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Iron Blooded Commander
- Chapter 2.1 -
Raise your Flag[]
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Settling In[]
Dilapidated base
Starboro City
Zaniah III, Lyran Commonwealth
3020
"Okay make sure everyone is cooled off and has had enough water! Gauge, your Centurion is on forklift duty! You two! You're on tent duty inside, hop to it!" I yelled out orders as the field of kids around me jumped into action. The trucks had rolled up to the base and now it was time to get everything settled.
I was thankfully not as tired or hot as the rest, although now that I was outside my Locust, I was dealing with the heat just as badly. It wasn't pleasant. 110+ degree temperatures during the day were brutal.
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Dilapidated Base
I noticed some of the kids started stacking a few boxes outside off the trucks, when I realized what was inside, "Hey hey! No! Get that food dropped off inside, we can't leave it out here in this heat!" Their groan made me wince, as the trip over hadn't been pleasant for my kids.
I promised them quietly that when they left this place, they would all be inside, and comfortable. Until then we still had work to do. I was on the ground doing my best to get everything stored away correctly, although my biggest concern was making sure my overheated kids weren't going to get heat stroke and die.
"Hey! If she is overheated, get her inside! That can be finished later!" I called out to a group that had a teenage girl sitting with her head between her legs.
"These kids are going to be the death of me." I grumble, as Benny comes jogging up to me.
His own hair was sweatstreaked, just as badly as the rest. "This place is a shithole, Commander." He points back towards the ruined barracks buildings I had given up on. "That building isn't safe. When I walked in, the damn place almost collapsed on me."
"I know tents inside the hangar for now. I turned the AC unit on, so it will cool down once we get the doors closed, when everything is inside." I waited for a group carrying a metal crate to run past me before leaning in. "Don't worry I already have a plan for housing, Just bear with it tonight. Tomorrow morning we will 'find' it."
He blinked a few times in confusion before it hit him, and his smile lit up. "You got it, Commander. I'll keep morale up… and keep anyone from dying." He ran off, to help another soldier that wasn't looking great.
Sleepless search in the desert[]
It took most of the day to get everything settled inside the hangar, and what didn't need to be stored in a cool place stored outside under some netting.
I unfortunately wouldn't get a chance to cool off inside. I had to jump back in my Locust. "Okay, Gauge, you read?" I ask flipping on the radio as I powered up my ride. I was thankful for the kinda mediocre cooling vest that I slipped over my head.
The radio connection from the Centurion pinged back. <<"Coming in loud and clear I was about to shut down, what's going on, Vicky?">>
"Problem with that thing we made out in the forest, we are too far to connect, I need to go make another one. Once I get back I'll be working down. So set up some noise inside, okay, try to keep it loud enough that some idle shakes aren't noticed by anyone."
<<"It's late, Vicky, are you sure you need to do this tonight? You've been up all day.">>
"I'll live, but if we don't get this place fixed up, maybe everyone else won't. Don't worry about me. I'm sleepy, but I'm not tired yet. I'll be good for a few hours to get everything sorted. Out." I flipped the switch as I checked the sensor map. A metal node was only about twenty miles out from the base in the desert. Time to get to work.
Racing out in darkness took some getting used to. The desert was strange at night. The limited vegetation meant that most of what I had to worry about were strange boulders that blended into the ground. Night vision was thankfully something the Locust-NFX came equipped with.
The run out had been quiet, although unfortunately not relaxing. I had to focus too much on making sure my legs didn't hit a ditch, or worse. But I found the position for the metal node, I quickly had it built, it only took about an hour, and I even went ahead and created a pseudo rock face around it. Protecting it as there frankly wasn't anything but flat dirt and rock for miles.
It was on my way back that I had some trouble.
I came too with a gasp as I groaned in pain. I stumbled around in the dark cockpit for a moment before I flicked the interior lights on and managed to get an idea of what happened. I hit a rock. The Locust went ass over teakettle, and I suffered the effects of a twenty ton vehicle going 129 KPH suddenly not going that fast.
