Scotch Brulee was the best of the best… at delivering mail!

…

Hey, somebody had to be the best at it, right? Why not her? It was a living! Maybe it wasn’t the cool rebellion hero junk girls like Nataliza Rayfield and Bailey Cluanaire were bathed in poster cum tributes for, but Scotch liked her job. She even got to fly around in a cool mech! Fun, right?

…

She’s never loved her job, though. Not like real mech piloting. Making a machine bigger than an apartment complex dance with the finesse of a violent ballerina was everything. The act of piloting, the maintenance work before and after a successful mission? Gods, it was everything to Scotch.

She had it now, too! How about that? Happy accident, really. A group of rebels stormed the carrier, and a month later she was flying for them, fighting fascists like she’d been doing it her whole life with… well, probably an end goal. 

Kern was tight-lipped on their goals beyond a loose “crush the United Arcadium and maintain our cover” justification, but all rebel outposts were probably a little like that. Her base back on Earth wasn’t exactly the height of complication.

Shame, though. If she’d joined up with the troops at Corvis Base when that cute brunette asked, she might have been even closer with Aoi…

“Heyyy, are you even listening, Scotch?” Oh! Right! Aoi! The pink-haired hacker extraordinaire with her cute face and cuter voice broke through a cloud of mixed pondering from Scotch. The situation at hand certainly caused a lot of it.

Searching for lost lovers. Knew that one well, didn’t ya, Scotch?

“I am! Ya know me, though. Hardware gal. Your software talk flies right by me sometimes.” Scotch replied playfully, gently nudging the girl next to her while they casually strolled through the Nightjar’s dark halls.

Gods, so many meetings lately. Scotch never liked the bureaucracy of all this war stuff, essential as it obviously was. At this point the constant walks back and forth from her bunk to Kern’s office were more exhausting than a whole day’s worth of scouting. Delivering reports? That was fine, normal even. Writing endless ones of her own? Exhausting.

She needed an assistant…

“Kayyy, fair. Maybe.” Aoi fired back with some needy playfulness, nudging Scotch back and making a considerably weaker effort against the taller, chubbier pilot. “I worked super hard getting custom firmware running for Sweet Treat, though. I need to know if she’s still working right!” Aoi was insistent about a conversation Scotch was in and out of for a good minute, yet her smile never broke.

The reverence she spoke about Scotch’s beloved junker of a mech with was far too cute to deny, too. Even if Scotch was only half paying attention to most of this conversation, she couldn’t let a girl like this down.

“I’m telling you, I haven’t noticed anything weird that matters. Her aim assist still doesn’t really work if you wanna fix that, though?” Scotch threw Aoi a bone with a smile matching Aoi’s own. Scotch never really used the target assistance tools Sweet Treat had anyway, of course. Getting used to them made target jammers more effective, and she found more joy in eyeballing her shots.

Aoi was right, though. She always was!

“Oh, that sounds fun! The only aim assist software I’ve worked on in sooo long was Bailey’s new mech, and that thing’s way too easy to work on. Sweet Treat is a challenge~!” Scotch wasn’t going to use whatever insane, custom superpowers Aoi was committed to installing, but seeing the fellow bubbly gal’s walk turn into a light skip was more than worth figuring out how to turn it all off later.

“That tough, huh? Guess ya might wanna get her over with first, then, right? I’d hate to keep Sweet Treat waiting~!” Scotch saw her chance to throw Aoi’s second favorite pastime a bone, too, winking at her friend and giving one of Aoi’s cheeks a poke.

“You’re right! It’s been a while since I’ve been inside either of youuu~!” Aoi responded with her own wink and a more cheeky version of a cheek poke…

A gentle smack to Scotch’s plump, juicy ass, with a following pleased gasp from its owner!

Couldn’t blame Aoi for it, really. Scotch knew she looked delicious in her tight little company spats, even if she should really try to invest in something comfier…

“You’re lucky I’m into that, or I’d smack yours hard enough to knock ya over!” Scotch laughed through Aoi’s adorable breach of boundaries. Scotch knew if it was an issue, she could probably tell Aoi off.

