Unsurprisingly Hanna couldn't say no to 'payment beyond her wildest dreams', so she went to fetch her sleepy little sister and met back up with Mac. That's when the fun began. Not only had Mac led the pair out of town in the night and into a strange machine, it also took off and flew into the sky without a sound.
"W-what the fuck is all this?"
While Hanna was loudly questioning what she was seeing, her little sister that she was carrying was simply doing her best to hide by pressing her face into her chest.
"A dropship, it's made for transporting troops and gear to and from space. Space being the thing that's above the sky."
Seeing his new hire had a hard time accepting reality, Mac chose to be frank and tell the truth, hoping she would start adjusting at the speed he needed her to.
"... Who are you really, Mac?"
"I thought you'd never ask. My name is Mac, I've traveled across an ocean of stars to get to this world. I am here to cooperate and integrate into society, aid with fighting against disease, death and suffering and eventually let this world integrate into galactic society."
(What a load of bullshit.)
There was no way Mac was telling the truth, but Hanna could live with that as long as she was paid.
"Okay then, what am I hired to do?"
Moving swiftly on, Hanna half expected to end up as Mac's bodyguard or enforcer, but Mac already had drones for that.
"I need you to protect someone, and in the case of danger buy me 20 seconds to react."
This was the core of Mac's current dilemma. While he could absolutely place a drone guard around Tia and her dad 24/7, doing so would invite unneeded scrutiny, so he needed an incognito stopgap to shield her, whether she chose to continue working for him or not.
"... Just 20 seconds? What can you even-"
"I shot you through the leg 17.5 seconds after detection. 20 seconds is plenty of time to act."
While it required a significant amount of resources, Mac saw it as an absolute requirement. Too many times he had lost collaborators, friends really, because he was too slow. Perhaps sensing her older sister's discomfort, Hanna's little sister Paige chose that moment to peek at Mac before voicing a single delegation.
"... I don't like you."
"Well I don't like you either, so the feeling is mutual."
Of the opinion that one shouldn't lie to kids, Mac made his displeasure of small people known before getting back on topic.
"So, do you think you'll be able to do the work?"
"I do believe I can do that, yes."
Hanna had worked protection jobs before, but this job seemed way more doable as her boss held very reasonable expectations towards her.
"Okay then, that's what I like to hear."
Extending a hand, Mac shook hands with his new employee and immediately got on with things.
"From now on I'll hire personnel based on your recommendations when or if needed. Pay will be half of yours, while training earns double or half and expulsion based on if they pass or fail. You will workshop training with me and receive triple payment for the duration and your own weapons training."
"Why go through all this?"
Faced with an extremely lucrative sounding prospect, Hanna wondered if her new boss really wanted to place this amount of thrust in her.
"Because it'll be less of a pain than the alternatives. You know the drones that normally do my dirty work, imagine the panic it'll cause if they're seen guarding a merchant. The same merchant you were trailing the other day, when I shot you in the leg."
"Yeah you keep coming back to that point… What kind of point are you trying to make again?"
It didn't sit right with Hanna that Mac kept coming back to that, it had been a painful memory, and she found it degrading that he constantly brought it up.
"It's just that you didn't seem confused about the weapon I used at the time, nor have you brought it up now."
"That's called tact, and I don't charge extra for that."
While realising that her employer was trying to bait her was one thing, Hanna wasn't paid quite enough to act like a dolt and walk straight into things.
Of course, this wasn't Mac's intention, and when he realised they were talking past each other he went out and just said it.
"Not that's not- The first thing you'll be taught to use is that weapon, it is way more effective than throwing knives."
".... Okay, I can work with that."
With the conversation choking out there, the inside of the dropship fell into silence as Paige peeked out at Mac again.
"... Are we there y-"
"Close your feed hole."
-
Watching the sun set Tia had an overwhelmingly bad feeling which centered in her stomach.
(He still hasn't contacted me, or dad for that matter.)
It had been a day since she had messed up badly enough that Mac had needed to act and come save her like she was some princess stuck in a tower. Although she was inexperienced, Tia had failed to see the ambush coming. Worse yet, Mac hadn't contacted her since he transported her home, the only contact was a particularly large payment which had appeared in the garden overnight.
".... I might be fired."
With how useless she had been, Tia figured the payment which had arrived this morning was her last; after all it would be easy for Mac to find a far more competent replacement that didn't panic or pass out.
(Hggh.)
Cringing at her own apparent uselessness, Tia had failed to realise Mac hadn't contacted her to allow her to take a break, and that the salary which had arrived this morning was a bonus for things she had endured.
"Come on, you don't know that."
Speaking from the next room over, Hank tried to cheer up his daughter after he had been banished for insinuating Tia had already been paid enough to retire.
"Then why isn't he contacting us? I've tried a few times, but there's no response from the necklace."
Again, Mac had chosen to give Tia some alone time in fear that pestering her doing her time off would negate the rest.
"..."
Seeing his daughter set in her depressed ways, Hank found himself at a loss for words, but before he could find something to say there was a knock on the door.
"I think that's him, go wash your face."
Doing his best to ignore the sound of Tia scrambling to get her act together, Hank went to check the door and found Mac.
