Wherever the Universe Takes Me
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 33
Storm Family Palace, Solaris City, Solaris VII
Lyran Commonwealth
December 23rd, 3052
Chen sat at the polished redwood table with his three fellow MechWarriors as Donovan Storm stood impatiently while two butlers finished setting up a portable vidscreen. Once they were done, Donovan snapped his fingers and pointed at the nearest door. The butlers made their exit.
"I have a major announcement to make," Donovan said, clapping his hands together. Tonight, he wore another one of his white suits, with a black shirt and electric blue tie. His clothes were a bit taut like usual, but this time, from apparent excitement rather than anger. "All the stable owners across Solaris have been informed of the Grand Games Tournament that is to be held next month, and it is my pleasure to outline it for the four of you."
Chen's ears perked up. A huge tournament? Maybe this would be his chance to prove himself and stop Donovan from breathing down his neck so much!
Donovan switched on the screen, and all kinds of charts and data showed up. "Henry, Xavier, Kathy, Chen, this tournament is structured into three phases, and only the top 200 stables on Solaris may enter MechWarriors. We are the 14th highest-rated stable, and I am entering all four of you."
It wasn't a question.
Donovan's chest swelled with pride. "I was among the first to know of this, MechWarriors, and I'll be damned if you disappoint me! Justin Allard's ghost can kiss the ass of anyone who takes first! And it's going to be one of you."
He gave Henry Laxus a demanding glare, then shifted it to Xavier Chidori, then to Kathy, and finally, to Chen. Donovan's molten glare sent a chill down Chen's spine, with mingled dread and glee. What a feeling.
Xavier motioned at the screen. "I will work backwards. The final phase is the top sixteen, and there are substantial prizes for all MechWarriors who get that far. It's single elimination, for four rounds of dueling action. But to get a slot in the top sixteen, any given MechWarrior must enter and win a miniature single-elimination tournament of eight warriors. Think of it as tryouts."
Henry whistled. "Hell of a tournament, boss. You have to win just to get a shot at winnin'."
"That's 128 entrants," Xavier noted, his arms folded, his dark eyes fixed on the screen. "Fewer than one per stable. What is the first phase like?"
Henry humphed. "Be patient, Xavier. I was about to explain." He shifted the screen to a new image. "That's a total of sixteen eight-man tournaments, and to get into one of those, you must win one of the 128 eight-man free-for-all melee events, no holds barred. So! You win a free-for-all scrapfest, get into and win one of the sixteen eight-man tournaments, then enter the elite top sixteen for the final competition."
Kathy glanced up for a second. "Sixteen times eight times eight... that's 1,024 entrants!"
Henry slapped a hand on the table. "I like it! We'll weed out the chaff damn quick. And Thunder Blast will shoot straight for the top."
Donovan punched his open palm and pointed right at Henry. "Damn straight! I assure you, if any of you four fail to qualify for the second phase, you'll regret being born. And you definitely want to get into the top sixteen. I won't allow Bronze Dao or the other top stables to make fools of me!"
Chen raised his hand. "If I may?"
Donovan grunted. "What is it, Chen? Or Scrappy, as they call you?"
"To my knowledge, Solaris VII never hosted a tournament of this scale before. What inspired this mega-event?"
Donovan grinned tightly. "It's to celebrate the first full year of what they're calling the 'truce of Tukayyid.' I don't give a damn what those Clan bastards are doing in their occupation zones, though. The Wolves and Jade Falcons never got anywhere close to our part of space. But forget them! 3053 will be the year of Thunder Blast's triumph... and you four are going to make it happen."
He gave each of them that death glare again. Xavier gave no response, Kathy looked eager, and Henry made a bloodthirsty expression just like his boss's. Chen tried to keep his face neutral, and apparently failed.
"I'll have my eye on you in particular, Scrappy," Donovan said, towering over Chen with a nasty leer on his face. "Based on the last few months, you're the weakest of my elite four. It seems you've hit a wall and you haven't unlearned your old battlefield habits. But Kathy got used to Solaris fighting, and I've got high hopes for her. Better catch up. Understood?"
Chen stiffened his back and tried not to glance at the other three warriors. "Of course."
"This is your last chance." Donovan actually poked a finger in Chen's belly. His face was now awfully close. "You were a Death Commando tryout! You survived the destruction of Jackson's Werewolves and fought those Clan invaders. You were gifted a whole BattleMech as thanks for fighting in FRR space. But you can't win one arena match?"
It was true; Chen had taken second and third place in many of his bouts, but never first. Kathy had scored first twice, and Henry and Xavier were doing even better.
