ears, and she immediately knew that the blade was vibrating. The mech raised its arm high, trying to get an awkward angle down at the smaller machine. Seeing this, Lauren raised her gun, and aimed at the joint where the arm met the rest of the body. She squeezed the trigger, and a horrible grating noise sounded as her shot landed. There was no explosion, and the hole she made in the weaker armour there wasn't too large, but the movements of the arm grew clumsy and awkward.

Richard took the opportunity to pull his walker back a bit. He kept one of his arms wrapped around the mech's gun, forcing it to stay low. He swung his fist back and in, again and again, pounding at that chest plate. Lauren was confused at first - that was where the armour was the thickest. Why would he focus on that point?

"Three-Line." The sound of the alarms and automated warnings was louder in Lauren's earpiece when Richard spoke. "I told you to move."

"Listening isn't my strong suit."

"Yeah, no fucking kidding." The mech gave another powerful shake, and then it shoved out with its gun arm. The audio in Lauren's earpiece cut out as Richard's walker floundered, sliding backwards. It dug its feet into the earth, putting as much of its weight onto the arm as possible to keep the gun pointed harmlessly low. The mech's other arm started twitching downwards, its blade still vibrating with that unpleasant hum. The movements were slow, but Lauren could see the slow, jerky progress downwards.

She gazed through the scope of her rifle, but she couldn't see another shot at the weaker underside of the armour on the arm. She swore, then touched a finger to her earpiece. "I don't have a shot. You have to back out of there."

"Do you have a clear shot at the chest?"

"The-? Fuck, Richard, sure, but do you have any idea how thick the armour over there is?"

"Wait for the shot. Be quick." His voice was strained as he killed the coms. Lauren groaned in annoyance, but lowered her eye back to the scope. She watched as the mech's arm lowered, bringing that blade closer and closer to Richard's walker.

Then, all at once, Richard's walker released the mech's gun arm. It rose up with such sudden speed that it knocked the mech off-balance. Lauren stared as the barrel came level with her, and then lifted up higher past her. Richard was still moving. His walker instead reached for the arm with the blade, and then yanked it down. With the mech off-balance, he was able to drag it down, and drive the blade cleanly through the armour in the mech's chest. That hum turned into an awful screeching of rending steel, and Lauren had to fight the urge to cover her earholes.

The mech gave a buck, and then shoved its arm back out. The blade slid free from the mech's chest, and Richard raised his walker's arm to block it. There was that same horrific screeching as the blade sliced cleanly in. At the same time, the mech managed to set its legs, and that gun started coming back down.

Lauren watched all this with cold, clinical detachment, her eyes narrowed on the scope. She didn't react to the slashing, to the lowering of the mech's gun, to the way Richard's mech was stumbling away from the impact. She kept her focus on that hole that had been gouged into the mech's armour. There was a small flash of colour as the mech turned. She adjusted the aim of her gun ever so slightly, let out a breath, and pulled the trigger.

The sound of the gunshot echoed out, and the flash of colour she'd seen through the hole in the mech's chest burst with red.

The mech kept moving for a bit, that gun lowering and the blade swinging around. The movements were no longer coordinated, though. They were just the remaining inputs that the machine was acting out before it ground to a halt.

Lauren waited a few breaths before she pulled her eye away from the scope. She sized the mech up for a moment longer, and then touched a hand to her earpiece. "You alright in there, Richard?"

"Fine. Don't think the walker's going to be moving too quickly for a while." She could hear him hitting switches, turning off the various alarms sounding in his cockpit. "And that's 'Command' to you, Three-Line. We should get back to the others." He sounded like he was going to continue speaking, but he stopped as an explosion ripped through his walker, blowing away most of the head and part of the torso. The shot that had hit him came through the other side, and it slammed into the side of the grain elevator with a deafening roar.

Lauren called out as she felt the structure rock dangerously. She stood up and her tail swung out to the side, managing to keep her feet underneath her. She looked up past Richard's wrecked walker. She could see, way out in the lake, there was another mech standing on the breakwater, an enormous, smoking rifle braced on its shoulder. Behind it, she could see the other mechs beginning to move forward, these ones heading towards the marina.

