The Reaper’s Legion

Chapter 127

-Matthew Reaper P.O.V.-

I slipped away from the crowd quickly, cutting a direct path back to my own trio of vehicles in the convoy. The Ogre, modified command center for Daniel’s mech, and the official mobile command vehicle we would be using while on the road. The others were waiting for me while making idle conversation with one another. Daniel was busy moving things into The Dauntless hangar, but he didn’t spare effort to shout back and forth, joining the conversation.

“They’re probably gonna be a little rough,” Richard shrugged, “that’s all I’m saying.”

Alice shook her head while Daniel shot back aloud, “Yeah, that’s a given, but I don’t think we need to babysit them.”

Helplessly, I shook my head upon listening to them, knowing that the idea of taking on some new blood hasn’t necessarily sat well with the team as a whole. Even Alice was ambivalent at best about taking on new people on the eve of a large operation.

“Wrap it up, they’re on the way here right now.” I said as I marched toward the Ogre, checking to be sure that the necessary slots were available for any equipment we might need stowed. Most was in place already, and something that we’d checked several times, but I couldn’t help but look once more.

“Give the greenhorns a chance,” Terry stretched his legs, savoring the sensation, “they’ll probably surprise you.”

Richard was the most skeptical of the bunch, knowing how rough things could get in the field. It wasn’t as though he disliked teaching - I think - but he certainly didn’t want to put them at risk when we didn’t have too.

The Adder sighed, leaning against the Ogre while the bundle of mechanical tails that trailed off of his lower back curled behind him. Alice set herself beside him, talking in low tones with him.

Daniel walked over to me then, “The Dauntless is ready to go. We can hit the road whenever.”

“The rest of the convoy reports the same, though we’ll likely need a few more minutes to settle the new recruits.” Fran added, cycling through messages that she received from the rest of the group. She’d proven herself more than capable of handling on the ground operations, and had shown an attentiveness to detail and decisiveness to be more than capable of handling the organizing of the marshalling yard for the operation.

“Good,” I nodded, “we’ll head out shortly.”

Alice and Richard laughed aloud at something they said before coming closer, along with Terry.

And it seemed that Domino and his team were arriving then, too.

Before I could open my mouth, though, Domino spoke up, “Domino and team reporting, Reaper.”

I stared for a moment, watching the eight of them crisply salute, each halting in a perfect line. Compared to my team, they were far more official, and for a stark instant I felt acutely aware of the fact that Alpha Team had never undergone the formal training that Phalanx Gamma had.

Even so, that wasn’t a problem, and I took a few seconds to truly study the group. They were ready, by every measure I could examine them by. There was a galvanized confidence in them, an awareness that they were good enough to know what they weren’t good enough at. A calculated, well practiced group that seamlessly worked alongside one another.

The first challenge would be to get them to adapt the mold. They’d work together just fine, but they now needed to include myself and the rest of Alpha into their tactics, and vice versa.

Before the silence drew on too long, I nodded to him, “Domino, it’s good to see you, and the rest of you. But, please, just call me Matt or Matthew when it’s just us. You’re all a part of the team, now.”

Domino’s whirling thoughts were almost visible on his face as he briefly considered - and decided - on what I meant and if any hidden meanings might be there.

“Alright… Matt,” he stated slowly, forcing his rigid body into relaxation, measuring my response to his every subtle movement.

Once more, I nodded, “Good, relax. Now, I believe official introductions are in order?”

“Right. My name is Domino,” he paused for a moment and then added, “just Domino.”

I’d been curious about why he only seemed to have a single name, but that could come later.

“Jessica Allen,” the blonde haired, blue eyed young woman beside him spoke, her athletic build and choice of bladed weaponry and short-range armaments complimenting the more flexible type of power armor she’d selected.

The woman with blue hair spoke next, “Covina Espada, nice to meet you.” She bore several smaller weapons, and what looked to be amped-up roller skates currently clasped around her calves.

“Eric Pallon,” the young man with a four-armed mech greeted, waving both sets of his right hands. That would be interesting to see, given that very few ended up attempting to add additional limbs to a mech.

