BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART TWO
Yay!
Happousai prowled the shadows across the unevenly paved
street that
separated Fort Dettmering from the sleazy bars and topless joints
that
had set up within walking distance from the garrison in order to
better
part the soldiers with
Suggest "from" instead of "with".
their money. It had taken a great deal of resolve
to wait in a place like this, and several times he had given in to
temptation in order to sample the place's wares.
:)
Fortunately for his
mission, the girls in the clubs were rather uninspiring to all but
the
most neophyte of voyeurs. Happousai had seen much better in far
more
enjoyable surroundings.
[...]
There would be a listing of room occupants in the possession
of the
Duty Barracks NCO, whose office was likely on the first floor. A
quick
scan of the building revealed a fire escape that could serve as an
entry
point. He leaped off the roof and sprinted across the rows of
jeeps and
light armored vehicles that separated him from the barracks. A
younger
man would have been winded for certain at this point in his
expedition,
but Happousai was a man who burned with a strange madness that
fueled
him with almost boundless energy.
I trust Happi's "strange madness" and "boundless energy" will get
some future explanation, or is it the same as in canon?
As he had expected, the fire escape door wasn't alarmed. A
scattering
of cigarette butts on the ground by the door confirmed this.
Residents
apparently came here to smoke out of sight.
He crept inside the barracks and turned down a hall to a
source of
light, which turned out to be a lounge. A television glowed
soundlessly in
the darkness of the room, playing to absolutely no one. The noise
of a
drinking fountain refrigeration unit was the only sound to be
heard.
Continuing on past a bank of unoccupied phone booths, he
reached the
lobby. A front desk watch dozed at his post, periodically
stretching out
his arms and yawning loudly. A forest of yellow post-it notes
fluttered
behind him on the neglected phone message board. It would be
interesting
to see if anyone called for Ryouga or Tarou, but Happousai doubted
it.
They were both loners, and from what little he had seen of them,
not
exactly skilled with the ladies.
A door labeled 'Barracks Officer' seemed the obvious choice.
The front
desk watch turned back to dozing in his chair, and Happousai
slipped past
him to work on the door. The lock was a simple single row
single-row
tumbler; about
two seconds work with an automatic release gun.
The Barracks Officer's computer was already powered up. It
was a new
model; clunky and slow compared to units the Inner Sphere had been
able to
produce in better days, but functional in a primitive way. A few
minutes
of noodling with the system produced the answer to his question.
Ryouga
and Tarou shared a room on the third floor with the other
mechwarriors and
techs of the mercenary unit.
He slunk out of the room and to the stairwell. The elevator
was out
of the question in a place like this. A quick jog up three flights
of
stairs brought him within meters of his destination. Before he
left the
stairwell he produced the large sack and restraints with which he
would
spirit the two away. While he could only carry them one at a time,
he was
confident that he would be able to keep the other from going
anywhere or
doing anything until it was his turn to go.
The door to room 301 was locked, as could be expected. It was
also
of the simple single row
single-row
tumbler variety, and Happousai had no sooner
produced his release gun than he was inside. The room was divided
into
three sections. The living area had a small couch, two desks and
standing
lockers, and a small coffee table. There were only a few personal
touches
present, namely martial arts gear and weapons, and a red shamboo
bamboo (got Shampoo on the brain? :P)
umbrella
that could only belong to Ryouga. Beyond the living area were two
segregated
sleeping areas set off with black curtains on a curved track that
reached
from floor to ceiling. A door to a bathroom lay half-way open on
the far
wall, between the two sleeping areas.
The wet sounds of someone snoring led him to one of the
curtained
sleeping areas. Peering into almost absolute darkness he spied a
figure
lying on a bed underneath the covers. It was impossible to tell
who he
was simply by looking.
The thought occurred to Happousai to take the other one
first, so
that any sounds of struggle might be covered up by the snoring.
This
thought was discarded in favor of shutting off the source of the
annoying
noise as soon as possible, say, with a nice duct tape gag. He
proceeded to
draw a fresh roll of the stuff from his sack.
As he crept into the sleeping area to deal with the snoring
occupant,
the front door of the room opened behind him. He spun around as
the lights
came on to see Ryouga Hibiki looking tired and thanking a
uniformed soldier
with a slung assault rifle for his help. Ryouga turned in that
moment to
look directly into the beady little eyes of Happousai.
