Hayden and Julian didn’t quite know what to expect when they stepped up to the security checkpoint. The Elemental who was standing inside paid them barely any attention.
“Don’t you need to verify who we are?” Julian asked the giant.
“You are not the Falcons, and i was told to expect two of you. As a matter of detail, i need to verify that neither of you are now or were ever members of the 2nd New Ivaarsen Chasseurs. Is that correct?”
“That is correct, Point Commander?” Hayden was trying to acquaint herself with the clan ranking system.
“Not a Point Commander, Ma’am, just a warrior.” He flipped the switch and the swing arm flipped up, giving them entry into the field base. The warrior saluted, and they moved quickly past the checkpoint towards the dropship. Hayden still had no idea what kind of dropship it was. If Julian knew, he was keeping that to himself.
Julian tilted his head slowly as he tried to take in what he was seeing. A pair of presumably Mechwarriors were standing back to back in a circle of targets. Arrayed around the targets were a variety of mirrors and other photoreceptors. One warrior would call out a particularly bizarre shot combination, and then fire a laser pistol. The low powered target laser would bounce from mirror to mirror, tagging Photoreceptors along the way until the shot either hit the target, or it missed.
“I think they’re playing Horse, with pistols.” Julian said to no one in particular.
“They what?”
“It’s a game i played when i was kid. We played it with basketballs, not pistols, but the concept is the same.”
“These people are crazy, right?” Hayden asked him.
“Crazy is a matter of perspective, and we don’t have a complete profile of these people. This feels like they aren’t the Jade Falcons, but a different clan. You know that we heard about multiple clans on this front, this could be one of their units.”
“Keep your eyes open, Julian.”
“Roger that.”
As they got closer, they realized that neither of the Battlemechs that were sitting perimeter watch were currently piloted. They were set at Ready 5, which meant anyone could walk up to one and get it moving. That wasn’t typical for an inner sphere command, Mechs were a precious resource and keeping them secure was a fundamental part of military life.
They stepped up the ramp into the spheroid dropship and took in the sights of the Mechbay. There were four other Battlemechs in various stages of repair. The lightest one was a medium mech she couldn’t identify specifically, but she also saw an unusual configuration on an assault mech that was currently down to its endoskeleton. The entire mech had its armor and myomers removed and was currently being rebuilt from the ground up. They were currently fitting a new fusion engine into the housing, and there was a large container that probably had a gyro sitting in it.
“Star Commander’s looking for you two in his command center.” one of the technicians said quickly.
“Where’s that?”
“Two decks up, turn left at the still.”
“The Still?”
“Look, it’s been a long year.” The technician shrugged at the two of them and went back to spooling myomer cables. The two of them made their way up to the command center. The same mechwarrior who’d been talking to them outside was waiting for them, in slightly more clothing than before.
“Nice to meet the both of you in person.” He said with an easy smile.
“It’s a pleasure.” Hayden said with a forced smile.
“Nice raid on this firebase. The PGC didn’t see you coming.”
“Thanks, i guess?” Julian said with a hint of confusion.
“You should net a couple of battlemechs, the parts to reconfigure a couple of Omnimechs, and a wealth of technical data and the technicians to make sense of that data. With Jorja’s help, you should have that loaded in the next couple of hours.”
“Why didn’t you attack us?” Hayden asked him quickly. Her eyes were scanning the room, taking in the pictures on the walls, the papers and the general level of clutter.
“Not in my mission briefing. My star is down a mech, and the other star we were riding with was almost completely destroyed. To be honest, our recall orders were a blessing.”
“Recall orders?”
“The Old Man sent out orders last month. Finish up what we’re doing and then haul ass for the OZ.”
“OZ?”
“Sorry, the Occupation Zone. The territory the Falcons, Wolves, Bears and Jaguars have claimed as their own. I suspect they are going to get bigger the longer this conflict goes on.”
“What were you doing before that?” Julian asked him. They had all taken seats around the large holotable that dominated the room. He’d seen these before but they were usually in regimental command centers.
“Chasing down a lead on a lost Star League Defense Force transport, the SLS Glory Ridge. It was lost during the and you don’t really care. We found what we were looking for but it had also been found by some pirates who were using it as a base. Our ten mechs against an entire battalion was turning into a pretty sucky year. We lost half our mechs destroying them, but we couldn’t salvage the dropship. We grabbed what we could and burned out of there on our way here. The Falcons were nice enough to offer shelter and supplies while we rebuilt our strength. And then you showed up, and put holes in them.”
“So you are not Clan Jade Falcon?”
“Oh, heavens no.”
Julian stared at him incredulously for a second.
“Sorry, I am still coming down off of my Necrosia...It tends to alter my perceptions. I am a Seeker, with clan Goliath Scorpion.”
“Necrosia?” Julian asked him.
“It’s an artificial mind altering chemical derived from the venom of the real goliath scorpion. It alters perceptions and mental states for the seekers, and tends to help us find the things we’re looking for.”
“Like Peyote?” Hayden asked.
“Kind of, it’s a little stronger from my personal experiences.”
“So what precisely are your orders?”
“Recall to the OZ, wait for transport back to home.”
“Home being the Clan Homeworlds?”
“They said you were a sharp one, Sanders.”
“Who sent those orders?”
“Ivan did. From his HQ on Tharkad.”
“And you follow those orders?”
“He’s my Galaxy Commander, and the current head of the Seeker movement. Besides that, i’ve heard the story about how he lost his arm, and i don’t want that man pissed off at me.”
“What?”
“So, back on Misery in ‘28, if the stories are true, the Combine dropped a DEST unit onworld as part of the Ryuken deployment. Their orders as i understand it were to kill Jamie Wolf and make an example of the Dragoons. They did not expect a point of elementals to be running bodyguard for the Colonel at the time.”
“Wolf’s Dragoons? Why would they have Elementals?” Julian asked him.
“So, the story goes Ivan grabs one of those DEST commandos and snaps him in half with his big giant hands. The next one comes at him with a sword and in one of those perfect moments, cuts his arm off at the elbow. I don’t know how, the muscle and bone of an elemental makes that improbable. Ivan barely bats an eye, picks up his own arm and uses it as a club to beat the assassin to death. The recovery team found him standing in the middle of a pile of dead elementals and assassins, and credit his survival to a combination of Harjel spray and insanity. The damage done was extensive, and he waited for treatment until the rest of the field units were good. They couldn’t save his arm, and he refused a cybernetic.”
Julian’s mouth moved slowly, and he finally managed to get the words to come out “So, Ivan’s a Goliath Scorpion, and presumably the Old Man?”
“Yep.”
“And he put out a bounty on us?”
“Not that kind of a bounty, but any of us that found you were to give you any assistance we could without compromising our mission.”
“Why?” Hayden asked him quietly.
“Because, the Sokolov kids are as close to family as he has in this world, and by extension their friends are equally important.”
“Have you seen Jaxun?”
“I heard he rotated offworld when the 8th regulars moved on. I know for a fact that Mason and Mackenzie are alive and well on Anywhere, but i don’t think they’ll be staying for long.”
“Why?”
“Because i suspect the 8th regulars are going to take a detour on their way to Steelton to come here and kill every last member of the 2nd New Ivaarssen Chasseurs, and if we were combat ready, we’d be helping them out.”
No comments:
Post a Comment