Probably…

…

Why make Aoi less fun, though, eh?

“Weiiirdo~!” Aoi giggled back after her own response, only prompting a second small fit of laughter from Scotch. Aoi wasn’t weird for smacking her ass with no warning, but Scotch was weird for liking it? Bah, hypocrite.

They were both weird!

…

Unfortunately, smiles and laughter would need to take a pause when they got to the metal doors of the Nightjar’s conference room. Both of them knew the mood might be a little tense inside. Scotch didn’t really know Bailey, but Aoi had told her about the newly christened rebel star’s relationship with Nataliza Rayfield. Losing a lover like that with no guarantee you’d see her again, or if you did, she wouldn’t be her again? 

That was tough. Really tough.

It lingered on Scotch’s mind a little bit, honestly…

“Sooo, how strict is Kern?” The lingering didn’t last long. Aoi’s face lit up at Scotch with an inquisitive expression, continuing to lovingly prod before Scotch could even respond. “I don’t mind if she’s, like, normal military strict. Nataliza can be such a hard ass when she oversees missions, aaand when she’s bouncing on my dick!” Aoi may have said that last bit a little too loudly, but Scotch couldn’t judge their shared freakiness. Aoi seemed to start frowning a little, though. “Or… I guess she, uh, could be, right?” It was pretty somber for Aoi. Still asked with a bit of pep, but Bailey wasn’t the only one missing their hero, it seemed.

Scotch knew that feeling, but even the beginnings of a frown on Aoi looked wrong. Action time, Brulee!

“Hey, come on! We’ve got some of the best pilots in the galaxy here, a bunch of great planners, and you. Nataliza’s gonna be recovering here in no time.” Scotch smiled down at Aoi, who was already starting to perk her face back up into a hopeful grin at her similarly smiley friend. “I’d bet my life on it!” Scotch closed with a thumbs up that Aoi echoed not long after, the delivery pilot’s words not faltering for a millisecond, even as the topic clouded her thoughts slightly.

“Thanks, Scotch… I know we will!” Aoi’s thumbs-up turned into a gentle hug of Scotch’s arm before the hacker hovered her hand by the door opening button and began focusing on the mission. “Time to meet your weird boss!” Aoi spoke that part more than a little too loudly too, but, again, Scotch had no room to judge.

“Ready when you are.” Scotch replied, waiting for the door to open with the closest thing to a professional, serious expression she could muster. Despite her best efforts, it was still a perky grin in the end. What could a gal do?

The doors opened, and she looked like she was about to deliver them their evening groceries! Oh well!

“Took your time, didn’t you?” The first words when the door opened came from Bailey Cluanaire, the gorgeous new rebel poster girl shooting a sly smirk towards the two final meeting participants. “Making me regret keeping my pants on and getting here early, Aoi. Meow~.” Bailey followed the smirking glare up with a lick of her lips that Scotch, at the very least, thought was directed at her.

The feeling was mutual, poster gal!

“I didn’t even get to take her shorts off yet, and we’re totally on time!” Aoi shot back as she skipped over to join the small gaggle of troops Bailey was standing in the middle of. Bailey’s smirk seemed to morph into a genuine smile. Aoi seemed to have that effect on everyone!

Beside Bailey were two girls. Sarah Ducor, Scotch’s scarcely seen fellow pilot whose eyes might have well been permanently affixed to the tall, powerful pilot next to her, and Anise Astra, the base’s head mechanical engineer with a certain soft spot for Scotch.

At least, Scotch assumed that was what the excited but subtle little waving meant. Truthfully, she sucked at romance. Wasn’t too great at friendship, either. And, uh…

Right. Briefing time! Don’t just stand there, Scotch.

With another daze shaken off, Scotch made her way over to Anise, shining a bright smile towards the short, attentive girl just long enough to pry Anise’s gaze from the higher-ranked troops for a brief few seconds.

Ah, Anise’s perky smile was adorable, but Scotch needed to pay at least a teensy bit of attention here.

