Planck’s Quantum Hole, Copernicus Caldera,

Einstein, Deep Periphery

16^th March 3068

 

Lorik had assigned several techs to get the plumbing system of the base back into order. Naturally, the rooms where the waste were disposed became the toilets, where warriors would relieve themselves of their ‘organic waste products’. Due to certain design features, apparently suited to alien physiques, they had to make do with some buckets that would be emptied into the proper receptacles when full. A few unlucky troopers were assigned such latrine duty.

Bathing facilities were yet another problem. The base lacked water showers, and even sonic showers were not known. However, the aliens did have certain cleaning devices in which the cleaning process took almost instantaneous. The person bathing would step into the machine, stay there for ten seconds while the whole compartment was flooded with some strange vapor that contained nanomachines that would quickly scrub and clean away dirt particles and other pollutants on the body.

The major complaint everybody had after using it was that while they were clean after the ‘bath’, and smelled and looked like it, they did not feel clean. Frank Meronac had chalked that one down to psychological factors.

Therefore, the ‘cleaning rooms’ became de facto changing rooms as well. The Inner Sphere people had hurriedly pasted up notices to inform all personnel, whether clan or inner sphere born, to stick to using the assigned gender specific rooms, after an embarrassing incident where Daniela Mattlov had wandered into the men’s room and proceeded to change her clothes right in front of the male members of the Arch Lancers without batting an eyelid. The sight of her nude body had almost incited a riot in the room.

It had taken Ian Dorlacen quite a while before he could inform her of the differences in Inner Sphere and Clan social mores. His men were not pleased when the scenery left, however.

Ian was still musing over Daniela Mattlov in his mind as he donned his cooling vest in the changing room. Most of the other warriors of his unit had already left to check up on their mechs before the final combined briefing session. Everybody had agreed that having a briefing en masse was better than having only an officers-only briefing, because of the stakes involved and Ian’s reluctance to trust some of the less able merc commanders to interpret orders correctly.

He zipped up his cooling vest, and checked again for any leakages in the coolant tubes, which had not been flushed since the last battle. He closed his bag, and prepared to leave the room when Benny Greaves entered.

“Major Ian.” The mechwarrior greeted him.

“Hey, Lieutenant Greaves, or is it Captain now?” Ian answered back with a smile, “Anything you want?”

“Yes sir. I want you to stay here and not fight in the battle later.” Benny’s tone of voice was extremely serious, and the grim look on his face quickly killed Ian’s hopes of this being a joke.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Benny repeated his words, “You heard me. I would like you to stay away from the fight.”

“You and what army?” Ian scoffed as he started to walk towards the door.

“I and the fact that you have to stay alive for the sake of the Taurian Concordat.” Benny moved to block the door.

Ian stopped in his tracks. He had an inking of what Benny was hinting at, but he did not want his thoughts to follow up that line of thought.

“I have no idea of what you mean.” Ian feigned ignorance, trying to act as nonchalant as possible.

“Don’t tell me you have given up completely on your lineage, Major Ian.” The very words Ian feared slid out of Benny’s mouth.

“Who are you?” Ian demanded, his voice low and threatening.

“Captain Benny Greaves, Taurian Defense Forces, currently on special assignment. You can probably guess what my special mission is now, sir.”

Ian leaned back wearily on a wall. The moment he had dreaded for years had finally arrived. In a way, he was glad, because he would not have to run away any longer. By the same token, he also knew he would have to face up to his past once and for all.

“Why are you here? To kill me?” Ian held up one hand, “No, wait, that’s not it. If so, you would have let us die outside when we were trying to extract the Falcons. So you want me alive, for some reason, right?”

Benny nodded. “Yes sir. In fact, it was your sister who gave me my mission orders.”

Janice. Ian had fond memories of his elder sister, and she was one of the few people he truly cared for. He recalled memories of her reading to him from a storybook, of pushing her wheelchair around after she was stricken by that terrible disease which not only ruined a life but threw the entire question of succession into doubt.

