Battle for Brimstone[]
Chapter 5[]
Part 5-1[]
Commercial District, Port Erebus
Cis-Alpheratz Region, Weisau
Febuary 5th, 3135
Jared sat nursing a half filled tumbler of scotch. There were two particles of dust on top of the liquid. It was just impossible to get rid of on Weisau. The bartender had swept the steel bar counter six times since Jared sat down and there was still a little sand on it.
Morrison sat down beside Jared and clapped him on the back.
“You look a little glum for the hero of Weisau.” Morrison told him
“Is that what they are calling me?” he questioned
“You haven’t watched the news. I think the Tai-I needs more soldiers. He did a whole interview. He claims you are, and I quote, ‘the best damned soldier a Tai-I could have’.” quoted his former teacher
“I practically crapped my pants.” he glummly commented
“You got three kills, space puker.” reminded Morrison
“Ug, do you have to bring that up?” commented Jared
“You are famous.” Morrison told him
“Brimstone famous. That’s like having your name up on the wall in a bathroom.” he glummly responded
“I suppose. What are you drinking?” Morrison asked
“This.” Jared waved the tumbler at Morrison. “I don’t know. I don’t feel like being drunk. Maybe I should. I’m just trying to wrap my head around it all. I don’t even know if I’m scared or not.”
“Sounds about right.” Morrison said with a smile.
“What do you mean?” he questioned
“You sound like me right after my first battle. It wasn’t much of a scrap. I was on patrol, guarding a supply depot in a Spider when a bunch of loader trucks, a half track and a bunch of guys with SRM launchers showed up. Once I wiped out their tank, they fled and I let them go. I didn’t have the stomach to just slaughter fleeing people. I didn’t know how I felt about it for weeks afterwards. They finally sent me for counseling. Told me I was acting like a zombie. They were right and it helped, a lot.”
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Spider Light 'Mech
“What do they do at counseling?” he asked
“Mostly they sit around and talk, like we are. But you’ve got to talk to people who understand, other Mechwarriors. They won’t laugh and they’ll understand, no matter what you say, because they’ve done it. You don’t think you’re the only one to puke in their ‘Mech do you? I did it.” Morrison he told him
“Tell me.” he asked
“Not on your life, space puker. You tell anyone I said that and I’ll write your unit a letter everyday with your new name.” he told him
“Do you know where they are sending you after this?” he asked the Dragoon
“Nope.” Morrison received and drained a drink in one shot. “This is probably goodbye kid, but it was a good time, good enough. It was hard enough to keep track of people when the HPG’s were working.”
“Yeah.” Jared commented
“Hey.” Morrison lifted a new glass. “To Turan, Kesler, Bohem and all those poor infantry grunts.”
Jared lifted his glass and drank. “To lives too short.”
I might just get drunk after all.
Part 5-2[]
Commercial District, Port Erebus
Cis-Alpheratz Region, Weisau
February 5th, 3135
“Hey Pops!” Tammy shouted.
“That’s Tai-I- oh, never mind Tammy.” Dai turned to see the tall lady.
“You’re off duty. I assume.” Tammy said to Keung Dai.
“Where’s your fox- oh!”
Finnegan, the Brimstone fox who had followed Tammy in, leapt up on Dai and licked him with his rough tongue.
“Have you met, Finnegan?”
“Not before but his, and your, reputation precede you. You are the fox whisperer.” Dai said
“I suppose. This little guy has saved enough lives.”
“So I hear.” Dai scratched the red, stony creature with a loud raking noise. “What does he eat?”
“Just about anything, seriously. I’ve seen him chew up wood.” Tammy told him
“Keep him out of my office. Wood furniture costs a fortune.” he told her
Dai waved at the bartender.
“Can you make me up a couple of steaks? One for me and one for this little creature here. Apparently he is also a hero. I might as well get all the rewards done in one night.”
“How did the funding request go?” Tammy asked him
“You haven’t heard through the grapevine?” Dai asked.
Tammy shook her head.
“They were furious.” Dai laughed. “I did send them a bill for almost 4 million C-Bills, but they were kind of stuck. I put together a company from nearly nothing and I needed parts, ‘Mech bays and repair equipment or it would all just fall apart. They sent a very stern lecture vid, agreed to pay and then warned me I would be called upon to help neighboring worlds.”
“Did you tell them about the Blake and pirate ‘Mechs you are using?”
Dai smiled and drank.
“It’s in the report. I’m sure I mentioned it somewhere in the fifteen pages.”
Part 5-3[]
Commercial District, Port Erebus
Cis-Alpheratz Region, Weisau
February 5th, 3135
“Look at them over there, laughing it up.”