Standing across from the group of five were Scotch’s usual superiors, Commander Kern and Minerva Amato, as well as the new, temporary addition to proceedings, Sierra DeSoto. That might have been uncomfortable if Scotch hadn’t spent over a month working on Sweet Treat with the renowned engineer, but that experience only made the tall, muscle-bound girl’s slightly different form of command over her a little weird.

Only a little, though. She’d been bossed around plenty by her during their Sweet Treat upgrading. There was that time she brought out the strap-on, too…

Man, that was fun…

“With everyone here, then.” Scotch’s reminiscence was frozen out by the cold, calm voice of Commander Kern, addressing her troops, permanent or otherwise, with a pause that gave them time to focus their eyes onto her. “I believe a refresher would do us all some good. We’ve made a few developments over the last few days, after all.” Kern continued, moving her hands behind her back in an attempt to look as professional as she could. Even Scotch had to admit, though, that her pose, mannerisms, and all-black outfit made the short, pale leader look a tiny bit like she was on the opposing team.

Eh, different star system, though. Maybe every rebel commander dressed like that in Arcadia!

“Allow us to start with Erin Lavern.” Kern continued on, the expressions of the group remaining neutral and focused, barring a slight, barely audible groan from Bailey that Scotch managed to pick up. “We have the exact coordinates of the outpost she’s being kept in. We’ve been given a rather in-depth staff schedule. The two mech pilots they keep there may be a cause for concern, but with airtight planning, we may just pull this off without a scratch on any of your heads.” Good old Kern. She was good at hiding it with that dead face and objective way of speaking, but she loved the sound of her own voice.

Based on Bailey’s glaring, Scotch assumed that she absolutely didn’t.

“Great. Let’s get that shit done with tomorrow and focus on what actually matters then, hm?” Bailey’s words dripped with an anger that was betrayed by her still silky voice. Could Scotch blame her for the anger? No, not really. This Nataliza girl really did seem to mean a lot to her.

Gosh, did she understand that feeling…

“These missions are of equal importance, Ms. Cluanaire, and the kinks we need to solve before taking on the first would affect Ms. Rayfield’s rescue, too.” Kern replied calmly but did seem to have a very slight smile creep up her face. It almost seemed locked towards Bailey, too. Was that not a teensy bit beneath Kern? Guess Scotch wasn’t here long enough to know. “Speaking of those kinks, would you prefer Minerva discuss them with you?” Scotch did know that Minerva was a far more comforting presence, though!

“If she has anything good to say, sure, commander.” It sadly didn’t seem to be of great comfort to Bailey, but she stayed attentive, fixing her gaze on Minerva before Scotch did the same.

“Plenty, actually. Let’s start with our tracking issues.” Minerva reached down to the large table separating the two groups and picked up a dossier lying next to a similarly large map of Orsus. She turned her attention to Aoi, who met it with a grin and a cheery wave that almost made Minerva chuckle. “While we’ve been able to scrub PostTech’s trackers from our shuttles and their formerly corporate-owned mechs, the tracking system they’ve got hooked directly into the Nightjar is a world beyond what anyone here can handle.” Minerva paused, sliding the dossier over to Aoi, who seemed ready to respond long before the second-in-command even finished her first sentence.

“Ohhh. So, that’s why you wanted me here so bad!” Aoi picked up the dossier and began flicking through it at a pace even the most jaded person in the world would find impressive. The dossier was shut almost as quickly as it was opened, and Aoi radiated excitement right into Minerva’s eyes. “Super easy! I could probably get this shut down within… Leeet’s say two days!” Aoi looked proud, but Scotch just looked impressed, if not surprised.

Hey, she’d seen Aoi rejig a mech built for package delivery with a bevy of modern combat assistance software like she was installing some antivirus software. This would be nothing!

“I don’t doubt it, but there is a wrinkle...” Minerva interrupted Aoi’s moment of proud basking and turned her smile into… well, just a different smile, really. “See, we want to be able to shut it off remotely, but only temporarily. Being on PostTech’s radar helps maintain our cover; keeping a delivery crew on board basically requires it.” Another pause from Minerva, but one that ended prematurely when she saw Aoi’s mouth begin to open. “If we can jam it for a few hours at a time, we can actually land this thing on Orsus and Ansa for our rescue missions. Also means we’ll be a lot more helpful when we’re gunning for Liz.” Minerva smiled, likely proud of both her planning and the pleased smile she’d gotten out of Bailey. Clever gal.