Thankfully, as I slowly checked myself over, other than some muscle pain, I was alright. The next problem of course was the Locust was on the floor.
I hadn't ever 'stood' up in a mech before. It took a while, as I ran a system check, made sure the neurohelmet was connected and started trying to work myself onto my feet. If I was in a fight, I would be dead. It took nearly five minutes of fiddling before I managed to get the legs of my mech under her, and slowly rose up back to my feet. The gyro whined as it handled the unbalanced mech back onto its feet.
With my own whine of pain I started heading back again. This time, with a lot more care put into where I was stepping.
I stopped about half a mile outside our base. This was where the annoying part came in. I angled my Locust down, and began digging out a ramp downwards into the dirt and stone. Hopefully the green light wouldn't be noticed for the few minutes it would take to disappear into the ground. Using the sensors I went down until it was on the same level as the addition I already added into the Hangar before I began tunneling towards it.
When I finally broke through I was ready to stop. Exhausted and in pain, my neck was killing me, but instead I took a long exhale and got back to it. The tunnel I just excavated was sealed off back at the entrance, the blast door was covered in a coating of faux-rock and stone to mix it into the terrain before I went back and this time created a new extension. The feeling of playing a dungeon builder game surged through me, as I started slowly making rooms. Each one was the same length, had a bathroom attached, and on and on I went. Until I had more rooms than I had people sleeping above me.
Honestly that was the easy part, but connecting every room to fresh water for the bathrooms, and connected an AC unit so they could be climate controlled took far longer. I was really glad all of this was connected to both a large water reservoir that my Water purifier was pumping out, and a Fusion engine. Power and water was not going to be an issue.
Once I was done, with the rooms I spent some extra time making everything was working before heading out of the long and unfortunately tall corridor I had been forced to make to fit my Locust, back into the main room.
With that I created a few more 'fake' doors. I could open them later when I needed to expand, but I 'locked' them for now.
I did a big circle running back out and around back to the Hangar shutting down the Locust outside. It was so late, everyone was asleep as I stumbled into the hangar. Groaning quietly in pain I found the cot that was put up for me and fell into it exhausted.
Black & Blues[]
I didn't get to sleep much before I was awoken early in the morning by the hangar coming alive. I moaned in pain as I rose up. The flurry of movement was mostly caused by hunger. The soldiers were quickly making breakfast using the ration packs we had brought with us. I was glad, even if we ran out of food, despite how nonsensical it may seem, I was able to produce food with the nanoforge. How does metal become food?
Space magic. Obviously.
So I wasn't worried about the hungry mouths devouring their breakfast. I would make sure there was always more. Standing out of my cot, I groaned as my entire body ached, although a gasp got my attention as I looked around.
"Shit, Vicky, what happened to you!?" Gauge asked as he set down a MRE that was obviously my breakfast and started poking and prodding at my face.
"OW! That hurts!" I hissed at him as he poked a sort spot, and I noticed he was trying to wipe my face clean of dried blood. "Oh. I was bleeding?"
"Yeah Vicky, your nose is purple. What happened to you?"
"Crashed my Locust. I'm okay, it's more sore pain than anything. Didn't notice my nose was bleeding though." I mutter looking down at my formerly white tank top that was now stained very obviously red with blood.
"Yeah well you look like shit. C'mon let's get you cleaned up before you head out, I really don't want everyone freaking out about you dying when we are still settling in." Gauge huffed, turning full big brother on me as he left to go get some water and rags, and a few pain killers.
He was nice.
Supply Shortages[]
We were doing quite well settling in, of course that didn't mean there weren't problems.
About an hour after getting up and finishing my morning meal Benny jogged up. "New problem for you Commander."
"Lovely. Hit me, lieutenant." I grumble, hiding a wince as I felt a muscle pull.
"Well the supplies we are supposed to be given by the Governess arrived. You need to see this." He huffed in frustration as I stood, slipped on my boots and headed outside.
