The Time from Before

Down Below

Perched above the insertion point, Harper and her ACU squad kept vigilant watch. Their mission was clear: seek and destroy. 

Recent hours had been eerily quiet, save for the distant echoes of their recent skirmish with a squad of Octolings. Harper, somewhat detached from the finer details, found herself gazing down the rugged mountain face towards the insertion point, her thoughts drifting to Allen and Mel.

Allen first pitched the idea of going down there with only the company of ACUs, but Mel insisted that was a terrible idea. Harper was guaranteed to be up here anyway, so she didn't have much of a say.

But then there was Marina.

Marina, with her uncanny ability to materialize seemingly out of thin air, had somehow managed to breach the chaos of combat to discreetly call over Harper. A gesture that, under normal circumstances, might have been overlooked, but in the heat of battle, it felt like a glaring misstep.

That's so unbelievably stupid.

Harper's frustration bubbled beneath the surface. "If Marina were one of us, she'd be out on her ear..." She muttered, her gaze flickering towards Marina engaged in conversation with one of the ACUs.

"Assistance required." The ACU beside her announced, jolting Harper from her thoughts.

"For...?" She trailed off, looking down the mountain face and spotting Mel climbing the rope used to repel down.

The slope was pretty steep, so it looked like she decided to keep onto the rope until she reached the top. The ACU that spoke earlier slid down, giving her a hand. Mel took it since there wasn't much of a reason to decline the help.

Eventually, the two got to stable ground.

"Welcome back." Harper greeted her with a smile. "What's got you up here so soon?"

"I'm up here to wait for reinforcements. I'll be escorting them down." Mel explained, stretching her limbs.

"How long will that take?" Harper cocked her head to the side.

"Give it an hour." Mel estimated, her gaze drifting towards the sprawling city below. "Got a deck of cards handy?"

"Never without 'em." Harper smiled, grabbing a deck out of one of her magazine pouches. "Poker?"

"Blackjack?" Mel suggested.

"We'll meet in the middle. Pai Gow Poker." Harper waved an ACU over.

Mel raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"The best of both worlds." Harper responded. "You, grab that rock over there and smooth it down."

The ACU she ordered spotted the rock she was talking about. It was a small boulder and almost the perfect candidate for a table rock.

Using its strength, it split the rock in two, shaving one side down with a knife.

"You really shouldn't be using ACUs like this..." Mel sighed, though her disapproval was tinged with amusement.

"Cv-7 was notified!" Cv-8 chimed in through one of the ACUs, as if in defense.

"It's resourceful, I guess." Harper shrugged as the ACU sat the rock down in front of them. "Now, let's play. I'll walk you through the rules, and we'll have a few ACUs join in."

...

...

"Well fuck." Mel dropped her hand of cards onto the makeshift table, a sigh escaping her lips.