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I could hear the loud unruly engines of the dropship, the same engines which fueled the historic war machine of the IMC. In the dropship with me, were my squadmates: Wraith and Gibraltar. Whilst true that all the Legends had made me feel at home when my father passed, both Wraith and Gibraltar cared for me; whilst not holding me to the same leash that my Father had done in the years leading up to his death.
Dramatically pulling me out of my thoughts was the sound of a loud thump followed by a series of small bangs, dragging me out of the depths of my thoughts. “Eep!” I proclaimed gently, prompting a hearty chuckle from Gibraltar and a cute giggle from Wraith. “That’s normal right?” I timidly asked.
“Don’t worry, those noises are fine. For an engineer you seem to have your head caught in the clouds.” Pinned to the end of Gibraltar’s chuckle: “Better be paying more attention in the Ring!” And by the time he had finished his exclamation, he was already chuckling away at his own joke.
I’m not sure if he was sincere with it, or if he was genuine, but nonetheless, I thought I had to hold my own ground “I-I was!” I stumbled over the words. My face was getting increasingly red from embarrassment.
“Gibraltar, don’t mock her.” Wraith chided him. “She’s the inventor of the Ring, she knows how dangerous it is. You do, don’t you?” There was a slight shift in her dictation towards the end of
her sentence, an almost teasing tone dripped from her question.
All of a sudden, I felt like I was out of my skin. Sure I had felt this feeling and felt this way many times before. But not like this? At least, not surrounded by friends. It wasn’t an awkward feeling. It was a warm, yet unfamiliar feeling. No, not unfamiliar, but just a feeling that I had perhaps locked away for a long time. I made the conscious connection that perhaps I shouldn’t have been having this feeling when surrounded by friends. This was a feeling that was intrinsically linked with memories of my Father. And like a literal bolt of lightning, I made the connection. = Luc was family. And in a way, so are Gibraltar and Wraith. I gradually came to accept these two conflicting, yet comforting ideas.
“Thank you. I’ll try my best.” I said, finally raising my head once again. Looking at the two legends who sat directly opposite me.
“You’ll kill it out there.” Gibraltar beamed.
“We’ll kill it out there.” Wraith corrected.
And as far as contrivance could stretch us, the AI Announcer that dictated the games buzzed into the dropship. “Approaching Arena. Prepare for Drop.”
We stood up, held hands, Gibraltar on one side and Wraith on the other. “Geronimo!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as we descended towards the land below.