Broken Blade
Projective Fanfic
By: Projective Otaku
Chapter 1
I hated Carbon Sleep. At Miramar we had to go into CS for a whole week. On top of the instructors, the PT, and the food, it was the worst part of Mecha training. I wasn't clear on how it worked, but it seeps into your bones. A chilling cold permeates your entire being, leaving you numb and bewildered. Some guys washed out simply because their bodies couldn't stand up to the stress of becoming a human popsicle. I passed it, but it was the single most unpleasant experience I had ever had, and I had been forced to do it again.
When we heard that the Chinks had shot off their nukes, every Allied soldier in war torn Japan had been ordered to take shelter in the massive underground military complexes scattered throughout the island. Being a Mech Pilot, I didn't exactly have that option. The base's hangar doors were massive, capable of taking a direct hit from a several megaton-range nuke. These mammoth maws of the earth took about thirty minutes to open and close fully. I didn't have thirty minutes. The Chink nukes would be here in less than five.
I was operating near Mount Fuji, scouting alone for some North Korean armor that was supposedly spotted in the vicinity. I didn't panic, which surprised me. Any rational person would panic when they learned that they were about to die in a nuclear holocaust. Unfortunately for me, they didn't teach Marine pilots to panic at the Academy, or at Pensacola, or at Miramar.
My training took over, if I was to survive, I needed to find cover, and fast. I found a nice sized hole in the side of the mountain, about twenty meters high and as many deep, to hide in. Plenty of room for my eighteen meter Mech. There were plenty of other nice sized holes, the mountain had been pounded by both sides in the fight for Tokyo, but this one had a rock overhang. I used my 150mm smooth bore cannon, mounted on my right shoulder, to knock it down, sealing myself in the bowels of the mountain. I activated my homing beacon, and began to prepare for carbon sleep. I fell unconscious just as the world I loved and had fought so hard for was consumed in radioactive fire.
