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The Ruins of Ryuugenzawa City
14:22 Local Time
Pansuto Tarou's Hunchback stomped out onto the cracked pavement of
the ruined colony town's main drag. He passed several deep pools of water,
taking care to note their tactical use in case they ended up having to
fight in this area. He did not know that they were craters formed by
orbital bombardment at the time of the town's destruction, nor would he
have cared. The Orochi network was preoccupied with the Commonwealth
landing zones, as the regular flashes of light and dull booms of thunder
on the horizon confirmed.
As he thought warm thoughts of the Commonwealth's annihilation,
the sight of a Locust tromping past his Hunchback drew him up short.
The pilot of the light 'mech had apparently missed seeing him as it
rounded the corner of a ruined building. From the battlemech's distinct
loping gait, and the fact that a Cameron Star was crudely painted on
its hull, he decided that it could belong to only one person.
"HAPPOUSAI!!!" he roared at the Locust, and fired his monstrous
Tomodzuru Type 20 autocannon. The depleted uranium dart punched a
neat hole through one of the SRM launcher pods projecting from the
tub-like hull, and the force of the impact blasted it into glowing
shards of hot metal.
The Locust staggered with the hit, but did not fall over. It turned
to face him as Kodachi and the rest of the lance moved to join him.
"Well, I'll be!" Happousai replied over the commo. "Fancy meeting
you here, eh, Monster Boy?"
The use of Ryouga's hated sobriquet for him made his blood boil
even hotter than before.
"I'm here to kill you, Happousai!" he shouted back.
The Locust darted off into the ruins. "Take a number and stand in
line, loser!" Happousai cackled.
Kodachi's Marauder fired a twin blast of PPC bolts at the fleeing
Locust. The bolts burst apart a low wall just short of their target. Tarou
stomped off in pursuit as she drew up alongside him.
"Is this the man you were talking about earlier, lover?" she inquired
sweetly of him.
"The same," Tarou grunted.
"Would you mind if I tagged along?" she asked, eying him with an
expression of faint amusement.
"Be my guest," Tarou replied tersely. "But remember that the final
attack must come from me!"
___________________________________________________________________________
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:
BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART TWENTY-NINE
by J. Austin Wilde
Super Critical Reactor Axe Man,
Fission Park Press
wildeman@gci-net.com
http://www.gci-net.com/users/w/wildeman/
The characters and situations of Ranma 1/2 are the
creation and property of Rumiko Takahashi and
Shogakukan/KITTY/Viz Video. Battletech and its
related materials are the property of FASA, inc.
No infringement of copyright is intended nor
should be inferred by this work of fanfiction.
___________________________________________________________________________
Chapter One
The DropShip _Palomino_
Ian Cameron Starport
14:15 Local Time
Grand Duke Soun Tendo checked his cooling vest connections with the
ease borne of long practice. Though it had been many years since the last
time he had mounted up, he found that the old ways had come back to him as
if it had only been yesterday. The sight of the Star League Warhammer and
Victor standing tall under the camouflage netting that draped both the
battlemechs and the DropShip filled him with a sense of exhilaration that
he felt he did not deserve under the dire circumstances facing them.
He watched as his eldest daughter Kasumi received a few last moment
bits of advice from the tech who had prepped the Victor for action. Soun
was glad at least to be accompanying her into battle. The helplessness he
had felt during her ordeal on the moon of Oni had weighed heavily on him
during the campaign, and even in the month of abrupt exile he had
experienced at the hands of his middle daughter.
He did not know what to do about Nabiki. If they managed to evade the
Furinkan Combine and the Orochi network, then her reign as Regent over the
Confederation would be ended. After that, he was unsure. He knew that many
of his advisors would recommend that she be executed for treason, but could
he order the death of his own flesh and blood? More than that, she was the
child of his beloved late wife. Killing her did nothing to stop the
Furinkan
Combine, and in the end, would it make any difference?
These were questions which preyed upon his mind as he climbed up the
boarding ladder to the Warhammer's cockpit. Kasumi cast him a brief wave
before buttoning up her hatch, which he returned in an attempt to convey
a sense of jauntiness to the affair which bound them into a desperate
battle. The _Tautog_ was about to commit itself to battle to prevent the
Orochi satellite which pounded the planet from targeting the starport, and
if were crippled or destroyed in the process, then only Captains Hauptmann
and Ninomiya could hope to get them out of the system.
"What are your orders, Father?" Kasumi asked him over the tac-net.
"We'll wait here until your sister returns to rearm," he replied.
Akane's message to the _Palomino_ stating her intention to do just that
had come minutes prior to the shuttle's arrival at the starport. "Until
then," he added. "We'll protect the DropShip from attack."
Kasumi Tendo studied the cockpit controls of the Star League Victor
to familiarize herself with their layout. The Star League Defense Force had
mandated a set of standards for control systems to minimize the costs of
training mechwarriors on different models of battlemech, and so it was just
a matter of learning that the heat sink status board was to the left and
over
her head on the Victor, and not to the right and level with the control
yokes
as on her Atlas. The status board itself was nearly identical in layout and
function.
The weapon systems on the Victor were similar to her Atlas, lacking
only the LRM launcher, and downgrading the SRM launcher to a quad rack.
The massive Pontiac 100 autocannon that was the Victor's primary armament
took up the entire right arm, something she was not used to with her old
mech, which retained two fully articulated hands. Her Victor could also
jump, being one of the few assault class 'mechs to be outfitted with jump
jets.
While the capabilities of the 'mech would force her to alter her
fighting style, she did approve of how neat and orderly the Victor's
cockpit was. Most Inner Sphere 'mechs were untidy tangles of patchwork
repair and modification, making them nightmares for technicians to service.
It was a most agreeable battlemech, she decided.
Her father's order to wait she found a little harder to accept. She
wanted to see Akane again. It had been hard having her baby sister away
for so long, and with Nabiki's betrayal, she needed to have as much of
the family together and united under a common purpose as possible. She
also wanted to ask her sister how she was getting along with Ranma, but
knew that any answers were best left until things were quiet again. As
far as she was concerned, Ranma and his parents were already part of the
family, and she wanted him to be reunited with his mother after so many
years apart.
The sounds of battle rolled in the distance. None of this was
possible until after the fighting stopped, and there seemed to be no
way to end the fighting without running from Ryuugenzawa, the prize that
had given her so much hope over the last half year. Was it right to flee
from the planet after so much sacrifice and hardship? What did all of
the people who died on Oni give their lives for, if only to see the
Confederation routed from the Ryuugenzawa System, and Tatewaki Kuno made
the final victor?
She was troubled by the answers she gave to herself, for they only
generated more questions. It was so complicated, and all she really wanted
to do was go home, find a sensible and hardworking young man, and raise a
family with him. No matter what she wanted or deserved, Duty's clarion
call would not release her to follow her dreams, and all she could look
forward to in the next few hours was more carnage.
* * *
Test Area 4-A
14:20 Local Time
Ranma Saotome studied her enemies closely through the heavy brush and
thick foliage provided by the local trees. The Musk Dynasty had been in
disarray since the Orochi network had commenced a haphazard bombardment of
their landing zones, but now it seemed as if they were starting to pull
themselves together. It made her wonder if there wasn't someone important
close by that was rallying them, someone that needed taking out.
Akane's urgent voice on her transmitter remote squawked out over
the white noise of rain falling gently in the trees. Ranma had the volume
turned down low to avoid giving away her position while she observed the
Musk forces, but felt uncomfortable ignoring her. From the sound of Akane's
voice, she was probably getting worried about a lack of response, but it
couldn't be helped. Ranma's Scout instincts were strong, and Scouts did
not give away their position with pointless radio transmissions to reassure
their worried fiancees.
The absence of Ryouga was bad enough news, she supposed. She had
heard Akane and the others calling for the lost boy on several occasions,
all without success. Had the dope gotten lost again? It took all of her
willpower not to leave her position and go looking for him, because if
she could take out the guy who was in charge of the Musk Dynasty landing
force, she might be able to keep them off balance for the rest of the
battle - or at least as long as it took to fix the DropShip and get the
hell off this mudball.
A white Crusader strode into view, bearing several marks that
indicated that its pilot ranked high on the Musk Dynasty food chain.
Ranma tensed for a moment, feeling a twisting in her gut that this must
be the one. The Crusader halted before a pair of mobile MASH vans and a
coolant truck, the cockpit hatch opening as it stopped.
She pulled out her magnigoggles and took a closer look. A young man
with thick glasses perched atop a fall of long blue-black hair pulled
himself out of the hatch as lackeys below him on the ground snapped
salutes. Ranma shook her head ruefully. They should have known better
than to salute in the field.
The man apparently did, for he berated them for their foolishness.
Ranma did not understand Chinese, but she knew when someone was getting
their ass chewed, no matter what language was being used. There was no
doubt now that this was the guy to whack.
She didn't like to think of it as assassination as she slid down
the wet grassy slope to the open cockpit of her concealed Super Phoenix
Hawk LAM. Assassins worked their trade in peacetime, against political
figures. This was war, and her target was an enemy military officer.
It would be her first time at it, though. Her Pop had usually
handled the job in the few instances when it had come up, with herself
acting as a spotter and escort. She felt a little uneasy about killing
someone with a battlemech's heavy pulselaser. It felt wrong, even
cowardly.
She swallowed hard and edged the LAM over the ridge. The long
rifle-like heavy pulselaser projected from the underbrush. A gun-camera
mounted over the focusing optics fed the targeting computer, and
projected an image of the scene beyond in a window on her HUD. Centered
in the reticle was the man in indigo robes and the long dark hair. He
looked vaguely familiar to Ranma, and it took several moments to realize
that this was the man who had arrested them on Capra, and who had been
present in the jail with Shampoo.
Mousse. The man whose baby Shampoo was going to have.
Now she felt really uneasy about killing him like this. Killing an
enemy was a regrettable if oftentimes necessary fact of war, but all her
enemies had been so impersonal before now. Squeezing the firing stud on
Mousse would not only end the man's life, but orphan his unborn child at
the same time.
Ranma's finger eased off the trigger. She took a deep breath and
then let it out slowly. She couldn't do it. Not like this.
Maybe she'd better go look for Ryouga instead.
* * *
Mechwarrior Colonel Mousse started in surprise as a white and silver
Phoenix Hawk LAM blasted out of the treeline a scant hundred meters from
his position. He dropped through his cockpit hatch without a second
thought,
ready to fight the intruder, when he realized that it was leaving the area
at high speed. He bit back a curse and watched the LAM transform to Fighter
Mode, knowing now that he had more than just the Black Rose to deal with.
The Cameron Star of the SLDF had adorned that fighter, which meant that
there was probably a force of indigenous mechwarriors protecting the planet
- probably the same ones who directed the Orochi network, the ones whose
signals his men were still trying to pinpoint. Any survivors from the
_Dragonfly_ were probably helping them in their work, though he was tempted
to write that thought off as wishful thinking on his part. His hope that
Shampoo might yet live was clouding his judgement.
They had to be close by, as the Orochi seemed to be preoccupied with
his troops and not with the Black Rose's forces in the east. What few
Direction Finder fixes his SIGINT people had been able to establish
supported that theory, but the lance of Dragons he had sent out to
investigate had failed to find anything more than an ambush that left
all but one 'mech destroyed.
