Irvine: The story of a Maverick.

Chapter 1: Painful Beginnings

Irvine was now in his late thirties and retiring after a decade and a half of service in the Guardian Force. Later today would be the ceremony in which he would be presented with the Imperial Star and the Helic Cross, medals that would represent his years in service of both governments, becoming the first mercenary to ever win both.

He looked back fondly on his years as a zoid pilot- sure, it hadn't always been plain sailing, there'd been so many ups and downs throughout his career that at one point he'd stopped noticing them...but that had been before he'd met Van, now his closest friend and comrade, and perhaps the one person living who could outfight him in a zoid battle.

He remembered it like it had been only yesterday, his enthusiasm as he joined up to serve in the Republican army only two weeks after his sixteenth birthday...

Flashback

He rounded the corner, suddenly the recruitment office was before him and a grin shone on his as yet unweathered face. He walked straight inside, a spring in his step, no, more than one spring in his step if that were possible, as he walked straight to the reception desk.

"And how can I help you?" asked the bespectacled army clerk who sat at the desk, more time on his hands than was good for him it seemed as he peered up from his crossword.

"I'd like to join the army, sir," came the reply of the youthful Irvine, tinged with barely concealed enthusiasm.

"And why do you want to join the army?" came the clerk's response.

"I want to pilot a zoid," was Irvine's truthful and exuberant reply.

End Flashback

He had then been shepherded through to the office of the Lieutenant who was in charge of this recruiting office, where he was interviewed, given forms to fill in, and put through various examinations including a full medical, fitness exams, hand-eye coordination tests, and too many others to describe, all the while the Lieutenant and his staff watched, surprise on their faces as he pulled through test after test, scarcely batting an eye as they forced him to the limits of his endurance, and occasionally beyond.

Soon after, he was transferred to an army training facility on the foothills of Mount Lupin, where his zoid training began. Very soon, under the experienced eye of his drill sergeant, he was practising the use of an old, battered Command Wolf, whose body was covered in spots of rust, and whose cockpit canopy was cracked in places, whose weapons had been removed and which was generally in a bad condition.

Irvine, however, did not get on at all well with the commander of the training facility, Captain Jonah Marshall, who was the sort of man that spends as little of his budget as possible on actually doing his job, as Irvine was soon to discover.

Yes, that night, while Irvine was in the facility's zoid hangar, performing a little maintenance on the training Command Wolf, the Captain ordered an early lights out, two hours before the usual. Huh, Irvine thought to himself, glancing at his watch, that was two hours early. Ah, well, he thought, he'd just finish this bit and then turn in, what could the worst be that would happen to one of the base's most promising zoid pilots, and so he continued working, even in the darkened hangar.

Once finished, he left the hangar surreptitiously, remaining in the shadows on his way back to his billet. However, who should be blocking his path but the Captain and three civilians that he didn't recognise- he stayed where he was, trying to merge further back into the shadows so as not to be noticed.

Then, he heard what the captain and his guests were talking about...

"The first shipment of replacement zoids should be arriving here tomorrow," the Captain told the three men, "if you ambush the shipment and hand me the money for them, you can have the zoids on board, as per our usual arrangement."

Irvine stiffened with rage, the captain, an accomplished zoid pilot, was planning to sell the base's latest shipment of new training zoids to some group of bandits. Irvine knew what he had to do, and it was not going to be trying to kill the captain and his contacts now with his bare hands. Silently he waited as the four of them walked on, then returned to the zoid hangar, where he spent the rest of the night in hiding.

The next morning, at dawn, he awoke, and began the work that he had set himself for the day, that of bringing down the Captain who had decided to sell out his own facility for the chance at a quick bit of money. He looked at the zoids that occupied the hangar, weighing up which would be best to use in this battle- quickly he decided against using the Gunsniper, Godos or Guysack- probably the Gorhecks wasn't a good idea given how few weapons they were outfitted with (out of those they would normally be equipped with), then, in the corner of the hangar he saw the Captain's personal zoid, a standard model Command Wolf which had been upgraded by the addition of a few smoke dischargers. This zoid, with the captain's insistence that it be fully supplied with live ammunition, would probably be the best chance he had against anything the bandits used against the convoy, and thus, his decision made, he sprang up the front leg of the zoid, easing his body into its cockpit just as the captain entered the hangar.

"Hey, get out of my zoid now, cadet," the captain growled, his voice thick with irritation.

"I think not, traitor," Irvine spat in reply, "yes, sir I know all about your deal with bandits to sell the replacement zoids that we're supposed to be receiving."

