[b][center][h2][color=magenta]Reya Wyatt[/color][/h2][/center][/b]

The three APCs clamored in immediately as the last of the resistance was put down by Ingrid and her mechwarriors. The heavy entry arm was smacked away and snapped like a tree branch against the hull of the lead unit as they raced by with Reya’s drone humming along overhead. The mech lance had swept the field quickly and thanks to the birdseye view, in addition to the Colonel’s beloved GDK squad intel, Dalton was feeling supremely confident about having things under wraps quickly. A few rounds panged off the side of the APC and the gunner responded with controlled bursts. Overall resistance was a mixed bag from what he could see, mostly in favor of surrender. The boys would soon take care of the true believers he thought with a dark satisfaction. These would be the first shots since Balya Gora and they were sure to feel good for himself and for the men. Payback was a bitch. Anyone that didn’t heed Ingrid’s warning was to be put down without warning and his sharpshooters would be carefully scanning for anyone with an inferno tube. The ramp came down and Dalton, alongside Alpha and Bravo squad, were on the move in a flash.  

Reya shuddered as she could hear rounds literally hitting the side of the APC she was riding along with Delta and Charlie squad. It was just like when they had escaped the capital. The memory triggered a wave of nausea that zeroed into the pit of her stomach and she thought she was going to be literally sick with fear. She gulped in air timidly but a firm hand rested on her leg, not suggestively, but protectively, to calm her nerves. She glanced up to see a hardened face looking back at her with complete sincerity. Lance Corporal Tucker was her escort and tapped his forehead the same as Sergeant Dalton. He was younger than her, though his expression was almost ancient. The pure warrior. His face was burned on one side and still red from firing an inferno missile during that same escape. Some of the others looked back and nodded, giving her a thumbs-up, some even had broad grins. They were almost ecstatic. Her intuition began telling her that the Espian Guard inside were about to be much more afraid than she was.

“If they had anything left, they would’ve fired it by now on Alpha and Bravo.” Tucker said into her ear over the rumbline of the APC’s engine. He was referring to the sound of the caliber of weapons being trained on them from outside. Reya chided herself instantly for not realizing that on her own. It wouldn’t do any good for the Guard to set a trap when they were already surrounded by the Knights’ lance on the outside. The machine gunner over their heads fired back in bursts that mirrored Alpha’s gunner while the volunteer APC that was third in line rounded out the chorus. “Just hang tight, we got this.” Tucker said. 

Amidst the staccato crack of exchanged rifle fire came the unmistakable [i]kapow[/i] of shotgun blasts and corresponding howls of terror. Reya thought she could hear Dalton’s barking voice, but the ramp came down for Delta and Charlie right in front of her. The squads filed out quickly and Tucker took a kneeling position on the edge of the ramp. He was one of the few that carried a select-fire rifle with a suppressor and variable optic scope. Seeing him there poised to defend her life with his own was one of the mostly wildly attractive things she’d ever seen. 

The whole thing was over in less than a minute. 

Tucker waved for her to come up, relaxing just a bit. The barrel of his rifle lowered slightly and he scanned like a sentinel, returning hand signals to someone Reya could not see. The gunfire had stopped and she obediently ran up next to him with a low gait even though she was still inside the protective cover of the APC.

“We’re clear.” He said. “Convoy is lined up for you, nice and pretty.” He tapped the mic that was fastened to his fatigues. “If you need to talk on the radio, keep it short and quick, don’t hold the button and don't say any names.” He stood up fully, seeing that she was still visibly nervous. “Don’t worry about a thing, I got your back, Sarge is up ahead. Let’s go.”

Stepping out into the cloudy gray morning, Reya’s senses took in a plethora of feedback. The air was thick with a metallic taste of diesel exhaust, spent ammunition, salt and earth while the slowly moving overcast sky held it all in like a blanket. The convoy was lined up in the exact order the Colonel had described. Three J-27’s up front followed by three flatbeds with armor, two with water tanks, two more that were covered and presumed to be food supplies and one more clearly marked from the outside with a red cross as medical. Her vision temporarily drifted towards what remained of the prefab warehouse. The rapidly assembled building had provided absolutely zero cover for the few Espian Guards that had chosen to fight and the machine gunners along with the vengeful Boys had absolutely massacred them wholesale. Bodies were visible in various states of shock death along with the surviving laborers and other staff lying face down with their hands behind their heads. Her mouth opened slightly at the twisted sight of it. She forced herself to look away. 
  