“Venezuela Benjamin,” the hazel-eyed woman spoke, long braided hair smoothly pulled to the side of her head, her power armor seemingly designed to support the massive sniper on her back.

“I’m Harold Oatman, heavy weapons and chemical specialist,” the man answered much more officially than the others, his power armor more robust, carrying shoulder mounted weapons in addition to modular weapons braced around his arms.

“Rachel Scotch, Wolfmother,” she shot a subtle glance to her sides at the others, to which I couldn’t help but grin. She bore heavy weapons as well, her mech somewhat more mobile than Harolds.

“E-Emma Verona,” the last spoke, stuttering and shy, a sharp contrast the the bulky mech she wore, “i-it’s nice to m-meet you!”

‘Oh, poor thing. We’re gonna have to put some confidence in your step.’ I thought to myself before moving on.

“I am Matthew Reaper, Leader of Alpha Team. Pleasure to meet you all.”

Richard, surprisingly, spoke up first, “Richard Nordsen, also known as ‘The Adder,’ scout, chemical weapons, and stealth are my specialities.” To my surprise his attention rested firmly on Harold, “We’ll exchange notes later, I’d like to see what other chemicals are floating around.”

“Uh, sure, yeah, that’d be great.” Harold nodded quickly, seemingly surprised at the casual regard Richard had. I was glad that Richard was taking the initiative and seemed genuinely interested. It helped that some of the less reputable rumors about The Adder being my personal assassin painted him in an extremely different light. The more differences he could establish to his boogeyman persona, the better.

“Alice DeLeone! Glad to meet you all! I’m also a scout, and ranger, mild telepath-” she rolled past that one rather quickly, I noted, “-and high mobility damage dealer. I love your hair!” She beamed at Covina and her blue hair, setting everyone off balance in a moment.

“Daniel Drake,” my first and best friend continued, “you could say I'm an equal parts tank and damage dealer. I’ve got a new mech, The Dauntless, that… well, you’ll see later.” He grinned, “I didn’t expect two mech users, glad to have you all aboard.”

“Fran Delia, something of the second-in-command here. I handle a lot of the Legion’s organization when we’re on the move and fill in the gaps frequently. I’m also referred to as Valkyrie, but you really don’t have to do that. I utilize weaponized magnetics to control the field and damage opponents.” She turned her attention to the shy woman, which seemed to somehow freeze her in place even more, “I’ve read that you utilize magnetics as well?”

“Y-y-y-” she stopped trying to talk, instead shaking her head vigorously. I’d heard that she viewed Fran as something of her idol. That could go either way in terms of how well we could train her. Sometimes, when people met their idol, I heard that the image in their head could clash with reality quite… strangely.

Fran simply smiled warmly, “We’ll have to practice extra, then. Magnetics can be tricky when used in proximity, so it’ll be a bit harder to do what you might normally do with me around.”

“It’s no problem!” She blurted out before blushing fiercely, controlling her voice afterwards, “I-I can do that.”

“And I’m Terry Garand,” Terry made a boisterous tone of voice, teasing in part, “I’m the Raijin-”

Richard snorted before carefully schooling his features to neutrality.

Terry glared at Richard before continuing, knowing that Richard still thought the fact that Terry had earned the Raijin class was ridiculous. “I built the Raijin Field, and have worked on most of our new electrical-class weapons. Most of what I do is setting up killing fields and letting other people steal kills off of my hard work.”

It might have sounded like he was serious, but the fact that he couldn’t keep a smirk off of his face completely betrayed that.

“But, seriously, I do a lot of the groundwork on setting up static defenses-” he paused just long enough to let us absorb the pun “-and developing shocking weapons for use in the field.”

His antics drew good natured eye-rolls from us and uncertain smiles from the newcomers, something that drained away the last bit of tension from them.

“Now with that out of the way, let’s pile in. We’re gonna be on the road for a long time, but we’ll be covering the briefing along the way.” I said, “And again, welcome to Alpha Team.”