A single pickup was there dropping off a few cardboard boxes, and what looks like a tank of water. Even an idiot would immediately notice the problem.
"Hey, where are the rest of our supplies?" I called out to the driver who was unloading the boxes out of the back of his beat up old pickup.
"This is it. Bought and paid for. Here is the delivery notice." He offered as he sat the box down, and pulled out a piece of paper which I quickly looked through. I noticed the problem right away. The amount of supplies we were set to receive in contract was based on a certain amount of money. Basically we receive a stipend and from that a month food and water are delivered to the base.
The apparent problem?
Water is expensive on Zaniah III. Which wouldn't normally be an issue. Despite the fact the planet sometimes ships water from offworld due to shortages, the price of water wasn't excessive in the capital, but unfortunately despite being here to protect the capital we were just outside the limits. Which means we bought our supplies from the local market, The market of thirsty thirsty farms, factories, and civilian housing.
In other words, we were purchasing our supplies at the highest price on the planet, as we were buying it from the most drained sector. Just the water that he brought along was worth 90% of the monthly supply value.
I exhaled in irritation. This guy had nothing to do with this, he was just a delivery driver. "Thanks." I grunted as I turned back towards the base. I had a call to make.
Limited Supplies, the Mission must Carry On[]
"Lieutenant, please, while this does follow the letter of the contract, we both know that this goes against the spirit. How am I supposed to provide for my forces when nearly all of the stipend is spent on water at a price that is nothing short of exorbitant!"
"I apologize, Commander, but it is according to the contract. Pure water prices have risen exponentially, we lost a water purifying plant last year from a League raid. Due to this, and your distance from the remaining plants, the price is steep."
"How am I supposed to defend anything if all of my men are dying of dehydration!"
"Commander... I am sorry, there is nothing I can do about the supplies. All I can say, as a reminder for you. If you fail to keep combat effective, based on the contract your equipment may be impounded for failure to meet the contract requirements." He offered calmly, "I understand this situation isn't one you expected Commander, but my hands are tied, these orders come straight from the governess's office, and the planetary guard are unfortunately following her lead on this. General Faulkner is unfortunately unable to do anything to assist. That is a direct message from him."
I realized the Lieutenant Conor was actually trying to help even if the whole situation was trying to screw me over. "I see. So I should expect the same level of supplies in the month ahead. And I assume a surprise readiness evaluation, in the coming months?"
"I can't confirm any future surprise inspections that the Governess's office is planning." He informed me, basically confirming that fact.
"I see, Leutnant. I have work to do."
"Commander."
I pushed the receiver back onto the hook with a grunt. Then I laughed. There had been a stipulation in the contract that if I couldn't keep my company combat effective, the contract would activate a failure clause, and I would have to pay a huge chunk of C-bills. Or equal cost in equipment.
They thought limiting the supplies they gave me, or hiking prices for food and water would break my company, leading to them getting my mechs for cheap.
If this was a normal company, it likely would. Spending a huge amount of C-bills on just water, since the water coming through the pipes was deadly, and the purified water was both expensive and needed transport by truck out to our distant base. Add in the lack of shelter we were issued.
Yeah we likely would have had to break the contract within the first couple of months, after which they would stop us from leaving until we handed over our mechs. I wondered if the 10th was in on it, but I could only hope they weren't. But I realized I doubt it would matter. Even if they weren't in on this scam, they would still likely be forced to act, or ComStar would.
I shuddered. That would be the worst possible outcome.
But you might be asking. Vicky, you moron, if they had clauses like that in the contract why did you take this job?
Well it was pretty much the only job that would accept a long term defense contract from a Demi-Lance company. And, honestly? It's sort of hard to force a company with infinite production to drop below combat effectiveness.
"That didn't go well." Benny said, he had been beside me listening in. "What's got you so amused?"
