Firebase LIBERTY
The moon of Oni,
~o/ "Oni Moon, you saw me standing alone, without a song in my heart,
without a horn bud to rub... Ahem. Moving right along...
Later, when time permitted, she would don a pressure suit and walk
among the buried dead as she had done in the makeshift morgue. There
had
been no public memorial for them, nor could there be until the fighting
was over. Her private prayers of mourning would have to suffice. It was
the best she could do until an acceptable resolution presented itself.
I just love the way you've molded Kasumi into this situation.
The Combine's radio jamming had effectively cut her off from
communication with her father's forces on Nerima, leaving her without
instructions from higher authority. With a Furinkan Combine blocking
force
preventing an easy retreat from the moon, she had decided to maintain
her
position, using the time to reorganize her shattered units and repair
what
combat mecha they could before the next major attack.
Thus far
Thus far, (I think...)
the Combine had been content to keep her bottled up on Oni,
using random probes of her defensive perimeters to assess her strength
and
to keep her occupied. Where the main body of the Combine forces had
gone
in the meantime, she did not know. Fragmentary reports from her GunShip
squadrons had confirmed that the majority of the Combine's ground
attack
forces had Jumped out of the system, leaving only the Combine Navy to
maintain the blockade.
It was a remarkable turn of events, and she did not know who to
thank for it. Perhaps the Jusenkyo Commonwealth had taken advantage of
Kuno's daring invasion of the Confederation, and launched one of their
own into the heart of the Combine? It was all just speculation at this
point, but as long as the Capella System remained in Confederation
hands,
there was hope.
Colonel Mukaida entered her tiny office with a knock, his gaunt
face
looking paler than usual.
"We've established a line-of-sight lasercomm link with the
GunShips
_Leyte Gulf,_ _Cowpens,_
O_O Cowpens?
Kasumi nodded in reply. The encryption was a time-consuming
nuisance,
and in this case, not technically needed. Since they were sending via
laser
light, it would require a Combine ship to be in the direct path of the
transmission for them to intercept it. Her real concern was Nabiki's
agents
getting hold of the data once it reached headquarters.
Every instinct told her to have her middle sister detained before
leaving for Oni,
Suggest: Every instinct had told her...
but Nabiki had been clever enough to avoid directly
incriminating herself in any form of wrong-doing. There was no legal
basis
for holding Nabiki, and the best she had managed in her appeals to
Father
was to have her sister's security clearance and official duties
stripped
pending an investigation. It would blunt Nabiki's overt probes into the
affairs of the Confederation, but Kasumi doubted that she lacked for
other
resources.
_______________________________________________________________________
____
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:
BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART SIXTEEN
WAI!
Now she was playing a waiting game. For some asinine reason,
Tatewaki
Kuno had left the system in a rush with most of his invasion force. She
needed decisive action from him if her plot was going to have any
chance
of succeeding, and his desertion had left her in the lurch with the
nobles,
who were really getting anxious. What the hell was going on with him?
She
needed him to keep the pressure on, because her father's futile
defiance
of the Combine was what she was counting on to spring her trap.
I suggest Nabsy strap some candles to her head and start dancing...
That wasn't going to stop her from trying. If she did nothing,
then
he would certainly bolt, and the plot would unravel around her. Worse,
he
could go to the Grand Duke and expose her. A fat lot of good it would
do
him when the Combine conquered the Confederation, but a frightened man
often overlooks these things in his haste to escape more immediate
threats.
She keyed the limousine's intercom to speak to the driver. "Take
me
to the Alcazar Hotel." The Count was staying in the hotel at her
insistance,
insistence,
The Alcazar was a luxury hotel that often catered to visiting
nobility.
True to its namesake, it had been modeled after a Spanish castle from
the
period of pre-Jump Earth, if a little smaller than the original. The
Count
would have the penthouse floor reserved for himself and his senior
officers.
Most of his personal forces were encamped on the plains surrounding the
city, close enough to reach Azure Cloud Castle quickly when the time
came
to declare Grand Duke Soun Tendo, Nabiki's own father, insane.
She had been so close to that moment, she reflected bitterly as
the
limousine descended down
Redundant. Suggest just "descended".
It was a sobering thought, because the use of nuclear weapons on
her
homeworld both frightened and sickened her, but she would not go down
quietly to any of Tatewaki's treachery, and she intended to let him
know
just how far she was prepared to go during the surrender negotiations.
She
wasn't asking for much, after all,
all;
"Hello, Rolf," she purred for him. He returned her sloe-eyed look
with one of piggish lust. A man of appetites more than ambitions, Rolf
Thuringia would make, at best, a temporary replacement for his father
if
circumstances came to that. She had no intention of stringing him along
any longer than absolutely necessary before turning him over to the
mercy
of relatives with a keener sense of politics than his. After the
surrender
to the Combine, it wouldn't matter an iota to her who actually held
Tikonov's seat.
"Want a drink?" he asked her as she took the chair that would
allow
her to best dominate the rest of the room with her presence. His
grating
and hollowly insincere chumminess only served to remind her of how
odious
a chore sex had been with him.
<smirk>
"I will," she replied coldly. "As long as I remain unconvinced of
your
dedication - not just to me, but to every other noble who has joined
us."
She gestured to herself. "*I* won't have to lift a finger against you,
your
Excellency, should it come to that. Once the others realize what a
threat
you represent to their futures, well... I needn't go into details that
you
can surely provide for yourself."
His eyes trembled in their sockets, and she knew that, for the
moment,
she had him. Rolf would just have to wait a little longer for his
chance,
she decided.
The whole scene was a nice bit of power-playing characterization for
Nabiki. Kudos.
He awoke to the curious mingling of perfume and traces of
molybdenum
grease that was Akari's trademark scent. Warm hands brushed at his
brow,
soft fingertips tracing down his temples and over his ears. He opened
his
eyes to see Akari's face looking down at him. His head was apparently
in
her lap. She didn't seem concerned in the least about his collapse.
Instead,
she looked quite wistful.
"My grandfather always said that I should marry a man who pilots a
BattleMaster," she told him with a smile.
"A-A BattleMaster?" he asked dazedly.
"Yes!" she beamed. "Isn't it so romantic?"
She likes me just because of my battlemech? Ryouga wondered, his
heart
sinking. That's it?
LOL! Now THAT's an interesting twist on the Akari obsession. ^_^
Akari shrugged. "I don't really know," she admitted with a giggle.
"But in your case, it's all true!" She leaned over him to touch her
brow
softly against his. "It's all true, Ryouga, dear... I didn't think much
of it when you first joined us, but since then I've seen that you are
all
that my grandfather said and more."
Ryouga's face began to burn with a great heat.
"Y-You mean, you *really* want to marry me?"
Akari shrugged. "It seems like a good idea. I can't think of any
reason why not."
:/ Well, so much for romance...
At this point, I got a bit lost in the story.
On the subject of Ukyou, I got the sense that there really wasn't much
else to be done with the R/A/U triangle than let it run its usual
course. Tough business trying to make that fresh.
The Joketsuzoku sections were pearls. The opinions of the Elders Peony
and Cologne and that of Herb himself are all off just enough to be a
problem for all of them when push comes to shove. Peony doesn't have the
correct grasp of the situation, Herb is getting too confident, and
Cologne is too easily dismissing Herb and The Musk. Very, very nicely
done.
I look forward to the next installment.
Ja!
Dave
***************************
D.F. Roeder
http://www.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html