Most vividly of all, he remembered the look of disappointment on her face when he ran away from their estate home for the last time to join up with the Green Mountain Boys.

“And what does she want? Last I heard the Concordat was doing fine.” Ian asked.

“She wants you to go back, sir. The Taurian Concordat may seem fine from the outside, but everybody knows better. Grover Shraplen is no more than a power hungry dictator willing to pay Taurian lives to maintain the so-called Trinity Alliance. He let our troops die for the goals of a Liao! Who has given us nothing but peanuts in return!” Benny spat. “Yeah, yeah, we are now a Star League member state, but it doesn’t mean anything. Not with the blood of our citizens dying in some war that was supposed to be other people’s business. As if the SLDF will defend us if war comes. Like what happened to the St Ives Compact and the Federated Commonwealth? Hah!” Benny paused for a while, trying to regain his breath.

Benny continued in a much calmer tone. “Lady Janice wants you to go back to Taurus. She says there are a lot of important matters to discuss, not least of which is the possible removal of Grover Shraplen as Protector.”
Ian’s mind was racing as he replied, “You’re talking treason.”

Benny laughed. “Treason? Not really, provided we can get the people behind us. Your sister wasn’t the only one plotting in the background. There’re a few others, I think, though I don’t know who they are. Everybody’s getting tired of Grover and his fear of the Davion bogeyman, plus his refusal to name your nephew Erik as regent ticked off a lot of people. Your sister sent me to find you, before any of Grover’s goons could get to you.”

Ian asked, “You think he might be sending out assassins to remove threats to his power?”

“Who knows? The death of Felix’s son Richard was already suspicious enough. Lady Janice didn’t want to take any risks, so she sent me to look for you. It wasn’t easy, as you no doubt know. You threw up one heck of a twisted trail for me to follow.”

Ian grinned ruefully. “Sorry, but I was trying to get as far away from my past as possible.”

“It has caught up with you now. Listen, Major, you might be more important than you know. You don’t have to fight.”

Shaking his head, Ian said firmly, “My men will be out there, Captain Greaves. As their commander, I must be with them. It is a matter of leadership, of honor. Furthermore, we need every jock we can scrape up for the coming battle. The odds aren’t very good, and there might not be a second chance if we mess this one up.”

“You could lead them equally well from the command center.”

“It’s not the same. How can I ask my men to take risks that I’m not willing to take myself? I’ve always believed in leadership by example. That’s not going to change. Especially now.”

Benny sighed. “I can’t convince you, can I?”

“No, you can’t. But I can promise you that I’ll live through this, and then we’ll go to Taurus. If my sister really needs my help, then I had better go back. I’m tired of running away, and besides, I haven’t been home for a long time.” Ian straightened himself, and pushed himself off the wall. “Let’s go, Benny. Time’s a-wasting.”

“Yes sir.”

 

Securing a laser pistol to a holster on her hip, Daniela Mattlov looked at her troops in the area just outside the changing rooms, all of them standing ready at attention to move out to the briefing area together.

She smiled inwardly at the commotion caused when she had wandered into the Lancer’s changing room. She truly did not realize that her stripping naked would have so distressed the mercenaries. Even after living for years in the Jade Falcon Occupation Zones, her limited contact with the lower castes of the civilian population had not prepared her for their strange rules and customs.

She savored the look on Ian Dorlacen’s face as his hungry eyes ate up every inch of her body before he snapped himself back to awareness. He made her put her clothes back on and ushered her to the female dressing rooms, much to the dismay of his men.

As she thought about it, she was also mystified by her own feelings whenever she was around the mercenary commander. She knew she was attracted to him, but for some strange reason she did not dare to just walk up to him and ask for a coupling session.