“Now thaaat’s gonna be more tricky. Super doable, though. Might take me an extra day or two, but your wish is my commaaand~!” Aoi gave her seal of approval to Minerva’s plan and rested the dossier by her side, content to stay mostly silent while her temporary superior moved to the next topic.

“I’ll leave ya to it then, Tarowaka! Moving on…” Minerva was happy to delegate that entire tracking mess to Aoi, and Scotch always liked that about her. Girls like Aoi were the best, right? Let ‘em work! “Anise, why don’t you take this one?” See? That good-natured camaraderie was Minerva’s best trait.

That, and the hair. Scotch loved her curly red heads. If only Minerva wasn’t kind of a stick in the mud…

“Yes, ma’am!” The short girl next to Scotch nodded her head and cleared her throat upon being called to by Minerva, clearing her throat and, after looking towards Scotch’s bright, smiling face for a pick-me-up, getting to work. “So we’ve been lucky with the mechs here so far. PostTech’s maintenance crew really knows their stuff, and Sierra seems to be taking really good care of your stuff. Like. Wow.” That was Anise, Scotch’s favorite little fangirl. All the cute ones have a cool girl they gush over, and Anise turned red even thinking about Sierra.

Scotch got it. Sierra was a star mechanic, stellar pilot, and amazing in the sack. What’s not to love, huh?

“Gonna make me blush if ya keep talkin’ like that.” Sierra hit Anise with a tease that Scotch was scared might make the fangirl’s nose bleed, but she seemed to survive it.

“Uh-huh, uh-huh. A-Anyway!” That’s her girl. Anise bounced back fast, managing to talk her way through a brief period of greater cheek flushing. “Mechs? Great stuff! But I’ve been wanting to do a real inspection of the carrier before we land again. It took a few dings in the… um… takeover.” Anise paused like she was trying to find a better way to describe the raid, but it seemed lost on her. Understandable, Scotch didn’t really know what to call her nearly getting her brains blown out either! “Sierra and I are going to use the spacesuits on board to do a damage assessment in orbit. If there’s no major damage, all is good. If there is, we might need to park somewhere for a little bit when Aoi’s got the trackers jammed. A day or two at most. If that’s, uhm… okay?” Anise looked nervous, and for good reason. After all, someone in the room had made their impatience known to everyone she’d met today.

Bailey Cluanaire.

Just about everyone’s eyes were on Bailey the moment another delay was brought up, waiting for a batty comment that hadn’t come yet. After a few seconds, she opened her mouth to speak. “Well, I’m hoping you didn’t just drag me here to list all the reasons getting Nataliza back soon is impossible. If I wanted to stand around and get jerked off, I could have done that in Sarah’s bunk~.” Bailey’s words oozed an impatient and frustrated venom, yet the voice saying them didn’t skip a single, sultry beat. It was like Bailey would implode if her emotions weren’t bathed in sly cloy.

Poor Sarah. You could cook a printed artificial steak on those flushed cheeks…

“Guess that’s my cue, then.” Sierra was quick to reply to Bailey, firing a fierce yet understanding look towards the seemingly touchy poster girl.

Scotch could already tell that it was a look Bailey didn’t appreciate.

“Mh, if you’ve got a plan for me to follow, it better be a good one. Your batting average is piss-poor, DeSoto.” Bailey shot at Sierra with malice one could scarcely believe wasn’t accompanied by a series of hisses.

Sierra didn’t seem to want to deny it, either. She nodded along to Bailey’s words, took a deep breath, and prepared for what Scotch had to assume was a nightmarish task in this situation. Coming up with a plan that Bailey wouldn’t take issue with.

“As ya probably know, our numbers ain’t the best for somethin’ like this. The Alcazar is way too known by the UA for me to be flyin’ it around until we’re savin’ Liz. Even if the Umezawa was a capable combat mech, Aoi’s basically grounded to this carrier until then, too.” Sierra wasn’t starting off with a winning pitch. If Scotch thought this was a little dour, then Bailey…

“Mh, tell us the bad news, major.” Yeah, Bailey wasn’t even close to impressed so far.

