Major snippage throughout...
The soft hum of air stirred by ventilation fans set
above and behind
the mechwarrior's ejector seat mingled with the tinny
whine of an array of
gas-plasma displays, as did the muted roar of several
hundred kilograms of
liquid nitrogen rushing through the flashing chambers of
the battlemech's
heat sinks. To this chorus of sound was added panting
breaths of nervous
tension, echoing in steady, measured counterpoint to the
myriad noises of
the machines.
Great details. I'm there.
A winking of light in the darkness caught her eye.
It was a signal
lamp, flashing from the cockpit of one of the 1st Nerima
Guards battlemechs.
The regiment was observing radio silence for the sneak
attack on the freshly
constructed Combine base, and so all pre-strike messages
were sent via lamp.
The method was awkward and slow, but it was secure
against electronic forms
of eavesdropping.
That's really one of the interesting little end-results of too much
tech. Sometimes, the old-fashioned ways shine forth, in this case
literally.
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:
BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART SEVENTEEN
/cue Mechwarrior soundtrack...
Time and tiny micro-meteoroid impacts had taken
their toll on the
hulls, however, and the ability to manufacture the
special hull coating
had been lost with the First Succession War. The
corvettes had patchwork
hulls now, and there were parts of the ship that were
vulnerable to radar
detection. The crews had to minimize the enemy's exposure
to these parts
of the ship, and their tactics reflected this weakness.
It's interesting to note at this point that the manufacturing
capabilites of the Successor States must be even lower than ours in
some respects. It probably *isn't* beyond our current capability to
repair those stealth coverings. It provides for an interesting mix
of high tech and little knowledge, other than how to switch out
parts. Almost a dark age, of sorts.
"You've got to admit though, that this is the
mission we've trained
for, and hoped for, all our lives," the X.O. pointed out.
"Those metalhead
grunts on Oni are depending on our interdiction of local space."
"True," Captain Hauptmann agreed, wondering if his
subordinate and
friend was aware that one of those 'metalhead grunts' was
the Lady Kasumi
Tendo, eldest daughter of the Grand Duke.
Most likely not... ^_^
He looked to a portrait on the bulkhead of the
Wardroom. It was of
a man who had been dead for over a thousand years, the
famous captain of
_Tang's_ ancient namesake: Robert "Killer" O'Kane.
Beneath the portrait
was a silver-plated cribbage board, worn and pitted with
tarnish over the
centuries despite dilligent preservation efforts. Legend
had it that this
artifact was the actual cribbage board used by O'Kane
during an ancient
and practically forgotten war, a war at sea rather than
in space, and the
numerous plaques that adorned the board testified to a
tradition of passing
it on from ship to ship throughout its nearly
eleven-hundred-year history.
Nice. And, as I've read below, true. ^_^
"Fire Control, I intend to attack contact Echo
Five-Five with a
Barracuda. Make launch tubes One and Two ready in all respects."
"Make launch tubes One and Two ready in all
respects, Fire Control,
aye."
"Range to target Echo Five-Five; two
hundred-thousand kilometers,"
Sensory updated. It would be a medium range engagement
for the formidable
Barracuda.
Even the missile name retains its submariner heritage. Nice. This
entire passage has the feel of a submarine, and the nature of the
game has changed almost not at all.
"Conn, Fire Control; launch tubes One and Two ready
in all respects."
"Very well, Fire Control," Hauptmann replied. "Firing Point
Procedures!"
This was the moment of truth. They would launch a
Barracuda missile
at the Combine DropShip. If things went well, the enemy
would not detect
the ejection of the weapon from the tube. They wouldn't
be able to
retaliate at this range even if they did, but Hauptmann
wanted to give
them as little time as possible for evasive maneuvers.
"Firing solution set," Fire Control announced.
"Fire One," Hauptmann ordered coldly. This was his
first Barracuda
fired in anger. His first Barracuda fired ever.
A defining moment for Hauptmann.
There would be no abandoning ship for the Flight
Deck crew, he
realized. The escape pods were located a deck below, and
the section of
the pressure hull that connected them was depressurized.