She angrily shifted the focus of her thoughts as she realized that her troops were fully prepared, and waiting for her to lead them out. Their faces looked blank, but Daniela knew they were wondering why they were standing there when they should be heading for the briefing hall.

There will be time for this later, she hoped.

 

Deserk and Descartin were securing their own cooling vests, while Yoshino Ihara polished his katana and wakizashi almost lovingly with a fine cloth. Yoshino had already changed into his cooling combat suit, obtained from the DCMS when he had graduated from Sun Zhang, and held on stubbornly during his time in the clans.

“I vaguely remember our brawl so many years ago with those two old pig stickers. You’re not really thinking of bring them into your cockpit, are you?” Deserk asked the former Kurita.

“I am. Is there a problem?”

“Uh, wouldn’t a pistol of something that could do some real damage be better? Besides, what could can it do to a mech, or even a Spidercrab?”

“I won’t be too sure of that, Deserk. I have seen one of those old ‘pig stickers’ slice through mech grade armor.” Descartin said.

“You have to be kidding me.” Deserk rolled his eyes in disbelief.

“He is not. Star Captain Des has seen the capabilities of this katana firsthand. And it has even saved your life once, has it not, Star Captain?” Yoshino added.

“Aff. I will never forget the surprise on my elemental opponent’s face when he found that it took only one swipe from your ancient sword to break his.” Des laughed lightly. “It was in my Trial of Bloodright. I won, of course.”

“Ancient? How old is it, Yoshino?”

“This blade is my family heirloom. It is seven centuries old.” Yoshino said proudly.

“Incredible.” Deserk breathed. “I am sorry for disrespecting such a sacred weapon. I hope it will continue to serve you well in the future.” He bowed to Yoshino in respect.

Yoshino returned the bow, holding it just as long as Deserk had. As he straightened up, Descartin clapped them both on the shoulders.

“And I am glad that both of you are here. I had not expected to see you here, Deserk, and I am thankful to the fates for bringing us together to fight alongside each other once more just like when we were in the sibko. Yoshino, you are the best companion any warrior can ever ask for. Although I have said before that you are free to leave whenever you want, I would be lying if I said I would not miss your skill.” Descartin grinned. “Together, we will not fail.”

He noticed Deserk kissing a piece of paper. “What are you doing?”

Deserk flashed them a look at the piece of paper, which turned out to be a photograph of a woman. “My wife. For good luck.” He tucked it into a side pocket of his vest.

“You must love her very dearly.” Yoshino commented.

“Aff. She was the one who helped me get used to life in the Dragoons. I don’t know where I would have been without her.”

“I envy you.”

“Why?” Deserk was puzzled.

“Because you got to choose your own doom.”

“Choose my own doom? You think marriage to be worse than death?” Deserk asked skeptically as his eyes seemed to bore deeply into Yoshino.

The warrior shifted uneasily under his gaze. “Okay, okay, I’ll say it out now. Des, I never told you this, because it didn’t seem to matter, but one reason for my not going back to the Draconis Combine was uh, because there’s an arranged marriage waiting for me.”

The other two trueborn warriors stared at him for a moment, before breaking up into laughter.

“Hey, that’s not funny. This is my future I’m talking about!” Yoshino protested.

“By the Kerenskys, I thought you followed me solely out of loyalty. Turns out you have personal reasons for not going back after all!” Des was clutching his sides, in a bit of pain from his laughing because of his prior injuries. “Why didn’t you say so that many years ago when we were fighting?”

Deserk shook his head in mock disappointment, chiding Yoshino gently. “My friend, what is there to be afraid of? After all, you can always break off the arrangement…”

Yoshino waved his hands frantically, “I can’t! That’s the problem! Her family has blood ties to the Kuritas, so they outrank mine. If I go back, her parents call the shots. And I do not even know what she looks like! And I still have return one day to fulfill my vendetta!”