“Point is, our main force until then is a bunch of former PostTech security mechs, as well as Scotch, Sarah, Minerva, and Bailey. Ain’t makin’ this sound great, am I?” Sierra seemed to direct that straight towards Bailey, the slight smile on her face trying to communicate that there was a coming twist.

“It either sounds like I should stroll to the nearest outpost and get myself kidnapped, or you need to get to the point.” Bailey’s interest in that presentational flair was, unsurprisingly, nonexistent.

It was a shame; Sierra looked so hot when she was all smiley! Fortunately for Scotch, the smile stayed.

“We might not have the numbers, but we have ourselves an ace.” Sierra’s smile grew into a confident smirk as she slid the second dossier of the meeting towards Bailey’s end of the table.

The tightly dressed poster girl was already perusing through the well-sorted suite of documents with her two cyber-arms the moment they were tossed to her. 

Man, those arms were cool…

Bailey remained silent, surprisingly enough, giving Sierra ample space to elaborate on the dossier’s contents for the rest of the briefing’s participants. “Thanks to Minerva and Aoi, we know that the UA thinks two things. That the Ansa rebel group is going to haphazardly bomb our way around Ansa, tryin’ and failin’ to stumble on Liz, and they’re convinced Bailey’s gonna target ‘em on her own.” Sierra clearly had a bigger plan that made this information juicier, and Scotch at the very least enjoyed the dramatic tension. Sierra had such a theatrical flair for a sexy, buff mechanic!

So sexy. So talented…

Gods, bet she’d design a killer mechanical co–-

“Mh, if this isn’t going somewhere good, they might just be right.” Bailey’s saccharine voice and venomous words interrupted Scotch’s wonderful thoughts of a sexual reunion between her and Sierra. 

Probably for the best; they might make her write a report on this briefing too if she wasn’t careful.

“Oh, you’re gonna like this part.” Sierra’s confidence grew, the well-built acting major giving Bailey a moment to get to a certain page of the dossier before continuing on. “We’ve come to the conclusion that lettin’ ‘em think this for as long as possible is good for us. Been in contact with the girls back home, and we’ve agreed to let Sasha and Ina lead some dummy attacks on a few lower-profile targets. Keep ‘em focused.” Sierra paused, clearly seeing Aoi raising her hand like she was about to ask the teacher to use the bathroom.

“To try and lower the risk, I’ll be monitoring these, too! I have drones eeeverywhere.” Aoi’s playfully menacing tone and following wink made even Scotch feel like her privacy was being potentially invaded, and she’d just sent Aoi nudes yesterday!

“That brings us to Bailey.” Sierra was quick to ignore Aoi’s last sentence and turn her attention back to a slightly more assured-looking Bailey. Had to be some real juice in that dossier of hers. “We want these next few missions to look like you’ve gone rogue. When you’re all out there, Bailey’s in charge. She’s gonna decide on some code names for ya, too. The UA needs to think they’re dealin’ with a bunch of hired guns.” Sierra was proud of this scheme, clearly. She was smiling; she was standing tall. “How’s that work for ya, Bailey?” With some final words, she looked at Bailey to see if this was a plan the picky poster star could get behind.

“Few holes in it. I probably wouldn’t risk Ina and Sasha on a bunch of useless little diversions, but guess Ina’s not my girlfriend, is she?” Bailey paused, seeming to take slight joy in poking at Sierra until her smirk turned into a slight wince. “But, you did good, DeSoto. A few dozen more of these, and maybe I’ll actually call you Major.” Genuine praise from Bailey Cluanaire? Scotch was warned by Aoi that such a thing was a rare achievement.

Unless you were Aoi, apparently.

Sadly, just as things seemed to be ending on an optimistic note… Kern readied herself to speak.