They were trapped,
doomed to die as the compartment slowly bled its air into
space. He lay
back in his chair and watched the viewports for the sight
of an escape
pod, just *one,* that would tell him some of his crew would live.
There were none.
He let out an anguished cry, the only one he would
permit himself.
Wow. The entire foregoing snipped passage was powerful, ugly, and
extremely effective. Cheers.
As he floated through the airtight door he noted
that the triumphant
expressions on his crews' faces were gone, replaced with
the silent
knowledge that next time, it could be them out there left
to die in the
cold airless void. He thought back to the days of Killer
O'Kane, where
combat had been on the similar terms of
attack-without-warning and
no-quarter-given, and wondered if the man had felt just
as sick with
himself after a victory as he did.
War is ugly. Nice, nice, nice stretch of writing.
She knew him peripherally. The _Palomino_ was too
small of a ship
for her not to know the crew by sight. She knew some of
them by name. He
was a Sensor Operator on the Flight Deck, and doubled as
one of the Mess
Cranks during off-watch meals. He was about her age too,
and kind of cute
in a boyish way.
It would serve Ranma right, she decided. I'm not
going to sit here
and sulk over him!
Oh, dear, Akane. Two wrongs don't make a right. Very IC.
"What are you doing after this?" she asked him.
The young petty officer started, then turned back to her.
"M-Me?" he asked in a small voice.
"Yes, you," she said with a smile. "Do you have
liberty after you
finish up here, or are you stuck on the ship?"
The man set his broom aside. "As soon as I'm done
here, I'm cut loose
for the night, ma'am," he replied. "But I really wasn't
planning on going
anywhere."
She turned up the heat in her smile.
"Do you think you could change your plans?" she asked him.
The young petty officer began to perspire.
Heh.
"Um... Do you mean go o-out with you, ma'am?"
"No, silly boy. I mean to throw you on the floor and have my way
with you. I've never done *it*, you know."
Oh, god. A virgin, he thought. I am sooo dead.
^_^
Thaddeus, or Tad, as she had often heard the crew
call him, was a
true gentleman. It was a welcome change from watching
Ranma shovel food
into his mouth while arguing with his father, to note
that Tad understood
a napkin belonged on the lap, not tucked into the collar
of your shirt, and
that a lady appreciated it when you showed her to her
seat. She knew on an
instinctual level that it more
it *was* more
than simply hollow
courtesy for one of the
nobility on his part, that such etiquette and respect for
a lady came
naturally to him.
[snip]
One of the menu items showed particular appeal to
her. A large pepper,
indigenous to Tiber, stuffed with three kinds of melted
cheese, seasoned
bread crumbs, fresh cream, and shredded savory herbs. It
was exactly the
kind of food that Ranma would despise. She ordered for
both of them.
Heh, very progressive, our Akane. ^_^
They also ordered beer, which seemed to flow in this
place from an
endless tap. Buxom waitstaff in archaic bodices and
skirts whirled around
them with silent efficiency and pleasant smiles, each
carrying a fistful
of quart glasses filled with the golden brew.
Akane wasn't at all a drinker, and she had never
been terribly
interested in beer, but when in Rome... She sipped
tentatively at her
glass of pilsener,
pilsner,
noting the bite of the hops and the
crisp finish of
the lightly-bodied beer. It wasn't half bad, she decided.
She could see
why men liked drinking the stuff on a hot day.
You know, this is a good indicator of how earthy Akane really is. If
Ranma could only "see" it well enough, he'd know she was the right
one for him.
Tad drank his with gusto.
"What do you think?" she asked him.
"It's good," he replied, agreeing with her
assessment. "I'm not much
of a lager drinker, but this really hits the spot."
She took a larger drink from her glass. The beer's
effervescence
tingled in her nose and throat, a sensation rather like
drinking champagne,
she decided, only without most of the cloying sweetness.
She was liking
beer better and better.
"Have you come here often since we first arrived?"
Tad asked as she
put away her first glass in three giant gulps.
"This is my first time," she replied, now feeling a
little bloated
by so much liquid taken at once. Their waitress
immediately noted the empty
glass and replaced it with a full one. In spite of
herself, she took another
drink.