“Well, it is certainly one problem for the future.” Descartin said. “How about this? We’ll probably be going to Outreach after this campaign. We can settle it there. I hope.” There was a mischievous grin on Descartin’s face, which made Yoshino groan.

Deserk checked his watch. “Time’s getting late.” Deserk swept one arm out to the door theatrically. ”Shall we? The enemy awaits.”

 

Frank had changed into his mechwarrior attire, and was walking along a corridor to the repair bays, which would also serve as the briefing area. The corridor was packed with warriors making their way to the bays, many in their combat wear. His arms and legs felt cold, as the mechwarrior vest covered only his torso, unlike the Kurita mechwarrior cooling suit which afforded the entire coverage of the body. Only the bandages on his arm gave him some degree of warmth in the corridor.

For a moment, Frank was envious of Yoshino Ihara and the few other former DCMS soldiers for having such a valuable piece of technology. Not even the clans had such equipment.

Maybe I should ask Lorik about installing a heating system in here, he mused.

Pushing down that useless thought, Frank emerged from the corridor into the vast repair bay, where a good number of warriors had already gathered. He made his way to the front, where a makeshift podium had been set up.

He spotted Ian Dorlacen and Benny Greaves, as well as a number of other commanders already standing there. Lizabet Danforth was conferring with a few of her officers, while Descartin Winters and Deserk were approaching from another tunnel. Some Elementals were already suited up in their battlearmor, lacking only the head armor section, and lounging near the Falcons.

“Attention, all personnel!” Ian picked up a loudspeaker placed on the podium. “This is your final briefing before the battle.”

The low level noise within the bay suddenly ceased, as everybody turned to face the podium.

Ian continued, “Many of you already know that there’re too many enemy mechs for us to destroy without taking significant losses. Some of you might even know that there is an enemy warship parked in orbit that can wipe us and this planet off the face of the universe. We can’t get off, and we can’t hide for too long. So we strike back.”

“And there are plenty of ways for us to strike back.”

“First phase of the plan will be for the two Jade Falcon warships, commanded by Star Commodore Valten Folkner, to engage the enemy warship. The battle will be quickly joined by Star Commander Galietra Binneti and his aerojocks in their new fighters.”

“However, even with the new fighters, it is unlikely that we will be able to destroy the enemy aerospace forces. Therefore, we will next deploy ten naval batteries situated all over the planet. Their positions are chosen such that at least one cannon can target the enemy warship in orbit at all times.”

“This brings us to another problem. With the deployment of the cannons, the black mechs will be able to infiltrate into the base. Therefore, the cannons must be defended by ground troops.”

“Each cannon will be defended by approximately a battalion of troops. Hopefully, the enemy warship will be destroyed before our ground forces are overwhelmed. Each of you will report to your commanders, who have already been informed of who to report to. Individual warriors without units will be held as a reserve pool to be assigned to hot spots after our initial deployment. They will report to the command center.”

Ian paused. “I will now pass the speaker to Frank Meronac, who will be the overall commander for this battle.”

As he passed the loudspeaker to Frank, Frank was shocked. “Ian, are you kidding? I only agreed to the post when we opened the doors. Wouldn’t Lizabet Danforth or even yourself be better?”

“I’m not kidding. The majority of folks here are merc, and they’ll not listen to a clanner. As for me, I think you can adapt more easily to new situations than me, which is exactly what we need for this battle. Who knows what the bad guys might come up with next?”

“I’m not sure about that…”

“You know I’m right, so just accept this honor.” Ian smiled confidently.

Frank took a deep breath. “All right. Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He took the loudspeaker, and climbed nervously to the podium stage.

He stood there for a while, trying to think of what to say. A pep talk? Or some grim statement of intent? And for what purpose?

He regretted not taking up that public speech course that was so popular at the NAIS for young nobles. Not being of noble birth himself, he had never thought of the usefulness of being able to speak in public. How would I have known?