“You can relish in your newfound battlefield commanding tomorrow, Ms. Cluanaire…” Kern took control of things with a satisfied expression on her bloodlessly white face, her gaze turning over to Scotch long enough for the delivery girl to stand a tiny bit more at attention. “As a few of you may know, we’ve been planning a raid on a scavenger camp near Dr. Lavern’s outpost for a small while. It’s rather small, and I doubt the scavengers themselves would give even one of you much trouble, but I believe sending the four of you will prevent any Arcadium stragglers inside from… causing issues.” Kern had such an interesting way with words.

Rather, she had a way of making everything sound as strangely ominous as possible. Really… fun gal? 

But, hey, she hadn’t said anything to set off the growing rage inside of Bailey, yet. Scotch could probably relax a little, right?

The yammering on about tomorrow’s mission continued for a timeframe Scotch had begun to tune out of. Kern wasn’t known for her brevity, and Scotch was more than capable of nailing a mission without paying the greatest attention to a session of cold, dry droning. But she’d tuned back in just in time to hear some words that were guaranteed to give their new squad leader a real headache.

“If you do your part, and everything goes as planned with our prior mentioned arrangements, I could envision us rescuing Dr. Lavern in… shall we say, ten days?” If Kern’s wordy droning was like a deluge of dry, freezing nothing to Scotch, those last two words seemed to be a bitter blizzard to Bailey Cluanaire.

Oh, she was angry. Heck, it was even worse than that. She looked angry.

“Excuse me? Ten fucking days? Are we hosting individual funerals for the scavengers before your stupid rescue mission?” Bailey fired a bevy of flaming, searing anger towards Kern, leaning over the table in a fashion that made Sarah take a step or two back from the situation.

Kern, however, seemed unaffected by the flames. “Preparation takes time, Ms. Cluanaire. The Mercenary Guild’s former best should know that. It’s only logical to ensure Aoi's and Anise’s work is implemented before any bold plans. The United Arcadium will also surely be woken up by su—”

BANG!

Kern was interrupted and summarily made to flinch as one of Bailey’s organic hands slammed down onto the table, separating them with enough force to leave a dent in its cheap metal finish.

Kern continued to smile, but Bailey looked like she was seconds away from ripping off her head entirely. Scotch should have done something. Anything, really. But some situations weren’t for her, and a quarrel over the fate of a lover between two terrifying women wasn’t her happy place.

Hell, right now, everyone was uncomfortable.

“You’re a fucking joke. A joke. If it’s going to take you ten days to do the easy part, I should fuck off now and save myself from blowing your head off, Mallory.” Bailey was as unhappy as she looked, at least. The stalwart, smug hider of emotions Aoi described was nowhere to be seen right now.

Fortunately, though? Aoi sure was!

“Hey.” Aoi’s voice hadn’t skipped a single beat. She hadn’t flinched from the table punch, nor did she make any distance from Bailey, just keeping close and trying to sound upbeat and confident for her friend. “I promise, the second we get this weirdo doc, we’re getting Nataliza immediately! We’ll get her out just you and me if we have to!” Kern seemed to turn her attention away from Bailey when Aoi got involved. Rude, honestly!

Bailey sighed, looking down at Aoi with her face turning from anger to something more neutral. “Fine. Whatever. Just hope you hold up your fucking end after this, Mallory.” Bailey looked away from Aoi just as fast, starting a hasty stomp out of the conference room that Kern, again, turned her attention away from.

Aoi had warned that Bailey was… prickly right now. Who could blame her, really? Scotch sure couldn’t! She related to this all perhaps better than anyone in the room, but there was time for reflecting on the past later.

Plus, y’know, bouncing on Aoi. There was time for that later, too!

“Well, shall we move on to bunk assignments before I let you all get some necessary rest, hm?” Kern’s voice was a comfort to none after that sudden bout of rage she at least kind of induced. Luckily, the rest of the briefing was quiet, barring Sarah and Aoi leaving as soon as they knew where they were sleeping.

The bunk assignments were quick and easy. The room emptied not long after.

Scotch?

She had somewhere she needed to be.

She had one thing that always cleared her head.

A night with a hot girl in a mech suit’s cramped cockpit. Scotch deserved it after a meeting like that!

She just hoped Bailey could take a load off herself later. That girl might have deserved it even more…