Inferno

7 - As a Riverstone

Her eye moved and locked gazes with him. "Though admittedly you have proven that survival is not your top priority, I was concerned for a time that you had only accepted the offer to join the Militia because you deemed it the safest option. To be clear, I thought you were only joining because you wanted to live."

"What?"

"I've come to understand that you are motivated by more than that, but I must admit; I was very worried when you told me that there could be a threat to the Militia. I had a momentary fear that you would abandon me, and return to the IMC if you believed that they had a better chance of winning with the possibility of a new power to beat the Militia."

That was not what he'd been expecting at all. "You're afraid of me leaving you?"

Again, she looked down almost as though she were embarrassed. "I understand that this is not the case; but I could not help it. You are my only... friend, here as well, and I do not want to lose you."

He sighed, and snapped his fingers to get her attention. Her eye snapped back to him, and he smiled at her.

"Kay, I'm not going anywhere. There's no way that I'm ditching you, believe me."

He patted her leg as she blinked at him. "I never break a promise; so when I say that I promise to never abandon you, and that we're gonna be together for quite a while, you can bet that I mean it."

Her eye nodded, and she spoke again; but this time with a warmer and grateful tone. "Thank you, Pilot. I'm happy to hear it."

"No problem, KT. Why don't you deactivate for the night? I'll see you tomorrow." She nodded and turned towards one of the racks. He left her to her business, and made his way back to the bridge.

...

"Kid, I hope you know what you're talking about."

Tobias exhaled, and nodded. He was ready for this; he was just hoping that this didn't all go downhill.

One of the bridge crew members opened up a screen on a monitor while he and Gates waited. "Patching video feed through in three... two... connection established. Good luck."

Gates nodded respectfully at the monitor. "Commander."

A woman on the monitor nodded back. "Gates. Good to see you."

Gates chuckled. "And you as well, ma'am."

Briggs had a pale complexion, and a red bandana that wrapped around her head, keeping her hair spiked up in a vertical path. Definitely looked like someone he wouldn't want to pick a fight with. She gestured at him.

"As I understand it, you're the soldier who claims to have important information?"

He nodded, and stepped forward while Gates gave him space. "Yes, ma'am."

"Who are you?"

"PFC Tobias Four. Unless the Militia has decided to repeal my rank."

Briggs furrowed her eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Shit. He looked to Gates for help, but she waved at the screen. "Not my place to tell her; go on."

He sighed. "I'm ex-IMC. I joined up with the Militia a month and a half ago."

Sarah nodded. "That's alright."

He was taken aback. "What?"

"Our previous top commander, James MacAllan, was a former IMC officer. In fact, one of our current lead commanders, Marcus Graves, was one too; though I ultimately hold the highest position of leadership. I've seen that it's not black and white in this war, and I'm willing to accept those who try to make up for their actions."

He nodded. It was a very gracious move of her to tell him that; she was essentially telling him that she was going to trust him on this one. "The Griffin moved to Tyche in order to refuel before regrouping with another portion of the Militia fleet. When we arrived, we found that the IMC were already there."

She nodded. "They were waiting."

"No, or at least I don't think so. These tactics were totally wrong for an ambush; it almost seemed like they were more surprised to see us than we were to see them. Once we arrived, they only fought us long enough to flee and get their ships out of the system."

She looked intrigued. He continued.

"When my team was stranded on the planet, I ran into an enemy Titan. Its pilot said something about the fleet moving to the Erebus system; it sounded like they were planning something, and he thought we were trying to stop them."

Briggs nodded, processing the information. "So..."

"I think that the IMC is moving a portion of their fleet to Erebus, where they're working on something. It could be nothing... or, as I believe, it could be something that they think will aid in their cause against the Militia. One thing I've learned in my service with them, is that they never do a job halfway."

Briggs narrowed her eyes. "Got that right. What are you proposing?"

He tilted his head confusedly. "Me?"

"That's right; what would you do?"

Was she testing him? What was this? In any matter, he decided to tell her exactly what she asked. "I would want to immediately follow up on this. Maybe not send the fleet, but some kind of scouting party. If we can figure out where this Erebus system is, then we can send people to figure out what exactly is happening there, and if the Militia needs to take note of it."

Briggs regarded him with something in her eyes. Was that... respect?

"Thing is... I agree with you. We may be stronger than we once were, but if something were to give the IMC an edge over us in straight combat... I don't think that we'd be around much longer. We definitely need to investigate this."

She raised an eyebrow. "Four, what section of the Militia are you in? Freelance, one of Barker's people, what?"

"The SRS Marauder Corps, ma'am."

"So my division, then. Well, Four, you are no longer a PFC. I'm promoting you to Lieutenant. And as your first assignment, I want you to lead a team to investigate this Erebus system."

He jerked his head? "Wait, what?"

Even Gates seemed a bit shocked. "Ma'am, that does seem a bit rash..."

Briggs shook her head. "In this war, things move very fast. Blink, and you might miss them. We don't have time to wait for people to gain the proper ranks, hell, we aren't even a proper military, we're a Militia; a rebel force. Fact of the matter is, these ranks are really just for command purposes. They may not mean anything to the rest of the galaxy, but they mean something to us." She looked at him again. "Are you willing to accept that?"

She had said that the war moved fast, but this was like being strapped to the front of a dropship. Still, she had a point. The war was definitely something that they could not afford to lose, and they might need someone like him on a mission like this. He knew the IMC, how they fought, their standard compound layouts. But you can't really be sending a Private to lead a black op, can you? So he understood her motivation, and finally came to a decision.

"Yes, ma'am."

She nodded. "Good. I'll work with some of my advisers here, and we'll lay our more of the framework for this op in the coming week. For now, tell no one else of this until we have more details. Understood?"

He nodded. "Understood."

"Good. Briggs out."

With that, the video feed ended. Gates stood there a moment, and then turned to face him. "Four, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, though inside he was shaking. "I have no idea."