"Benny. Benny. Benny. Are you not a Lyran? I smell commerce in the air, don't you?" I smirk, my fingers itched to get into my mech and produce a few water hauling trucks. Thanks to our water purifier I could turn the garbage water they were sending down the pipes into clean drinking water, and whether the water shortage was real or not, I was betting there would still be a lot of thirsty people all around us in the towns neighboring my base.
"Put together a squad of those who can drive, we are going to have some water trucks selling water to the locals soon, should cover our food bills quite nicely."
It seemed to take him a moment to understand but then his smile took on a nasty edge. "Understood Commander!" He offered running off into the dust to track down our new money makers. Unfortunately, there was never a break.
"Vicky!" Gauge ran up to me looking shocked as he nearly manhandled me to look up towards my Locust. The paint was stripped off the nose of the mech, and it looked like it had taken a tumble.
Because it had.
"Vicky, What happened to your Locust!"
"I crashed last night in the desert. It sucked."
"Wha- Buh. Look at how much damage it took! I'm gonna be spending… Oh Mein Gott. No, I still haven't finished my Centurion. You can't just create more damage for me to fix!" He nearly shrieked.
"Relax, Gauge, relax. It's just cosmetic, and I don't mind it." I shrugged. It hadn't really damaged the armor plates, too much, just… Scraped the paint off.
"You are the Commander! You can't go around in a busted up mech! You already are in a light, instead of taking the Centurion!"
I snorted at him. "What are you saying I should claim the Centurion now?"
The glare he gave me had me laugh, that was a no. "Leave it for now Gauge. We are going to be doing a lot of training in our mechs once everything gets settled, it won't be the only paint that gets scraped off. Believe me."
With that cleared up I headed inside. There were enough kids around that it was time for my 'Surprise.'
I wandered around, acting as if I was inspecting the building before I 'found' a hidden switch that had been pretending to be an electric outlet. When I started messing with it. Suddenly the Hangar jerked, as the secret doors began shifting open. Thankfully I had purposefully ordered nothing to be placed in that area of the hangar, so when the concrete shifted and slowly opened red lights popping up and flashing alerting everyone that heavy machinery was in use, I put a confused look on my face and began giving orders.
Bolstering the Troops[]
That night instead of sitting around crappy fold out tables to eat our evening meal we were in the new cafeteria. It was large, had seats enough for everyone, and the tables were less likely to fall over and spill food everywhere.
Once my kids finished eating I stood up and stood at the head of my table, Benny calling for attention as he rose as well.
"I am sure all of you are surprised at what we have discovered here today." I began, waiting for the cheers of happiness to calm before I continued. "But I am going to remind you all of a very simple fact. No one, not us, and not the governess office that sent us here knew this bunker existed. That means our stay here was meant to be like it was yesterday. Uncomfortable, with crappy food, and little to no water."
I waited for that to process through until the whispers quieted again. "I came prepared for some issues that I expected to have. Water was something I figured might be a problem. That's why I brought along our water purifier. Heat was an issue I expected, so I brought some extra AC units. What I didn't expect is for our contractor to try and screw us over."
That brought a lot of furious whispers through the room as I raised a hand to quiet them. "The contractor Lady Alessa has a failure clause in the contract. I knew it was there, and I didn't expect it to matter. I didn't have any idea that we would be set up to fail." I exhaled loudly a sound of frustration that echoed around the room.
"But we won't fail. Not today, and not a month from now. The Governess thought she could put us in a trashed facility, restrict our water, and food, and eventually come in to claim our equipment, our mechs. When we failed to muster out." I Gave it a beat. "Look around you."
I watched as they did so, not sure what they were looking at exactly, but they did as I asked. "Does it look like in a month we are going to be starving, dehydrated, spending every c-bill we have on food and water to keep our bellies full?" I laughed then, long and loud.
"No! They expected a bunch of orphans. Who couldn't put a company together, couldn't keep everything running and working. Look around! They expected us to be living upstairs in ruined buildings barely getting by!"
