Freya led the two men to a section of the facility that was slightly crowded by armed soldiers and various other combat personnel. She and Jacob didn't draw much attention, but Maximiler wasn't lucky enough to escape the attention. He was like a beacon of light in a pitch black night. His pale skin stood out like a sore thumb among the dark skinned soldiers.
"A clone? What's it doing here?"
"Isn't that one of Doc's specimens?"
"Oi! Isn't that the clone that hijacked a mech? I heard it scored a B+ rating!"
Different people pitched into the conversation when they noticed Maximiler passing by. The person in question just ignored them, opting to play dumb to their conversation, and followed after Jacob and Freya.
The doctor led them to the front of the hall that led to the exterior of the facility, albeit through a passage that Maximiler wasn't aware of. Large metal blast doors were at the end of the hall. Currently, the doors were open and soldiers were pouring into the large space that was on the other side. When Maximiler took a closer look at it, he recognized what was going on. The door was connected to the hatch of a cargo hauler that was intended to lift into orbit to deploy more combat personnel.
Freya led them there before showing her identification card to an armed guard that was stationed there. She explained a few things to him before he nodded.
"Come, get it. Make sure he gets to his unit." She pushed both Jacob and Maximiler in before the guard also stepped in with them. Someone else took his place while a few more people filed inside. Freya nodded lightly just as the blast doors began closing up. The two men nodded back before backing away and walking to the middle of the hangar bay of the cargo ship. It wasn't all that crowded as infantry personnel weren't needed up in space, and most mech pilots who were trained in space combat had already deployed or were on standby in the Orbital Station that slowly orbited the planet.
The ship shook and vibrated slightly as it began to lift off. Red lights that were continuously blinking overhead reminded them that they were in a state of emergency.
As they were standing around with nothing to do, they began to look around, only to notice that most of the people in the hangar bay already had eyes on them. Even the armed guard that was assigned to escort Maximiler to his unit was eyeing the pale skinned man with curious eyes.
"Hey, that's a clone, right? What is it doing here?" Someone asked.
"It's classified, please do not ask any more questions and focus on the matter at hand." The guard stoically replied, turning his curious gaze from Maximiler. No one else asked a question, with most of them scowling or just changing to another topic to discuss among themselves.
The rest of the ride was spent in relative silence. Even Jacob who found it fun to chat around kept his back straight and gripped his weapon with both hands. He really looked the part of a personal guard now. Maximiler secretly shook his head in amusement. His personal guard was really an odd person.
The ship shook as it docked in the space station in orbit. Maximiler wasn't able to get a view of the exterior of the station as there were no viewing stations to peer into the outside in the hangar bay of the cargo hauler. Several seconds passed before a low hissing sound was heard and the doors slid open. Men and women began to file out while automated bots lifted all sorts of crates of equipment and whatnot and begun to offload them.
"Follow me." The guard leading them said before diverting from the crowd of personnel that was heading down a different path from them. A stream of human heads could clearly be seen. The space station was increasingly busier with each passing moment. The lane they traversed was much less busy in comparison. Sure, there were a couple dozen people walking through and several bots carrying crates of rushing to the docking bay, but compared to the other route, this one was much less busy.
The trio walked down a winding path for a while before the guard stopped them in front of a large blast door. He waved his identification card before the scanner before the door released a low chime. With a slow gait, the doors majestically peeled itself open. Layers upon layers of reinforced steel slid open to make way for them. Beyond the door was the expansive mech hangar of the orbital station. Rows upon rows of mechs were lined up, warming up, and ready to fight.
"This is the mech hangar. We are not here on a tour, so please, if you would hurry up, it would be for the best." The guard ushered them forward. He led them down several rows of mechs. Some mechs were already passing through the energy screen that separated them inside of the station from the void outside. Most mechs were still warming up, while there were still a few that remained powered down.
The guard stopped before a smaller row of mechs before speaking up. "This is your mech unit."