Hayden woke up the sun shining in her face and the scent of
cooking bacon in her nostrils. She panicked
for a moment…where was she? She looked
around for a moment and realized she was sleeping in a garden. It took a moment. She had gone home with Koruku. She was absolutely relaxed right now. She caught a glimpse of Koruku’s bare ass as he
walked by. The scale of that serpent tattoo
that ran up and down his legs almost glittered as he walked. He disappeared behind the island in the small
kitchen and waved at her from there.
She waved back and slipped out of the hammock. It took her a few moments, the mead from the
night before hit her especially hard. She
managed to make her way into the kitchen and greeted him with a smile. He offered her breakfast and a glass of
orange juice.
“Thank you.”
“How are you feeling this morning?”
“Pretty good..” She took a long sip of the orange
juice. “Did we…last night?”
“No, you were very drunk and I was not far behind you. We ended up sleeping together in my bed. Other than a wonderful kiss, we didn’t do
anything.”
“You kissed me?”
“No, you kissed me.
Then you fell asleep in my arms.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be, it was a very pleasant way to spend a night.”
“I don’t usually do things like this…”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me.”
“I see the bare naked approach to life continues…”
“I have to dress soon for a meeting, and that requires me to
dress far more fancifully than I usually like to. I am taking this moment to enjoy it. I am sorry if I offend you.”
“It is certainly an adjustment, but you are easy on the
eyes.” She wasn’t lying…he had a
hardbody that had been toned through years of martial arts practice. He wasn’t musclebound, like a body builder,
but he had a lean musculature to him that she was pretty sure she could bounce
coins off of if she tried real hard. Her
eyes drifted down his body and she paused for a moment when he caught her
staring. “Sorry.”
“I do not mind. I
used to be very self conscious about my body.”
“Why?”
“I used to be rail thin, and I couldn’t seem to gain
weight. The skin and bones look screwed
with my self image and I was cold all the time.
Something finally worked right and I started putting on lean muscle mass
and trained for hours on end. It took me
a long time to get comfortable in my own skin.”
“I can appreciate that.
What do you have to do toay?”
“The short answer is I have to mediate a dispute between two
aggrieved parties.”
“That seems vague.”
“It is a burden that I
do not wish to share with you. Suffice
it, it should take most of my morning. If
you would like to meet for lunch afterward, I would be greatly appreciative.”
“let me check and see what the boys might have in mind for
the day and I will let you know?”
“Sounds wonderful. I’ll
get dressed and then Takeda and I will drop you back off at your ship on our
way?”
“Good.” She wrote the
number for her communicator down on a pad of paper and munched on her
breakfast. He bowed gently and headed
out of the kitchen. She had to admit, it
was a good view. A few minutes after he
disappeared there was a knock at the door.
“Koruku, someone’s here.”
“It’s probably Takeda, could you let her in, please?”
“Sure.” Hayden
carried the glass of juice with her to the front door and took a sip as she
opened it. “Oh balls.: She stared into
the white buttoned down shirt of a massive woman. For a moment she had a flashback to the
elementals they had encountered.
“Takeda?”
“Who are you?” The woman
stared down at her. She had to be two meters
tall and built solid. Koruku was a lean hardbody,
Takeda was big in every aspect of the word.
She was wearing a black suit with gloves and a pair of sunglasses.
“Hayden Lin Shields.”
“Where is Macallister-san?”
“Getting dressed for your meeting.”
“Did you sleep with him?”
“Sort of?”
“Break his heart and I will break you. Do we understand each other?”
“Hai.”
“Good. You seem
likeable.” Takeda ruffled her hair like
her mother used to and then moved past her “Koruku, hurry, you are expected.” Hayden let out a sigh and put her dishes in
the sink and washed them up. By the time
Koruku emerged, she had finished the dishes and put her boots back on. She was waiting outside when they pair
emerged. He was dressed in a very
traditional black kimono and a high peaked cap.
With the kimono on, all of his musculature was hidden. She thought he might even be wearing a tiny
amount of make up. Takeda opened the door
for the both of them and they sat together in the back of his limousine.
“So you’re a philosophy teacher, right?”
“Being a member of my order has a few perks. We control all of the Ivory trade within the
Draconis Combine, and that affords us a lot of wealth.”
“And Takeda?”
“About ten years ago, I was approached by the Oyabun of a
yakuza clan. He was a doting father, and
his son wanted nothing more than to be an officer in the Mustered
Soldiery. He had secured the right
favors to get his son an invitation to the Sun Zhang Mechwarrior Academy, but
his son lacked the spiritual focus needed to get him through that program.”
“What did you do?”