"Which is why I am issuing a strict order right here, and right now. This bunker is absolutely not to be spoken of, with anyone not in our company. If we have someone dropping off supplies, we are all upstairs, making it look like we live up there. If the Governess comes by for an inspection. No one speaks about this facility. They can learn about it when we leave. I'll be nice enough to inform them of its existence. Until then, it's existence is classified within our company."
Everyone nodded seriously. A few had smirks on their face as they liked the idea of tricking the adults that were trying to mess with us, but mostly everyone understood how serious I was being. I let it settle for a while before I once more raised my hand.
"I said before that they tried to set us up to fail, but they didn't expect me to actually make some plans. Right now we are eating our rations. I know they aren't great." I waved to the table I was sitting at and my own opened ration pack. "This won't last long. The morons thought they could cost us thousands of C-bills a day just for water, without realizing that we can make our own drinking water. More than we could ever drink ourselves. So we won't. Tomorrow I'm going to go buy some water trucks. We are going to fill up, and a unit of you will go out into town. The new Supply Corps will be in charge of selling or bartering the water for food supplies. Lieutenant Benny will inform those of you who have been chosen."
There were quite a few happy cries at that. The Lyran rations I bought were edible. That was about it. "It might still be a few rough days. We have growing pains to go through! But it won't break us! We are doing well. Better than even I expected. Take heart Iron Blooded! We don't bleed, when they strike us they only find iron!" I ended my little speech and the cheers that went around had me smiling.
We might be able to do this.
Military Life[]
"We can't do this." I groaned as I waved a paper in front of my face trying to cool off. I had to run out in the Locust to 'get' some water trucks, which meant Gauge and Benny had to come drive them out, but today was even hotter than the day before. The damn thermometer in my Locust registered the heat at 47 degrees Celsius.
There was no wind today. Just a miserable everpresent heat, and a really really hot sun. "The kids can't go out and do any work because they burn up. How is Seymour?"
"He is doing better. They got him downstairs where it's cool. Alfred took a look at him, said he would be okay with lots of water and rest."
"Fuck. I forgot sunscreen. Benny, I forgot sunscreen while going to a desert planet!"
He listened to my whining for a moment before shrugging, "Growing pains Commander. Just growing pains. The supply corps have orders to pick a ton of it up." And then he leaned in to where I was sitting to whisper. "Once you get a little you can just make a lot more. Don't stress."
"I know… I know. It's just aggravating. I want to be better than this." I grumble looking out. The supply trucks had barreled off with two kids to a truck. The water tanks on the back were huge and completely full of pure water. Enough to make us some pretty serious cash if the price of clean water was anything like what it cost us, but I was being nice. Supplies first, even if it meant far less cash coming in. I don't want to rip off the locals. Especially since if water was that expensive to get out here, they were already being screwed.
"It's fine. PT was moved inside. The long halls of the Bunker are actually pretty good for PT runs. Our little boot camp is going just fine. Once we get the sun screen we will start doing more outside." Benny as always was confident that it would work out. "The Iron Blooded won't give up at such a minor setback Commander."
"That's heartening." I grumble. Although I nod as I get up. "Well Lieutenant, go get ready, since everything outside is on hold, we have work to do as well."
Benny blinked at me, his confusion obvious.
"Oh Benny. Did you forget? Just because we are the commanding officers, doesn't excuse us from boot. Get dressed in PT gear. Let's go."
His sudden look of horrified exhaustion got me going through the afternoon.
Settling In[]
After that things slowly settled in. I created a sunscreen dispenser that was situated in front of every exit outside, so that anyone leaving could sunblock themselves up without issue.
The fact it led to an underground reservoir that I made sure had enough sunscreen for a month meant my own feelings of failure were assuaged. Then things started happening. The supply unit came back with an empty water tank and enough real food to feed a small army.
You know like the one I have.
"Any issues?" I couldn't help but ask as I helped unload the boxes of food. Fredrich Klein, who had actually worked as a chef at a restaurant on Solaris after aging out of the orphanage, had been put in charge of the supplies groups. Mostly to make sure we got supplies that we could actually use. No point if all the teens came back with nothing but junk food. I was glad he had come along, at eighteen he was one of the older orphans, and he had a maturity to him that most of the younger teens didn't.
