That was part of what he’d been up to. Opening the door, taking away our leverage. Leaving us caught between him and villains that weren’t dependent on us for a way out.

“Fucking tinkers,” Tattletale added.

Heavens 12.8

The settlement of scattered, disorganized buildings didn’t look like it had been laid out with roads in mind, and it took on the appearance of being a town on fire well before any fire had ignited. The motes of Subside’s power marked the loose boundaries of where it was being set up. Sparks and dots of red light. Soldiers stepped out of the trees, starting with Subside’s squad, built around Subside himself but led primarily by a large guy with three guns hanging off of him. The squads to either side emerged a bit later, after minimal conversation.

The show of force wasn’t for our benefit. All of the people of the ‘Rows’ of Earth N base town were out of their beds, paying clear attention now. Their number included the people who had been on guard earlier who had apparently retired from being on guard, and people who hadn’t stopped keeping an eye on things, sitting on porches or going on extended walks.

The blue motes of Capricorn’s power were our own answer, for what that was worth. As glad as I was to know we had something, the color of the lights cut into my eyes’ ability to peer through the dark. The bright blue left spots in my vision and trails that persisted even when I looked away.

The air was thick with the smell of mud, rain, and the haze of cigarette smoke that seemed to settle over a place when most of a town was left out in the cold, keeping an eye out for their mutual benefit.

That mutual benefit had been something we’d tested and cracked by applying pressure to Bluestocking, with Prancer’s help. Now Moose was approaching Prancer, who had stuck closer to Bluestocking, and they were comparing notes. No Etna in Bluestocking’s retinue, I noted.

The people in the town weren’t making a fuss about us backing up and using one of the buildings for cover.

There weren’t any better options. If we ran for it, we’d be gunned down. If we stayed and Bluestocking decided to side with Cradle’s group again, we’d be in the midst of trouble with more trouble coming from Cradle’s group.

“He’s the lead-from-behind type,” Swansong said.

Cradle was moving through the trees with his mech, shaking them. Slivers of the mech were visible where the trees weren’t as thick or where some had been felled a certain distance into the woods. Couldn’t be easy terrain, especially with something as large and weird in shape as the mech.