File 6.3 - Restored Status

Across the city, Terra Team’s truck sped away from their crime scene. Already on the highway and a short time away from safety once more. Everything went smoothly, within reason. They made more of a scene than necessary, but it was done. Those in the back gathered around their Commander.

“Commander,” Elle whispered, glad to have him back finally. They already lost Rivers, she didn’t want to lose him as well. Hell was not going to steal anymore of her team.

Cal still felt a little weak, but a week in the hospital certainly made a lot of a difference. He wasn’t completely thrilled about living off the foreign land and their good graces, but he understood that they had no choice. “You guys are a bunch of idiots.”

“Hey now, Commander, that any way to treat your rescuers?” teased Noinel.

“You put me there to start.”

“And we got you out as well.”

“It was too much of a risk.”

“No need to sweat the details. It’s already done.”

“Right.”

Out in the cabin, Rinn focused on getting them back to the ship. It wasn’t much longer. He only loosely monitored the surroundings. The lookout job was for Wells and his excellent sight that made him a deadly pilot. “How are we looking?”

“No problems yet.” Wells leaned against the edge of the door staring at the horizon. Every few ticks he would switch to the back. The camera system they hacked together for the truck helped, but he felt better using his eyes. “We disabled their security and systems before we breached. So the best response they have is like thirty minutes.”

He knew the timing as they all did, didn’t stop Rinn from worrying about it. Any plan could fly apart at a moment's notice without any foresight. All they could do was be ready to react if it did. “Still, we haven’t really watched their civilian security. We aren’t fully clear how they’ll respond.”

“It’s just civilians. The military isn’t even stationed here, so they pose no threat to us.”

“We are supposed to be limiting our fighting.”

“I know. It just goes with the risks.”

“Yes. I’m aware.”

The truck came to a stop. They finally reached the ship. So far, it seemed that everything was moving smoothly. All mission objectives had finally been reached. It seemed that they succeeded with the best possible outcome.

Wells jumped down from the truck and walked around the back. He met Rinn at the back. “You worry about the details too much.” They worked on the lock, which always had a little trouble opening.

“It’s because the details that are important,” Cal responded, when the doors opened. Bandaged and looking more like a mummy than a person, he stood in defiance of what his doctor probably said he should be doing. Injured or not, he didn’t let any of it bother him.

“Cal! Good to see you moving,” Wells grinned, giving him help down from the truck. “White sheets and nurses don’t suit you.”

He smiled a little back at his old friend. He already berated him a lot while being dragged out of the clinic on their stupidity. So he didn’t really have much more to say on the matter anymore. He just had to accept the reality. Things were back. “What’s the status?” he inquired as he walked up to the transport.

Wells followed in behind Cal pleased to see things back to the way they should be. As a friend, he would have told him to take it easy, but he was glad to see him walking on his own. He sort of worried he would still need to be lying down. “The Lieutenant got the junk of steel working again. The entry did a number on our systems, but we are fully operational.”

The rest of the team rushed in hauling in all of their equipment. They already finished stripping the truck of everything that they had done to it. He nodded pleased to see that they were working smoothly without his commands. “Lieutenant, get us airborne. No doubt with the stir you caused in the city, we’ve over stayed our welcome. We’ll pick up in a different city.”

“Yes, sir!” Rinn saluted and pushed through to the front. “Five minutes to full power!”

“Understood! Run all system checks, I don’t want us to blow something in your repairs.” Wells handed over the reports to him on their work so far while had been hospitalized. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”

“I wanted to kick back, but Elle was pretty pushy.”

He skimmed through them quickly to see the summaries. There would be plenty of time later to get fully caught up. Looking away from them, he turned to the Jiaos. “Get your Jiao warmed up and in stand-by, Wells. If the local police followed us, who knows what armaments they’ve got.”

“On it!”