[i][color=magenta]Stay focused, Reya![/color][/i] She thought and breathed in a deep dose of the disgusting air. Beneath her feet she could feel the tremors from the lance moving on the other sides of the high walls. They needed her to be quick about it. Glancing at her watch she picked up her step, hearing Tucker moving in kind a few steps behind her. [i][color=magenta]Focus-Focus-Focus-Focus-Focus-Focus[/color][/i]. She kept repeating it as they ran up to the front of the first J-27. As long as the Guard was following standard hazardous shipping protocols, the manifest would be in the door jam or the driver’s seat. Since the small installation was serviced by regular container traffic, she didn’t see any reason why they wouldn’t and there was no way the Knights would have time to remove the protective tarps and check every crate on every load. However, before she opened the driver’s door, she reached in her jacket and pulled out a small tablet, turning it on and finding the drone feed waiting. Sergeant Dalton had released it just as they had planned and she looked up to see it hovering high near the main comms tower. 

Dalton came up seeing that Wyatt had paused, but she quickly turned the screen for him to see. “[color=magenta]We need to take this.[/color]” She said sharply. The drone camera focused over a trailer mounted, portable fusion generator on the far side of the facility still humming along undisturbed by the excitement. “[color=magenta]The volunteer APC will be mostly empty and easy to tow with. It should have an emergency shutdown switch. Throw it and pull the leads.[/color]”    

Dalton tilted his head slightly at the sight of it and her words. “[color=SandyBrown]Copy that, I’ll take care of it.” He said with an affirmative nod and set off[/color].

True to protocol, the Guards put the paperwork in the exact place where it was supposed to be. Reya pulled the first one and scanned it rapidly, flipping the pages quickly in their neat binder as she went. The Archer and Shadow Hawk were easy matches and Tarak’s Phoenix Hawk only required machine gun ammunition. There was [i]a lot[/i] of missile inventory and she wasn’t sure if the Colonel was just testing her reaction in regard to finding correct SRM ammo for Ingrid. The chances of coming across more Totschlagens were about zero and Hollys were just going to have to do the job. Missiles were not her forte, but she could make them work. However as they moved along to the last truck, she was getting seriously nervous about Aroxy and the Von Luckner. It was their hardest hitter and needed a specific 120mm round for its main gun. When she saw the line item for the exact type in the final manifest, she almost didn’t believe it and read the line over three times: [i]Bryant 120mm[/i]. The memory jolted her- the Crimson Fists had a Hunchback with an AC20. [i][color=magenta]It’s gotta be a field upfit.[/color][/i]. That meant it had to be with the column headed to Yuzhny Portveyn. The logistics of pairing that mech with that weapons platform were beginning to form a story in her mind, but she shook her head to store away the thought. They’d have to figure it out later. Stuff like that was right up the Colonel’s alley.

The volunteers moved to their driving assignments quickly. The water trucks were the most vital and would be the heaviest and hardest to drive- they got the best drivers, then the ammo, then the armor and so on down to the rations and medical. Reya checked every truck while the drone zipped up and down the rows of unopened containers taking pictures of numbers and markings that hadn’t been painted over or scratched out to hide their origin. Hopefully, the GDK might be able to piece something together about what was really happening on Espia. Tucker briefly glanced at his watch as Dalton came up with the volunteer APC towing the portable generator and she knew their time was almost up. It had been the quickest ten minutes of her entire life and it was time to go. However, there was still [i]one more thing[/i]. She saw Ingrid’s Ostroc stalking outside the gate, ready to get underway again. It wasn’t her place to order them, but she could make a suggestion. It was up to Ingrid if she wanted to listen. She keyed her mic to talk directly to Ingrid: “[color=magenta]Ramrod, this is…[/color]” It immediately occurred to her that she didn’t have a callsign and that she had about a third of a second to come up with one- One that Ziska would probably use to make fun of her later. The first thing that came into her head was Sunny’s cheerful face. [i][color=magenta]Sunny, Sunny, Sun, Sun…[/color][/i] 

“[color=magenta]...[i]Sunflower[/i].[/color]” The word just came out, but it felt right. She liked it instantly. “[color=magenta]This base is serviced by regular shipping containers hauled in on trailers, once we’re clear, if you have Family Man crater the entrance with his cannon. It will shut them down for months.[/color]”

Logistics were a big part of the family business and she had heard enough of her father’s endless lectures about it throughout most of her childhood. The facility had one way in and one way out and it was surrounded by mines on all sides. If they ruined the one travel path, the contents would be effectively locked inside until the NPDRE could get heavy construction equipment on site, dig up some of the mines to make room and rebuild the entrance, all while continuing to fight a war and diverting their container flow to somewhere they didn’t expect. It would be a nightmare and would be worse than if the Knights just razed the whole thing to the ground. Everything inside that they needed would still be there, [i]just out of reach[/i]. She smirked darkly ever so slightly at the thought of it. Digging up those mines would be an especially dangerous business. Daddy would be so proud. She hoped Ingrid understood.