"No, Commander! They were pretty shocked at first, but after they tested the water to make sure it wasn't a scam, they were more than interested. You were right though. They don't have much cash, the water supply in the area really is horrible. There has also been a drought, so they can't even rely on the rare rain clouds to fill up their tanks. They were more than willing to give us some food, which hasn't really increased in price, in exchange for water. Although the mayor of the town did want to discuss a more permanent water transfer."
I nodded. "Tell him I will consider it next time you see him, but for now, I want a reliable way to get supplies that the governess won't be able to interfere with. Tell him that if nothing else I will consider offering our water purifier to him cheap once we leave."
"You got it, Commander!"
With the food that night cooked up, although not all of it came out well even with Fredrich supervising. Some of the teens are better cooks than others.
Training Days[]
"Wait, what is that?" I asked, as I popped into the Centurion's Cockpit where Gauge had been finishing the tests on the now 'fixed' arm. My eyes locked onto something that filled me with fury.
"What? My Neurohelmet?"
"Your very comfortable looking normal Neurohelmet!" I yelled back at him. Slowly I realized the truth. I had been a moron. Complaining about my massive oversized uncomfortable Neurohelmet all the while Gauges Centurion had a better quality one. "Fuck!" I growled as I turned and ran. I needed my noteputer. No way was I going to put that massive stupid Neurohelmet on ever again! I idly chucked the old Neurohelmet into a forgotten corner of the hangar.
Wouldn't ever need that piece of crap again!
"Eeeeee!" The scream that came over the radio had me flip a switch to mute my mic so he couldn't hear my cackles of laughter. Gauge was discovering what I meant when I said that we would be scraping off a lot of paint on our mechs.
The desert turned out to be pretty treacherous for mech feet. At least it was for kids with no experience. I had taken another tumble during our training already, but thankfully not carrying ten pounds of Neurohelm on my neck meant the whiplash wasn't nearly as bad. Gauge on the other hand, kept falling.
This was his third fall so far. All while just doing basic control training.
"Oow. I know your laughing. It's not funny." He grumbled over the radio as I reactivated my own.
"Yes, it is. Well, you hurt too bad?"
"Only my ego this time." He grumbled as he started the slow process of getting back up. In my eyes it was a good thing that he kept falling. Better to fall and learn to stand back up when no one is shooting at you.
"Good, once you get back up, let's get back to our laps. I want to be familiar with our entire area so we know where the rough spots are."
"Yes, Commander." He grumbled back as he rose back to his feet. And we set off again. Our circuit took us around the fence that was slowly being repaired. I had a unit doing a bit of it each day, both to get it fixed, and to help everyone get acclimated to the heat. I had been in the first unit so none could argue about being forced to do it.
As we circled we ran around the entrance checkpoint, a few guards were settling into the guard house that I had done some secretive repair work on to make sure it was livable. The new AC unit helped a lot in making it a position no one dreaded anymore.
While I was there, I went ahead and set up a sign with the new name of our base. 'Red Base' wasn't the most powerful of names, but it worked for me, and whatever this base had once been called was long lost even to the planetary defense force. So I unanimously decided to rename the place. It was ours now after all.
Gauge and I continued our course, running and slowing, and struggling where the ground turned from packed dirt into sandy dunes, then into jagged and brittle rocks. The jogging pace we kept was as fast as we could move without falling.
Or I noted with a chuckle, as fast as we could move with only sometimes falling. "You alright Gauge? Good! Now stand up, you are under fire, move move move!" I yelled into the mic. As I watched him clamber back to his feet. I took the time to consider what else I could do to push forward our training.
"Oh targets!" I muttered to myself as I considered how easy it would be to set up some targets at night with my Locust. "Alright. Keep moving!" I called out as I set myself back into my jog struggling through the sand that felt like it wanted to eat my Locust's ankles.