“Who?”
“Them. The Mechwarriors. Not a care in the world.”
“Dude, be quiet. They’ll hear you.”
“So what? It’s not like they have their BattleMechs here in the bar.”
“Do you want to go back to work tomorrow?”
“Not really. I’ll probably just get stepped on by a ‘Mech. It’s not like any of them died.”
“Actually I think a few of them did die.”
“Was it a ninety six of them? That’s how many we lost at the battle for the port.”
“What about Bohem? He died in the Dig Lord.”
“He wasn’t a MechWarrior. He was a glorified Industrial ‘Mech pilot with illusions of grandeur. Look where it got him.”
“Man, you are drunk. You’re not even making sense. Those pirates would have killed us all.”
“We’re cannon fodder.”
“Shut up man. You’re going to get us into trouble.”
“You see all that shinny new equipment we had to pack into the Compound? Did you see any battle armor in their? Did you see any shiny new man-portable particle cannons? How about some new body armor. Nope!”
“Do you have any idea how much battle armor costs? I mean ignore the logistics train you need with it, each suit is hundreds of thousands of C-Bills. We are never going to see that kind of hardware. So you might as well stop complaining.”
“That’s my point! We aren’t worth it. If they sold one of those ‘Mechs we could have battle armor.”
“No, you drunk idiot, we couldn’t. It would barely pay a few suits at best.”
“Oh we’re not good enough that a few of us could survive.”
“Mechwarriors gave their lives so we didn’t have to do a boarding action with space suits on. You should be thanking them. I’m getting you the hell out of here.”
Part 5-4[]
Commercial District, Port Erebus
Cis-Alpheratz Region, Weisau
February 5th, 3135
Dai looked up from his drink at two soldiers, one fight-dragging the other towards the exit. He nodded both his agreement and understanding. When Tammy turned to look, he explained.
“I’ve seen that three times tonight; A soldier pointing and howling at the Mechwarriors getting dragged out of the bar by his comrades.”
“They lost a lot of men.” Tammy commented
“We lost a lot of soldiers. Could you imagine their losses without the ‘Mechs?” Dai responded
“I guess it would be worse.”
“Yes. Brimstone was invaded decades ago. Every soldier in the militia was lost and civilians took up arms and ran a guerilla style resistance for weeks. They lost. Thousands were killed.” Dai told her
“I don’t think that’s going to make them feel better.” she commented
“No. Letting them complain will. The memorial and awards ceremony will. Also a shipment of new body armor, SRM launchers and three Heavy Tracked APCs I requisitioned will.”
“You could tell them.” she commented
“No. They need time to grieve. If you try to force hope on someone who is grieving they will hate you. You are saying that what they are grieving about isn’t important. They need to grieve. We need to. Then awards. Then hope.” Dai said
“I think that grieving could get violent later.” she commented
“A night at the bar with soldiers usually ends with some embarrassing drunk fights. I will be sure to punish them tomorrow with a good long run.” Dai told her
Tammy suddenly looked at her drink like it was poison.
“Ah, remember, you don’t work for me, young lady.”
Part 5-5[]
Commercial District, Port Erebus
Cis-Alpheratz Region, Weisau
February 5th, 3135
After the ceremony, Jared got a few days of R&R and left the Military Compound and headed home. He had a little hole-in-the wall place on the edge of the domed city that he had maintained. There was enough room for a bed, some shelves and a cooking station. When he unlocked the door he found a few letters behind it but there was nothing important, adds and threatening letters from Grobbels.
He had never noticed it before but there was a stinky smell of sweat. Still, it smelled like home. His father had passed when he was in his teens. Most of his childhood memories were of being alone, watching vids and playing in the living room by himself at his father’s home. It was something Jared had to sell to pay off his departed father’s debts. He could probably get it back now if he wanted. He didn’t really want to.
Jared dug through an old box. It had a few toys and a stuffed owl. At the bottom was a cast Locust toy. It was painted, barely, and where the paint had chipped off he could make out the transparent orange resin it was made of. The mold lines were quite prominent. They had not taken much effort in its crafting. Jared had played with it for hours and hours imagining defeating all the Inner Sphere’s enemies.
He lay down on his bed and walked the Locust over the sheets in a hopping motion because it was one solid piece and did not actually walk. He thought about everything that had happened since the days he played with this toy. He remembered the years in the mines and all the days studying the Dig Lords. He vividly remembered chasing around the star port in the Locust. He remembered Dai’s Dragon both when he first saw it and then when it was shot to pieces and Dai ejected in the Star Port raid. Jared thought about being in space, spinning around in the Wolverine, helpless.
