DaVinci's Devils AU[]
- Chapter 4 – An Unsettled Frontier -[]
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According to the native ‘Clades’ that had lived here since the Reunification War the Melia Frontier was so called because the word ‘system’ implied too much order. Rowan’s amber cybernetic eyes looked out at Tenebus from the observation deck’s displays. Despite being in system for months searching out The Saptarishi Clade then cultivating influence on behalf of his father. Yet he had not acclimated to how bright this binary system was to his enhanced sight. A sight able to see beyond the visual spectrum into soft UV and infrared. Between bright blue Tenebus and its smaller orange companion Ismenus the Melia Frontier was practically bathed in light and adorned with treasures.
Behind him a synthesized voice spoke in Italian into his earbud micro-communicator, “Prince Rowan, your sisters report they have begun their return journey from Maia.”
“Thank You, Dante,” Rowan looked at himself in the mirror, short auburn hair, white jumpsuit and tabi boots of a spacer with the golden sunburst of Purifying Light upon them. “I look forward to seeing what they picked out for my wedding.”
His eyes looked over to his neurohelmet and flight suit within the locker behind him, “Dante, how much longer to our destination?” “Approximately one hundred and ninety-six hours to Cordoba, your Highness.”
A brilliant gold painted neurohelmet lifted in his hands, the mountain ash tree of his name painted upon it whose red berries were said to ward off evil. Rowan walked along starship corridors climbing up steep stairs and down ladders within the large dropship taking in the jagged bone white painted vehicles within. Few crew staffed it but that made the smell and sound, a constant low humming of ventilation fans, less problematic than in the Clades’ asteroid bases or elderly spacecraft which smelled of industrial smelting vapors and many charred meals. “They will be delighted when they see what I trade for their Princess.”
“As if we needed to offer them anything else, Prince Rowan. We have already done much.”
“We have, but not me. Once we have The Saptarishi on our side, the others will follow.”
He stopped in the Mech Bay to look at his Level II of Land-Air Mechs, crafted by DaVinci and maintained by its machines. All six looked like withered metal skeletons in this form, but such was the sacrifice for being able to be Aerospace Fighter, Battlemech, and something in between at its pilot’s command. “Then I put myself in line to be the next King.
Ready to receive my inheritance, the Melia System as nucleus of my Principality.”
“With our assistance, my Prince.”
“Yes of course, Dante. Your kind will share the spoils as befits what you have done for mine.”
“It is always good to remind humanity of what we have done for it, your highness.”
“How could I forget?” Rowan looked at his skin, sensation came to his heightened mind as he felt the myomer, metal, and ceramic inside giving him the ability to retain his strength and enhance it further in microgravity without him being obviously modified like his father.
“The Eloi would not be who and what we are today without DaVinci and King David.”
“Humbly, I say your father is my creator’s greatest creation.”
“So far, Dante. So far. Soon they and we will create a greater realm than any seen in ages.”
- Report to Judge Henry Masson, Cordoba Magistrate
- Your Honor, we have investigated Greenspar Station after receiving word from the passing train that the facility was abandoned. We can confirm that the station is shut down, there are no obvious forms of life. Lieutenant de Luca and I are securing the perimeter in anticipation of your arrival. Captain Sabir Sharma, Vanguard Brigade, 21:17 10/31/3086
11/01/3087
If it were not for his suit’s heating coils Philip would be shivering standing upon the tundra near Greenspar Station. Despite constant light from Melia’s binary stars directly landing or being reflected off Thesis’ pale aqua clouds onto its moons this moon was cold. The light did make it habitable, abundant black grass thrived in warmer lowlands with ebony conifers near geothermal vents powered by tidal flux from Thesis.
Purple lichen and mosses covered the highlands slowly changing Cordoba’s albedo and atmosphere. Melting glaciers fed icy streams sculpting new features into the land as mass flowed across it. Great salt lakes were forming in some deeper basins as the moon continued its slow transformation. It was beautiful in its own way from above but his Air-Mech moved fast enough that there was rarely an opportunity or reason to stop moving.
Cordoba was a moon in flux in more ways than one. An ovoid dropship descended onto the station’s landing pad its deafening and blinding thrust plume sending up steam that flash-cooled to hoarfrost upon the two white Vanguard LAMs standing on the ferrocrete. A Thunderbolt 7M bearing The Judges’ Seal, a pair of Icarus III, and trio of tracked articulated PESA APCs descended the Trojan’s ramp onto the landing pad.