The trap of all beergartens - keep the glass full and the customer
buying. ^_^
"Actually, there's a third reason," she added. "You
aren't that
stupid, insensitive jerk, Ranma Saotome..."
"Excuse me for saying this," Tad returned, his
expression clouded
with concern. "But
concern, "but
aren't you engaged to marry Ranma Saotome?"
[snip]
"Commander Saotome," the Captain addressed him. "We
have a serious
problem on our hands."
"What is it?" he asked blearily. He could not
imagine any problems
in that moment, other than the JumpShip's jump core being somehow
irrepairable,
irreparable,
or that the Confederation had finally
fallen to the Combine.
[snip]
For the first time in his life, Ranma Saotome felt
completely relaxed
in the presence of a girl. It amazed him how well he and
Ucchan had been
able to pick up where they had left off more than ten
years ago. True, his
best friend from childhood wasn't who
whom (I think...)
he had always
believed she was, but
that didn't seem to matter much now.
"It's getting pretty late," he said to her. "We're
coming up on
'bingo' fuel."
"Yeah, we should probably head for home," she
agreed. Thoughts of
continuing their time together in more personal
surroundings was foremost
in her thoughts.
Ranma banked the plane into a turn for the starport.
* * *
Akane Tendo staggered down the wide tree-lined
boulevard near the
Starport Expressway, alternately crying her eyes out and
cussing hard
enough to strip away old paint.
<smirk>
Though she had stopped
drinking an hour
previous to this moment, she was getting more and more
drunk as her system
absorbed ingested alcohol into her bloodstream. It seemed
that her forward
motion was more an act of sheer stubbornness than any
sort of coordination
between her brain and her feet. In fact, she had only a
peripheral
awareness of heading back to the DropShip, as if her feet
were engaged by
a subconscious autopilot.
Her thoughts flew from one extreme to the other,
hating Ranma for
what he had done to her in one moment, then railing
against herself for
treating him so poorly at the castle. She pitied herself
and then pitied
Ranma for having such an awful, mixed-up childhood. The
next moment
moment,
she
was raging at the night, shaking a fist into the sky as
if Ranma and Ukyou
were right above her.
Finally, without realizing it at first, she had
returned to the
_Palomino._ She did not recall tearing a ten-meter
section of chain-link
fence from its posts on the perimeter to get there, nor
did she recall
tramping across a kilometer of grassy fields and
stretches of concrete
tarmac, oftentimes only just avoiding certain death from
the arrival or
departure of a spaceship. All that she was aware of was
that she had
returned to the _Palomino._
As she staggered past the steel-tube staging around
Tarou's Hunchback,
the throaty sound of the Boomerang's engine filled her
ears. She looked
up, her bloodshot eyes wincing at the intensity of the
aircraft's flashing
collision lights as it passed overhead. Ranma had returned.
She watched the Boomerang circle lazily around the
DropShip before
diving sharply at the ground. Her heart nearly seized up
at the idea of
him crashing, and then he pulled out of his dive to flare
out neatly for
a landing. Only then could she breathe again.
Suggest that you have Akane's emotional responses to Ranma's flying
acrobatics be delayed. For instance, he lands, and then have fear
clutch her heart or whatever emotion you wish.
Ranma began to say "Aw, it was nothing," but got as
far as 'it' when
she reached over and kissed him. Her parted lips pressed
firmly against his
as she curled her arms around him to draw her fiance into
a deeper embrace.
At first he was too surprised to do or say anything. Then
he started to
enjoy it.
It was only when her tongue began to slide into his
mouth that he
panicked. What in the hell was he doing with her?!
Heh.
Ukyou sensed his negative reaction to the new
direction she was taking
with their embrace, and parted with him. He looked like
an animal caught in
the headlights of an oncoming car as she drew away.
"Something wrong, Ranchan?" she asked softly.
"Uh..." Ranma murmured cogently.
"You don't get kissed very often, do you, honey?"
she noted. She knew
she was correct in this, and that only made her chances
with him better. If
he wasn't smooching Akane, then he didn't really love her. Right?
"Uh... I guess not..."