"Hey. She's getting ready, give it a second."
Also deciding to ignore the sound of someone scrambling to turn themselves presentable, Mac gestured for Hank to join him in the garden where the pair sat down next to Mac's dropship which had silently parked.
"Is it possible for you to take care of a child? I've hired some protection for Tia, but the bodyguard has a kid sister that needs to be watched."
Half expecting Hank to refuse the sudden ask, Mac was already preparing to dedicate a significant part of his available processing power for child wrangling when Hank agreed.
"Sure, I can do that. Shouldn't be that different from raising Tia."
As a single parent that had become nothing but more patient and wise with the years, Hank figured it would be no issue taking care of a kid.
"Then for payment I'-"
"No need for any salary, you've already paid for my retirement…"
"Whatever you need."
Seeing Hank trail off and hesitate to bring something up, Mac urged him to speak and got an unexpected ask in return.
"Just please don't fire Tia, I know she might not be what you need, but-"
"Hold up, she isn't fired. If anything I was afraid she would be quitting."
With that misunderstanding cleared up, Mac quickly circled back.
"If there's anything you need, just say the word. I'm just happy to be welcomed. And seriously, if you have a request I'll grant it."
With the two men having found peace and smoothed out the problems, Tia finally arrived, slightly frazzled and ready to beg for her job.
"No, you're not fired, yes I am happy with the work you're doing and if you still want to work for me you'll be joined by a mercenary I've hired every time you leave this house. Does that sound acceptable?"
Prefacing Tia completely, Mac watched her short-circuit in real time before her brain rebooted and a smile found its way onto her face.
"Yes, that'll be completely acceptable."
"Good, in that case your time off ends tomorrow. Rest up and prepare to get back to work."
Figuring he had tied up everything he needed to, Mac got up and prepared to return to orbit when Tia spoke up again.
"I… Look, I…-"
"Whatever you need, I'm listening."
Finding Tia locked up like her dad, Mac had expected her to request a raise, only she had something completely different in mind.
"Can you teach me how to defend myself?… I don't want to be useless again."
Tia had felt useless quite a few times as of late, but more than that she was tired of feeling like her life was in the hands of others.
"Sure, are you ready to leave now?"
"Eh?"
As Mac had already prepared to start Hanna's firearm certification immediately, he figured one more student wouldn't make a difference and after introducing his two employees to each other, handing off the half asleep Paige to Hank, the trio of Hanna, Mac and Tia set off again. Only this time the dropship headed almost straight upwards in a spiral instead of traveling somewhere else, leading to confusion.
"Mac, where are we going?"
"To Lighthouse-01, it's a base I've deployed to service dropships and streamline logistics."
Seeing confusion on both Tia's and Hanna's faces, Mac flicked his wrist as a hologram appeared in front of him showing the base he had deployed to high atmosphere.
The 'Lighthouse' was a massive building which easily dwarfed the arena Mac had fought inside, with almost 5 square kilometers of storage space and 40 total floors, 96 rapid access dock points for light and heavy lift transports and 12 high caliber railgun turrets for full defensive coverage. Of course all Hanna and Tia saw when Mac showed off his toy was a floating round building the size of a castle with a concentric ring floating disconnected around it.
Hanna and Tia had a few different reactions to that, while Tia had already been onboard 2 of Mac's Cruisers she figured he could deploy something of this size, while Hanna chose disbelief instead of coming to terms with the fact that her new boss actually was the leader of an intergalactic task force like he claimed he was.
"That's impressive. How is it floating in the sky?"
"It's using a smaller version of a gravity drive the cruisers are equipped with."
"... This has to be fake…"
Entering final approach to the Lighthouse, the dropship was joined by a pair of drone air superiority fighters trailing its starboard. The fighters were sleek, flying wings with high output atmospheric ion thrusters in their centre, while the dull grey wings hid both long range air to air missiles and autocannons. As the dropship and its escort passed through a final layer of clouds, Mac made the dropship's sensors display on its interior walls, showing the Lighthouse in most of its glory. Indeed as the schematics Mac had showed earlier, the Lighthouse was the size of a castle, perhaps even larger, with a halo of superheated metal around it the airborne fortress looked divine catching the setting sun, but there were no magic or whimsy holding it afloat, just science.
As the dropship flew closer countless details became visible, gun turrets covering each and every of the almost countless hangars where light and heavy dropships and transports were situated, attached with their landing gear the countless crafts were rotated head first and preached over the edge of the fortress, ready to drop and deploy at Mac's command.
"Why don't you just crush the country if you have this much power?"
Seeing the Lighthouse up close finally made the reality of the situation sink in for Hanna, and she found herself wondering out loud why Mac didn't just let his weapons do the talking, seeing he had plenty to spare.
"Because I'm here on a diplomatic mission. You might see this airborne fortress as a massive overreaction, but it is really here to protect my disaster response effort. No matter how little you seem to believe it, I am here to help."
Responding with serenity while omitting the fact that any disaster response unit would include drone tanks and enough protection to topple a small country, Mac really did mean it when he said he was here to help. That was the mission after all, to meet and help other worlds.