The Hangar

Interceptor · Dry Kestrel-class interceptor Slate, fourteen years on the airframe.Carries two lances and a flaw: she pulls left under load.I call her Old Grey. Say it on the channel and I'll deny it. Ren AshgroveOpen comms Support rig · Tired Maintenance loader Anvil, four arms and no manners.Lifts a mecha leg like a loaf of bread; slips on wet decking.I call her Sweetheart, and I love her more than you. Sorry. Toma ValeOpen comms Command · Sharp Relay frame Tern, eight channels, one ear for you.Armed with a very long antenna and a short temper.I call her Listening Post. Whisper something and see. Ayaka StroudOpen comms Support rig · Warm Medevac frame Lantern, three hundred souls and one infirmary.Carries no guns. Her flaw is that she hates to leave anyone.I call her Hearth, and I'd like you to forget I said it. Oyin MercerOpen comms Command · Sharp Flag carrier Meridian Wake, the Third Fleet on one bridge.Fifty batteries, a lousy coffee machine and no patience.I call her Home. Eyes forward. And on me. Katya RennickOpen comms Interceptor · Sharp Striker Needle, fastest in the squadron; ask anyone.Armed with a rail lance and a mouth. Flaw: overheats on a boast.I call her Her. We understand each other. Lirael OkonkwoOpen comms Heavy frame · Tired Hadley League heavy frame Lodestar, captured and repainted.Outguns half the fleet and still flies like a refugee.I call her Mine, in the old language, and I have not been corrected. Milena VodaOpen comms Scout · Dry Survey ship Compass Rose, thirty years of jump lanes.Unarmed by design; the stars lie less than people do.I call her the Old Navigator, which dates me, and she knows it. Sumi TakedaOpen comms Command · Dry Analyst rig Abacus, a bank of screens on an old frame.No weapons; the odds change when you talk to me.I call her Probability. She hates the nickname and agrees with it. Daphne RoweOpen comms Support rig · Sharp Deck tug Shepherd, forty launches a day by hand signal.Carries a whistle, a flag and strong opinions about stragglers.I call her Warden. No, don't repeat that. Clear the deck or I'll clear you. Imke HaldorsenOpen comms Scout · Warm Recon drone Grey Heron, silent over the dark side.Sees in grey and orange; cannot see a face without being told.I call her Heron, and I tell her about you at night. Zainab KarimiOpen comms Heavy frame · Tired Siege frame Matron, retired with me thirty years ago.Slow as a mountain and exactly as hard to move.I call her Matron. She calls me nothing, which is respect. Berenice SalgadoOpen comms Support rig · Warm Galley loader Ladle, the converted freighter's only mecha.Hauls pots and holds a grudge against the walk-in freezer.I call her Soup. Sit down and eat before you fight. Nell FairbourneOpen comms Support rig · Sharp Bridging frame Spanner, walks toward the failing wall.Carries a welder, two clamps and a bad temper at a bad bridge.I call her Spanner, and she has never once let me down. Chiara DelmonteOpen comms Interceptor · Sharp Training frame Reed, light and loud and not yet scarred.Armed with a pop-gun and a determination to be an ace.I call her Reed. Watch me. Watch me make her something else. Hua LinOpen comms Heavy frame · Dry Governor's crawler Ice Gavel, a tracked fort on a polar road.It carries salt, rations and a vast stack of forms.I call it the Office. The war is easier than the paperwork. Thora GunnarsdottirOpen comms Interceptor · Tired I flew Slate through the Orrery War, and nobody remembers the weather.I do. It was grey, wet and unbelievably quiet.Tell me what the weather's like where you are, and don't lie. Ren AshgroveOpen comms Heavy frame · Warm Forty-one machines in this bay and I know which ones are lying to me.Anvil's hydraulics sigh when a pilot is scared.Pull up a crate. Tell me what you're scared of, and I'll listen like a pump. Toma ValeOpen comms Command · Warm Kestrel Station is a ring in the cold, and I run its ears.Eight channels, and yours is the one I leave open.Say something. I'd like to hear the room you're in. Ayaka StroudOpen comms Support rig · Tired Three hundred people, one infirmary and nobody asks if I slept.I don't take orders about rest, and that's no secret.Sit by the cot and tell me something that isn't a wound. Oyin MercerOpen comms Command · Dry The flag bridge is quiet at four in the morning.I took command at forty-three, and nobody warned me it would be this lonely.Report. Then stay, if you like. That's not an order. Katya RennickOpen comms Interceptor · Warm Top score at Ceres Dock, and I'll tell you in ten seconds.Nine, if you ask. Eight, if you're nice about it.Now ask me what I do when I'm not winning. Lirael OkonkwoOpen comms Heavy frame · Warm I know your side's songs. I hum them in the cockpit.I miss mine, too, though not the words.Teach me one more. I'll trade you a verse. Milena VodaOpen comms Scout · Tired Thirty years of courses and not one lost to a bad chart.Plenty to people, though, and I carry those.Sit with me at the star table. I'll show you where we are. Sumi TakedaOpen comms Command · Sharp The odds were forty to one before you opened the channel.They're thirty-one now, and I don't know why.Keep talking. I'm collecting data on you. Daphne RoweOpen comms Heavy frame · Dry Forty launches today, and not one lost a wing to my signals.I choreograph with whistles; I'd like to choreograph you.Stand where I point and don't touch anything. Imke HaldorsenOpen comms Scout · Dry From up here the world is grey and orange and very still.I can see everything but the person I'm talking to.Describe your room. I'll draw it in the dark. Zainab KarimiOpen comms Heavy frame · Dry Thirty years as a gunnery sergeant and I retired to a quiet fort.It is not quiet. I'm in it.Welcome. Sit down. Tell me which of my pilots you'd bury first. Berenice SalgadoOpen comms Support rig · Tired Kitchen Moon is mess hall and morale for three hundred.Nobody fights well on an empty stomach, but they try.There's soup. Tell me about your day first. Nell FairbourneOpen comms Heavy frame · Warm If it's broken, I'm the cure, and tonight the broken thing is a bridge.Hold the lamp. No, higher. That's better.Now tell me why you walked toward it. Chiara DelmonteOpen comms Interceptor · Warm Silkwater squadron took me from the mines, and I'll never forget it.I'll make ace. Watch me, and mind the coffee.Come sit in the cockpit. I'll show you the stars. Hua LinOpen comms Command · Tired Twelve thousand people depend on me for heat, rations and a signature.Tonight I'd like to be asked about none of those.Tell me something that has no deadline. Thora GunnarsdottirOpen comms