She chuckled. "That'll have to change." She popped
the canopy release
and lifted the clear polycarbonate to step out of the
plane. "Come on,
Ranchan, that okonomiyaki awaits."
The mention of food snapped him back to reality.
"Oh yeah," he said brightly. "Cool."
Gods, he's so predictable...
He closed his eyes and turned his head away for good
measure before
his fingers began fumbling with the buttons on her blouse.
Man, I hope she's wearing a bra...
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Saotome?"
an angry voice
asked him.
Ah, the famous Saotome timing strikes again.
"Stand down, Saotome," Sayuri continued. "Just get
the hell out of
here. Leave. Do us all a favor - especially Akane - and
go find your little
local honey. When we finally get off this planet, you
should just stay here
with her, okay?"
Ranma fists clenched tight with barely-checked
wrath. The two fighter
pilots could hear the knuckles crack and the tendons in
his wrists and
forearms creak with tension.
"I don't need a couple of dykes
Ouch.
like you telling me
how to live my
life," he said to them, his voice trembling with fury.
"You don't know me,
and no matter what you might think, you don't know Akane
either, so just
STAY THE HELL OUT OF THIS!"
He pushed his way past them before he lost his
temper and did
something he would really regret.
Akane does not love me! he thought angrily. He took
the stairs down
to the Lower Deck three at a time. Half the time she
doesn't even seem to
*like* me!
Chapter Four
Ranma Saotome could feel Ryouga's eyes burning into
him from across
the 'Mech Bay when he stepped through the airtight door.
Well, this was pre-ordained. :)
"I've had about enough of your lip, Ranma!"
Ryouga lashed out with his foot, his strike aimed
for Ranma's nose,
and angled up in such as way as to drive the bone into
the brain if it
connected. The pig-tailed mechwarrior bobbed clear of the
strike knowing
strike, knowing
that it had been a potentially fatal blow.
[snip]
"It's gonna get a lot worse for you," Ranma
returned, wiping away the
blood on his cheek, and secretly fearful of the man's
resilience. What was
this guy made of? This was not the candyass he had
spanked time and time
again in 7th Grade!
Ryouga just seemed to be getter
getting
angrier as he stood there.
[snip]
Ranma took both blows hard, and staggered backwards
in a daze. Ryouga
noted his adversary's watery knees, and knew that one
more shot would put
him away for good.
He didn't get the shot. Ranma must have been faking
the extent of his
weakness, he realized as a devastating punch combination
smashed into his
bruised body and face with incredible force. That rotten,
sneaky bastard!
Anything Goes, Ryouga...
"I'm listening," Ryouga said tersely, interrupting
his internal
speculation.
"Like I said," Ranma went on. "I didn't even know
she was a girl until
today."
"Not just a girl," Ryouga pointed out, "But
"but
your fiancee!"
"That's my stupid Old Man's fault!" Ranma returned.
"He made some deal
with Ukyou's dad ten years ago, but all he was doing was
swindling them out
of her dowry. I had nothing to do with it! I didn't even
know there was
an engagement! I thought Ukyou was a BOY, remember?!"
Ryouga thought this over, his face a mask of skepticism.
"Keep talking, Ranma."
"All we were *doing* tonight was talking, Ryouga. We
hadn't seen each
other in ten years!"
Ryouga pondered this as well. He didn't look convinced.
"If all you're saying is true," he said sternly.
"Then explain what
is true," he said sternly, "then explain what
her lipstick was doing all over your mouth. I wasn't here
to see it, but
plenty of other people did."
[snip]
"Let's put it this way, Ryouga," he said finally.
"The only person
who can say if we aren't engaged anymore is Akane. Until
she says otherwise,
you just stay the hell out of our business."
"Fine with me," Ryouga grunted. "The second she
wakes up tomorrow,
she's going to dump you, Ranma." He cracked his knuckles
in anticipation.
"And then your ass is grass."
This is a much more bitter rivalry than in canon, but it fits the
setting well.
"I see," Akari replied. "That's why you were so
quick to defend
Akane's honor, then. Because you felt you owed her for
her kindness to
you on Capra."
Ryouga closed his eyes. If that is how you want to
see things, Akari,
then for you it shall be so...