The skink didn't have the chance to get a better look. Richard's walker was staggering forward with the impact, and it smashed against the side of the elevator. Lauren actually did stagger this time as the structure rocked and groaned. This time, though, it kept rocking and shaking.

Lauren staggered forward to the edge of the building, until she ran into the railing that ringed the roof. It was a long way down - much too far for her to jump. "Richard?"

She blanched as his voice came through the line, cursing. "Systems are fucked." His voice was thin in a way that made Lauren feel cold. "I can't see a fucking thing."

"Lift your arm."

He did. It only came up to about two thirds of the way up the grain elevator - still much too far for her to jump. Lauren swung herself over the edge of the building, her tail coiling around the railing. She placed her hands and feet against the shaking surface of the wall until they stuck. She began crawling down the side of the building, trying to keep herself from panicking as she felt the elevator swaying. She glanced over her shoulder once, and she could see that mech still out on the breakwater, lining up for another shot.

She turned, and then leapt awkwardly for the walker's arm. She hit the wrist, and then her hands scrabbled against the metal until she found purchase. She got her tail wrapped around the wrist too, just in case. Glancing down, she could see the exposed machinery through the hole blown in its side. She was amazed that Richard could even get it to move.

"Start walking." She ordered, her breathing heavy as he clung to the walker's wrist. She tried to keep the panic from sounding in her voice as she directed Richard's movements. The skink glanced over her shoulder to check on the mech, and saw the muzzle of its rifle erupt with flame.

"Right, now!" she yelled. The walker tensed, and then it launched itself clumsily to the side, behind the elevator. A moment later, there was a roar as part of the wall exploded. This low down, she wasn't protected from the rain of debris and dirt from the impact.

She had to throw herself clear of the walker as it fell. She rolled forward over the earth as it shook beneath her. She could hear the walker hit the ground behind her, a heavy crash. That sound was drowned out a moment later as an enormous, horrifying groan sounded from the elevator. She rolled over to her side, gasping for breath, and stared up at the enormous structure.

The building had already been shaky. Now, with that last blast, it was giving up. Before her eyes, she watched cracks spreading out from the hole blown in the side. As they went further, the building slowly folded in around that hole, dirt, wood, and bits of torn metal snapping free. Lauren glanced away and covered her head and her earholes as it finally gave way, collapsing over and inward at the same time with a horrifying roar and crash. Dust and debris washed over her, a few bits of metal bouncing painfully off of her as she tried to ride out the rumbling.

Quite suddenly, it was quiet again, and the ground stopped shaking. Lauren pulled her arms away from her head. Her hearing was ringing painfully. She rose to her feet, her side sore from her impact with the ground. She stumbled towards the collapsed, ruined walker. As she drew closer, she could see that its remaining functioning arm had been caught under the collapsing building. Thankfully, the torso and the legs were free of the debris.

She climbed up onto its torso, moving slowly. She touched a hand to her earpiece. "Richard?"

There wasn't a response. She stood there on the walker's chest, waiting. The ringing in her earholes was growing quieter. Over it, she could pick out the sound of something large moving through the water, getting closer.

She cursed, and tried again. "Richard, if you can hear me, you need to open the cockpit. We have to get out of here."

Lauren was about ready to try again when the chestplate gave a small hiss. It began to rise open, and then stopped with an awful grinding noise.

"Give me a hand with this thing." The voice was muffled through the crack that had opened from the cockpit. She slid her fingers under the edge, and started pulling, putting her weight into it. She felt a few small bangs as Richard kicked at the cockpit from the inside, forcing it open a few inches at a time. All the while, she could hear the sound of the mech coming closer through the water.

Finally, they were able to get the cockpit open wide enough for Lauren to wedge her shoulder under the edge, and then heave with her whole body. The hatch opened slowly, with much cursing and grunting from her. At last, she glanced down at Richard.

