Titans Ch. 08

"To cut a long story short, we got her out and ran for it but now they might think she's a vampire."

"Fuckin' awesome," Anna snorted, "Sounds like I missed out on a lot of fun politicking by joining the bad guys. Why would they think she's a vampire though?" She looked from Elizabeth to Vanessa, but Vanessa wasn't there any more.

"Just some suspicious bite marks on the guards' necks," the vampire whispered in the mech pilot's ear. Anna span on the spot, lashing out with an elbow that only just came short of crashing into Vanessa's head. She drew back for a follow-up strike but stopped herself when she realised what had happened. Instead of throwing a punch, she gave a slow clap. "Oh you're a lot of fun too. You make interesting friends, captain."

"We met when he killed my whole family," Vanessa said dryly, stalking back towards the main group. Anna blinked.

"It's a long story," Alex grumbled, "I think she's more grateful than upset but it's hard to tell."

"I'm so emotive though," she deadpanned. Elizabeth giggled.

"Alright," Alex said, shaking his head and laying a hand on Talia's shoulder, "Let's see about some repairs then."

While Talia and the pilots began opening panels and diagnosing the mechs, the rest of the Irregulars busied themselves setting up a temporary camp. Having left in a hurry their large shared tent was still back with the army, but someone, probably Thrak, had had the presence of mind to grab four smaller tents on their way out

The elvish artificer completed her cursory repairs of Alex's mech in a matter of minutes, leaving an impressed Anna to look over his broken weapons to see what needed to be done to them before turning Talia loose on systems she didn't really understand. Again. With the other mech though, she was taking her time and examining it closely first. With the different dimensions and internal layout, she didn't want to risk accidentally breaking something else.

"Why is this one full of big blocks of metal?" Talia asked Alex, who was observing over her shoulder.

"Ammo blocks, like in my pistol. The array of field generators above each block carves bits off and shapes them into bullets or shells."

"Interesting. I wonder if I could have done that for arrows back when I used a bow..."

"Nah, too inefficient to carry around to get enough material for ammo that size compared to just carrying the ammo," Anna called down from her perch on Alex's mech's wrist, "I did a thesis on portable massive projectile weapons back in technical school. If they're impractical for a mech pilot, then they're sure as shit too much for your skinny backside."

"Be nice, Lieutenant," he glared up at Anna disapprovingly.

"Aww, I'm really sorry mistress. I've been a very bad girl, and you can punish me if you like." She grinned salaciously.

"I have a few ideas for how you can apologise to my skinny backside," the elf shot back.

"I should have known you'd bring out each other's worst side," Alex groaned into the hands he was using to hide his face.

"Best side, dear," Talia giggled, focusing for a moment then sending out her magic to pull the mech's armour plating back into shape. On the badly damaged elbow, a familiar vine and leaf pattern appeared, an identical match for the one on the other mech's shoulder. Anna watched the display of artificing with a low whistle, then finished prying open a panel on the blast cannon.

"Well there's the problem, your feedback compensator is one solid chunk for some reason."

"Is it not supposed to be?" Alex asked, surprised.

"Only if you make it about twice as big. Over that distance without a resonance cavity the feedback is reinforcing the vibrations rather than cancelling them. It's a wonder you didn't blow your fucking arm off."

"Right," Alex slapped his forehead, "I thought that was a crack in the metal."

Anna snorted.

"I don't know how the fuck you survived without me."

As before, it took Talia a few attempts to produce the precise dimensions of the smaller parts of the weapon. Once it was shaped to Anna's satisfaction, she began running diagnostics while the elf quickly fixed the machine gun, howitzer and plasma gun. The plasma gun had vented some essential gases with the damage but would be able to replenish them from the air in less than a day.

With the repairs done, the whole group reconvened by the tents. Deciding not to risk a fire that might give their position away to the army, they sat in a loose circle and ate some bread and fruit that Thrak had stolen. Alex and Elizabeth filled Anna in on the events since his landing, with Talia chiming in occasionally to drop an innuendo about some of the dirtier details. One by one, all of them except Vanessa chose a tent and prepared for sleep.

Alex looked between the tent Talia and Elizabeth were getting into and Anna's tent where she already lay alone. Talia saw him looking and gently pushed him away.

"Go to her," she whispered softly, "I understand."

He nodded and walked over to his Lieutenant. He gently pulled back the tent flap and crawled in next to her. In the darkness her blue eyes seemed to shine back at him with a curious look. He lay next to her and brushed his fingers across her cheek. She stopped breathing.

And then they kissed each other.