Mmmm, a tangled web you're weaving, Ryouga. Watch out. First, P-chan
and Akane, now Akari.
"Yes," he replied. "Exactly."
She looked at him with her huge soft eyes. "Would
you do the same for
me?"
Yes, he thought to himself. I would.
Suggest: Yes, he thought to himself, I would.
But please
don't ask me to choose
between you and Akane, because I don't know that I could.
"O-Of course I would," he replied.
Akari sighed contentedly. "It makes me feel so very
special to know
that you would." She snuggled sleepily against his
shoulder as they went
up to Berthing. "You mean the universe to me, Ryouga dearest."
Heat welled up within him at her declaration. He
felt such an intense
satisfaction and pride at being the object of Akari's
affection, and at the
same time he felt such intense shame for not being able
to come to terms
with his love for Akane, that he was leading Akari on.
Was he any better
than Ranma to feel this way about two women? Didn't that
make him a
two-timer, with the only difference between himself and
Ranma being the
fact that Ranma had actually kissed one of his loves?
"Well, Ryouga dearest," Akari said to him in the
darkened passageway
of Berthing. "I guess
Berthing, "I guess
this is good night."
He could see her eyes shining in the fire-lights.
"I, uh, guess so," he replied.
She closed her eyes and tilted her face up to him.
"Would you like to kiss me good night?" she asked him.
Sweat began to pour in buckets down Ryouga's
temples. His knees
buckled. The compartment seemed to be swaying back and
forth around him.
She waited patiently for his lips as he grappled
with himself.
"I would like to kiss you good night," she added softly.
"No! Um, er, what I mean is. Th-That is to say
that..." he stammered
helplessly.
"What is it?" she asked coyly, her eyes still
closed. Her lips returned
to a slight pucker that would be receptive to him.
"I-It should be m-me who, ah, you know... uh, er,
k-k-kisses you g-good
night," he rambled. He didn't even hear half of what he
was saying, he was
wound up so tight.
"I agree completely, Ryouga dearest."
She continued to wait with seemingly infinite
patience, which was a
good thing considering the glacial pace at which Ryouga's
reluctant lips
descended towards her.
LOL!!
"I had a feeling that I might find you up here," the
doctor remarked.
"Do you mind a little company?"
Ranma wasn't in the mood. "Actually--"
"--Good, I didn't think you'd mind," Tofu said,
interrupting him.
Suggest: "Good, I didn't think you'd mind," Tofu said, interrupting
him. (Tofu's speech wasn't interrupted so I suggest doing away with
the emdash.)
"What now, cousin?" Tetsuo Gosunkugi asked him.
Hikaru consulted the charts. Their horoscopes were
vague at this point,
offering little in the way of advice. Worse, he had run
out of pigeons to
sacrifice; their entrails had been particularly oracular
for him of late.
Oh, no! <smirk> I'm starting to grow mildly fond of your Hikaru. :)
Hikaru punched in the code sequence that would open
the door. It
slid open, bombarding him with sound that poured out into
the passageway.
o/" ...We throw our nets
Out into the sea,
And all the ama-ama come swimmin' to me!
Well, we're going... To the Huki-lau!
The Huki-Huki-Huki-Huki-lau! o/"
Hikaru Gosunkugi fought back the urge to scream in
pain.
HAHAHAHAHAAA!!! This is so choice! ^_^
"We make planetfall soon, yah?" Kuno continued,
ignoring the young
man's reply. "No can surf in dis big metal can!"
"I'm afraid not, your Eminence," Hikaru said to him.
"We'll be Jumping
again shortly."
"Dat's heinous, brah!"
LOL!
"For what purpose?" he asked indignantly.
"To offer the Shogun to the Grand Duke as a
bargaining chip with
Tatewaki," Hikaru replied. "Kuno might like to see his
father done away
with, but the Combine's Daimyo won't stand for it. He'll
have to back
down from his invasion if he's to get his father back.
Just be sure to
let this magnanimous gesture on our part cement our
alliance with the
Confederation, and my betrothal to Akane."
More political machinations. It'll help Nerima, but when Soun can't
produce Akane, Tetsuo's going to be caught between a loud
wannabe-Hawaiian and a hard lava rock...