General Herb's DropShip would be landing shortly, he thought to
himself. He can handle the rest of the regiment. It's time I investigated
these signals personally. Again, he questioned his real motivation for
wanting to search, and found only Shampoo in his innermost thoughts.
"<Captain Lime,>" he called over the tac-net.
The beefy, somewhat obdurate face of Lime appeared on the display.
"<Yes, my lord Colonel?>" It was obvious from his tone that he was
still bitter about Mousse's rapid advancement in the ranks of the Musk,
and especially because he was not a hybrid like so many others in the
movement.
"<Send General Herb my regards, and inform him that I have gone to
investigate the signals we discussed in an earlier transmission. All units
have regrouped by company, and are proceeding to their ordered objectives
without contact.>"
Mint appeared next to Lime on the display. "<What are you up to, lord
Colonel?>" he asked in a threatening tone.
"<I follow my orders,>" Mousse replied curtly. "<General Herb has
instructed me to find and capture the source of those signals, and that
is what I shall do. Now follow your *own* orders!>"
Mint saluted grudgingly, and disappeared from the display. Lime
followed without a word.
* * *
The forest surrounding Ian Cameron Starport,
4 kilometers east of the DropShip _Palomino_
14:30 Local Time
"Ukyou?"
The former Federated Shiratori general opened her eyes. Akane Tendo
and Doctor Tofu were kneeling at her side in the mud. The rain had slowed
to a gentle sprinkle around her, though she was soaking wet.
"I'm all right," she managed. Looking up, she could see the three
battlemechs of Akane, Doctor Tofu, and Genma Saotome standing over her.
"What happened?" Akane asked her, her voice filled with emotion. "Are
you sure you're okay?"
Concern from her rival was not what she was expecting, but it was
welcome. She brushed away wet chestnut bangs of hair from her eyes and
tried to stand. The cold and damp made her joints stiff and sore, and she
did so only with a little help from Doctor Tofu.
"Got in a little scrape with the Black Rose regiment," she said in
a quiet voice. She gestured to the Griffin which lay over the top of her
Hatchetman. "This one here fell on top of me after I took out his partner."
Tofu followed the line of toppled trees to see the steaming wreckage
of a Wolverine.
"You destroyed both of them by yourself?"
"Plus a Phoenix Hawk about two hundred meters that way," she replied,
pointing. "I think the last 'mech in the enemy lance left me for dead."
Akane put a steadying hand on her shoulder. "You don't look so good,"
she observed.
"I'm fine, honey," Ukyou replied, shrugging off the suggestion that
she wasn't fit for combat. Her pride would not allow it. "I think I got a
little shaken up in the fall, and I know I'm a little tired, but I can hack
it. I just need some help pulling this Combine wreck off my Hachetman."
Genma's Orion, privy to the conversation with his directional mics,
leaned forward to oblige. The heavy 'mech nudged the fallen Griffin over
with its foot. The sight of the battle-spatula bisecting the bubble cockpit
canopy and the blood that was splattered everywhere inside from the
bisected
pilot must have been a grim reminder to the elder Saotome of the hazards of
operating a Griffin.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side, Ukyou," Akane joked weakly at
the grisly sight.
Ukyou preferred not to be reminded of it herself. "Did you get ahold
of Ranchan or Ryouga?"
"No," Akane replied, her expression dimming. "There hasn't been any
word from either of them. I hope nothing has happened."
Genma clicked on his external speakers. "I don't want to be rude, but
your father is waiting for us at the DropShip, Akane. We should get back
and rearm before the next attack comes."
"We'll be right along, Mister Saotome," Akane replied.
Chapter Two
NCWS _Tautog_
In orbit above planet Ryuugenzawa
14:32 Local Time
"Conn, Sensory; Contact Echo Two-Nine bearing zero-four-five, plus
eight-eight. Range: four-zero thousand kilometers."
Olivera sipped from his coffee, which had grown cold since the last
time he had it filled.
"Very well, Sensory," he replied in a clipped voice. He had other
concerns. The primary Orochi unit would keep for just a little longer,
he was certain. Unit Three, on the other hand, was shifting its orbit
slightly to remain in position over the starport area, and there were
ominous indications from the control bunker on the surface that it had
changed its targeting priorities.
"Mark bearing and range to Echo Two-Five," he ordered.
"Contact Echo Two-Five bears zero-zero-three minus zero-four,"
Sensory replied. "Range to target: two thousand meters."
The Orochi satellite loomed before them, a baleful white oval on
the main display. The image was without magnification. Olivera wasn't
sure he wanted a closer look at it just yet.
"How much closer, Tommy?" he asked his XO.
The man lifted his head from the Fire Control station. "We need to
be within five hundred meters to even have a shot at this with a torpedo."
"Damn," Olivera cursed. "That's too close."
"Conn, Sensory; Contact Echo Three-Zero now bearing zero-four-nine,
plus eight-nine. Range: one hundred-thousand kilometers."
Olivera's eyes swept over the holotank as the first of Prince Kuno's
fleet entered the fray. They were going to take on the primary Orochi
satellite, which given the circumstances, they were better suited for.
He wouldn't mind if they destroyed the damned thing - so long as they
were destroyed along with it.
He wasn't going to bet either way. Arrayed against Prince Kuno's
battleship and other escorts was the primary Orochi satellite and four
of its lesser units. No matter which side won, the survivors would be
hurting. The Confederation was counting on that to escape, but what if
their enemies succeeded in destroying each other?
It was a heady prospect, because Hauptmann wasn't the only one who
wanted to see the Confederation profit from the Ryuugenzawa System. If
the Grand Duke and his people on the surface were the last ones standing,
then they would win the planet by default. Nabiki and her faction of
spineless traitors couldn't hope to remain in power when His Grace
returned in triumph to Nerima with the secrets of Ryuugenzawa in his
possession, and if Kuno and his fleet were destroyed, there would be
little to threaten their country as they rebuilt with the recovered
technology.
"Conn, Sensory; Echo Two-Five has fired upon the planet! The
starport appears to be the impact point!"
Sensory's announcement shocked him out of his speculation. "Has
the _Palomino_ been hit?" he demanded.
"No, Captain," a commo tech replied. "They are continuing to
transmit to Lady Akane."
"Then what was that thing shooting at?"
"Unknown at this time," Sensory declared.
He clenched his teeth. "Dammit... Tommy, we need to take a shot now,
before that thing refines its aim."
"A torp shot doesn't have much of a chance, even at two klicks,
skipper," the XO declared.
Olivera came to a decision, one that might cost them. "Chief of
the Watch, raise the laser turrets. Fire Control, prepare to fire Guns
One and Two."
An electric tension filled the Bridge with these orders. Everyone
understood that the Captain intended to take on the Orochi point blank
in a slugfest they couldn't possibly win. Knowing this, they still
followed their orders.
"Chief of the Watch, aye."
"Fire Control, aye."
Olivera strapped himself to his chair. "Helm, stand by to execute
full evasive maneuvers. Fire Control, prepare to fire at targets
selected by Commander Thompson."
The XO let out a deep exhale. "Pretty ballsy of you, skipper."
Olivera set his coffee bottle in a mesh bag at his seat.
"I'm getting tired of all this sneakin' and peekin'. If we don't make
it through this, the Duke will still have the _Coronet_ to get him home."
"Turrets One and Two are locked into position," the Chief of the
Watch declared. "Stealth integrity compromised."
"Targets acquired. Fire Control standing by."
"Conn, Sensory; Contact Echo Two-Five has illuminated us with active
search radar in T and X bands, gun-directing radar, and ultraviolet band
lidar."
Olivera snapped his visor into place. "Let 'em have it, Fire Control."
The _Tautog's_ two Naval Laser turrets spat out thready streams of
light at the Orochi satellite. The beams struck the oblate saucer-shaped
battlestation at top and bottom center, blasting what they hoped was its
weak spots.
"Sensory, what's going on over there?" Olivera asked.
"No effect, Captain," the Supervisor announced grimly. "All radar
and commo systems seem to be online."
"Well then, keep shooting, for Christ's sake!"
The whine of the turrets firing above and below them echoed through
the Bridge.
The Orochi reacted to the presence of the corvette's attack as if it
could feel the damage. Sensor arrays under fire trained upon the hostile
ship, and with them tracked the fearsome guns in its arsenal.
The _Tautog_ shook as a bolt of particle beam fire ripped along the
port side hull.
"Helm, negative three-zero degrees pitch, All Ahead Flank!" Olivera
ordered.
"'F' Deck portside reports heavy damage," the Damage Control Assistant
declared over the roar of shearing metal. "Engineering reports damage to
Number Two Main Engine induction dampers. Maximum drive output reduced to
four gravities of acceleration."
"Very well, DCA," Olivera grunted. It was better than he had feared.
They were still breathing.
The ship began to accelerate, building up to punishing amounts of
artificial gravity as the Orochi continued to shoot at them. A second beam
creased their dorsal hull, ripping a swath through their heavy stealth-
lined superstructure.
"Fire Tubes One through Six!" Olivera ordered over the noise of the
engines and the strain of four gees. With any luck, the Orochi would waste
some of its firepower on the Barracudas, and spare his ship some grief.
The six Barracuda torpedoes launched with loud *thuds* in rapid
succession from the electromagnetic catapult tubes aft and below the
Bridge. Olivera watched the weapons on the telescope monitor as they
raced on full burn towards the orbital battlestation. To his amazement,
all six weapons hit the thing broadside, exploding deep into armor and
blackening an entire side of the hull.
The Helmsman commenced his one minute throttle-back on the engines
to take some strain off the crew, and gave Olivera a chance to review the
situation. "What's happening?" he asked Sensory.
"I think we got at least one of the nodes, Captain!" the Supervisor
cried.
The Orochi continued to shoot at them, but now the beams were
scattered and useless.
"We must have hit the ventral node hard enough to knock it out," the
XO added. "The Orochi is firing its attitude thrusters to bring the dorsal
node to bear on us so that it can track."
Olivera turned to his Astrogator as the Orochi maneuvered. Beams
splayed across the void between them as guns on the dorsal side of the
saucer came to bear. One ripped across their bow, vaporizing a section
of stealth-lined superstructure in a cloud of plasma.
"Keep us out of that thing's entire dorsal hemisphere!" he shouted,
knowing that to do so, they had to come even closer to the thing. "Fire
Control, what is the status of reloading tubes one through six?"
"Tubes One, Three, and Five are ready in all respects. Tubes Two,
Four, and Six are pending. Port Torpedo Room reports manual reloads will
take four minutes at the soonest."
Olivera understood. "Fire Control, Vertical Salvo: Tubes One, Three,
and Five. Fire Two, Four, and Six just as soon as they're ready," he
ordered. "How about the Gun Turrets?"
The corvette bucked as a laser beam stitched across its dorsal armor
belt, sending displays crashing to static for a moment with the shock.
"Gun Turret One is knocked out," Fire Control responded when the
systems cam back online. "That last hit got it. Gun Turret Two is still
online."
"Good enough. Helm, put on one-hundred eighty degrees left roll." As
the corvette rolled, it would put its functional turret to bear on the
Orochi.
"Helm, aye."
Olivera looked at his XO. "We might live through this yet."
* * *
Ian Cameron Starport
14:36 Local Time
From the twisted wreckage of the quonset hut that Happousai had
destroyed came a flicker of movement. A few pieces of rubble fell away
from a secton of half-melted trusswork to reveal a small black pig,
soaked with the rain and smeared with mud from crawling through the
remains of the building. Its tiny grunts of pain and exertion went
unheard over the patter of the storm.
