<strong>"Cotton?  I'll tell the ground crew you're coming.  This shipment's bound for Concrete City, we leave as soon as you're here."</strong>The Big C, Concrete City was a manufacturing center about 280 kilometers to the south.  Its numerous power plants fed factories that produced a variety of goods, but in particular construction materials--hence the name.  Something must have held the shipment up at the port.  Now it was Bunny's job to get the late shipment there as quick as could be done.<br/><br/><strong>"Fox out,"</strong>he said, cutting the call short.  Lieutenant Fox was not a man known for exchanging long pleasantries.<br/><br/>The officers seemed a little surprised, then shrugged and returned to what they'd been doing.  Their faces said 'glad it ain't me.'  The job was a blue milk run in some senses, but the roads were not safe for Cibus.  Hijackers, terrorists, and other scoundrels would always lie in wait for any shipment that looked vulnerable.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The hangar would be waiting for Bunny as it usually was.  Her X-Series was crouched in the docking position, technicians making quick diagnostics checks.  It was operating at 100% capacity, if missing some internal bits and bobs that might keep it a bit more together in a fight.  They did what they could with what they had.<br/><br/><strong>"Come on, on the double!  Hustle, hustle!"</strong><div class="floatright">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/b4/e2/ddb4e2dc88df708480693b052398f70a.jpg)</div>Suzy was waving at some technicians as the bay doors pulled open ahead of anyone so much as noticing Bunny arriving.  It seemed that Lieutenant Fox has impressed upon them that time was of the essence, so things were all ready to get the moment she arrived.<br/><br/>Suzy was one of two Chief Mechanics, overseeing much of what the ground crew did.  A local girl who had come up through the ranks of technician by virtue of a close affinity for Cibus power, she was respected by her peers--if not the business-as-usual gruff mechanic that her counterpart Ryker was.  He was nowhere to be seen however, not unusual with just two operational mechs at the base.<br/><br/>If approached, Suzy will be somewhat startled, taking it in her stride.<br/><br/><strong>"Hey darling, looks like you're up for a ride to C-Town!"</strong>she'd say with a wink at Bunny.<strong>"Lieutenant Fox rode our ass over the radio.  Apparently some Cibus is late over a bomb threat at the port, and the factory owners are causing a stir with the management--and whatever stirs the manage,"</strong>she would shrug.  The phrase ended 'stirs the brass,' but it was such a common saying on base that nobody bothered to