He started tentatively. “Uh, hello. I’m Frank Meronac, uh, the overall commander, temporary of course, for this battle. I’m new at this, I mean the speech part, so please don’t get offended.” He sneaked a quick glance at Deserk, who shook his head and grimaced at Frank’s opening. Frank winced visibly at Deserk’s action.

Damn, what am I going to say? Frank found himself sweating profusely. Okay, here goes nothing.

He cleared his throat, and said, “All of you came here to seek a fortune and your future from the ruins of the Star League. Mercenary or Jade Falcon, you thought of maybe a boring search of an abandoned world, and at worst returning with empty hands and emptier pockets. Even after the Falcons arrived, we thought only of fighting each other in battles where we still knew, more or less, what to expect from each other.”

“No more of that now. We are facing enemies which have wiped out an entire civilization, who do not take prisoners, with weapons and numbers beyond our worst nightmares. They want nothing more than our total extinction.”

Frank waited a moment for the severity of his last sentence to sink in. “The stakes have never been higher. They have more forces waiting amongst the cosmos, looking for more worlds to conquer, more people to destroy. And they might already be on their way to the Inner Sphere. They will destroy and enslave all the nations of humanity, no matter what they are. The only people who know this are all here, on this world, in this base. We must get the word out, spread the technology and science we have found here. We need to warn humanity, all of humanity, not just a few factions, of the coming threat, and the very first step to accomplishing it would be to win this battle.”

His voice grew in strength and passion, as he tried to reach out to the hearts and minds of the warriors listening. “No longer should we see ourselves as Fedcom, Jade Falcon, Capellan, merc, or some other division that splinters our unity. We will need to put aside our differences, for it is our very existence as a people, as a species, that is threatened. No more should you think of yourself as just a Lyran or a Feddie. God knows how much grief that had brought us for the past five years.” Frank rolled his eyes.

“It is time for a new world order, one in which people can accept one another for what they are, without trying to impose their views on each other!”

“When you go out there and fight, don’t think of the freebirth surat or the vat-born clansman who is covering your flank to be only a temporary ally. Think of him or her as a fellow human being, with their own hopes, their own dreams, their own fears. Deep down, no matter where we are born, or how we came to be here, we are the same. We all want the freedoms to do with our lives as we wish. We all want food, shelter, and a comforting hand when we are down. These are what make us human, so let them be our source of strength!”

“When historians look back on this historic battle, let them marvel at our resilience, our willingness to adapt, and our courage. So go out there, and fight like you’ve always wanted to, because humanity deserves, and needs, nothing less than your very best!” Frank lowered the loudspeaker, drained from his speech. There was no reaction for a while, as silence reigned in the repair bay. He saw more than a few warriors looking stunned.

Maybe I laid it on a bit too thickly. Frank was about to jump down the stage when he heard the strong sound of clapping. Descartin Winters and his troop, the Lancers, the merc units who had entered the base first, and even some of the Falcons were putting their hands together in enthusiasm, their faces strong and proud.

Before he knew it, the bay erupted into cheers, as the warriors roared their support. Their support washed over him like a physical force, uplifting his mind, body and soul.

Frank raised the speaker to his lips solemnly. “All right troops, move out.”

Almost immediately, the crowd began to disperse, the warriors running for their machines, their morale high after Frank’s speech. He leapt down from the podium, and prepared to head for his own Night Gyr, when he noticed a familiar face in elemental battlearmor.

“Lorik, what the heck are you doing in that?” Frank exclaimed.

The scientist turned around at Frank’s voice, looking like an oversized knight in armor. “Ah, Frank, good speech there. The best I have ever heard, though the value of my opinion is dubious since that is the only before-battle speech I have ever heard in my life.”

Frank shook his head vehemently, “No, no, what I mean is, what are you doing in battlearmor?”