Ryouga had expected to die as the quonset hut collapsed on him,
but as the building fell apart over his head, a splash of rainwater
had turned him into his hated Jusenkyo body. That lucky accident had
spared him as the rubble fell down, the surviving trusses piling up
to form small pockets of safety that a man could never have used. It
had taken all of his effort to free himself from his tomb of debris,
but now as he tasted the clean air and felt the wind on his face, he
let out a squeal of defiance at the man who had tried to kill him.
He could see the low hill of camouflage netting that marked the
_Palomino_ in the distance. It was much too far for a pig to travel,
and especially so when that pig had no direction sense. He turned in
a circle to see if Happousai had left his BattleMaster intact, and
rejoiced when he saw it kneeling on one knee close by.
He skittered across the wet, cracked tarmac towards his
battlemech, where he would find a flask of hot water that would turn
him back into a human. Then he would hunt Happousai down and kill
the freak.
The BattleMaster waited for him as he scrambled up the rain-
slicked arm to the torso, and from there, scrabbled into the cockpit.
The 'mech was still online as he fumbled with his hooves to work the
flask's flip-top lid open.
Hot water spilled from the flask over his head, affecting his
transformation. As he donned his neurohelmet and strapped himself
into his ejector seat, he realized that he was naked. His shorts and
cooling vest were still trapped under the rubble.
With a blush, he realized that he would have to continue the battle
in this condition. There wasn't time to rush back to the DropShip for a
change of clothes, and he couldn't bear the thought of Akari accidentally
seeing him in the buff.
As the BattleMaster stood upright, he surveyed the area, looking for
the footprints Happousai's Locust might have left behind. It was possible
that his nemesis had fled to the south. He resolved to find out, but first
there were a few things he needed to take care of.
The BattleMaster stomped over to the ruins of the hut, then began
pulling the debris off and casting it aside. The strongbox that held the
Library Core had looked pretty solid, and there was a chance that in its
armored pit it could have survived. Happousai must have thought so when
he chose to bring down the building.
He would recover the strongbox so that no matter what happened later,
Happousai would not get his hands on it. It belonged to Akane, and to the
Confederation he had sworn to serve, not to a greedy, murderous little
monster like Happousai. He would see to that.
He found it right in the center of the pile. With excessive care, he
picked it up between two fingers and brought it up to the cockpit. He
opened the armored canopy enough to stay out of the rain, and lifted the
heavy box from his battlemech's grasp. Once the box was securely strapped
into the rear seat, he sealed the canopy.
The Treasure of Ryuugenzawa was his now. All he had to do was deliver
it to the _Palomino._ Then he could go hunt down Happousai.
* * *
The Ruins of Ryuugenzawa City
14:40 Local Time
"Come on out, Happousai," Pansuto Tarou's voice grated over the
tac-net.
"Stop running like the spineless old weakling you are, and face me."
Happousai ignored the man's pathetic attempt to draw him out. Such a
tactic might have worked on a knucklehead like Ranma or Ryouga, but he was
smarter than that.
His battlemech was crouched in the burned out shell of a school
building,
and he watched as more Black Rose 'mechs than he cared to see stomped past
him out on the street. How Tarou had stumbled into Kodachi Kuno's camp and
won her over, he did not know, but it seemed clear that Tarou had taken the
secret of the Ryuugenzawa System's location with him when he parted ways
with the _Dragonfly._ He had to admire the man's underhandedness, if
nothing
else.
His best bet was to wait out Tarou and let the battle progress.
Kodachi
would grow weary of the cat-and-mouse game soon, and wander off with her
troops to go destroy something - like the _Palomino_ - and that would leave
Tarou on his own. He knew he could take the chump, even in a damaged
Locust.
As for the _Palomino,_ well, they should be finishing up the repairs about
now. He didn't think they were in all that much danger.
Kodachi gave a bored sigh. "Really, lover, if he intended to fight
you, he would have done it by now. Let's go find Akane Tendo. Perhaps that
will be the impetus to draw him out."
Tarou snorted in reply. "The old goat could care less about Akane
Tendo. It's his own skin he's worried about."
Kodachi's Black Marauder put up its derringer-like forearms in a
shrug. "Then what do you propose to do?" Her voice was edged with a touch
of irritation.
Tarou pointed to a cluster of buildings. "Smoke him out." He fired
his arm-mounted medium lasers at one of the structures, pumping energy
into it until the ruined husk collapsed in on itself. "He's hiding
somewhere in this abandoned town. If we knock down every standing
structure left, he'll have to come out."
Kodachi pursed her lips in thought. "Very well, my lover. I shall
indulge you. I'll send one battalion on ahead, and order the rest of my
troops to begin razing the city." She arched an eyebrow at him, and her
perfect white teeth nibbled playfully upon the haft of her riding crop.
"Of course, it shall cost you later this evening."
* * *
The DropShip _Palomino_
14:45 Local Time
Akane studied the steaming crater less than five hundred meters from
the DropShip as she and her battered lance of battlemechs stomped out of
the treeline. The shot had come from one of the Orochi satellites in
low orbit, the one that had been pounding on the Musk Dynasty forces. She
was glad the shot had fallen well short of the _Palomino,_ and wondered
when the next one would come.
A Warhammer and a Victor stood with weapons ready as they approached,
and her heart began to swell with emotion. The two 'mechs had to be piloted
by her father and eldest sister.
"Dad?" she called out over the tac-net. "Kasumi?"
The face of Grand Duke Tendo appeared on her tac-net. He was wearing a
neurohelmet, the first time she had seen him in one for ten years. "I'm
here,
Daughter. Your sister Kasumi is also here with me."
She didn't know where she should begin, so Akane started with the
questions closest to her heart.
"Dad, you don't know how happy I am to see you and Kasumi, but why did
you come, and what is this about Nabiki taking over the Confederation?"
Soun cleared his throat to speak, for Nabiki's betrayal continued to
sting. "To be brief, your sister Nabiki and some of the nobles relieved my
of my authority," he replied, his voice thick with emotions he had
suppressed
ever since the coup. "Your sister and I were taken hostage, and were then
rescued by loyalists. We've come here to return you to Nerima. Nabiki's
reign
as Regent is only temporary; as soon as you come home, she has to step
down."
Akane's eyes began to glisten with angry tears. Nabiki had gone too
far. The surrender summit was bad enough, but to overthrow her own family
and lock them up as prisoners? She had to escape from Ryuugenzawa and put
things right!
"As soon as the DropShip is ready, we'll lift off," she declared. Her
battlemech came to a halt just outside the camouflage netting, where a
handful of Akari's techs were waiting with ammunition to reload them. She
popped her hatch and scrambled down the boarding ladder. Genma, Ukyou, and
Doctor Tofu did the same, and were followed by Grand Duke Tendo and Kasumi.
They met in the middle of the 'mech formation. Akane threw her arms
around her father and squeezed him tightly, hugging him in a way she hadn't
since she was a child.
"I missed you, Dad," she cried softly. "It's been hard without you and
Kasumi around."
"It was even harder for me," he replied. Kasumi was the quiet strength
of the family, and Nabiki had been the wise voice of reason, but it was his
youngest daughter who embodied the very spirit of the Tendos. He could see
how much she had grown up in the last six months, and silently thanked
Saotome for insisting that she accompany them on the expedition. Genma
locked hands with him, as if sensing his thoughts.
"It's good to see you, Tendo," Genma said to him.
"You've done it, Saotome," he replied. "If it ever appeared that I
doubted your ability to succeed, let me dispel those doubts now."
Ukyou Kuonji watched the reunion in silence. She should have felt a
little miserable at the sight of it since she was an outsider and seemingly
all alone, but instead she felt a sense of pride and satisfaction. Akane
and the others had shown in the past several days that she was more than
simply useful baggage to them. She had become part of their team. When
Akane and Doctor Tofu had come looking for her, it was because they cared
about her.
Yes, she was still hurting from losing Ranchan, but by her concern,
Akane had made it clear that she was a friend in spite of their rivalry.
Could she turn that aside out of petty jealousy? The answer was a very
obvious no. Akane and the others counted on her, depended on her with
their lives, and that was a relationship born out of trust and respect
that could not be broken.
The Grand Duke and his family were part of that bond of trust that
had formed, and so whatever the consequences of her birth, she now
considered herself one of them, a member of the Nerima Confederation,
all fighting the Combine and the Musk Dynasty together. She wasn't going
to stand for the likes of Kodachi and Tatewaki Kuno tearing them apart,
and there was no way in hell some lousy machine menace like the Orochi
was going to, either.
Akane released her grip on her father, and presented Ukyou to him
as she came to that decision.
"Dad, this is Ukyou Kuonji, a friend of Ranma's." It was a bit of
diplomacy on Akane's part to describe the relationship between them in
that way, but she understood and accepted the reasons for it. "She's been
a tremendous help in getting us the location of Ryuugenzawa."
The Grand Duke offered his hand. "A pleasure," he replied. "Although
I'm sorry that we had to meet under such difficult circumstances."
She took his hand, unsure of whether she should kiss his ring or just
shake hands. She decided to shake, and he seemed satisfied with that. His
forthright nature appealed to her, and she decided that serving the man
as a mechwarrior was the right choice to make.
Doctor Tofu Ono wrung his hands anxiously as he stepped up to speak
to Kasumi. She was an angel standing there in her cooling vest, clutching
her neurohelmet under her arm. She was the reason he had become a
mechwarrior in the 1st Nerima Guards while a career in medicine was
calling to him, and when she had stepped aside to let Akane take over
the regiment, he had lost his reason to fight.
He was so much in love with her that he could not think straight,
and even now, as he opened his trembling lips to speak to her, he could
not think of a single intelligent thing to say. He was lost in her eyes,
the faint sound of her breathing, and in her smile, so warm that it could
melt glaciers away. He had promised Akane that he would tell Kasumi how he
felt about her, and now here he was, unable to speak.
"Why hello, Doctor Tofu!" Kasumi said to him. Her voice was sweeter
to him in that moment than anything he had ever heard before.
"Uh, hel-hello, Kasumi. Whatever brings y-you here, to, er, ah, this
p-place?"
He felt as foolish as he sounded, and Akane's eyes caught him as
he looked away from Kasumi in shame. She gave him a silent nod of
encouragement.
He looked back to Kasumi, who seemed to sense that something wasn't
quite right with the situation, but seemed unsure of what it was.
"W-Would you mind if I, er, s-spoke with you alone for a moment,
Kasumi?" he managed, his voice a little higher than he would have
preferred.
Kasumi responded gamely. "Of course, Doctor." She led him over to
her Victor, where she opened the conversation with a thankfully safe
topic. "This certainly is a lovely planet," she remarked as the rain
came down in light sprinkles around them. "It reminds a little of home."
Tofu decided to run with it, and somehow work in what he had to
say. "Y-Yeah, I've been thinking that too. If you throw out the rain and
add a few thousand people, it's almost like the place we went together
for the Spring Festival."
Kasumi smiled. "Ah, I remember that. I had such a good time there
with you."
Encouraged by this, he plunged on. Or at least he tried to.
"Th-There's
something I've been meaning to tell you, Kasumi... Something I meant to say
before I left Nerima on the expedition."
She gave him a puzzled look.
"What is it, Doctor?" she asked him.
