“Everybody hold still.”
Gabby bit her bottom lip as she lowered the circuit board into position. Hunter continued talking as if she hadn’t said anything.
“-then they have the guts to show up when we’re almost done! We couldn’t stay because they’d surely arrest us, but- c’mon! They even took credit for the arrest in the paper! I mean-”
“SHHH!”
Gabby didn’t have to glare at Hunter for him to know she was mad. He shut up and held still, waiting for her to finish. The plate clicked into place and Gabby breathed out, relaxing back.
Hunter continued, “I wonder what the people, or even the Emperor, would think if they found out we did that!”
Jake nodded, absentmindedly, his head was somewhere else. He glanced over the articles in the paper, trying to figure out why the curfew had changed, why they had a huge barricade in the middle of the city.
Hunter continued to ramble while Jake found an article on an official EKSS emergency transfer.
The transfer will include the Sliver League’s Lieutenant Reynolds to switch his squad with Emerald League’s Lieutenant West. We advise all citizens to continue to follow the curfew laws and respect the barricade. With cooperation, it will be removed temporarily. Thank you for your cooperation.
Lieutenant West? Had he heard of them before? Possibly an earlier article.
“Jacob?”
“What? Yes?”
“Whatcha reading?”
“Oh, just- some article, about a transfer. What was the question?”
Hunter rolled his eyes, “Celia wanted to know if you were hungry.”
“Oh,” Jake blushed a bit, “Yeah, sure.”
Celia nodded from where she stood in the doorway. She left to go back to the kitchen, where she’d most likely prepare the same thing they had every night. Maglintov, a typical Saturnia dish. Except for, no one on Sata ate it anymore, because it was super old and didn’t even taste that good.
However, with Celia being the only one with any cooking abilities, and the minor fire of last year in mind, they let her cook whatever.
Jake jumped out of his chair, going over to the monitor. Hunter continued, “I just feel like the Emperor’s Knights are taking credit when it’s not due. What can we do about it? Start a protest? Oh! Or maybe we could post videos of us handling it, that’d do it.”
Gabby scoffed, “The protest probably isn’t a good idea, I’ve heard about some group trying to take over, they are very anti-Emperor.”
Jake glanced back, “So they probably think that’s us! Is that why everyone is ignoring us! Do they think we’re the bad people!?”
Hunter frowned, “I bet that the Emperor’s Knights set us up! Think about it! They want all the credit, and just for extra revenge, they’re making us look bad!”
“We don’t know that,” Gabby countered, “but what’s this about a transfer?”
Jake pulled up the article on the monitor, they all gathered around. “Transfer of the squad that’s there now. They must be part of the Silver League. They’re bringing in a new squad from the Emerald League, is that good?”
Gabby weighed the options, “Sliver League is more likely to give some slack on the barricade and curfew, Emerald is much more strict. Who’s squad is it?”
“Um, Lieutenant West, do you know who that is?”
“West? Ugh, maybe, it’s been so long since I encountered anyone from the Emerald League though. Here, look up Lieutenant West.”
Jake typed in the search, then hit enter. Hunter leaned in, “Last mission: Special Ops. That’s it? No details?”
Jake clicked into the tab. Hunter read it, “Lieutenant West is the first Lieutenant in the Emerald League. Details about missions and assignments are limited due to restrictions by the EKAS. Great, she’s from Atlas, that’s ten times worse.”
Gabby scoffed, “You’re from Atlas.”
“I’m different,” Hunter stated matter-of-factly.
Jake rolled his eyes, “Oh yeah? How’s that?”
“First of all. The accent is super annoying, that’s why I have none. Second, the language is terribly confusing, it makes zero sense even to fluent speakers. Third, all the natives are complete jerks. They all look like they’re going to kill you if they get the chance.”
Gabby rolled her eyes, “Scroll down.”
Jake continued to scroll down the page. After they looked over the website for five minutes, Celia had joined them. They found a picture that showed graduate groups.
“Andrews, Montrose, Owens, West. I thought she was First Lieutenant, why is she last on the list?”
Jake laughed, “Alphabetical order, stupid.”
“Actually,” Gabby said, “In Atalian W is the first letter, they don’t have the letter b, and M is the last letter.”
Celia made a face, “How do you know all of this?”
“I read.”
Jake scrolled down to find a picture, “Which one do you think is which?”
The group looked at the pictures, Hunter said, “I think that West and Owens are the two on the outsides, and Andrews and Montrose are the two in the middle.”
The picture displayed four Lieutenants. Two males, who were on the outside, and two females, who were on the inside. One of the men had brown hair, with bluish-gray eyes. The other had dirty blond hair. One of the girls had almost copper hair and bright green eyes, while the other had chocolate brown and blue eyes.
Gabby shook her head, “I know Andrews is the blond, he, I’ve met before. I’ve heard of Owens, she’s the girl with brown hair. I’m pretty sure the red-head is West, which means Montrose is the other boy with brown hair.”
Celia shook her head, “No, in a report from last year it had a picture of Owens and Montrose. Owens is the boy, and Montrose is the girl with dark brown hair.”
Jake glanced back over the picture, “I don’t know, the blond looks like a Montrose to me. Dark brown is probably Andrews. The red-head though, I think that could go either way, West or Owens. But to me, Owens looks more like the lighter brown than red.”
The team argued over who could be who until they started to smell something burning. At which point Celia ran into the kitchen to check on the Maglintov. Jake glanced at Gabby, this week was going to be interesting.
Poor things, they have no idea what’s coming. I hope y’all enjoyed this.