Tetsuo stepped away from his cousin to think about
his proposition.
"It's crazy, cousin, but it might actually work," he
finally conceded.
"The tricky part will be in breaking the blockade,"
Hikaru noted.
"But if I can continue to lead Kuno on while you make a
break for Capella,
it will keep the number of ships guarding the system low
enough for you
to have a good chance of pulling it off."
"It will be interesting to work with Nabiki again,"
Tetsuo agreed.
"I'm sure, given the current situation, that she'll see
the merits of
working towards an alliance with the League."
Uh-huh. Wanna bet that's all she'll see?
"We can hope, cousin," Hikaru said, nodding. "We can
hope. In the
meantime, get that crazy idiot off my ship. I can't stand
having him on
board any longer."
Heh.
"Pray tell, what is it that troubles thee, my lovely
Akane Tendo?" he
asked her.
"You have chosen the Pig-Tailed Girl over me?" she
asked him wretchedly.
Her query wounded him to the depths of his being,
pangs of grief and
dismay that shook him to his very foundation.
Man, Kunou's going to blow a gasket when he finally gets it beat
into his head just *who* his pigtailed goddess is...
"Never!" he cried, shocked that such a thing was
even conceivable.
"Thou art my Tigress! My shining Valkyrie with blue-black
hair! Never could
I, Tatewaki Kuno, foresake thy love for another!"
"Oh, Tatewaki," the Pig-Tailed Girl cried out in
grief. "Then you
don't really love me?!"
Tatewaki reeled. How could he forsake his buxom
red-haired Venus?
How indeed...
"Nay!" he wailed. "Why must thou render such cruel
judgement upon me?
I cannot give my heart to one and forsake the other. Is
there not a place
for the three of us at Aphrodite's table?"
"No," they intoned. "You must choose."
Overcome with grief, he leaped at them to take them
both into his
embrace. His two loves lashed out with simultaneous
jumping kicks to his
face.
Well, he got that part right. ;p
"Pay them no mind for the moment," Tatewaki said,
dismissing the
matter with the wave of his hand. "It is the whereabouts
of that blackguard
Hikaru Gosunkugi that concerns me."
"Ah yes,"
"Ah, yes,"
Kyle returned uncomfortably. "We are
unable to determine
the whereabouts of his fleet at this time, but as our
ships finish charging
their Jump batteries, we shall begin searching all the
systems within a
One-Jump radius of Alpha Centauri."
"It is not good that Gosunkugi should escape,"
Tatewaki seethed. "He
has my father as his hostage." He clenched a fist. "O,
"Oh, (?)
how I have prayed
for an end to his pusillanimous reign over the mighty
Furinkan Combine,
but not in this manner! He finds yet another way to
debase the high rank
of his office by allowing himself to be made the prisoner
of a half-wit
such as the scion of Gosunkugi!
[snip]
He raised his fists over his head.
"It is intolerable!" he bellowed. "That such a great
lord as myself
be made to play the fool!"
Yep. Especially when he doesn't need the help...
He fell to his knees and began
to beat upon the
carpeted deck. "Both of my loves are snatched from me by
that fell villain,
Ranma Saotome! My twisted sister escapes from my very
flagship! And now,
my own father is taken by the likes of Hikaru Gosunkugi,
a cretin so callow
and crass that he dares not face me as true man - upon
the battlefield -
but as a craven plotter, weaving instead his dark magicks
upon me!"
Kyle could only stand in silence, and let his lord
rage impotently
against the cruelties of the gods.
I wouldn't think that he would, at that precise moment, care to draw
attention to himself. ^_^
1. Well, I've underestimated my _literary elephantiasis_
once again. It
looks like "The Saotome Gambit" will be completed in no
more than 25 parts
at this point, which is a lot more than I had intended.
That means we're
somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the
way done. Hang in
there!
I thought that when you started this, the setup was more indicative
of a fic greater than the 14 or something chapters you initially
said. :)
Very nice installment, J. Austin. Eagerly anticipating the next.
Ja!
Dave
*******************************************
D.F. Roeder
FanFiction - http://www.flash.net/~dfroeder/index.html