He started to say it, and his jaw seized up. He was a master of the
martial arts, of acupressure and other biomanipulation techniques, and yet
here he was, completely unable to control his own body.
Kasumi gave him a worried look. "Is there something wrong, Doctor
Tofu? Are you injured?"
"--heart--" he managed to blurt out.
Her eyes lit up in alarm. "You have a heart condition?" she gasped.
"S-Sort of," he croaked, fighting to say the words instead of
babbling out the gibberish his tongue wanted to spill.
"What's wrong?" she asked him, coming to his side and putting her
hands on his shoulders. "Is there anything I can do?" She was about to cry
for help when he answered her.
"My h-heart..." he said to her, his glasses fogged and his voice
unsteady and weak.
"Yes, I know," she gasped. "You have a heart condition and..."
"Th-That's not it," he replied, his hands trembling as he set them on
her waist. She stiffened with surprise at his touch. "Kasumi, I... I...
My heart belongs t-to..." He grimaced as the words would not come. "What I
feel for you is..."
"Doctor Tofu?" she cried in a whisper, her hands falling from his
shoulders to touch the hands that rested upon her waist.
"I can't..." he said in defeat. "I just can't say it... I'm a fool
for even trying."
"What are you trying to say, Doctor?" she asked, drawing even closer
to him. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."
"I'm sorry, Kasumi," he said in hoarse whisper. "You deserve better
than a fool like me." ...Who was I kidding, anyway...?
He let go of her and turned away. Akane couldn't see them from where
she stood, and so he could pretend to her for a little longer that he had
done what he had set out to do.
Kasumi, however, caught his hand in hers as he started to go.
"Doctor Tofu, whatever it is that you're trying to tell me, I'll
listen," she said so quietly over the gentle patter of the rain that for
a moment he only imagined that he heard her. "If it will take time for
you to be able tell me, I'll wait." He turned back to see her glowing
smile and felt his knees grow weak. "I'm very patient, you see."
His glasses fogged once again.
"Ka-Kasumi..." His voice came out cracked and strained.
She brought his hand up to her breast. "You're a kind and gentle man,
Doctor Tofu, and even if you don't believe it right now, I think you're
very brave and strong," she told him. "Between you and Ranma, I couldn't
have trusted Akane's care to any better people."
He was speechless as she cupped his hand in hers.
"If you would like to take me to another festival on Nerima," she said
to him with a gentle smile. "I would be happy to join you."
Chapter Three
Near the ruins of Ryuugenzawa City
14:45 Local Time
Yuka caught the glitter of refracted laser light in the distance as
she and Sayuri swept at treetop level over the forest to the southwest of
the starport. The Black Rose fighters had grouped into two formations, one
attacking the Musk Dynasty positions in fits and spurts, and the other
keeping jealous watch over their own landing zones. Neither location made
for a good place for two small Confederation fighters to go, and that made
the selection of targets slim for them.
"Did you see that, Sayuri?" she called to her wingmate.
"It looks a little far south to be ours," Sayuri replied.
Yuka gained some altitude to get a better look. "I don't know..." she
muttered. "With Ryouga getting lost, he could be just about anywhere by
now."
"Do you want to take a look?"
"It couldn't hurt."
The two fighters accelerated, each pilot mindful of their low fuel
reserves. They wouldn't have time for more than a few passes before they
would have to consider returning to the DropShip to refuel.
They made a swift pass at low altitude. Through the gaps in the trees
they saw a Black Rose Shadow Hawk fall to its knees with a huge smoking
hole through its armored chest, and the flash of Ryouga's BattleMaster
stalking off deeper into the woods.
"We found our lost boy," Sayuri remarked as they pulled up for a steep
banking turn that would take them back towards Ryouga.
"Yeah, but where's he going?" Yuka asked.
Concentrated fire from a Rifleman engaged them before Sayuri could
respond; green lines of autocannon tracers stitching across the sky to
slam into her Sparrowhawk. The light fighter was thick-skinned, and so
she weathered the barrage long enough to dive for the deck as Yuka put her
nose to bear on the offending air-defense 'mech.
"Black Rose Rifleman," Yuka grunted.
"Yeah, I saw him," Sayuri returned curtly. "Thanks for the heads up."
Yuka triggered her Corsair's lasers at the Rifleman, and lit up the
woods around the 'mech in clouds of steam and golden flashes of vaporized
armor. The Rifleman's Garret radar and tracking array allowed the Black
Rose
pilot to aim on instruments, and returned fire with both heavy lasers.
She caught the beams full on in the fuselage as she made a break turn
to evade, and shuddered as damage lights came on. Her previous dance with
an 80-ton Slayer had left her armor weak in spots, and now she was hurting.
"I'm hit," she said tersely.
"How bad?" Sayuri wanted to know. She made a strafing run on the
Rifleman just to keep it occupied, then punched her HEPLAR drive to
maximum to avoid the counterattack.
"Bad." Yuka's tone was at once cool and grave.
Sayuri craned her neck around to see Yuka's Corsair limping away. The
50-ton fighter trailed a line of black smoke, which was an unusual and
ominous sign for a fusion-driven craft.
"Can you make it back to the ship?" she asked.
"I don't know," Yuka replied. "I've got a fire that the suppression
system can't get a handle on. If it reaches the fuel cells, I'll explode."
"Dump your fuel," Sayuri advised. "Coast back to the ship on reactor
waste heat with your turbojets."
"That's a nice idea, except that my emergency dump valves are showing
up as offline on the damage control board. I think the signal links between
them and my control system are severed - or burnt."
Sayuri tried to think of what her friend could do, and saw two Black
Rose fighters moving in from the west. They were probably returning from
attacks on the Musk Dynasty forces on the other side of the starport, and
had been vectored in by the Rifleman to hunt down enemy fighters. The
course they took would put them on a direct intercept.
"We've got more problems," she said to Yuka. "Two Black Rose fighters
at seven o'clock high."
"I don't think I can take them," Yuka returned.
"Then it's up to me," Sayuri returned. "Head for the _Palomino,_ and
if things get bad - eject."
Sayuri pulled her Sparrowhawk into a steep climb for altitude. It
would help her enemies spot her, but she needed the room and the energy
that altitude provided if she was going to fight them. She had already
resigned herself to the fact that they had spotted them by their
intercept course.
The two enemy fighters were Shilones, medium fighters with long
slightly-swept wings that gave them the nickname of 'Boomerang.' She
could only hope that they had depleted their Shigunga LRM launchers
fighting the Musk Dynasty, as her small Sparrowhawk had no long range
weapons of its own, just two medium and two light lasers that she would
have to get well into dogfighting range to use.
One of the Shilones moved towards her, while the other dropped its
nose and banked to intercept Yuka. Sayuri knew that she had to employ
the only advantage the Sparrowhawk had over the larger fighters, and
that was agility. Her pressure suit inflated against her stomach and
thighs as she expended precious reaction mass to accelerate through
the sound barrier while rolling and turning to bear on the fighter
threatening her friend.
She let go with a stream of laser fire at extreme range, the
rippling bursts of light crazing the enemy fighter and lighting it up
in a blizzard of glowing, golden motes. The Black Rose Shilone snap-
rolled to minimize its exposure, taking the pressure off of Yuka for
another few seconds. The second Shilone wallowed through a steeply
sinking turn that bled off airspeed and put it firmly on her tail.
Beams of laser fire from the enemy fighter behind her burned
the air around her Sparrowhawk as she jinked for all she was worth.
Her foe was a persistant one, matching her maneuver for maneuver with
his larger craft, and she knew that she had to do something crazy if
she was going to shake him.
The only problem with something crazy, she reflected as the beams
crisscrossed around her cockpit canopy dome, was that she needed fuel
to pull it off. The reaction mass cells were practically empty, and
when they finally ran dry, she would lose her maximum rated thrust
capabilities. Her rear-warning radar screamed in her headset as she
calculated her reserves; the Shilone on her back had loosed a volley
of long range missiles at her, and her time had run out.
"Sayuri! Missiles in your six!" Yuka cried over the tac-net.
Her mouth went dry as she squeezed the booster studs on her
throttle and fired the HEPLAR drive. The Sparrowhawk leaped in protest
as she pulled up into a steep climb, and continued accelerating as the
fighter bled off its reaction mass into the plasma drive. As she peaked
at the top of her short loop, Sayuri rolled out upright, then slalomed
left and down into the path of the oncoming missiles for the beginning
of her desperate Cuban-Eight maneuver.
The first part of her gambit paid off. The missiles, denied the
chance to make direct contact with her after her violent aerobatic
maneuver, exploded around the Sparrowhawk as their crude proximity fuzes
detonated them. Shrapnel rang off her armor as she plummeted through the
fiery clouds of dying weapons, the shock waves buffeting her and making
her clench her controls with a deathgrip.
The roar of the Shilone passing overhead was the signal she needed
to finish her Cuban-Eight, and she climbed once more. Her drives
spluttered as the last grams of propellant were expended, and she was
forced to surrender the energy she had gained in her dive to complete
the climb. The Shilone had lost contact with her in the fireballs, and
in presuming her dead, turned to continue the pursuit of Yuka's wounded
Corsair.
Sayuri completed the final loop of the Cuban-Eight, and dove back
down on the Shilone's tail. She was out of fuel, running only on her
fusion heated turbojets now, and she knew that she had to end the fight
quickly if she and Yuka were to survive. Her lasers charged up for a
full volley at close range as the Shilone pilot realized his mistake
and tried to evade.
She let him have all four lasers at once, the beams streaming into
the enemy fighter's thruster ports in a cascading series of explosions
that climaxed in a devastating fireball of molten metal and fusion
plasma. Blinded by the intensity of the blast and nearly stunned by the
shockwave, Sayuri began to juke away from the dying Shilone, and was
thrown against her seat straps as the nose of her fighter struck
something solid. Pain flooded through her body as alarm sirens wailed
in her headset.
When the spots before her eyes cleared, she was in a tumbling
free-fall, the Sparrowhawk's nose lasers crumpled and bent. What was
infinitely worse than the damage done to the fighter was the long,
jagged piece of the Shilone's wing that was impaled through her canopy,
and in turn, through her chest. Blood was everywhere in the cockpit;
splashed with abandon over her instruments, spattered across the canopy,
and fouling the HUD projectors that gave her flight control data. Her
mind in a detached state of horror that went beyond panic, she realized
that she could not move her left arm, and that it was agony to breathe.
Outside the starred canopy, the sky rolled sickeningly, and was
frequently succeeded by the verdant ground cover of the forest. She
was falling to her death, unable to eject because doing so would rip
her apart as long as she was impaled. The sound of Yuka's voice
screaming her name over the crackling commo was distant in her ears,
and her failing consciousness struggled drunkenly to comprehend why
her friend of so many years sounded so heartsick.
Her head lolled against her ejector seat as she watched the
blood swirl in free-fall around her. The buzzing in her ears grew
louder, and she felt herself draining away into the parachute bag
that made up her seat cushion. From out of the corner of her tear-
streaked eye, she saw a light flashing on one of her panels, and
heard the sharp hiss of her AutoMedic injecting drugs into her
veins. It was futile effort, she managed to think over the swimming
dizzyness that enveloped her. Once I crash, there won't be anything
left to save.
There was a sickening crunch of metal, then silence.
