Chapter Text
It has been seven years since the defeat of the Other and the freeing of Mechanicsburg. In that time the alliance known as Grande Europa has grown in strength. The City State of Mechanicsburg with it’s nascent God Queen has become the primary weapons and research center of the alliance. Both of her consorts have their own detachment of jaegers just as she has smoke knights and vespiary squads assigned to her personal guard. Among the Baron’s guard is a jaeger known as Tinko, who has shown that she is an enthusiastic pilot for his heavier than air vehicles. And while she does miss the action of combat when her brothers enter the fray, she admits to herself that functioning as a high speed scout far above the field of battle has been invaluable, especially with the enhanced vision the jaegerdraught had gifted her with along with her sleek black mane and fangs. But now some of the sky pirates have been introducing their own fixed wing craft, and the dynamics are changing again.
For the past three months, The Heterodyne and the Baron have been in a hanger workshop just near the Mechanicsburg SkyPort. Some of the most talented of their combined pool of sparks and minions with skills in metal working and clankwork have been dragged in to whatever sparkwork they were involved in. The only time either was seen was a week before when they came out, and after Tinko was pointed out by the Baron, her Mistress presented her a new cape pin with a winged jaeger symbol and instructed to wear it at all times.
Tinko was sparring with Maxim, her duel gladius form creating a blur as they danced, Zeetha and Oggie shouting encouragement from the sidelines as they danced, when Moloch poked his head out of the wicket on the hanger door. The two stopped instantly since they had not seen him for several days and the sound of tools had been slowing for the past few hours.
He looked around and when he saw her he called out, “Tinko? Her Shininess and the idiot want you. The rest of you can come in now as well. It should be safer now.” With his message delivered he began to slide the hanger door the wicket was on to the side.
When the group entered, they were greeted by the sight of a sleek bird like clank, the last remains of a support scaffold being pulled away by minions as dingbots crawled over it, polishing its surfaces and preforming final touches. The head had the multiple barrels of a pair of autoguns flanking a ladder leading up into the head. It’s folded wings barely concealed the intakes for a pair of air turbines. And it stood on two legs tipped with wickedly curved and obviously sharp claws.
Agatha and Gil stood in front of it, their hair still slightly haloed from their recent fugue state as they admired their work. At a slight noise, Agatha turned and saw them.
“Tinko!” she said, suddenly in front of the jaeger. “Great! You’re here! Have you been wearing the badge Like I asked? How have you felt while wearing it?”
Tinko blinked and then thought for a moment about the past week. “Hy hav ven vearing it. Hy feld fuzzy ut furst, bu ten gut bedder. Hy tink my perzeptun hus impruved und reaktuns ur fuster.”
“Great! That means it’s linked to you! Come with me!” Agatha ordered as she twirled and ran toward the ladder. With a bewildered glance at her brothers, Tinko followed, listening as Agatha went on about how Gil had praised Tinko as a pilot.
When she climbed up, Tinko found herself in a cramped compartment behind two forward facing seats with a narrow walkway to the left of them and a small hatch leading to the rear. Both seats were obviously the Baron’s patented rocket seats meant to get crew away from a damaged craft quickly and deploy De’ Vinci chutes for a safe descent. With the exception of a few extra gauges, the forward seat was a standard layout for pilots that the Baron had designed.
“OK! You sit here!” Agatha ordered, and not waiting for Tinko to respond dragged her to the forward seat and sat her down, pulling straps in place. “These are temperature gauges for the turbines, and these are RPMs! Don’t let any get into the red! This is battery level, if it starts dropping while turbines are running, something is wrong! These two are ammo counters for the guns! The compartment behind this one can be configured for passengers, cargo, or bomb racks.! The rest you should recognize!” Agatha continued on, still in a mild mad space.
“Now, to start it,” Agatha then said, looking at Tinko. “Twist off the face of your badge, and place it here!” She pointed at an oval indention in the center of the instrument panel.
Without a moments hesitation, having been caught up in her Mistress’s enthusiasm, Tinko twisted the face of her new badge, revealing a set of gear shaped keyholes that matched the gears in the indentation. She pushed the badge into the indentation, and suddenly the face opened showing one of the dingbot eyes that looked at her. At the same time she felt her perception expand. She could see outside the craft in all directions. The wings and claws became hers as her hands and feet fell with long practice on the controls of the craft. She felt her Mistress strap in behind her as she saw minions pushing the hanger doors wide open.
“Ok Tinko! Walk us out and let’s see what a Peregrine can do!” Agatha said from the rear seat. “For SCIENCE!”