The Icarus mechs immediately split up followed by one of the APCs but the Thunderbolt walked over toward them each footfall sending up a prismatic spray of shattered ice crystals. Four of its giant paces away the Battlemech waited and looked around over the snowy plain. “Greetings Pilots. I did not anticipate your tour on this moon being quite so readily eventful. Hardly a week?”
“Three days, your Honor.”
Henry looked out toward Ismenus then back to the horizon, “Three days and we already have a Clade raid. I helped reconquer these worlds fifteen years ago. Sent those outlaws back to their bolt holes. Yet their chaos is once more clawing at us.
What have you discovered so far Captain Sharma?”
“We called it in as soon as the reports were confirmed yesterday Judge Masson. We were going to leave the investigation to you and your people. The power is out. We did not want to break through and potentially destroy evidence. We deployed sensors from the rail box.”
“Yes, I knew those would come in handy once we had some Vanguards in theater. These Clade raiders are crafty; speed is their second-best defense, stealth their greatest. One day we will have a proper surveillance globe in place, but that day is no time soon.
Captain Sharma head out to the mine and see if anything was missed.
Lieutenant De Luca you are with me.”
Sabir sped off at full power, Cordoba’s thin atmosphere slowed the thrust his Air-Mech mode could generate but it was still incredibly swift under power. Lesser gravity let Henry’s Thunderbolt easily pace beside Philip’s Vanguard Battlemech followed by two APCs.
Greenspar Station grew rapidly in their viewscreens before the Vanguard and Thunderbolt Battlemechs alifted the gate allowing entry for them and APCs parked in the covered railway terminal. Parallel tracks ran within the tubular structure, one to the Greenspar Canyon Copper Mine, another connected to regional rails. Anything coming from the Dropport needed to be unloaded via the road laid over the permafrost.
Judge Masson and Lieutenant De Luca dropped onto the pad crunching frost between their boots and the ferrocrete. Red rifle lights from PESA Drop Troopers shone in the frosty interior air. Philip’s pistol light added to many. Judge Masson held a strange chromed shotgun.
“Your Honor, I’ve never seen a weapon like that before. What kind is it?”
“This is a Steel Viper Avenger. I took it from an Apostates’ dead hands in Solaris City, used it to claim my Thunderbolt, and many more of their lives in the process.”
“What were you doing there?”
Henry donned a vest of bright green shotshells over his MechWarrior Combat Suit, its carbon fiber carapace with signs of heavy wear. “Thirteen days of layover with the wife turned into three years of battle.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you Judge Masson.”
“Don’t be Lieutenant, I had a fantastic time.” The Avenger’s light appeared as the Judge clicked his magazine home. Both men walked toward the Drop Troopers who had already cleared the few Six Sisters Shipping containers. “As anticipated, all six are empty.”
“What was in them?”
The judge scanned the barcodes with his wrist computer sharing his screen to Philip through their paired battlenet, “Freeze dry or frozen food, some medicine, UV lights for water purifiers, wire, cable, and some new heat exchangers. Simple stuff, Judge.”
“Yes, but still valuable to the Clades. What is more problematic is what isn’t here. There was a shipment of equipment meant for the mine delivered ten days ago. None of that nor any of the people meant to use it are here and disturbingly no one rang the alarm.”
“Were there trackers installed?”
“No, installing trackers is unfortunately like ringing a dinner bell for some of these outlaws. We had hoped it would arrive without any fanfare to draw them to this station.
Let’s get a move on Lieutenant, look for anything strange within a ComStar household.”
Philip paused for a moment to see the ComStar insignia above the tunnel access points. They advanced behind the Drop Troopers through a wide tunnel connected to the main habitat dome. “This was a ComStar colony?”
“Until two weeks ago it was the most populous one on Cordoba.” They passed into a large habitat dome. Outside light struggled to reach down through creeping ice and snow while no lights were on in the townhouses or shops below. There was no sign of struggle or violence. Instead, everything just slumbered, waiting for its owner to return once more. Henry and Philip held their weapons at the ready at Drop Troopers started to clear the area.
“Now it’s a ghost town.”