Yuka looked on at her HUD in disbelief as the Black Rose Shilone
that she had been desperately fighting off with her rear-mounted light
lasers suddenly exploded into a billion glowing fragments. She knew
that she hadn't hit it that hard. Her question was answered a moment
later in a flash of silver and white, and the sonic boom of the Super
Phoenix Hawk LAM's passing bucked her in her failing fighter.
It was already shedding velocity as it shot past behind her,
the engines howling and twin cones of plasma in blue-on-blue shock
diamonds raging against the leaden sky. She watched as it rolled wing
over wing into Airmech Mode, then unfolded further into Battlemech
Mode, its arms spreading wide as it flew at the falling Sparrowhawk.
Ranma caught the crippled light fighter, tucking the damaged cockpit
under the Phoenix Hawk's arm as the LAM slid the last twenty meters
to the ground feet first, and with the turbojets flaring out full
braking thrust.
Yuka brought her nose around in a careful turn, noting how sluggish
and unresponsive the controls were becoming as gouts of mud and foilage
spurted up from the ground where the LAM touched down. Trees snapped and
fell, then a cloud of steam roiled up from the forest where the LAM came
to rest. Farther south from Ranma's position, a thunderclap and the bright
flash of a PPC blast indicated that Ryouga had found another target.
"Saotome?" she called out over the tac-net. An alarm tone sounded as
she spoke, indicating that the fire had spread to her port side turbojet
systems.
The was no answer for several moments, and she called to him again.
The fire was spreading, and her engines began to make an low droning buzz
as coolant systems were overwhlemed by the heat.
"Yeah...?" she replied finally.
Yuka reduced her altitude as she passed over the LAM. It was sprawled
out in a ruin of fallen trees and covered in mud. The wrecked Sparrowhawk
was still cradled in its arms. Her own fighter was failing, and it took
most of her attention to stay on course.
"Is Sayuri...?"
"I don't know," Ranma returned. "I'm gonna go find out."
"I'll be there in a second," she told him. Her Corsair was done for,
and her friend needed her. She put the fighter that had served her so well
into level flight, quenched the fusion reactor, and pulled hard on the
ejection lever.
The force of ejecting knocked the wind out of her, and she gasped
against the cold wet air as her faithful fighter struggled on in level
flight below her for a few hundred more meters before pitching over into
a dive and crashing into the forest half a kilometer from where Ranma had
touched down. Her parachute opened fully as the fighter hit, and she began
a slow fall to the ground.
Ranma retracted the roof hatch of her Battlemech Mode cockpit and
pulled herself through the opening. The mech's head was tilted forward
against the muddy torso, and she used it to climb down to the battered
hulk of the Sparrowhawk still clutched in its arms. Steam wafted up from
the hull as the drizzle evaporated on the hot metal near the engines, and
she found herself hoping that the fusion reactor had shut down safely.
Dying of radiation sickness was not high on her list of ways to go.
The sight of the burned wing section projecting through the
polycarbonate - and the blood streaks on the canopy - did not make her
feel any more comfortable. Was Sayuri already dead? The sound of Yuka's
fighter crashing in the distance made her start out of surprise as she
fumbled with the canopy release controls. She looked up momentarily to
see her one-time nemesis floating towards the ground, steering her
parachute to put her down as close as possible to the Phoenix Hawk.
Releasing the canopy was going to be tricky with the wing section
stuck through it, she realized as she turned her attention back to Sayuri.
She could see the pilot slumped back in her ejector seat, and the horrible
wound she had sustained, and did not know if she was just wasting her time
by doing this. In the complicated process of catching the fighter in
midair,
she had been too preoccupied to notice what had happened to the girl.
The grunt of Yuka touching down close by was followed by the rustling
of the parachute canopy collapsing. She turned to see the girl running
towards the wreck with her parachute trailing by its harness behind her.
"Is she dead...?" Yuka asked her with panting gasps. "Please tell
me she isn't."
Ranma looked back to the cockpit. "I can't tell," she replied dully.
"But it doesn't look good."
She tried moving the canopy forward in its track to let the wing
section pass through the hole it made, and managed to get it halfway open
before damage to the track itself prevented her from moving it any farther.
It was open just enough to reach inside and check for a pulse.
Yuka looked on as Ranma leaned into the cockpit. Sayuri's face was
pale, and her pressure suit was sticky with blood. It had soaked through
the cloth outer liner to form a large stain on her chest around the jagged
piece of metal that Ranma could already see was a through and through
injury just above her left breast. The wing section projected through her
back well into the ejector seat itself.
She gently turned the pressure suit helmet the half-twist necessary
to unseat it from the neck ring seal, and pulled it off to let Sayuri's
sweat-matted light brown hair spill onto her shoulders. She discarded
the helmet with a grunt, and slipped a hand down to her throat.
"I think I feel a pulse," she said to Yuka. "It's weak and slow."
"Check the eyes," Yuka returned hopefully, shrugging out of her
parachute harness.
Ranma lifted one of Sayuri's eyelids. The pupil shrank mercifully
in the sudden influx of light.
"She's unconscious," Ranma declared. A brief examination of the
pressure suit's surviving instrumentation confirmed her suspicions.
"It looks like her AutoMedic did its job."
Yuka pulled the transmitter remote from Ranma's belt. "Come in,
_Palomino,_" she called out. "This is Red Eagle Deuce. Request urgent
medical support at map reference Mike-Four-Four by Oscar-Five-Eight."
"Copy that, Red Eagle Deuce," Petty Officer Howard replied over
the remote. "Be advised of friendly units moving towards your position
from the northwest."
Ranma took the remote from Yuka as the ground shook with the
footfalls of approaching battlemechs.
"This is Red Eagle Lead; You said the northwest, right?" she
asked Tad.
"Yes, ma'am... er, sir," Tad replied.
Ranma checked the sky for the hazy glow of Ryuugenzawa's sun to
confirm her bearings. The sound of the approaching 'mechs was from the
*southeast.*
"We've got company," she declared to Yuka. She clicked the microphone
button on her remote. "_Palomino,_ Red Eagle Lead; that medevac needs to
bring cutting tools and lots of Type-B whole blood. Red Eagle Trey is in
bad shape, and you need to hurry, over."
"Copy that, Red Eagle Lead," Tad replied. "Cutting tools and Type-B
whole blood."
Ranma handed the remote to Yuka. "See if you can patch this through
what's left of Sayuri's console. If those are Black Rose 'mechs out there
heading our way, I gotta go draw them off."
Yuka took the radio remote from her, her eyes trembling with emotion.
Without a word, she reached over and kissed Ranma fleetingly on the lips.
Ranma drew back in surprise from Yuka's kiss, blushing furiously.
"Wh-What was that for?" she asked.
Yuka looked away, almost as embarrassed by what she had done as Ranma.
"I know that you wouldn't have done it for me," she began. "But I
can't tell you in words how grateful I am for what you did for Sayuri.
She's my best friend..." Her eyes closed. "And she would be dead right now
if you hadn't done what you did."
Ranma wiped away the sudden sweat that misted her brow. "Y-You're
welcome, I guess," she managed. She started for her Phoenix Hawk LAM,
then turned back to face Yuka. "I'm not sure you'll believe me, Yuka, but
I probably would have done the same for you."
Yuka offered her a dubious smile. "Probably?"
Ranma shrugged and gave her a crooked grin. "If I didn't give myself
time to think about it, anyway," she conceded.
The moment was shattered as a Black Rose Cicada leaped through a gap
in the trees fifty meters away. The medium 'mech successor to the Star
League Locust continued on, oblivious to what was passing between the two
rival pilots on the ground.
"Get going," Yuka told her.
Ranma was already jumping up to the top of the Phoenix Hawk's torso.
She gave Yuka a brief wave before dropping through the hatch and locking
the sensor head into position. The LAM came to life a moment later,
carefully lifting the Sparrowhawk off its lap and settling it onto the
churned ground.
Sayuri gasped in pain from the depths of unconsciousness at the
shifting of the metal wing section that pierced her, and Yuka prayed
that she wouldn't begin to bleed heavily from it. The Phoenix Hawk
picked the fallen trees off its metal body, set them down away from the
Sparrowhawk, then stood up into a crouch. The heavy pulse laser was
trained warily in the direction the Cicada had come from as the
vibrations of more battlemechs shook the ground.
Yuka watched with fascination as the mud covered battlemech crept
closer to the sound of the approaching Black Rose forces. As a second
Cicada sprang from the woods on the trail of the first, Ranma exploded
out of her crouch, checking the 40 ton reconnaissance 'mech, and sending
it sprawling into a stand of trees with a thunderous crash. The heavy
pulselaser cracked like a cannon shot in the cold, humid air, the beam
etching a fading afterimage on her vision as it put the Black Rose 'mech
down for the count.
A flurry of tracer fire lit up the air as more Black Rose 'mechs
opened fire on Ranma. Yuka watched as the LAM boosted on its leg jets,
catapulting skyward as light autocannon shells spanged off its armor, then
transformed to Airmech Mode to lead the enemy away from the crash site.
The Black Rose troops took the bait, and the stomping sound began to
recede into the east.
Yuka turned back to her friend, whose labored breathing and pale
skin spoke of her proximity to death. She took Sayuri's hand in hers
and gave it a squeeze to let her know that if she was going to die, she
wasn't going to die alone.
----------
From: Jamie and Bridget Wilde <wildeman@gci-net.com>
To: FFMLRefuge@listbot.com
Subject: [FFML-R] [Fanfic][R1/2][Fusion] Battletech: The Saotome Gambit
Part 29 [2 of 2]
Date: Sunday, March 04, 2001 10:05 AM
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* * *
The DropShip _Palomino_
Ian Cameron Starport
14:50 Local Time
"Red Leader, this is Eyes Front, respond please!"
Akane reached for her radio remote as the techs finished loading
Genma's Orion. Doctor Tofu had opted to take out one of their reserve
Centurions rather than reload his damaged 'mech, and now stood beside
Kasumi's Victor, ready to go. He had apparently told the eldest Tendo
daughter of his feelings for her, and judging by the way they stuck
together next to the DropShip, she had received his declaration
favorably. Akane felt pleased about that. As far as her feelings on the
matter went, Doctor Tofu and Kasumi were good for each other.
"This is Red Leader, go ahead Eyes Front," she said absently.
"Ma'am, we've located Lieutenant Hibiki on our sat-scans," Davidge
told her. "He's not answering any hails, however."
"What is his position?"
"South of the DropShip, approximately fifteen kilometers. He is
approaching the ruins of the colony town." Davidge let out a gasp. "Wait,
there's a break in the cloud cover. Scanning..." A curse quickly followed.
"There's a whole battalion headed our way, ma'am, and Red Two is right in
their path."
Akane looked to her father before responding. He gave her a solemn
nod in return. "We're on our way."
They scrambled for their 'mechs, knowing that time was running
against them. As if to punctuate that thought, a bolt of hell thundered
down from orbit from the Orochi satellite. The particle beam bolt lashed
at the fuelling complex that Akari and her techs had worked so hard to
restore two days ago, and the reinforced concrete structure exploded in
a brilliant fireball of burning hydrogen. The sound and shockwave of the
orbital blast and following secondary explosion was numbing, driving
everyone not protected by a battlemech or the DropShip's hull to the
ground.
Akane picked herself up from the wet concrete and looked at the
_Palomino,_ now doubly vulnerable to attack with the Orochi network taking
potshots from orbit.
"Report on the Orochi!" she cried to Davidge over the tac-net.
