Brie had strong boned features. Expressive eyebrows sat above a pair of blue eyes that suggested the woman had seen her fair share of hardship.
Brie's lips quirked. "I was wondering when the Phoenix would get around to visiting. Didn't think it would take another war to get her here though." She made a show of looking around. "Where's your drone? I was under the impression you never went anywhere without him."
The J1N's antigravs sounded particularly loud in the resulting silence. As was the ominous tinkle of cracking ice.
"Is he stuck?" someone asked quietly.
Kira ground her teeth at the sight of the J1N trapped in a cage of ice and branches. A prison it had wandered into entirely under its own recognizance.
She'd be furious, but by this point, she really had no expectations.
Brie gave the J1N an interested look. "He's not what I imagined from the descriptions."
Kira's smile didn't touch her eyes. "He just needs a tune up. The planet's magnetic field is playing havoc on his antigravs."
That's right. Nothing to see here. Just a drone with a little problem with his positioning system.
Brie's nod made it clear she wasn't entirely convinced.
"Jin, come here," Kira ordered, raising her voice.
The sound of the J1N's engines increased in volume. Wood creaked but that was it. The tree's branches refused to break. As did the ice coating them. A second later, the drone throttled its engines.
"There seems to be a problem," the J1N announced in an emotionless voice.
An amused cough came from one of the humans. They ducked their head to hide their smile.
"I require assistance," the J1N declared.
Do not destroy the drone, Kira told herself, taking a deep breath to control the need for violence. Jin requires a body. If you cut it in half, he will try to do the same to you.
"I'll let you handle that," Brie said with a light chuckle as she moved away. "When you're done, I'll take you to the All Father."
Graydon joined Kira. "Things are going quite well, I think."
Kira shot him a glare that said she wasn't amused.
Graydon's cough covered his laugh. "Are your adventures always this haphazard?"
"I don't want to hear that from someone who jumped through a rift in space without knowing what was waiting for him on the other end," Kira said, examining the maze of branches that had trapped the J1N.
It was something of a miracle that the drone had managed to venture as deep into their depths as he had. No wonder he'd gotten stuck. Although the branches were thin, they were highly flexible. Had they been thicker, they would have broken under the weight of all that ice.
Instead, they endured.
Kira snarled as the tip of an icicle snagged on her hood. "J1N, come here."
The J1N continued to buzz like an overgrown bumble bee as it pressed against the branches directly in front of it.
"If someone hadn't been on the other side of that rift, I never would have been so reckless," Graydon defended.
"Bullshit," Kira said, ducking under several branches and crawling through the snow until she was crouching just under the J1N's position. "Say what you will. You're just like me when it comes to this sort of thing."
They had a way of thrusting themselves into danger without a second thought, trusting their skills and a considerable amount of luck to save them.
Kira glared up at the J1N. "Get down here."
The drone avoided her reach, propelling himself into the branches overhead. His action dislodged a pile of snow, causing it to fall.
Right on Kira’s head.
She froze as something cold and wet slid into the collar of her shirt and then down her chest and back.
Graydon made a choked sound as Kira dusted the snow off with exaggerated motions.
"Oops," the drone said in such a Jin-like fashion that Kira might have thought her best friend had returned to his body if not for its flat tone.
"Screw this," Kira snapped, drawing the akieri.
It only took a second for the blade to unfold, the metal snapping together with loud clicks. Each one like a death knell. When it finished assembling, she swung it at the nearest sheet of ice, clearing a path. A creature the length of her hand, its body white with a bluish tinge, fled the destruction. It landed on the ground and skittered away.
Kira jumped, snagging the J1N out of the air with more ease than would have been possible if it had been Jin.
She landed softly, crouching and half crawling out of the opening she'd made.
"Not a word," Kira ordered as Graydon's shoulders started to shake.