“One of Drenner’s men got injured during the rescue of the Falcons. The suit was fixed up, but since there was no spare trained operator around, I asked Major Ian if I could use it. Naturally, he agreed. Before you protest, may I add that I am fully versed in all aspects of battlearmor combat. I chose to forgo my Trial of Position because I was too interested in science. That did not mean I was not good enough to be a warrior.”

“But, but…”

“We need every warrior for the battle. And since there is a spare suit, and there is me, I decided to give you real warriors a hand. What’s the problem?”

Throwing up his arms in resignation, Frank acquiesced. “All right, you win. Just make sure you preserve your butt, because we still need you to make sense of the data and the science. Not that we can’t get someone else, well, you get the idea.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back.” Lorik grinned, then hurried to catch up with the band of elementals moving to a rack to don the bulky head armor, his heavy armor making loud ‘clump, clump’ sounds on the floor as he walked off.

“I certainly hope so.” Frank whispered to himself.

“Frank Meronac.” He turned at the calling of his name, only to see Hamirah Rasouf in a cooling vest.

“No matter what you might have done in the past for the civil war, I now know it is all over. We have all done things we regretted in that conflict, and I am sorry I did not take my defeat well. I have finally come to an understanding. I may not support what you did, but as long as you treat my unit fairly, I am willing to accept you as commander.”

Frank was elated. “So that means your Stalker will be taking part in the fight?”

“Yes. These are my troops after all, and my place is at their head, and nowhere else.”

“Get going then, and thanks for the support.” Frank saluted formally, which was returned in kind by Captain Rasouf.

Things are looking up. The change of heart by Captain Rasouf was an encouraging sign. Frank figured they need all the breaks they could get.

He finally climbed into his Night Gyr and began the start up sequence. He then contacted the command center by pressing a button on his right.

“Command Center, this is Raider Lead.” The nomenclature for the various units had already been assigned beforehand. His assumption of command did not change that.

“Send the message to Star Commodore Valten Folkner to start his attack in five minutes. Send up our aerojocks as per the plan, fifteen minutes after the Falcons start accelerating for the enemy. Also, inform Captain Helene Rice to start their jump in twenty minutes.”

“Roger,” the reply came.

As he was talking to the commtech, Frank was busy flipping switches, sticking on medical monitor patches, and attaching the coolant cable from his vest to a jack on the left of his command couch. He savored the chill caused by the coolant as it started to circulate within the vest. He knew that would not last.

Frank drew out his neurohelmet from a compartment behind his head, settling it down snugly around his head, on the padded collars of his cooling vest. He adjusted it to get the best fit for the receptors on the helmet interior, then secured the helmet by using the Velcro fasteners. He stuck more medical patches to a plate near his throat, and closed the chinstrap.

Pressing another button on the console started the identification sequence. A computer generated voice barked out, “The Flaming Gyr 007 is online. Please identify yourself, or I’ll shoot you out of my anus.”

Frank grinned. It had been the custom by the Raider techs to insert some levity into every machine they have. All the original identification initial startup sequences had been modified in a similar manner, with anal and crass jokes the most popular.

He answered, “Frank Meronac.”

“Your voice matches my records. Please wait impatiently…”

After ten seconds, the voice of the computer came back on, “You have to complete this initiation sequence, or I will self implode in despair and pity.”

“It’s quiet now, but not for long.”

“Phrase confirmed. You have full control. Damn shame about it too, coz I could have enjoyed a few more moments of vaginal penetration.” God, I hope the techs don’t ever decided to cook up an AI for this mech, or it’ll be the rudest in existence.

Frank waited for the software to confirm the hardware configuration of the omnimechs before the power was fed to the weapons. After that was done, he began to work the foot pedals, as well as pushing his throttle forward, bringing the Night Gyr out of its bay, the long coolant tube detaching from the mech’s rear as it walked out and into the corridor, joining the line of Raider mechs and other vehicles marching in line to the respective rail shuttles that would transport them to their assigned locations, following the routes markings on his map.