"Unit Three is engaging the _Tautog,_" Davidge returned tersely.
"That last shot was a stray bolt aimed at them, believe it or not."
Akane wan't sure she could. "That random shot came awful close to
us," she said in reply. "Tad, what is the countdown status?"
Captain Grant came on line instead of Petty Officer Howard. "We're
commencing an emergency reactor start up right now, ma'am. I can get us
off the ground in fifteen minutes."
"I hope so, Captain," Akane said to him. She tucked her remote in
her shorts as she climbed up the side of her Warhammer. Grand Duke Tendo
was preparing to move out with Genma's Orion on point, followed by Kasumi,
Ukyou, and Doctor Tofu in a wedge formation.
She quickly rejoined the rest of the 'mechs as they stomped across the
tarmac to the south. Several lines of black smoke were visible against the
gloom, and beyond, ragged streaks of sunlight filtered down. Ryouga was
taking on an entire battalion of the Black Rose's troops by himself!
Why wasn't he answering hails? she asked herself. And where the hell
is Ranma?
"Red Leader, _Palomino_; urgent medevac requested by Red Eagle Deuce
at map reference Mike-Four-Four by Oscar-Five-Eight. Red Eagle Trey is
down.
Cutting tools and Type-B whole blood are especially needed."
Akane heard Doctor Tofu's voice break into the tac-net. "What is the
nature of Sayuri's injuries?" he asked.
"I don't know, sir, but Captain Saotome specifically requested those
things," Tad replied.
Tofu's face was grim.
"Red Leader, Red Five; request to answer medevac."
"Granted," she responded, her heart pounding. Ranma was with Yuka and
Sayuri out there. "I'll come with you."
"Stay with the lance," Soun commanded over the net. "Saotome; you and
Mechwarrior Kuonji remain on point. Doctor Ono; you and Kasumi respond to
the medevac."
"Daaaad!" she protested.
"This is no time for your emotions to get the best of your good
judgement," he returned. "We'll need your firepower on the line if we're
to hold the Black Rose back in time to let the _Palomino_ lift off."
She saw his point. Still, she needed to have words with a certain
jerk who had been ignoring her ever since the battle had been joined.
"Red Eagle Lead, this is Red Leader; respond."
There was a harsh crackle of static, followed by the sound of an
irate and female Ranma cursing. Red locks of hair tumbled down her brow
on the display as she maneuvered, and the grey sky above her cockpit
canopy was streaked with piercing rays of sunlight that made her
blue-grey eyes flash with intensity.
"I'm busy!" she barked. An explosion rumbled over the speakers, and
whorls of black smoke swirled around her canopy.
Akane bit down on her lip to keep from shrieking at him in anger.
"Where have you been?!"
"Around!" Ranma shot back. "Can this wait?!"
"I was worried about you, that's all!" Akane spat angrily. "Excuse
me for caring about you!"
"I'm with Akane on this one, honey," Ukyou added, jumping into the
conversation. "You've got us worrying sick about you."
"I'm okay," Ranma hissed back, her face contorted by acceleration
forces that made the sky spin around her. Another explosion sounded over
the tac-net. "At least for the moment. Things are getting a little hot
right now."
Akane understood. She looked to the _Palomino_ to see that one of the
_Dragonfly's_ cooks was already running down the ramp from the Mech Bay
with four half-liter bags of precious blood taken from Sick Bay. A tech
followed after with a saw-zaw and a pouch of spare abrasive wheels. Doctor
Tofu relieved the two of their burdens, then clambered back up into his
Centurion to respond.
"Red Five moving out," he said over the tac-net as the 50 ton 'mech
started south.
Akane tried to move her throttle to maximum, only to find that it
was already there. "We're on the way," she said to him, worry creeping
into her voice. "Just hold on, Ranma."
"I'll do that," she grunted. The shriek of turbojets filled the
dead air that followed her voice, then the rapid cycling of pulsed
medium lasers. "Akane..."
"What is it, Ranma?"
"I'm a little on edge right now," she said in a clipped voice.
"Sayuri's hurt real bad. I don't think she's gonna make it."
Tofu's Centurion was already as far ahead of them as was safe,
his battlemech peeling away from the lance formation as he closed on
the rendezvous site. Kasumi followed close behind, covering his dash
from tree to tree with her heavy autocannon. They were doing everything
they could to save Sayuri.
"Ryouga's south of me," Ranma added. "The whole freaking colony
town - what's left of it anyway - is coming apart, from what I can see.
I don't know what's going on, but it looks like Kodachi's trying to
start a firestorm there."
"Is Ryouga in the town?" Ukyou asked worriedly.
"No, he's mixing it up just north of the ruins. The moron won't
answer his radio."
"Sounds like some other blockhead I could name," Akane retorted.
"Oh, ha ha. It is to laugh," Ranma growled. "Now if you'll excuse
me, I'm gonna go find out what the hell is going on." Her face faded
from their commo displays.
Akane checked the tactical display. Black Rose 'mechs were moving
in force from the south. If they didn't do something to slow their
advance, they would overrun the _Palomino's_ position before it could
lift off.
* * *
"Please hold," Akari prayed as the main coolant header slowly
pressurized. Two of her techs monitored the pressure meters in the
Maneuvering Room while the DropShip's Engineer completed his
preparations for liftoff in the spaces.
"Maneuvering, report status of lift off preps," Captain Grant
ordered over the 2MC intercom circuit.
Akari picked up the intercom microphone to respond. "Header pressure
rising to the green band," she told him over the muted scream of the
cryogenic plant scroll-compressors. "Pre-injection coolant temperatures
at one hundred fifty degrees Kelvin."
They were introducing the supercooled liquid to the system gradually
to minimize thermal stresses, but this also limited the speed with which
they could start the fusion plant. The magnetic bottle that contained the
plasma required that its attendent electromagnets have sufficient cooling
to allow superconductivity under full load.
"Keep me posted," Grant finished, and signed off.
Akari brushed aside a sweat-matted lock of hair and sighed. The
ship was not ready to go anywhere, and yet they had no choice but to
leave. She had felt the blasts of the Orochi from deep inside the reactor
compartment, and the Musk Dynasty was approaching unchallenged from the
west.
Chapter Four
SLDFS _Coronet_
14:47 Local Time
"Attention on the Bridge!" Johann Hauptmann declared to the new
crew of SLDFS _Coronet._ "This is Captain Hauptmann, and I have the Deck.
Captain Ninomiya retains the Conn."
"Helm, aye!" the _Tang's_ former Helmsman replied. The rest of the
stations acknowledged in turn.
"Chief of the Watch, aye! The ship is rigged for space and manned for
Battlestations."
"Astrogation, aye! Main Computer online."
"Communications, aye! Contact with Eyes Front established. Datalinks
online."
"Engineering, aye! The ship is on internal power. The Main Engines
are ready to answer all bells!"
"Tactical, aye! Orbital simulation routines linked to Orochi System
BattleNet."
"Sensory, aye! All active and passive arrays online."
"Fire Control, aye! Main Gun in Preheat Mode. All batteries indicate
ready."
Hauptmann turned to Hinako. "Take us out, if you would please,
Captain."
Hinako gave him a curt bow and turned to the Communicator.
"Signal the Drydock to open the forward and aft doors."
"Open forward and aft doors, aye, ma'am."
The drydock doors began to open slowly as the lone _Tang_ crewman
remaining on the station commanded them to operate, and then made a beeline
for the connector tube that linked the drydock to the cruiser. There was
no need to conduct an extensive pumpdown, as the facility had been in
vacuum for decades.
"Drydock doors coming open," Sensory announced. "Drydock doors are
open."
"Petty Officer Cruz is aboard," Commo added.
"Main Airlock hatch indicates shut," the Chief of the Watch declared.
Hinako looked to the Chief of the watch next. "Chief of the Watch,
cast off all lines. Retract the docking tube."
"Cast off all lines, retract the docking tube, aye." He flicked a bank
of switches at his station. "All mooring lines released. Docking tube is
retracting into the ship... Docking tube indicates stowed. Armored shutters
indicate in position."
"Very well, Chief of the Watch," Hinako acknowledged. Now came the
hard
part. "Helm, All Ahead Easy."
The Helmsman turned around to seek clarification from Captain
Hauptmann,
who refused to interfere in Hinako's operation. He didn't like the idea of
having co-captains on the ship, but that was what they had come down to.
Hinako outranked him, being a full Captain while his rank was only that of
Commander, but he had all of the combat experience that she lacked and the
ship needed to succeed. Hence, she maneuvered the ship, while he fought it.
He didn't want to think about what might happen if he needed to countermand
one of her maneuvering orders.
"Ma'am?" the Helmsman finally asked Hinako.
Hinako waved her hands at her. "There's about five meters of clearance
on either side of that door. This isn't going to be like pulling your dad's
car out of the garage, and we have no tug support, so move us out nice and
easy."
The Helmsman turned back to her panel and bumped the throttle control
a
tiny amount. If she could skip a corvette off the surface of a moon without
destroying the ship, she could pilot a cruiser out of drydock. "Aye aye,
ma'am.
Maneuvering answers All Ahead Easy."
The ship trembled imperceptibly as the Main Engines fired for the
first
time in two-hundred years. A thin streamer of plasma spilled from the aft
end
of the drydock as the cruiser began to edge forward.
"Two meters per second forward way," the Helmsman announced. She
focused
on the narrow opening Hinako had described, knowing full well that a ship
as
big as the _Coronet_ would not be able to turn the way the tiny _Tang_
could.
They were going to cut it close. Hauptmann felt himself pulling to one
side, as if trying to will the ship to follow him.
The Helmsman was already on it, her fingers caressing the attitude
thruster controls with the pluck and skill of a concert harpist. _Coronet_
began to roll and yaw, then its bow broke the plane of the drydock doors.
The widest part of the starship passed through an agonizingly slow minute
later, and then they were clear. Sunlight from the Ryuugenzawa primary
shone undiminished on the gleaming armored hull for the first time in two
hundred years, the ten meter high Cameron Star of the SLDF glittering on
_Coronet's_ bow in precious silver paint.
"The ship is free to navigate," Astrogation announced.
Now it was Hauptmann's turn. "Mark bearing and range to closest Orochi
satellite. Use active sensors." They didn't have time to play around with
the lengthy process of gathering data from passive arrays.
Sensor data filled the holotank as the ship collected information on
all objects in orbit.
"Conn, Sensory; Contact Romeo One, bearing zero-three-five plus one-
zero. Range: ten thousand kilometers. Contact Romeo Two, classified as
Balao Class Corvette, bearing zero-three-eight plus zero eight. Range:
ten thousand kilometers."
"Olivera's in trouble," Hauptmann observed with preternatural calm.
He could see the tiny corvette fighting to stay out of the Orochi's weapon
arcs, and slugging desperately at in in return. "Fire Control, designate
Romeo One as primary target, and slave the Helm. Prepare to fire the Main
Gun."
"Fire Control, aye."
"Helm, aye. Helm slaved to Fire Control."
Hauptmann cast a glance at Hinako, who was busy crossing her fingers.
The spinal mount would soon get its first test. The _Coronet_ maneuvered
in space to put its bow directly on Orochi Unit Three in preparation to
unleash a few quadrillion joules of hell.
"Conn, Fire Control; Main Gun aligned with primary target. Ten
seconds to firing sequence completion."
