A Mech's Life

Chapter 7: Festivities

Sonjo had not often been here lately and looked around curiously. His grandmother had been part of the council for some time however and he remembered playing around when he was younger while she attended meetings.

It wasn't long however until someone called out his name. Seated at the table were the other council members, they seemed rather happy.

"Sonjo! Wow, what a find huh? Couldn't believe my eyes. You're truly our savior hahaha."

A big burly man, Yojen, stood up and embraced him in a bone crushing hug. Always jovial, Yojen led the hunting party and was responsible for feeding the tribe. Gathering, hunting, fishing, all of it ran by him. Sonjo was rather fond of him and he was only twelve years older than him, which made him the youngest on the council however.

After being let go Sonjo took a few seconds to take some deep breaths before replying.

"Yeah, I'm pretty happy about it! So what are we doing?"

This time Paori answered.

"Please, everyone have a seat.

All three took the remaining chairs at the table. Elder Ruthford broke the silence.

"I just want to start off by saying how happy and proud we are Sonjo. You single handedly have saved our tribe from financial ruin with your find. It's just so...unusual that we have some questions. Can you tell us everything that happened?"

"Sure, it's a bit long so it will take some time."

Sonjo began with how he had come across bandits on the road but had to run away. Then he went into detail about how he had fallen into the facility. As he described the room and every shelf lined with salvageable goods still in their packaging, Paori stood up violently and interrupted him.

"What!? We must dispatch a team right away to go fetch those!"

"Wait, I wasn't done yet. Sadly the whole underground base exploded as I made my way out with the sentinel. I even lost consciousness from the blast which is why so much time passed."

The color drained from her face and she sat down like someone who just learnt that a family member had died.

Sonjo finished up his story, going back and recounting how he fixed the arm and made sure to omit any part of the sentinel talking to him. Meredith smiled at his mention of fixing the arm using what he learnt from her.

"You're a good student! It's important to remember these things when you're in situations like those. I'm sorry I said it was shoddy work, I didn't know the conditions the repairs were made in."

"That's alright, I know it doesn't look too good but I was only aiming for functional."

Elder Ruthford cleared his throat and spoke.

"I see. Well thank you very much Sonjo. We just needed to be certain that you didn't accidentally steal the sentinel from a rightful owner. It would have brought us a lot of trouble if you had."

Meanwhile, Paori spoke with Meredith off to the side but Sonjo couldn't make out what they were saying. It seemed elder Ruth Ford also noticed and remained silent until they finished speaking.

"Now ladies, do you have an estimate for me?"

Paori nodded.

"Let me first state that this is not a guarantee and does not include any potential fees for trying to find a buyer with the capital to afford something like this. With the current state of the sentinel in mind and without considering any potential energy still stored within, I believe it could fetch slightly more than the Antioch that house Sierco purchased a few decades ago."