"Guards," the Captain sputtered, "arrest that man immediately, he must be delusional!"

"Just try it," Irvine replied, his voice laden with anticipation as he lowered the cockpit canopy of the Command Wolf, activating both the Wolf and its weapons systems, which he brought to bear on the captain, "one false move and the captain gets a shot from his own Command Wolf straight through the head!"

The guards froze, not trusting Irvine's accusations and wanting to protect the life of their commander rather than have an unsightly reprimand on their records...Apart from one guard who had slipped behind the Command Wolf, who carefully crept forwards, being careful and quiet, even as he began to climb the footholds in the front leg of the Command Wolf, until he suddenly sprang forward to land on the head of the Wolf, at which point Irvine's reflexes, already fast, kicked in, and he jammed his finger down on the trigger, placing a shot through the neck of the Captain, turning away at the sight of the blood that shot from the wound.

Then, shaking the guard off the head of what was now his Command Wolf, he sprang from the hangar, taking it in easy steps at first as he adjusted to the weighting and balance of a real Command Wolf, where the training model had possessed little more than stripped down weapons and no ammunition to weigh it down.

But, as the security squads of the base mobilised the Gorhecks and Godos units that provided the majority of their firepower, he accelerated into a run, confident that he must save the shipment at the very least if he was to keep his reputation.

Running as fast as his Command Wolf would allow, Irvine hunted high and low for the supply convoy that he had vowed to protect at all costs, finally finding it, already under attack by the bandits, in the middle of a rocky chasm, the three Gorhecks' and one Aro Saurer that remained of its escort struggling against the unmarked Guysacks, Molgas and Rev Raptors that had waylaid them. With reckless abandon and a howl of enthusiasm that had not yet been diminished, Irvine charged his Command Wolf into the battle, firing wildly at a line of Guysacks which were attacking the Aro Saurer at close range- most of them fell under the onslaught, but Irvine tried to focus on the battle in hand, turning his twin 50mm cannons on Molga, Rev Raptor and Guysack alike as the battle raged around him, until finally none of the zoids he had seen remained, and the twin unmarked Gordos' of the bandit chief and his Lieutenant appeared, firing barrages from their heavy cannons as they advanced on the six Gustavs that made up the convoy, all of which were unarmed and laden with zoids and spare parts to the point that they did not possess the speed to escape from even such a slow zoid as the Gordos. Seizing the advantage, Irvine charged forward along the side of the chasm, his zoid tilted through 45 degrees onto its side as he ran, only his momentum keeping his zoid upright, and then, finally, he span, turning his guns on the back-mounted spines of the Gordos' as he slammed his finger almost through the trigger of the Command Wolf, watching as the back plating of the first Gordos was torn apart under his guns. Now, having disabled the sensors of both Gordos' he kept moving, refusing to allow the heavy weapons of the Gordos the chance of a solid target lock as he darted back and forth, round and round, occasionally letting loose a salvo of shots as he brought his weapons to bear- However, now that the vulnerable sensor spines of the Gordos' had gone, his guns met with thicker plates of armour that were barely dented by the weak gunnery of his Command Wolf, however, as the two zoids, having finished off all but one Gorhecks of the convoy's escort, now turned, facing inwards at the Wolf that continued to plague them- what a rookie mistake, Irvine thought, stopping his zoid directly between them. The two Gordos' brought their cannons to bear, wanting not so much to immobilise the Command Wolf as to reduce it to scrap metal, but as they fired, Irvine and the Command Wolf sprang from between the two, allowing their shots to hit one another, destroying both Gordos', although it appeared that both zoids had functional ejector seats, so he would see their pilots again sometime, maybe.

For now, he concentrated on escorting the convoy to the base, conversing with the Gorhecks pilot who was the last man standing of the original escort.

Suddenly, the Gorhecks pilot, who had been listening to updates on the Republic's secure update frequency said, "dude, I think you'd better make yourself scarce and lie low for a while, regional headquarters has just issued a bulletin telling everyone to watch out for a rogue army cadet in a Command Wolf, presumed dangerous- killed a base commander- if that's you, dude, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now because you saved my life back there, but you'd better disappear, and fast, according to my map the base is just around this corner."

And with that, Irvine turned his Command Wolf and ran the other way, conscious that although he had become a zoid pilot, his chance of a career in the republican army had just gone up in flames.

Okay, this is Mercenary Pen here, I thought it was about time that someone tried to account for Irvine's past before he met up with Van Flyheit- and so that's exactly what I'm trying to do- as usual, your input would be most welcome, so Read and Review folks.

MP signing off.