The tiger was lying back in the seat, his face streaked with sweat. The grey in his orange and white fur seemed more pronounced than normal. As she glanced down, she swore. A bit of the cockpit, twisted from the impact of the mech's shot earlier, was jabbing into his side. A red stain was slowly spreading across his grey undershirt from the point of contact. She could see his militia jacked, removed and stored at his feet.

"Fuck. We have to get you out of here."

Richard groaned at that, then rolled his eyes. "You're not that stupid, Lauren."

"Definitely that stubborn, though. Come on."

She reached down to grab him, but stopped when she heard a loud, ominous thud from over towards the water. Then there was another thud, and another. She suddenly realized that she couldn't hear the mech moving in the water anymore. Lauren turned to face Richard again.

The tiger was reaching up to his neck, to a chord that hung from his orange and black fur. He let a claw slide free from his finger, then sliced the cord, and held it up to her. On the end, there was a small data stick.

"We're already fucked," he said. "If you can get that into a proper coms unit, you should be able to reach the AGLDC."

"Yeah, forgive me if I'm not super keen to be the one to send that message, after how the last one turned out. Come on."

He opened his mouth to speak, but both of them froze as the thudding abruptly grew louder, sounding from just behind Lauren. It stopped then. Lauren met Richard's eyes. He was looking past her, his eyes narrowed. She raised an eyeridge in a question. The tiger simply nodded in response.

A moment later, there was a pneumatic hiss. Lauren still didn't turn as the sound of booted feet on metal sounded somewhere behind and above her, followed by the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked.

"Well. Taking down a mech with just an industrial walker and a rifle. Not bad." It was a male voice, and it was't mocking. It sounded genuinely impressed.

Lauren and Richard were still making eye contact. Richard kept his gaze trained on her, and then his eyes flicked down the slightest bit. She followed the movement, and saw the small sidearm that was holstered at his side. She could suddenly feel her heartbeat in her ears. She looked back into his face, and the tiger was meeting her gaze steadily.

"Hands in the air, now."

Richard nodded.

Lauren took a deep breath, and then turned and rolled hard as her hand went down for the tiger's gun. A gunshot rang out, and she felt Richard buck as her fingers closed around the gun's grip. She pulled it out as she faced the mech. It was enormous, towering almost as tall as the elevator had been. She didn't make out any other details as her eyes fell on the chest. The cockpit's hatch was open, and the enemy pilot, an otter, was standing out on it. The barrel of his gun was smoking, and she could see the aggression on his face giving way to surprise as she raised the tiger's gun and squeezed the trigger.

The recoil of the gunshot ran up her arm, and the otter fell back without a sound. Lauren sucked in a few deep breaths, and then glanced over at the tiger. She stared at him for a moment, then forced herself to look away. This wasn't the place to mourn.

She got up, then made sure she had alright balance on the surface of the walker's wrecked hull. She started walking along its side, towards the remains of the grain elevator, but stopped once she got a better look at it. All that remained were the walls of one corner of the massive structure. The rest had been crushed by the arrival of the walker and the two mechs, and the ensuing combat. She considered searching the rubble for her rifle or the communications hub, but quickly dismissed that idea. Even if any of her gear had survived, there was no way she'd be able to dig it out of the rubble.

That left her with... what? All she had was Richard's sidearm, in the middle of a combat zone that was soon to be crawling with mechs. She considered escape routes, but soon ruled those out. If the enemy was really launching an attack from both the lake and the south, then there was no way that she was getting out of the line of fire on foot. She could only hope that the evacuation was going quickly - the militia's defences weren't going to hold out long.

Thinking about mechs, Lauren cast a glance over at the otter's mech. It stood before her, entirely immobile without a pilot manning it. Now that she got a better look at it, she could see that it looked like a pretty standard heavy BE Tactical unit, with very little customization to it. Oddly, there were no features identifying it as part of any particular group that she could think of. It had a dark blue paint job, no doubt with the intention of helping it blend in with the lake.