“I tutored the boy for six months before he entered the
academy. He did not appreciate it at
first, but he was ready by the time he stepped through those doors. He graduated with honors and ended up in the Second
Sword of Light as a mechwarrior. His father
could not have been more proud of his son.
In an act of gratitude, Takeda was assigned to my service.”
“So what does she do?”
“She drives the car, handles the day to day ivory trade, and
when it is required, she protects me.”
“Does that happen often?”
“More than I like, but less than she prefers.”
“Are you a criminal?”
She asked him seriously.
“I have never broken the law, no. I am criminal adjacent however.”
“What does that mean?”
“The world I live in is full of shades of grey, and many of
the people I must work with are on the blacker end of the criminal
spectrum. Conversely, I have also taught
many others of higher station.”
“Like a priest who takes the confessions of the criminals
and the cops chasing them.”
“Just so.” He smiled
at her.
The car rolled to a halt at the dropship and Takeda opened
the door for her. She bowed to the much
larger woman and leaned back into the car. “Call me when you get finished. I will see what the day has planned.”
“Sounds good. I will
see you later, Hayden Lin Shields.”
“You too, Koruku Macallister. Takeda, drive safely.”
Takeda nodded and the car rolled away, heading back into
Lapiz.
“Did you have a good
night, Captain?” She turned to see one of the aerospace pilots coming down
the ramp. The motorcycles they typically
drove around were all missing but one.
“Yeah, Heartthrob, I did.”
“When we’re out of the office, you can use my name.”
“All right Adrian. Did
you have a pleasant night?”
“I was out looking for a date for Bradley and I, but there
are way too many chicks on this planet.”
“What?”
“It took us three hours to find a night club for the boys,
and even then it was packed with people we weren’t interested in.”
“That kind of sucks.”
“Yeah…but that’s one night, there are going to be more. We’re going to play beach volleyball, want to
join us?”
“Nah, you guys earned your fun. Besides, I wouldn’t want to distract you from
getting a date.”
“Was that a redhead I saw in the backseat of that car?”
“Yep.”
“Did you…you know?”
“Adrian.”
“I ask as a person concerned for your happiness, not a
gossip.”
“It was a pleasant evening.” She smiled at the aerospace
pilot.
“Girl-bro.” He
extended his fist towards her and she completed the fist bump gesture.
“Go have fun, Adrian.”
“Aye, Aye, Captain.”
He smiled and pulled his helmet on.
The motorcycle sped away quickly.
She walked up the ramp into her dropship and went to make sure that
nothing had been set on fire in her absence.
“Morning, Carter.”
“Morning, Hayden. How
was your night?”
“It was good. What
are you up to?”
“The Aquarium here is amazing. I’m going to spend the day there today.”
“You want to check out the water park tomorrow?” She asked him quietly.
“If you’re not busy with your new friend.”
“Yeah, about that…” She started.
“It’s none of my business. If you want to go have fun, go have fun. You’re my friend, and heaven knows we have
had a rough patch for a while. I do have
one question though.”
“What’s that, Carter?”
“Is he good to you?”
“Yeah, he’s good to me.”
“Good, then I don’t have to kick his ass.” She stifled a chuckle and gave Carter a
hug.
“Have fun at the Aquarium.”
“Will do.”
She found her way back to her quarters and changed into a
new set of civilian clothes, after a quick shower. She was going to have a hell of a laundry day
soon. There was a knock at her
door. “Hang on, I’m changing clothes.”
“No problem.” She
heard Mason’s voice through the door. It
took her a few more minutes to get changed and she opened the door. Mason was dressed to go out to someplace a
little more upscale…”Hey.” He asked her
quietly.
“What’s up, Mason?”
“I was going to check out a place and wanted to know if you
wanted to go with me.”
“What kind of a place?”
“It’s a race track in the upper city.”
“I don’t really like racing.”
“They have a casino too.
You know you love to play cards.”
He smiled at her.
“I do enjoy cards a lot.
Sure, let’s go check it out.”
“Perfect, I have a cab waiting.”
“Sure, let me grab my jacket.” She tossed her field jacket over her shoulder
and followed him outside to the waiting cab.
The car sped back into the city and she relaxed on the ride.
“You know, this was a pretty good place to go for vacation.” Mason nodded along with the music on the
radio.
“Honestly, with how things were going on the ship, I would
have gotten out anywhere.”
“Yeah, things were getting a little wound up. Any idea what’s got Julian so worked up?”
“he’s Julian. It could
be anything.”
“That’s probably true.”
“So why are we checking out this place?”
“The guy that runs the place has a cousin on Le Blanc that
runs a similar operation. He suggested
that if I ever made it over this way to drop in and check it out.”
