Inferno

6 - A New Lead

He sighed. "Long story."

Vale shook her head at Tyra. "One we don't have time for. We need to call in a dropship to pick us up, but we don't have long-range communications or a distress beacon."

Tobias held up a hand. "I think you do now."

She was taken aback, and reached forward to grab the small device from his hand. "How did-"

He shrugged. "When you first told us to Rendezvous here, I scavenged what I could from the interior of the ship. Grabbed that, some flares... and quite a few dog-tags."

Vale nodded. "It's a shame. McFarlane was a hothead for sure; but a good pilot. Like I said before, it's best not to make attachments." Turning back towards the cliff, she pressed a few buttons on the beacon. A soft orange light lit up on it, and she held it up to her speakers on the front of her cuboid head.

"Warrant Officer Vale to SRS Marauder frigate, 'Soaring Griffin'. Griffin, do you copy?"

There was a moment of static, and then a voice said, "We read you, Warrant Officer."

"My team's dropship crashed, and we've suffered several casualties. Requesting evac at our current location for three humans and a Titan."

"Tracking your position... done. An adequate dropship will be around to pick you up shortly, we're still sorting out other locations of stranded teams as well."

"Understood. Vale out."

With that, she turned back to the rest of the small group. "Well, time to get comfortable and settle in; we might be here for a while."

Tyra groaned, but Tobias just walked over to KT who had come closer to them, and stepped into her outstretched hand. She raised him up to her shoulder, where he sat.

Vale looked up at him curiously. "Well Four, it looks like we've got time for that tale of yours now."

He glanced over at her. "Huh?"

She gestured at him and KT with her hand. "What Tyra asked earlier, how'd you end up with KT?"

He looked at the Titan, her blue eye staring right back at him. She was waiting to see if he'd tell them. Giving in, he gave a sigh of regret and began to tell them.

He told them about how the skirmish on Nedar had left him stranded in the snow, and how he'd come across Shears while he'd been dying. He told them how KT let him go, and how he had retrieved a battery for her. He told them about Gates, and how Dimitri had interrogated him to see if he was Militia material. Once he had finished, he looked back at them. Obviously, Vale's held no expression, but Tyra seemed to have a look of generous admiration.

"So you really just want peace for the frontier? Yet, you fight on the losing side now?"

He shrugged. "I want peace on the frontier, but I'm not willing to lose my soul in order to achieve it. With the way the IMC is acting now, I'm glad I managed to swap when I did. I'd rather go down fighting for something I believe in than to live with a guilty conscience. Sure, there's more than enough criminal and outlaws on the side of the IMC," he said with a smirk, "but I know that not all of you are bad. Nowadays, I'm not so sure about the IMC." He frowned. "Seems like their tactics are getting more desperate, more nonchalant about loss of life."

Tyra snorted. "What, the IMC? That's not new."

He shrugged. "I don't know, I was with them for almost two years. I've seen some good people, I've seen some bad people, just like here in the Militia. But the way that Stryder slaughtered McFarlane and that rifleman... something tells me that they're not too concerned with being good anymore. I wonder if Erebus has anything to do with that."