The SpringJack Adventure

‘Jackie! Hey! JACKIE!’ Springer called out to a familiar face. The young lady turned around and waved making her way now to Springer from the concourse. Jackie was one of Springer’s newer friends, the pair had gotten off to a rough start but after being assigned to a mission together, the pair realised they worked well together. Springer put a closed fist out and Jackie fistbumped her. Their personal greeting. Jackie fixed her sunglasses and flicked her hair back.
‘Dude, I’ve got something fun for you today. No Mediator work. But we gotta go now.’ Jackie grabbed Springer’s arm and turned her around. Springer reached down into her six pack and picked out a bottle, handing it to Jackie before getting one for herself.
‘Oh? Do tell.’ Springer smiled groggily, still not completely awake. Both bottles hissed simultaneously as they flipped their bottlecaps off.
‘Ganglion remnant camp about an hour north of here. You and me, we’re gonna go clear it out before they get any ideas. A few of the guys from the Interceptors also got the draw, but they’ve gotta prep their Skells and themselves.’ Jackie said with a smile before she took a mouthful of her beer.
‘Hell yeah, I’m game.’ Springer smiled, taking several gulps of beer. ‘You owe me a few beers though.’

Primordia was a beautiful sight to behold, the green plains seemed to go on forever. Many lifeforms lived in these lands, Indigens they were called by New Los Angeles. From the small buglike creatures to the giant beasts called Millesaurs that Springer desperately wanted to ride one day, Mira was thriving with life. They’d been walking for quite some time now, Springer was down to her second last bottle and halfway through it while Jackie still hadn’t finished the first.
‘You know you’re the Frye of our little team, right?’ Jackie laughed as she took another sip of her beer.
‘What? Ew. Don’t ever say that again. I hate the guy, he could not stop staring at me whenever I went to that diner down in the Industrial District. Total creep. I’m clearly our Alexa only better than she was.’ Springer shuddered in disgust and shook her head as if trying to actually shake the idea out of her head. ‘Besides, what does that make you?’ Springer asked as she drank again. Jackie puffed out her chest proudly.
‘I’m our Elma! Obviously!’ She said triumphantly. Springer almost burst into laughter mid-drink and her mouth bloated like a chipmunk. She could almost feel the beer come out of her nose and was thankful it didn’t. When she finally downed the mouthful, she laughed and laughed. ‘Don’t go dying on me yet!’ Jackie said with a smile, appearing to be unhurt by Springer’s reaction.
‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready for that. Holy shit, dude.’ Springer sniggered a little more. In the distance, the gates of the Ganglion camp could be seen. Jackie nudged Springer’s arm.
‘There’s a lookout up the hill over there, we’ll head up and take a look at exactly what we’re gonna be taking on in there.’ Jackie started to pick up her pace, moving into a jog. Springer took off after her, finishing the rest of her beer as she went.

Perched atop the Ganglion camp, Springer and Jackie were flat on the ground peering over the barracks below.
‘This should be easy as shit, just some Prone and their Suid steeds.’ The four beers were starting to make Springer feel a tiny bit tipsy. Jackie handed her binoculars to her. ‘Take a look.’ Springer took the binoculars and peered through them. Everything seemed so far away suddenly. It took Springer a moment to realise she was holding them the wrong way. After correcting herself, she looked over everything. The Prone were large purple alien lifeforms who didn’t know much except how to club things to death. Springer had counted at least two dozen before seeing something that took her fancy. A Prone was holding a rudimentary mug and was drinking from it, next to him a few barrels stood with taps at the bottom of each. The legendary Prone Brew she had been dying to try for a long, long time. She’d heard tell that it could knock out a baby Millesaur and was desperate to know what it would do to her. ‘See, easy right? We’ll take it stealthily, head around the back and hit ‘em from behind.’ Jackie said but Springer didn’t pay any attention.
‘Oh yeah, come to Mama!’ Springer smiled as she handed the binoculars back to Jackie who went back to looking through them again. Springer got back to her feet and took a few large steps backwards and stretched a little. Charging at the edge of their vantage point as hard as she could, Springer launched herself into the air. She heard Jackie behind her.
‘Oh what the fu—‘ But the rest became noise on the wind as Springer realised where she was going to land. A Prone stood right below her, on patrol making sure there was no one nearby. Oh shit, oh fuck oh shit oh fuck! Springer screamed silently

Jackie gritted her teeth and pulled her gigantic gattling gun off her back. Taking a few steps back and a moment to compose herself, she prepared to follow Springer.
‘Can’t take you anywhere, can I?’ Jackie said with a half smile. Stealth was never the fun way of doing thing.

(More to come tomorrow, or later today depending on how creative I feel. Still to come: Springer gets her first taste of Prone Brew.)