“Sounds good…”
Meanwhile
“Perfect Tommy?” The barista called from the counter. He smiled and stepped up to retrieve his
coffee with a smile and a couple of C-bills for the Barista. He sat down at the small table he had in the
corner and took a sip. He sat quietly
reading the paper.
“Excuse me, do you have the movie times?” A feminine voice asked him.
“Which movie? He
asked, looking up from his paper.
“Mary Poppins Returns.”
“Have a seat and let
me check.”
“Certainly.” She sat
down across from him in the booth and waited.
She was sipping her own coffee, watching his eyes move across the paper.
“I don’t seem to see that movie in the cinema, sorry.”
“Perhaps you can help me find a better way to spend the day
then?”
“Oh…I think I can do that.”
Fifteen minutes later they were on their way up to his hotel
room. Ten minutes later they were pushing
through the door. She shook her head as
the door closed behind them. “Perfect
Tommy?”
“It’s as good anything else, Clarice.” He smiled at her.
“That shirt is an eyesore.
You should burn it.” She pushed
him back onto the bed.
“I like this shirt.”
“Your accent is slipping.”
“It most certainly is not.”
“Come on, Percy, you can drop the act, we’re not under surveillance.” She smiled down at him.
“You know I detest the word Percy.”
“I know. It always
gets a rise out of you.”
“So what does M have for me today?”
“Always down to business with you?”
“Business first, then everything else.”
“Fine. The apparent
contact your group of miscreants has made with the Jade Falcons has been well received
by the higher ups. You’ve given us a
hell of a head start in figuring out what to do with them and formulating a strategic
plan to deal with their invasion plan.”
“We have had some unexpected assistance along the way.”
“Yes, I read your report.
From what we have been able to determine, the assistance is coming from
some sort of an intelligence asset within the clans. His agents have made contact with some of
ours and have provided a similar amount of intel you received from that first
intelligence drop.”
“He has agents? That sounds
unpleasant.”
“We can’t figure out where they exactly came from, but the
one time we encountered them in the wild, one of their infantrymen showed up
and livened up the party. We were taking
down a Maskirovka cell operating on Old Kentucky. They had us pinned down with heavy firepower
and then the world just lit up. He took
the bolthole apart and smashed the living fuck out of the goons the Masks were
using. We captured her, but the
Elemental I think you call them retrieved the warrior he had gone in to get and
left. We didn’t have the firepower to
stop him, and by the time we had our comms back up again, they were gone.”
“Having seen them up close, I can imagine. What would M like me to do?”
“See if you can make more contact with the asset. See if he will provide more intelligence and
assistance with dealing with the clan threat.
We still need more information to figure out what’s going on.”
“Fair enough. What
about the other matter?”
“The flight of fancy and the crusade against Comstar?”
“Indeed.”
“Well, we have a long history of not getting along with the
Order, but if you can somehow find proof of their interactions with the Clans,
then we might be able to make something happen.”
“Anything else w need to discuss?” He asked her quietly.
“I think this concludes the discussion portion of our
briefing.”
“Then what’s next?”
“The physical portion of our briefing.”
“The things we do for Prince and Country…”
The Golden Fields Race
Track
Hayden had to admit this was not what she expected. Sure, the Golden Fields was a wonderful
example of a gambling joint, with the race track for both dogs and horses, but
it also had a full fledged casino as part of its hotel experience. She sat with Mason for a few of the races and
listened intently as he went over the vitals of the horses that were racing and
all the little details. The level of detail
he knew about these horses was fascinating…for about fifteen minutes.
He nodded, this wasn’t her thing. “There are two more races,
then it’s time for lunch. How about I call
you when the race is done?”
“Actually, I might have lunch plans.”
“With the gangster?”
“He’s not a gangster.
He’s a teacher.”
“Not with that kind of ink, Hayden.”
“How do you know so much about yakuza ink?”
“Le Blanc is in the Draconis March, and one of the many
things we deal with is cultural seepage from the Combine. One of the worst things I recall from living
there was a yakuza gang that tried to lock down the spaceport. It got so bad the planetary rulers had to
send in the militia to shoot it out with the gangsters. It got real bloody, and a lot of good people
got hurt.”
“Well, we’re not on Le Blanc, Mason, and he is not some
scary ass gangster from your childhood.”
“If you want to eat lunch together, let me know. I will be here.” He changed the topic quickly.
“Sure, I will give you a call.”
“Stay out of trouble, and try not to gamble all of your money
away.” He smiled at her and went back to
the racing forum.
“You too.” She turned
and headed back down into the casino.
