Broken Blade
Projective Fanfic
By: Projective Otaku
Chapter 2
Old Frying Pan, New Fire
"Ugh" I Said. At least I think I said. It was hard to tell while I was hacking up all the bio-fluid that had built up in my lungs. I wiped my mouth on my uniform sleeve, quite a feet in the cramped confines of my Ares-class Mech.
"System reboot complete, beginning post-sleep diagnosis." Ares said in her sweet, computer-generated monotone. It was weird. I always had pictured Ares, the Greek god of war, as the fat red guy from Hercules, but this was...
'No, I must focus.' I thought. It was always like this after carbon sleep. It messed with you concentration, and I couldn't quite get the hang of it yet. Ares snatched me out of my wandering thoughts.
"All systems nominal, beginning environmental sweep." She said, again in a disinterested monotone.
"That's odd" I muttered to myself as I brought up the crystal display screens in front of my. Even the most optimistic engineers predicted at least a ten percent systems failure. Just lucky I guess.
"Environmental sweep, incomplete. Obstructions." Ares said as I brought up my displays, all was dark. I was still inside the mountain.
"Initiate penetrating RADAR scan." I said "Locate the thinnest exterior wall." I hopped I could get out on my own.
"Initiating." She said. I could almost feel the pulses of radioactive energy she began to shoot into the rock around us. "The thinnest exterior wall is to the south." She claimed. " Four meters thick."
"Recommended extraction procedure?" I asked
"A direct hit from the 150mm cannon will destroy the wall whilst causing minimum damage to Ghost-1-1." She replied. Ghost-1-1 was our designation as a unit, we were the leader of 1st Platoon, Ghost Company.
"There wouldn't happen to be a more discreet method, eh, Ares?" I asked. Blowing out the wall like that would alert every one with a working set of eyes and ears within a hundred miles to know where we were.
"None, Captain." she stated.
'Damn' I thought. Well, if she insisted...
"Here it go's." I said. I held the barrel of the one-fifty in my right hand as I brought it to bare on the south wall. I fired.
The blast was devastating. Even inside the well-armored and isolated cockpit, my ears rang. Through view-screens in my helmet I saw light, sort of. A massive cloud of brownish-red dust was blocking my view of anything outside the hole. I emerged just as the dust began to settle. I viewed the landscape around me as Ares completed her environmental sweep. The landscape was very different from the Japan that I had been when I went underground, much less the Japan from before the war. The vast rock mesas and canyons more resembled the American South-West than the lush rice patties and sprawling forest of my memories. I became sad and was contemplating this when Ares spoke up.
"Unknown hostiles spotted." She said, immediately snapping me out of my funk. I took cover, and began to survey the scene below me. A lone beat-up grey-black mech was tied down. Like ants, light infantry were swarming over it, apparently trying to open it up. It was surrounded by fifteen or twenty white-red mechs in the clearing, probably more hiding in the small town only a few meters away. I didn't recognize any of the mech classes.
"Identify mechs." I ordered. "Black-Grey mech is of Japanese origin. Katana-class Melee Mech. Designed for urban warfare. White-red mechs: unknown." She replied. I knew what side I was on now. Japan was one of NATO's international allies, and a staunch supporter in the war against China. Also, the People's Liberation Army-Navy ground units preferred a white-red color scheme.
I loaded my 45mm heavy rifle with SABOT rounds in order to counteract any armor on the enemy mechs. I then began to pick out targets. It occurred to me that the Jap might want to know I was here to help. I switched on my comms and began to contact the captured mech.
"Allied mech, this is Captain Jacob Scott of the United States Marine Corps, do you copy? I have a lock on your assailants." I said over the comm-link.
"Mmmmmm" I heard.
'He must be unconscious.' I thought. Well, I guess he wouldn't mind if I saved him then, would he? I fired the forty-five three times in three seconds and felled three mechs. I fired an air-burst HEAT round from my one-fifty over the Jap mech, killing most of the light infantry and, to my surprise, ripping off the heads and shoulders of the mechs holding the Jap down.
"Agghhhh!" I heard over the comm. That one-fifty woke him up in a hurry.
"Get up and move!" I said into the comm, the seconds he lost screaming meant a lot in combat.
"Uh, uh, yea." He said, a little shook up. The Jap mech lept about fifty meters in the air, more than was necessary, but still effective.
"I'm located on the ridge of the mountain, twenty meters up and two hundred meters north. Hookup with me here." I said. Still firing at the Chink mechs, still destroying at least one with each shot.
"OK" He said, twisting in mid-air. He landed next to me, hard, sending shock waves up my battle-steel legs, throwing off my next shot. The half-meter long depleted uranium dart embedded itself in the ground next to a light infantryman, throwing him through the air like a child's doll.
"What's you status?" I said, regaining my balance. I resumed firing on the mechs below. The delay had been enough for the remainder of them to find cover in the town, so I began suppressing fire, making sure they all kept there heads down.
"I'm good, thanks for the assist, but who the hell are you?" He said, in a perfect English.
"I'm Captain Jacob Scott, 1st Battalion/5th Marines, United States Marine Corps." I said as I put a round through the neck of a mech that took to much of a liberty with my marksmanship.
"What's the United States?" The mech with a broken blade replied.