Was it all real?, he thought
He imagined he was back home, before his father died of a lung infection. Jared imagined this was all a game, with some new toys. He would certainly need a lot of them, Jumpships and Dropships and countless soldiers. He got distracted and thought about vids that showed worlds with blue skies and rain that wasn’t scorching. Remembering the dream of a kind world, he got up. He took the Locust and he left.
Slipping back into the Military Compound he found his Locust, now one among many, and climbed up to the cockpit and let himself in. There was very little room but he would sacrifice some of it. There was the smallest locker. Jared slipped the Locust inside and closed the door and pat it with his hand.
“We’re going to get out of here.”
Part 5-6[]
Commercial District, Port Erebus
Cis-Alpheratz Region, Weisau
February 15th, 3135
Krag woke up. He knew things weren’t good. He had woken up after a battle before and he knew he wanted to think for a while before he learned how bad things were. There was no such mercy. Pain rolled into his consciousness. It was bad. He knew immediately that the anesthetic had worn off completely, if they had used any at all. He’d been to some cheap medical institutions before. The pain was overwhelming. He could feel things poking into him, hard plastic tubes where there shouldn’t be anything. Breathing was hard and he could hear a hiss and pumping noise that was dreadful to his imagination.
He forced his eyes open but only one worked. That would have caused him a lot of fear except what he saw was so much worse. It didn’t look like a bed in a hospital. It looked like he was inside some kind of machine because there were so many wires and tubes coming out of him. This was really, really bad, he concluded.
He saw the face of a woman. She had olive skin and perfect features except for a scar across her eye and an eye patch. Her long, layered hair suggested she was not a nurse. What shouted and screamed at him that she was not a nurse was her cold, sharp gaze. She looked exactly like the cat that has caught a mouse it’s about to play with to death.
“Hi, Krag.” She said in a sharp, tense voice.
Aw shit, she knows who I am.
“I guess we should meet. I spent quite a bit of money on you. All these tubes don’t come cheap.” she told him
She leaned over and pulled something out of Krag. It hurt like a knife going in but it was being pulled out. He felt pain in places he had never felt anything before. He tried to scream but there was a tube down his throat.
“Whoops. Oh Doctor. This one fell out. I assume it was really important. Better put it back in.”
Krag was sure he did not want it put back in. When the Doctor appeared, someone in a white lab coat and started putting the tube back in, there was no surprise. It hurt much more going back in, as the Doctor had to fuss with it, pushing and finding the hole before it slid back into place. He spoke very quietly.
“Ma’am, if you really want him to live, you’ve got to stop pulling those out.”
“Take a hike.” she told the physcian
Krag settled in to the lower level of terrible pain and tried to find comfort. He twisted in the bed and that made things much worse. Finally he lay still and waited for the olive skin face with the eye patch to appear over him again.
“Poor, Krag. Maybe. Or maybe you are smart. Maybe your little pirate brain is just smart enough to realize the thin strand of life you are clinging to and that I am holding the scissors. From this point on, you will never be free but you can be alive, and possibly even without pain. All you have to do is answer one question and I will call the Doctor back in and ask him to give you some nice soothing high quality morphine.”
Krag nodded, even though it hurt like fire. He was ready to answer any questions.
“Oh wait, where are my manors? I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Kima. Of course, you don’t know that name but I’m sure you know my husband… …B’kar.”
Krag’s eyes went as wide as they could.
“Oh hush silly. Don’t get all dramatic. I’m sure he’s dead. I’m sure it’s your fault and I don’t care. What I want to know is – “
She leaned in so close he could smell her perfume. It felt like the strangest thing to notice. He saw a lot of himself in this lady. That alone would have made her both terrifying and attractive to him. Why he was fixating on the perfume probably had to do with his desperate desire to escape this situation. She spoke quietly in his ear like a cat hissing a deadly threat.
“Where’s my Archangel?”
Krag actually tried to talk. It was an agony of spasming muscles against a breathing tube.
“Of course you can’t speak, dummy.” She said, standing tall again. “And I’m a little concerned about your dedication to my cause. I mean you’ve only just joined my service. I’m going to give you some time to absorb and ponder. Why don’t you sleep on it?”
Krag managed a whine.
“What? Oh you want your morphine? No, no, not until you’ve answered my question. And you’re just not going to be able to until we take all those nasty tubes out of your face. So you’re just going to have to spend some time au-natural. See you tomorrow.”
She paused at the door.
“I’ll give you one mercy.”
She came back and leaned in close.
“Peace of Blake be with you.”
The End