Her eyes were scanning the room for something that looked like a lot of
fun and a set of red pulsing lights gathered her attention. There was a display for a new card game that
she’d never heard of and folks were packing in around the booth to see it.
It was…a trading card game.
She’d seen them when she was a kid, but didn’t have the loose cash to play. This one was different though. It was about Battlemechs. She had seen games like it before, but this
one had an augmented reality function.
“Want to try a game?”
A tall, attractive man dressed in a pretty realistic approximation of a
mechwarrior cooling vest.
“Uh…sure.”
“Wolf’s Dragoons or Grey Death Legion?”
“Excuse me?”
“You want to play the Dragoons or the Grey Death?”
“Dragoons.” She
smiled.
“Okay, now you’re playing a pre-constructed starter set as
Jamie Wolf, in his Archer.” The guy said
quickly. “Other starter sets feature
other famous units and their mechwarriors, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Here, take your console.” He handed her a small electronic
controller. “Now, as you can see, you
have the stats for your Archer, with an Armor and a Structure value,
representing the amount of damage you can take, right?”
She pulled the console up and saw the stats flash for both
of those values. “Okay.”
“Now there are three primary range values that we use for
this game, short, medium, and long.
Short range guns are things like SRMS, flamers…”
“I’m a mechwarrior, I am familiar with battlemech scale
weapons.”
“Oh good, so then you know that some weapons are more effective
at some ranges than others. Each of the
weapons on your mech profile have a specific range and you can sort of figure
out what a mech wants to do.” She nodded
along.
“Now on your turn, you can use your mech to attack your
opponent’s mech. You do damage based on
the range band you are at. The thing
that gets interesting are the cards you play.
There are action and reaction cards in your deck that you can play to
give you bonuses to hit, change range bands, or turn hits into misses.”
“That sounds interesting.”
“Sure, let me show you.
Like I said, you are playing Colonel Wolf in his Archer, and you are
playing against Chu-I Hirobu, of the Fifth Galedon Regulars. He is piloting a
Hunchback.” The two consoles blinked at
each other and there was a holographic display that showed the two mechs on the
table they were playing on.
“You can
play without the consoles, but in order to gamble on the games, you have to use
your console. It verifies your age and
everything to make it legal.”
“All right…”
“So the other thing to notice Is that you have numbers
printed at the bottom of each card, and these are the random number generator
for the game. Some of the action cards
will say something like, show a 3+, and you hit the target for an additional
point of damage this turn. You flip the
top card of your deck and if that number matches, you get the benefit.”
“All right, let’s try this game.” She shuffled the deck of cards and drew her
first hand. An hour and a half passed in
the blink of an eye. She played three
matches in short order and had gotten herself a starter set and some booster
packs.
“Now the cool thing about the expansion sets is that you can
get new commands to field your battlemechs from. You get new mechs, new mechwarriors, and a
host of potential upgrades, along with new actions and some other surprises.” The vendor had told her. “If you like, you could enter the three day
tournament we have that starts tomorrow.
First place prize is ten thousand C-Bills.”
Her communicator beeped, and it was from
Koruku.
“Thank you for that demo, I will give it some thought.”
“Sure.”
She stepped away from the display and found a quiet place to
check the message.
Hey, just finished my
meeting, want to grab lunch?
Sure, where are you?
Currently at the
Golden Fields, it’s a race track in the upper city.
That’s an odd
coincidence, so am i
Playing cards or
watching the horses?
Playing cards
Meet you at the Alpha Strike
display in ten minutes?
Sure, let me contact
one of my friends. He is here and I would
like to share the meal with you both. Bring
Takeda.
Sounds good
She called Mason on her communicator, “Hey, you ready for a
bite?’
“I could eat, where are you?”
“Down in the Casino, by the Alpha Strike display.”
“The what now?”
“Just come down and meet me, look for the people that look
like Mech Bunnies.”
“Got it, see you in a few.” The line went quiet and Hayden spent a
minute looking around. Koruku and Takeda
were the first to arrive, and that caught Hayden a little off guard. Just how close had they been? Everyone gave Takeda a wide berth, but
several people stopped Koruku and asked him to take pictures with them. He nodded politely and stood for a few
pictures. One of the vendors caught
sight of him and rushed over to him with a bag full of stuff for Alpha
Strike. He graciously accepted and
handed it over to Takeda.
“What was that about?”
\“Oh I get handed things like this all the time. The order’s connections throughout the Combine
make our agents very popular with people who are trying to make inroads into
our commercial markets.”
“That must be handy.”
"Some times It is more pleasant than others.”
“My friend is joining us for lunch.”
“The tall one or the loud one?”
