[center][b][h2][color=f26522]Jonathan McCord[/color][/h2][/b][/center]

Jon had been sitting there in the dark for a while with only the dim glow of the Marauder’s instruments providing any light. He had his arms crossed and was watching the terrain as the canopy glass refreshed in subdued green. The machine beneath him hummed in a low tone like an animal sleeping with one eye open. He thought about his dad, laid low in a hospital bed, his mom, the farm and what was left of the salvage business. Sometimes the feel of the seat reminded him of being a kid and he could picture his much younger father showing him the controls before he could hardly touch the foot pedals. Back then [i]Ossie’[/i] didn’t even have any weapons and he could remember stomping it around the open fields on their property with a neurohelmet too big for his head just barely trying to keep his balance. He and the mech had almost grown up together. When he thought about it now, after everything that had happened, he just felt low, like he didn’t appreciate those times enough or that he was responsible for what had happened to the Legion. He knew he wasn’t and there was nothing else he could have done, but other than the faceless onslaught that had attacked them out on the frontier, there was no one else. Owning your shit was just part of being Taurian.

The Knights arrived. He could feel the ground quake under him before he could see the movement. The Shadowhawk in the lead followed by the Archer, the Von Luckner and a contingent of APCs. The line crackled with Raven’s voice and he watched Marit moving into position without even noticing him on the far side of the dam. None of the others seemed to either. He found it interesting that the odd-talking Raven was leading the lance. The Colonel must have had some measure of faith in the guy, but whatever the case, Jon reckoned the Heavenly Sword was going to shit a holy brick when they rounded the bend a few kilometers back and figured out their little network of insanity had been infiltrated. He smirked a little bit at the thought. 

His fingers hovered over the transponder output and the strobe control that operated the small safety light on top of the insectoid torso section. In addition to defending the dam, Cassandra wanted him to evaluate the Knights, see how they operated as a team and how worthy they were going to be as an investment. She had also told him to play nice so he figured it was time to let them know that he wasn’t late to the party. “[color=f26522]Mudcrutch is on station[/color].” His voice on the comm was about as enthusiastic as it had been in the cave. Maybe if they lived long enough they would get to hear his real nickname or get close enough to Ossie to read it on the side next to his name under the canopy. Until then he had a list of throw away callsigns. He glanced over at Marit’s [i]Archer[/i] briefly before tapping the transponder and strobe. The light on top of the Marauder blinked quickly three times in the darkness next to the tree line and for a moment the Knights’ IFF sensors would pick up an unknown contact on top of the southern hill. 

[@Bork Lazer]
[@Starlance]