Recognition set in immediately, and Ryouga's left eyebrow
began to
twitch. His hands clenched into fists and trembled. Happousai was
certain
that a faint yellow glow of battle aura began to flicker from the
young
man.
"...YOU..." Ryouga growled.
Happousai, momentarily stunned by this setback to an
otherwise
flawlessly executed plan, stood there clutching his roll of duct
tape
and looking guilty.
"...I can't believe you actually had the nerve to come here,"
Ryouga
went on, now practically shaking with rage. "...After what you did
to us..."
"Now come on, Ryouga," Happousai replied, finding his voice.
"What did
I ever do to you?"
Something deep inside Ryouga's head snapped. Happousai could
almost
hear it. The faint flickers of battle aura now became a fiery
torrent of
ki.
"BECAUSE OF YOU I'VE SEEN HELL!!!" Ryouga screamed.
Man, this definitely alt! Normally, he'd be blaming Ranma
unilaterally. :)
Happousai only narrowly avoided getting squashed like a bug
when
Ryouga's fist slammed into the floor where he had been standing.
As he
sprang to safety, the sharp report of cracking concrete snapped in
his
ears. Ryouga, unfazed by an impact that should have shattered
every bone
in his hand, lashed out with a spin kick that caught enough of the
airborne little mercenary to send him sprawling into the
unoccupied
sleeping area curtain.
"What the hell is going on?!" Tarou demanded from his bed.
"Happousai's in the room!" Ryouga barked as he charged for
the now
entangled spy.
"WHAT!?"
"You heard me," Ryouga snarled. Happousai turned his grasping
hands
aside with a deft flick of his pipe and tried to squirt free of
the melee.
Heh, I like your use of "squirt" in this passage. :)
Ryouga struck back with a desperate sidelong head butt that
knocked him
back into play just as Tarou was leaping clear of his bed.
"Save some for me!" Tarou demanded.
[...]
He loped his 'mech away from the battle to take up a position
along
the projected Combine path of retreat - assuming any of them
managed to
disengage. He would deal with the survivors as they limped for
retrieval,
for it was easier to lay blame elsewhere when there wasn't anyone
left
alive to dispute your version of the facts. It would serve them
right for
not heeding his warnings of the garrison's fighting ability. Two
'mechs
can make all the difference when the right two mechwarriors are at
the
controls.
Your Happousai is a cool customer, but it's very plausible, given
the environment in which he finds himself.
His options seemed limited. The Combine paid the best for his
line of
work, although there was never a lack of demand for it in the
League of
Five Nails. Perhaps he should kill two birds with stone, and go
pay Cologne
a visit. She might be very interested in Hibiki and Tarou's
whereabouts,
and better still, pay handsomely to get them back. At least that
way he
could work without any unfortunate conflicts of interest.
Chapter Two
FCJS _Libertine,_
Wolf 142 System Zenith Point
Furinkan Combine
29 January 3025
Colonel Princess Kodachi Kuno stood alone on the grav deck of
her
regimental flagship. News of her defeat on Abydos was spreading at
the
speed of Jump, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Her
reputation was damaged, though not beyond repair, not yet!
She had spent the last week thinking of nothing other than
revenge
against Akane Tendo. It had been stewing within her ever since her
defeat,
but hadn't become an obsession until her stern dressing down at
the hands
of her brother. His effrontery was galling, coming from a man who
had yet
to defeat her in six separate engagements!
Loving as ever, the Kunou siblings.
Now she was hearing disturbing news from the Confederation.
That
treacherous snake Nabiki Tendo had made Tatewaki an offer, one
that had
him firing off his entire diplomatic staff to Nerima aboard the
_Acropolis,_
the Combine's finest JumpShip after the _Imperator._ What were
Nabiki and
her dear brother Tatewaki up to, and how could she ruin their
plans in the
most amusing fashion?
"Sasuke!" she called to the empty compartment.
"Yes, mistress!" a voice responded.
A short chameleon-suited figure seemed to step out of the
wall at her
feet and bowed face down on the deck before her.
"I want you to find out what is going on with my brother and
Nabiki
Tendo. You've heard a little of what's transpiring, I'm sure. I
want to
know the rest in detail and immediately."
Sasuke nodded, his face still lowered to the deck.
"At once, mistress!"
He scuttled off into the shadows and disappeared. When she
was certain
that he was gone, she chuckled to herself. The family ninja was
useful to
her for his ability to probe into Tatewaki's plots, but she was
also quite
certain that he was being used by her brother for the same thing
against
her, and on top of all that was playing his own game between them.