No, she reflected. There was no way that the remaining scattered militia forces would be able to hold out against even one of these, let alone a few dozen.

Her eyes wandered up, towards where the pilot's body was draped across the open hatch of the cockpit. Then she blinked. Oh.

She crawled back onto the chest of Richard's ruined walker, then bent down and grabbed the jacket from at his feet. Then, she turned walked to the base of the mech. She placed a tentative hand on its enormous leg and waited. When it didn't move or react at all, she placed her other hand onto the surface, then started crawling up. She stepped out onto the cockpit's hatch, being careful to step over the otter's body. She reached down and grabbed his sidearm as well, and then gave the body a hard shove. It slipped off of the hatch, and Lauren turned and stepped into the cockpit itself.

She slid into a large, cushioned seat, then glanced around the consoles surrounding her. At first she was overwhelmed, but after a few moments of poking around, she started to recognize a few of the displays. Some of it was similar to the UI in the industrial walkers she was used to - which made sense, since they were both Bartlett Engineering models. These displays were just much more sleek and... more. Many more of them.

Lauren glanced around until she found one that looked like the communications. She worked through it until she was able to adjust the frequency. She pulled out the drive that Richard had given her, and then slid it into the console.

She stopped, then, and stared down at the controls. What was she even supposed to say?

She swallowed, then opened the channel.

"This is Lauren Fash of the Thunder Bay Militia. We broadcast out an all-channels SOS call about fifteen minutes ago? We have an urgent request for backup. If anybody is on this line, please confirm."

Lauren thought she was going to have to wait. What she didn't expect was for the line to crackle to life immediately, and for a voice to come through.

"Aw hey, that's you guys? Sounds like you guys're pretty fucked, lol."

Lauren blinked. Then, she spoke again, "Ex...cuse me?"

"Oh, right. Mystery here. Yeah, we're oh-tee-dubs."

"What?"

"On the way. We're on the way. Here, my captain wants to talk to you. Just a sec, let me patch you through to Hiro."

Lauren just stared straight forward out of the open cockpit, unsure how to respond to that. She was already overwhelmed, and suddenly she missed Richard's obsession with protocol. That made her think of Richard, and a vice clamped down on her guts all of a sudden.

She was saved from thinking too much about the tiger when a new voice came over the coms.

"This is Captain Hioryuki Matsuura of the Allied Great Lakes Defence Corps. Mystery told me that you have a situation?"

"That's about right. The message I sent earlier had all the details." She shook her head to clear it, then cast a glance back out at the battlefield, towards the marina. She could see the mechs drawing closer. "Don't suppose you could scramble something over here? We're in Thunder Bay, mechs inbound from the water and infantry from the south."

"How long can you hold out? Do you have any mech support up there?"

Lauren glanced down at the communications screen, and then around at the mech's cockpit. It wasn't... too different from the industrial walkers she'd used down at the railway before. She reached out a tentative hand, and then hit a button on the console. There was a pneumatic hiss, and the entire structure gave a shudder. She watched as the cockpit's hatch lowered down, and the dim light and the sounds of gunfire grew muted. Lights came up within the cockpit, most of them coming from red displays and screens.

"Do you copy? How long can you hold out?"

Lauren took a deep breath, and slid one hand around one of the mech's joysticks. Her feet slid onto a pair of pedals, and she could feel that they could slide with her feet's movements. She reached her free hand over, and hit the communications display.

"Copy that, Captain Matsuura. The faster you guys can get here, the better." She slid a foot forward, and pushed down on the pedal it was placed on. Her stomach jumped into her throat as the machine moved around her. She glanced around, and then hit another button. Three displays came on, one in front and on either side of her, giving her a perfect view of the battlefield around her. The red lights of the HUD began flicking around, highlighting the landscape. "Our mech support is limited, but we'll see how long we can hold out."

She flicked off the communications, and then her free hand went to the other joystick. She cast a glance down at Richard's destroyed walker, at the feet of her mech. Then she clenched her jaw, and started moving her mech towards the marina.