“The loud one. Fair
warning, he’s from the Draconis March.”
“Robinson?’’
“Le Blanc.”
“I will try not to offend him.”
Mason came around the corner and skidded to a halt. Hayden was standing in front of a booth for a
card game with her yakuza friend and a much larger woman. The thought flashed through his mind…Farraday. He shook his head and approached the three of
them.
“Hey, ready to grab a meal?”
He smiled at Hayden.
“Sure, what’s good here?”
She responded, turning her attention to Koruku.
“There’s the House of the Eternal Sun, if you’re not wanting
to go far.”
“Never heard of it.” Mason nodded.
“It’s a fine place, and it’s on the premises.”
“Koruku, that is not a wise idea.” Takeda said quietly.
“It will be quite fine, Takeda. Come with us?” He waved a hand towards the staircase into
the upper reaches of the building. Mason
shot Hayden a glance and the two of them followed. Takeda brought up the rear
of their party.
“So what is the House of the Eternal Sun?”
“A restaurant for people who appreciate the finer aspects of
the culinary arts of Terra’s Asian continent.
Japan, China, Thailand, Korea, and a host of other cultures contributed
to the menu.”
“That sounds neat.”
Hayden responded to him.
“They try for a traditional Japenese aesthetic, but don’t
quite hit the mark.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It doesn’t quite hit the conservative nature of traditional
Japanese culture.”
“How?” Mason asked him.
“They spun a little hard into the more interesting
aspects. Neon lights, scantily dressed servitors. It’s like a love hotel had a baby with an
anime festival.”
“What’s an anime festival?”
Hayden asked him.
“What’s a love hotel?”
Mason asked a second later.
Takeda shook her head at the both of them and the doors
opened ahead of them. With the
description that Koruku had given them, this somehow turned out to be louder
and more colorful than they expected.
The man at the check in station said something as they approached.
“I will take my private chamber.” Koruku said with a
nod. The man nodded into a deep bow and
they were led through a massive dining room filled with noise and color and
everything that felt like Japan to someone who focused on the 21st
century. Two doors opened ahead of then
and when they stepped through, the noise decreased immediately. Two paper doors slid open and they were in a
much more traditionally styled Kuritan suite.
“this is one of my favorite places in the whole world. Welcome to the House of the Eternal Sun.” Koruku said with a smile.
“Thank you for inviting us.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Try anything you like.
Everything here is wonderful.”
The soft sounds of a Shamisen started playing in the background, and
Hayden could see the outline of a woman through the paper screen.
The Beach
Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose and relaxed under the
warm sun. This was a pretty nice day to
be out and about. He had his feet up,
watching people wander past him, with a beer in his hand and a cigar in his
mouth. Not bad for a working man he
thought quietly to himself. He pulled
the sun glasses back down over his eyes and laid back to soak up more sun. This was the life.
Across the beach, Percival was sitting and relaxing under a
palm tree. He’d had a productive morning
and was planning on relaxing the afternoon away. His tablet was sitting open and he was playing
chess with someone over the local planetary network. Whoever this player was,
they were good. They were old gambits,
but with a twist that he had never seen before.
He got the message from his opponent.
Would love to play in
person, can you meet?
In Lapiz, at the
beach, not too much time to travel today
Where on the beach?
Why?
I’m here too, trying
not to lose my mind with boredom
Percival stopped in his tracks for a moment. This felt off. Something about this screamed a setup but he
actually wanted to see who was setting this trap. With a calm sigh, he sent the message.
Corner of Thurston and
Prince, sitting under the palm tree
Wearing the mirrored sunglasses?
Yes, how will I recognize
you?
Green bikini, Scorpion
tattoo
I can’t wait
Me either
Percival checked the pistol he kept hidden in his bag and
finished the ale he was drinking. He saw
her approach, and the wave of heads that turned in her wake. She was about five and a half feet tall with
flame red hair running down her back. Green
eyes, a quiet smile and a body to die for filled out the rest of her look. He saw the giant green scorpion tattoo that
ran down the back of her shoulder. It’s
claws accentuated her hip.
“ChessFoxNAIS?” She said with an appraising look.
“Seeker411?” He replied.
“How would you like to play with me?” She sat her bag on the small table. He could see the flexible chessboard rolled
up inside.
“I’ll play the White King.”
“Then I guess I will have to play the Black Queen.”
“It’s a game then.”
“Bargained Well, and Done.”
She said with a smile as she unrolled the board. It was a newer model board with holographic
pieces. Something about that phrase set
off warning bells in the back of his brain, but he was captivated by his
opponent. “Ready?”
“Always.” He replied.
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