THE MOMENT
"Queen Bailey!" Daniel jumped to his feet as soon as he recognized the teen. Her long, brown hair obscured her face, but her forest-green hoodie gave her away; it was unmistakable. She was the last person he expected. He was working in the mecha hangar when she walked up to greet him. Then, she smiled and shook her head after his outburst.
"I'm here to help you. I'd prefer just, 'Bailey'," she said. "What's the problem?" she asked as he nodded eagerly. She was a living legend as far as he was concerned, and if she wanted to be 'just Bailey', he had no issues with that.
"The rookies keep complaining about how small and weak my nation's mechs are, compared to others. They seem unable to comprehend that, everyone else's mechs are meant to replace tanks and fortresses, while mine are meant to be heavy infantry." He gestured at the disorganized squad of cadets in one corner of the large space. They were milling around, completely ignoring the polished mechanical suits lined up in front of them. "They won't even get inside to try."
"Sure, but where are the mechs?" Bailey asked with a cheerful tone. She identified the problem immediately, and couldn't blame him for it.
"They're right there!" He almost raised his voice in frustration, until he remembered she was there to help. He'd been trying to get his squad organized for hours.
"That's what I thought," Bailey nodded and flicked her wrist upward in front of her. A large, smokey grey glass Slate appeared, and she began navigating the menus.
"The issue is you, not your cadets. There's a minimum size threshold to qualify as 'Mecha'," she nodded as she guided his attention forward. A black portal opened, and a new group of cadets began filing out to stand next to the other squad. Bailey's squad lined up in formation and remained at attention. "Those are classified as 'Power-suits', and you gave your squad the wrong licenses. Do you want your squad to pilot mechas or power-suits? If you want to keep your squad, I'll buy the suits off you. Or, if you want to keep them, I'll trade you this blank squad for the one you already trained, plus some nanos on top."
“Oh wow… how did I miss that..?” Daniel felt disappointment take hold. He’d wasted her time completely. But just as quickly as the emotion flared up, it vanished with a warm smile from her.
“Doesn’t matter,” she shrugged. “Now you know how to fix it. Since I’m here, why don’t you give me a tour of the rest of your operations? I’ll see if there’s anything else you might’ve missed.”