She had
to admire him for having such a zeal for intrigue, though if she
ever caught
him at it she would have no choice but to see him flayed alive.
She was also
certain that he knew this, which made their little games all the
more
amusing.
This bit reminds of the kind of intrigue that went on Herbert's
Dune.
Yes, someday she would miss her little games with Sasuke, but
in the
grand scheme of things there could be only one winner, and that
winner would
see the losers crushed under her stilleto heeled
stiletto-heeled (also, sp on stiletto)
boots. That went for her
dear little ninja and her dear older brother, and it was doubly
true for
that psychotic bitch Akane Tendo.
that psychotic bitch, Akane Tendo.
(pots and kettles, Kodachi)
She would definitely get hers.
[...]
The greatest mystery of the facility, aside from its effects
on unwary
living things, was why it had been built. There were disturbing
indications
in the surviving documentation that the pools had been
*transplanted* from
some other place, possibly even another star system. Why this had
been done,
where the pools had originally come from, and what the Star League
hoped to
gain by doing it were lost to antiquity. Only the original staff
of the
facility had those answers, and they were long dead.
Hmmm, this is interesting. If, as I suspect, the pools were
transplanted from Earth, how are they kept active? On Earth, they
were fed from the magical spring beneath Jusendo, but I don't see
the remains of Phoenix Mountain nearby.
[...]
She had mixed feelings regarding Gaido's pronouncement that
there was
no cure for her. On the one hand, he had assured her that her
status in
the Program was unchanged by her accident - and that was a welcome
relief.
Great-Grandmother was unyielding when it came to the integrity of
the
Program, and to be stricken from it was to assume a second-class
status
within the clan.
Hrm... but when it comes to light that she did not, in fact, dispose
of Ranma and Genma, that's going to put her back in danger of losing
her favored status, and the existence of her curse being revealed
could be the straw that breaks the cat's back.
[...]
As Shampoo watched the doors of the elevator close, she saw
the medics
load the body into a bulkhead mounted drawer of the ship's morgue;
a
facility common to warships that carried troops, and seal it shut.
It
wasn't until the doors had shut that she realized the medics wore
badges
identifying them as part of the Jusenkyo Labs staff. Shampoo
crinkled her
nose in thought. There had been no mention of any deaths in the
Compound.
Something like that did not happen without the word being spread,
at least
as a reminder for caution and dilligent safety practices in the
Plan of
the Day orders.
Who was that girl?
AKANE?! Hmmm...
[...]
"You gotta be kidding me!"
Genma ignored his son's outburst. Azure Cloud Castle sat
perched atop
a gleaming white spur of solid granite halfway up the side of
Mount Aeglos.
The capitol city of Gondolin lay in a half circle around the
southern
foothills of the mountain,
Been boning up on your J.R.R., I see. :)
itself encircled by a wall of cunningly dressed
limestone blocks twelve meters high and each massing close to 200
tons
known as the Girdle of Melian. A wide paved-flagstone road wound
its way
from a small gatehouse fortress near where they stood up an almost
endless
zig-zag path to the castle.
[...]
Grand Duke Soun Tendo, middle-aged patriarch of the Great
House of
Tendo, sat in his audience chamber with a troubled look upon his
brow.
And now a little Conan. :)
The Confederation was crumbling before his eyes, and there was
little
he could do to stop it. Though he had inherited the Confederation
from
his father, it seemed now unlikely that it would be passed on to
his own
children.
[...]
Kima appeared from the lavatory slightly pale, but in
control. She
was getting more and more into the part with each moment, and her
confidence
rose as palace servants treated her with the deference expected by
her new
identity. She made her way up a grand staircase and turned left
past armed
sentries who popped to attention as she passed them without
breaking stride.
She was in the Tendo family wing of the palace, reserved for their
private
apartments. One of the sentries she passed went back to
parade-rest while
the other bent over a log book to make the appropriate entry.
16:19 - Akane Tendo entering the west wing.
Ah. Now I see what that body was about.
One of things I really like about this so far is how the characters
are readily identifiable, but they are just askew enough to keep
things interesting. Also, their transplantation into this alternate
environment is extremely smooth. Very nice.
A lot of pieces have been moved into place in this chapter, so it
looks the fireworks are going to go off in chapter 3. Look forward
to it!
Ja!
Dave
************************************
D.F. Roeder
Fanfiction - http://www.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html