"Alert Engineering," Hinako ordered her Engineer, the _Dragonfly's_
Lieutenant Fulton. There was no telling what would happen down there when
the spinal mount fired.
"Very well, Fire Control," Hauptmann replied. He wished his own XO
was on board to share this moment with him, but the man had family, and
had been selected by Commodore Tanaka to stay behind with the remainder
of the _Tang_ crew that had not accompanied the Grand Duke.
"Contact Romeo One is reacting to our presence," Tactical warned.
With the codes and frequencies supplied by Hinako's Number One down in
the Orochi bunker, they had an inside look into the processes that guided
the network.
"Fire Control, match bearing rates and fire the Main Gun as soon as
you are ready," Hauptmann ordered.
"Fire Control, aye. Firing the Main Gun!" A strident alarm hooted
three times in warning, and Hauptmann and the rest of the crew found
themselves wondering what in the hell they had just gotten into.
The lights flickered for a moment, and the ship trembled as a
terrifying beam of energy belched forth from the cavernous muzzle in
the cruiser's bow. The particle beam reached out across the void to
strike the Orochi satellite amidships, haloing it in a golden ring of
plasma that expanded out for a hundred kilometers before fading.
Secondary explosions rocked the orbital battlestation, and it began to
glow with the heat of something coming apart disasterously within.
"Neutrino emissions from Contact Romeo One becoming erratic," Sensory
advised. "It's leaking x-rays like a sieve."
The Orochi satellite obliterated itself in a spectacular thermonuclear
explosion a moment later. The blindingly bright blue-white sphere of plasma
expanded into nothingness as instruments onboard the _Coronet_ squawked in
protest.
"Goddamn..." Hauptmann breathed. "Was that a lucky hit, or is this
gun that damn powerful?"
"A little of both, I think," Hinako replied.
The lights failed as soon as she had spoken, and alarms began to wail.
"Conn, Engineering; The Main Reactor has quenched on a containment
field instability fault. The backup Nuclear-Heated Gas Turbine Reactor is
commencing an automatic startup, but we will be without the Main Engines
or primary power for at least ten minutes."
"Conn, aye," Hauptmann replied. "Shit!"
"The gun," Hinako added. "A magnetic accelerator as powerful as that
must wreak havoc on a reactor's containment fields."
Hauptmann nodded grimly in agreement.
"Well I understand now why the Star League never went for humungous
spinal mounts."
* * *
Furinkan Combine WarShip _Imperator_
Ryuugenzawa High Orbit
14:50 Local Time
General Prince Tatewaki Kuno was beside himself.
"What manner of vessel is that!?" he wondered aloud to his staff as
the Orochi satellite's deathlight faded on the telescope monitors.
Kyle was the first to respond. "Milord, the ship appeared from the
SLDF space station in geosynchronous orbit. From our preliminary Warbook
interpretations, the vessel appears to be the SLDFS _Coronet,_ a light
cruiser class WarShip."
"THE _Coronet?_" Tatewaki cried in astonishment. "Kerensky's own
flagship?"
"Yes, milord. We believe it used its Spinal Mount particle beam to
destroy the Orochi satellite that had been bombarding the planet. Based
on their neutrino emissions, they currently seem to be suffering some
sort of reactor malfunction - perhaps a side effect of firing their main
gun. We know that such super weapons were historically plagued with
reliability issues."
"This vessel," Tatewaki said slowly. "To whom doth it swear
allegience?
Be it my hated sister's churlish rabble, or could it perchance be to our
mutual enemies, the thrice-damned Amazons of the Commonwealth?"
Kyle consulted the data that scrolled across his Operations displays.
"Indeterminate, my lord Prince," he replied. "While the ship did
attack
the Orochi satellite which was bombarding the Commonwealth landing zones,
the
communications protocols we've intercepted appear to be based on ancient
Star
League Defense Force codes."
Tatewaki looked to Hikaru Gosunkugi, who floated pensively by his
side. The Heir to the League of Five Nails was carrying an armload of
occult paraphenalia, ostensibly to ensure both the success of the Combine's
mission, and to break whatever foul hold Ranma Saotome had on Akane Tendo
and the Pig-Tailed Girl.
"Soothsayer," he addressed the frail scion of the House of Gosunkugi.
It pleased him to think that he had such an important man for a personal
servant. "Speak of the omens and portents surrounding yonder vessel? Should
the Blue Thunder attempt to capture the ship, shall he make it his own?"
Hikaru consulted the best augury he had on the matter, a small black
sphere that had served him well in the past.
"'Signs point to yes,'" he intoned gravely.
Tatewaki's eyes lit up in delight. "Captain Kyle, dispatch a company
of Marines with fighter escort to seize yonder starship. It shall become
the Prize of Tatewaki Kuno, First Lord of the Star League, and he shall
rename it _Bin Sen!_"
"At once, my lord Prince," Kyle responded, then after a diplomatic
pause added, "What of the Orochi satellites approaching our positions, my
lord?"
Tatewaki made a dismissive wave of his hand. "Dispose of them."
He narrowed his eyes at the prospect. "Thy orders are to shake the very
heavens, Kyle. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly, sir. We're running simulations now, and the results look
promising."
Tatewaki looked on as his ships assembled into formation to attack
the first of the Orochi subunits. He had assembled the entire complement
of the Furinkan Combine's WarShips in a bold gambit to ensure success in
taking Ryuugenzawa for himself, and now had no regrets with his decision.
Shake the very heavens indeed!
"Prepare my landing force," he told Kyle. "The destruction of the
Orochi network is an operation for the Fleet. The destiny of the Blue
Thunder of the Furinkan Combine awaits him upon the surface of the planet."
"It is done, my lord prince," Kyle replied. "Though I must recommend
caution in approaching the planet within range of the Orochi units."
Tatewaki whirled upon him, incensed. "Thy job, Kyle, is to ensure
that those cursed automatons are occupied solely with this fleet, ere
their total destruction!"
Kyle bowed his head, abashed. "Yes, lord."
Hikaru turned away from the two men and tried not to snicker. The
Mystic Eight-Ball in his hand reflected the true prophecy, the one he had
not given to his oppressor. Glowing faintly in the dark blue fluid, the
oracle's response was an answer Tatewaki would not find so inspiring.
'MY ANSWER IS NOT ONLY NO, BUT HELL NO,
SO DON'T BOTHER ASKING ME AGAIN LATER.'
His oracular inquiries had made it very clear that he was going to
be very close to Akane Tendo soon, and he had no intention of having the
situation come to pass as Tatewaki Kuno's servant. The more trouble the
Furinkan Combine prince encountered, the better it suited Hikaru Gosunkugi.
Now all he needed to do was find a way to the planet, where he was sure to
find Akane.
"My lord," he called to Tatewaki, his voice quavering with a mixture
of fear and anxiety. He hated his oppresser, and yet he had great need of
his favor.
"Speak," Tatewaki ordered him.
Hikaru prostrated himself before the Prince of the Furinkan Combine,
no easy feat in free-fall. "I beg to accompany you to the surface, my
lord."
Tatewaki gave him an indulgent nod. "Of course. I shall have need of
thy services. Prepare thyself at once."
Hikaru raised the armload of scholarly and occult materials, most them
prepared to inflict the maximum amount of harm upon his captor, but there
was no way for a neophyte like Tatewaki Kuno to realize this. "I have all I
need, my lord." He tried not to smirk as he said it.
Revenge!
Chapter Five
Musk Dynasty Regimental Headquarters Company,
Approaching the western perimeter of Ian Cameron Starport
14:55 Local Time
Mechwarrior General Herb strode purposefully over the low chain-link
fence that segregated the starport from the surrounding woods. His Grand
Dragon mirrored his mood in its motions; it was cool, alert, and full of
importance. He was taking the entire Star League complex under his control,
and as soon as Prince Kuno and the Orochi network wiped each other out, he
would be master of this world.
How soon he would be able to parley his victory into more substantial
terms, he did not know, nor did he particularly care. It was enough that
the Orochi satellite that had been bombarding his positions had been
distracted by a small spacecraft, presumably of Combine origin, and that
he now had a free hand in his operations. Cologne was teetering on the
brink of her rule's end, and in the mad scrabble by the Elder Council to
fill the inevitable power vacuum, his Musk Dynasty would quietly grow
strong enough to topple them all.
There was one issue that he needed to address right away, and that
was Mousse's inexplicable desire to abandon his regimental command duties
in order to search the wilderness in the northern portion of the Proving
Grounds. It was unlike him, since he was the type of creature who followed
orders to the letter, knowing how tenuous his claim to mechwarrior status
was with his poor eyesight. In fact, Mousse had only ever disobeyed him
once before.
The realization stopped him cold, and the other 'mechs in his personal
guard spun around to face him, expecting trouble.
"<Shampoo...>" he whispered. Somehow, he has discovered that Shampoo
is here on this planet. Or at least has reason to believe it....
Could it be possible? he wondered. Of course it was possible, another
part of his mind answered for him. The only question that remains is
Mousse's
motivation.
Was the fool overcome by her again? He did not know, but he suspected
it. Shampoo was a most alluring, magnificent, and dangerous animal, as he
well knew. He had risked Cologne's wrath quite needlessly by trying to keep
her posted to his garrison on Lightoller, and all because of the desire she
had stoked within him. A weak-willed man like Mousse was simply putty in
her
supple hands.
"<Captain Mint,>" he said over the tac net.
"<My lord!>" Mint replied.
"<Take Lime with you, and find Mechwarrior Colonel Mousse,>" he
ordered
the little man, whose eyes lit up at the veiled implications behind that
order. Herb did not disappoint him. "<If by chance you should find him with
Shampoo, arrest him at once. If he resists, kill him.>"
Mint raised an eyebrow at the mention of Shampoo.
"<And if I should in fact find the lord colonel with Shampoo, most
exhalted one, what shall I do with her?>"
Herb hardened his heart. He wanted to possess her body and soul, he
wanted it deep within his being, both for the pleasure of it and for the
agony it would bring to Cologne, but he knew how dangerous Shampoo could be
to his ambitions. She had destroyed Mousse with her beauty, had turned him
against his oath of loyalty to the Commonwealth, and if she had turned him
against his new master in the Musk Dynasty, then she had destroyed him
twice
over. He did not need such a poisonous influence close to him, no matter
how much he desired her.
"<You are to kill Shampoo on sight,>" Herb replied, then added, "<Do
not hesitate in your duty, Mint.>"
Mint's teeth gleamed over the tac net display.
"<I shall obey, my lord General!>"
* * *
The Ruins of Ryuugenzawa City
15:01 Local Time
Happousai waited inside his Locust as the ruins burned. Tarou was
destroying what was left of the town, and with it his source of
concealment.
In spite of this, he snickered to himself as he sucked on his pipe. In
trying to smoke him out, Tarou was playing right into his hands.
The fire and smoke would screen him from prying sensors, allowing him
to slip out with being detected. Once he reached the edge of the town, the
superior speed of his Locust would see him swiftly past his enemies. It was
almost too easy.
He extinguished his pipe with a swat from his hand upon the bowl and
shrugged back into his seat straps. A Black Rose Wolverine roared past him
without pause, and he waited to see if any others would follow. When no
other 'mechs did, he advanced cautiously out of the burning hulk of the
school building.
The street was completely engulfed with flame, making his heat sinks
ineffective. He would have to go easy with his laser should he need to use
it. Fortunately for him, that meant Kodachi's troops would be likewise
impaired.
