BLAZING ACES CHRONICLES
A Battletech Story by RougeBaron
Author's Note:
When I first got myself into writing Battletech stories, some 10 – 15 years ago, I started with this piece about the descendant of Gideon Braver Vandenberg trying to rebuild the Blazing Aces. My writing was terrible back then to the point I was ashamed to read it again, but there are some interesting plots in it. I decided to resurrect this piece with a lot of revisions and rearrangement to make it readable by my own standard. However I still maintain some of my old writings, just to remind myself of how long I have come.
So you'll see some goofy writings interspersed with graphic violence, gore, and sheer grossness that you're familiar with from my other stories.
I hope everybody enjoys this.
Battletech / Mechwarrior is copyright of FASA, Wizkids, Topps, Smith and Tinker, Infocom, ActiVision, Microprose, and Micro$oft Entertainment.
All rights reserved.
PROLOGUE
Kaesong, Draconis Combine,
December 21, 3051
A massive jar in the cockpit enlivened Duke Gideon Vandenberg from his trance, robbing him from death he so yearningly expected.
Gideon didn't understand this. His enemies were just four Griffins and a Phoenix Hawk. Big deal. His two lances consisted of medium to heavy battlemechs. He had number advantage. He had tonnage advantage. He held the higher ground. And he had the element of surprise. He led his two lances to jump-attack the five unidentified battlemechs, unaware of his position. He thought the battle would be over in minutes.
But these five mechs fought like nothing he had ever seen before. The Griffins moved as fast as a Wasp, hit as hard as a Crusader, with precision sharper than a razorblade, often from impossible range. And the Phoenix Hawk – a mech he intimately knew since he was piloting one – carried two, count that TWO, 10-class Autocannons. How could a 45-ton mech carry TWO Autocannon-10? Gideon didn't know the answer. His eyes saw things his brain refused to compute. His two lances were quickly reduced to scrap metal, leaving him as the sole survivor against these monsters.
Who are these guys? Free World? Davion? Steiner? The Mariks had been quite advanced technologically, but what were they doing this far from their territory? The Steiners and Davions should be content with worlds they robbed from the Kuritans during the 3039 War, so they wouldn't venture this far off. Pirates? No pirate bands had this much technological marvel.
A stream of missile from one Griffin smote Gideon's Phoenix Hawk dead center, eviscerating the 45-ton mech. The cockpit caved in, crunching his left leg, snapping his femur into three parts. Gideon was too weak to scream. His Phoenix Hawk had been mangled from all directions, crushing his body under the mangled cockpit.
As the Griffin moved in for the kill, Gideon's blood-smeared monitor miraculously flickered to life. A lance of medium to heavy mechs rushed toward his position. His comset crackled weakly, "All unit, this is Captain Jason Youngblood, Crescent Hawks. Anybody hear me? Blazing Aces, do you read?"
Jason Youngblood. Gideon had heard of Katrina's child prodigy from the world of Chara III. He was the thorn in Kurita's flesh, breaking through the thickets of Draconis defense on various occasions. But it wouldn't matter now. The golden boy couldn't save him.
"This is Gideon Braver Vandenberg, Blazing Aces," Gideon picked up his comset. "You're too late. The Aces is destroyed. I've taken precautions, hidden the mechs. Tell Maria... rebuild the Aces. She'll know what to do."
Gideon didn't have a chance to hear Jason's response. The Griffin's missiles hammered through the 'Hawk's torso, tearing the reactor apart. The last thing he saw was a great white light.