He made his way through the tortured ruins of the former colony town
carefully, mindful not to stumble into any Black Rose 'mechs that might be
searching for him. The fires were fully involved now. When they were
finally
extinguished, there would be absolutely nothing left but char marks and
ashes.
At last, he reached the smoldering outskirts of the town. He throttled
up his Locust and made a break for it, stomping for all he was worth to
reach
the line of trees that marked the southern edge of the woods cordoning the
starport.
"It's about time, Happousai," Pansuto Tarou's voice echoed over the
tac-net. "I was ready to go in after you."
A depleted uranium long-rod penetrator howled over the top of the
Locust as Happousai spied his nemesis waiting for him in those very same
sheltering woods. Kodachi's black Marauder was by her lover's side, and
she laughed shrilly at the sight of him.
"You think you're so smart," Happousai barked, putting his Locust into
an abrupt turn as more Black Rose 'mechs opened up on him. It was harassing
fire, meant to turn him back towards Tarou, but he had no illusions about
them sparing his life if he pressed them.
So be it, he decided. Time to teach the little punk a lesson in
respect.
The Locust hopped away from the sizzling beams of laser fire and
turned
back toward Tarou's Hunchback.
"Think you've got enough friends to back you up?" he taunted his
enemy.
"They're only here to keep you from running away, Happousai," Tarou
growled back. "Now it's time for you to pay for what you did to me on
Lightoller, and then Capra after that."
"Capra?" Happousai asked shrilly.
The Hunchback stepped out of the woods. "Don't play games, old fool,"
Tarou said icily. "Do you really think that I wouldn't guess who had sold
us out to the Commonwealth? You were their agent, Happousai, and you knew
we were on Capra."
Happousai remembered his offer to give up the two to Cologne.
"So what?" he shot back. "Nothing came of it." He brought his Locust
to a halt at a distance of a hundred meters to face Tarou.
"No thanks to you," Tarou intoned.
"You already took your best shot at me, punk," Happousai returned.
"I fondly recall the feel of your knife in my back. I'd say that makes
us even."
"Hardly."
The Hunchback fired its Tomodzuru autocannon, but Happousai, mindful
that the 'mech had an automated bracing routine for its myomer bundles to
contain the weapon's massive recoil, was watching for the sight of it
tensing up. The ultradense projectile slammed into the ground well behind
him as he hopped clear.
"I don't see why we're fighting," he observed as Tarou's arm-mounted
lasers sliced the air around his Locust to no effect. "I'm willing to make
you a deal."
"You have nothing to offer me!" Tarou cried, advancing his Hunchback
menacingly. "Nothing at all but your death!"
"You knucklehead!" Happousai shot back, swiping at him his turreted
medium laser. "I have the most valuable treasure on this entire stinking
mud ball in my possession! Do you think I just sat here for a week and a
half waiting for you to show up?!"
He judged by the momentary pause in the Hunchback's motion that he
had struck a chord with Tarou, and eased his thumb off the firing stud
for his remaining twin-rack SRM launcher.
"How about it?" he asked, making a wary circle of the 50 ton
battlemech, which stood silently in the clearing between the burning
town and the woods.
"Depending on what it is," Tarou began slowly. "I might consider it
worth the price of letting you live a little longer."
The Locust stopped behind the Hunchback, its turreted laser pointed
between the 'mech's shoulders. Kodachi levelled her Marauder's twin
derringer weapon pods at him from the woods, ready to annihilate him
should he prove untrustworthy once again. The laser slowly lowered in its
mount to the ground, and she relaxed.
"At last you're being reasonable," Happousai purred.
"Start talking," Tarou replied, pivoting to face the Locust once
again.
"Can you trust him, lover?" Kodachi asked in the pregnant pause
that followed.
"No," he replied. "But he knows when a situation is untenable.
Happousai is the Inner Sphere's premier survivor - no matter how many
bodies he has to step on to do it."
"I'm flattered," Happousai said sourly.
"You have seconds in which to live," Tarou growled back. The
autocannon trained squarely on the Locust. "Spend them wisely."
Happousai tsk'ed. "It so happens that I've come across an intact
Library Core," he said diffidently. "For safe passage off this mudball
and an end to this ridiculous vendetta of yours, I'm willing to cut you
in on half the profits I'll get in peddling out the data to the highest
bidders."
"Comstar would kill to keep that kind of information to themselves,"
Tarou muttered. "I'm not certain that I want that kind of attention, old
fool."
"I'll make you and the lovely Princess Kodachi my silent partners,"
Happousai said greasily. "Comstar doesn't have to know a thing about you."
"It *is* a tempting offer," Kodachi put in, thinking about how such
extravagant wealth would go a long way towards replacing the day's mounting
losses, to say nothing of buying enough favor with the Daimyo to make her
immune to her brother's wrath and allow her return to the Furinkan Combine.
"As you said, time's running out," Happousai added. "What's it gonna
be, Tarou? Shall we let bygones be bygones and enter into a fresh start
between us, or would you rather risk the chance of dying for nothing?"
Tarou snorted contemptuously at the notion of perishing at Happousai's
hands.
"Convince me that you have this thing," he said coldly. "And I'd be
willing to overlook your past transgressions. Pop your hatch and show it
to me right now."
"I don't have it on me!" Happousai replied. "Do you think I'm stupid?"
"Do you take for some kind of fool!?" Tarou countered. The Hunchback
began to tense up.
"Mellow out, already!" Happousai shrieked. "I hid it somewhere safe."
"Where?!" Tarou demanded.
"Back at the starport. Once you secure the place, I'll show you, but
you'd better hurry, because the Musk Dynasty aims to be in charge of all
of Ryuugenzawa's real estate by nightfall."
"That's what I've been saying all along, dear," Kodachi said to Tarou.
"Shall we consider this a truce for now?"
Tarou made a low growl in his throat. It was clear that he wanted to
kill Happousai now, while he was bracketed in his sights, but the promise
of exactly the thing he had come to Ryuugenzawa for was too alluring, even
from a liar and a thief.
"You will march in file directly ahead of me at a distance of fifty
meters," Tarou said to his mortal enemy. "If you deviate from this or
exceed sixty kilometers per hour at any time, even if we are attacked, I
will blow you away without a second thought."
Happousai knew that Tarou could do it. One hit from the Tomodzuru
autocannon into the center mass of his Locust would completely destroy
the battlemech, and himself with it. Still, he liked the opportunity he
had been given, not only to live a little longer, but to learn more of
the relationship between Tarou and his new lover.
Kodachi was the unknown variable in their shaky alliance. From what
he knew of her, she was capricious with her partners, throwing them away
at the first hint of a cooling relationship. It would be to his advantage
to find out ways to gain her favor, and thus leverage over Tarou.
The problem being with that was that the Combine princess seemed
truly smitten with Pansuto Tarou. While Happousai considered himself
devilishly handsome, seducing Kodachi might not be as easy or as useful
as he might hope. He shrugged, knowing that a one-night stand with her
would be reward enough.
"You've got a deal," he replied. "Let's get cracking." A pang of
what well-adjusted people might consider a conscience wracked him for
a moment, because the _Palomino_ had not yet lifted off. In leading
them back to the starport, a confrontation was inevitable, and his two
leading lights in the Anything Goes school, Ranma - and now Akane, since
Ryouga was dead - would be in the thick of it.
Why doesn't the damn DropShip take off already? he lamented. Having
them gone would make things much easier for everyone involved, and quiet
that uncomfortable nagging in the back of his mind.
"There isn't going to be any deal," a haggard voice snarled over
the Combine tac-net channel.
Happousai, Tarou, and Kodachi turned to see a BattleMaster standing
at the edge of the woods, a crushed recon lance Stinger dangling limply
by the neck in its massive left fist. The Cameron Star of the Star League
Defense Force was painted upon its charred and muddy hull, and the double-
barreled PPC in its right hand glinted with wordless malice as a ray of
sunlight broke through the cloud bank to illuminate the dreaded assault
'mech.
Steam and wisps of smoke swirled from the Black Rose battlemech as
Ryouga tossed it to the ground before him with a heavy thud.
"Who do you think you are?!" Kodachi demanded of him.
"...Ryouga..." Tarou grunted to himself.
Happousai was stunned. The lost boy was alive!? It wasn't possible!
Not even someone as thick-headed as Ryouga could have survived a
collapsing building!
"Ryouga! How did you...?"
"There isn't going to be any deal," Ryouga intoned once more, the
BattleMaster shaking with rage that translated from his mind to the machine
it controlled. "Because *I* have the Library Core now... If you kill me,
you
destroy it."
"Ryouga," Tarou said calmly, surprised and dismayed to see his former
comrade. He had expected to in the course of the fighting, but even
expecting
it had not prepared him for this encounter. "I'm warning you right now not
to
do anything rash... Now what exactly do you want?"
Ryouga Hibiki; naked, battered, physically exhausted, filled with
hatred
and a heartsick rage that could not be extinguished, and weary to the core
of
his soul with the fighting he had endured, slowly closed his finger around
the
commo 'talk' button on his control stick. The motion of his taut muscles
made
an audible crackling sound over the radio channel before he drew breath to
speak, and an ominous and expectant tension filled the air. Heavy drops of
sweat splashed off his brow and down his chin to dribble down his bare
chest
and then puddle in between his naked thighs, chafing him and making him
grit
his teeth in discomfort. The BattleMaster's turbogenerators made a deep
basso
rumble in the base of his spine, serenading him with their dark oaths to
invoke fiery death at his command.
He had not expected to meet Pansuto Tarou on Ryuugenzawa - not in a
million years. That he was in the obvious company of Kodachi Kuno, the
Black
Rose of the Furinkan Combine, only meant that he had betrayed the
expedition
at the very first opportunity. He was sick of the backstabbing, sick of the
betrayals and the lies, and most of all, he was sick of the suffering his
friends had been put through. He had heard Yuka's plea for assistance, and
knew that Sayuri was probably dying somewhere in the woods. He knew that if
Tarou and Kodachi were allowed to continue - with Happousai leading them -
the _Palomino_ would be destroyed, and the woman he loved with all his
heart
would die too. Ranma and Akane as well, and Ukyou, Doctor Tofu... They
would
all fight to the last breath. All his friends would die.
"I'm here to kill you, Tarou," he said quietly into the microphone.
The
fearsome BattleMaster raised its PPC as he took in the sight of the many
Black
Rose 'mechs that watched him with dread. A low and urgent tone sounded in
his
ears as the six-rack SRM launcher acquired its first target. The hot smell
of
his cockpit filled his nostrils with its acrid fragrance. "I'm here to kill
every last one of you..."
END OF PART TWENTY-NINE
Author's Notes:
If it seems like I'm dragging this on too much, please bear with me as I
bring together about a dozen separate threads as coherently and in as
uncontrived a fashion as possible. I suppose I could have ended this much
sooner by writing a bunch of battle scenes that wiped everyone out, or
at least rendered them noncombatants for the rest of the finale, but there
are too many personal issues between the characters that should and will
be addressed ere the end, and these haven't necessarily lined up as neatly
as I would have liked. For those of you who were hoping to see more of
Tatewaki Kuno and Hikaru Gosunkugi, to say nothing of the treacherous
Nabiki Tendo, I apologize, and perhaps I can make you a little happier in
the next (and hopefully last!) installment.
Free The Nukes!
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Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee
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