"3053 will be my year, too," Chen heard himself say.
Donovan took a step back and boomed with laughter. "I like it! Right, you louts better hit the simpods, because the tournament starts on New Year's Day. Don't you fucking dare get drunk or high partying the night before, or you'll find out what the lowest basement levels of this mansion are for."
"Tip-top shape. Got it," Kathy said.
Henry snorted. "Sorry, party girl, but you'll have to cut yourself off just this once."
Kathy gently slapped Henry's shoulder. "Just try to make it into the top sixteen with me, big guy."
"That's enough chit-chat," Donovan cut in. "You four are dismissed. Chen, Kathy, I'll have my men forward a copy of the full ruleset and tournament structure to your friend Peter. He's got a hell of a mind for these things."
"He'll be happy to help," Kathy said brightly.
"Great. Now get out."
*o*o*o*o*
Mac knew this was coming. That didn't mean he was ready.
"It was rigged! Goddamn rigged!" the restrained MechWarrior shouted in Punishment Room #7, in the second basement level of the Storm family palace.
"No, it wasn't rigged," Donovan snapped, his brawny arms folded as he contemplated the MechWarrior before him. "You're just a piece of trash, Garj. I should have known."
Mac wanted to look away, but knew better than to try. His father had just finished his briefing the top four MechWarriors on the Grand Games Tournament, and now, it was time for business that those MechWarriors weren't supposed to see. There were a lot of things around here Donovan's MechWarriors didn't see.
"I can fix this!" Garj cried, straining against the chair's ropes, his eyes crazed. "My Centurion isn't that banged up. I can be back in the arena next week and -"
"Your Centurion will be melted down for scrap to hide your embarrassing failure!" Donovan roared. "Mac!"
That was his cue, and if he didn't comply, he'd be next. Mac accepted a pistol from one of the guards, drew his arm back, and swiped it across Garj's face in a savage arc.
Garj's head snapped to the side, blood blasting from his injured nose. He spat out a bit more blood. "You hit like a fucking pussy, little boy. You still piss the bed at night?"
"Mac," Donovan growled. "He just insulted you."
Mac took no offense whatsoever to what Garj had just said. Anyone in his unenviable position would start panicking and lashing out. But that changed nothing.
So, Mac slammed the butt of the pistol into Garj's mouth, and he felt four teeth give way. Garj winced and jolted in his restraints, and his face was going white by now.
"You disgrace the Thunder Blast name with your pathetic record," Donovan recited as he stepped forward a few paces. "You make nonsense excuses and blame others. You have the gall to assume you should go back in the arena. And you slander my son, the heir to this esteemed family! Do you realize how deep a grave you've dug for yourself?"
Garj spat out those broken teeth, blood dribbling down his chin. "That's... that's literal, ain't it? Quit screwing around, boss."
"Mac," Donovan prompted him again.
Mac seized a handful of hair and, wishing Donovan was in Garj's place, harshly yanked Garj's head back as far as it could go, and then some. Any moment now, he'd start tearing hear free from that scalp.
"Look at this," Donovan commented, tapping a knife on Garj's throat. "All those idiotic words of yours come from one tube of flesh. It's so easy to shut people up when you cut it. Human rhetoric is the most powerful force in the Inner Sphere, but it all comes from just one hole. Incredible, isn't it?"
Garj huffed wetly, but he didn't respond.
"Mac," Donovan told his son. "Do you think Garj deserves the knife?"
Mac slowly lowered gaze and felt his own throat burn with bile. "N..."
"Speak up," Donovan barked.
"N... no."
"No? You are sure?"
Mac was certain his father deserved the knife instead. He gave Garj another look. "I'm sure, Father."
"Does he deserve your mother's cocktails?"
Absolutely nobody in the Inner Sphere did. "No."
"Hmmmmm... that is an interesting choice, Mac," Donovan observed. "No blade, no poison... not even a bullet. Garj is not worth any of that. Do you know why?"
Mac could guess. He had to will himself to respond. "Yes, Father."
"Then get on with it, and we may review your Greek lessons upstairs before it is time for bed."
Mac had homework, and Garj had... this. It was as Mac told all his friends in the gang, and it was as he wished he could shout from the rooftops: this world is wrong.
Garj's breathing froze up when Mac secured his hands around the man's throat and squeezed with an iron grip. The failed 'Mech jock spasmed as Mac gripped tighter, and the man went blue in the face as he lost oxygen. Mac shut his eyes and prayed to whatever nonexistent god was listening for forgiveness, and he didn't open them until he felt Garj go totally still. He felt his father's hands on his shoulders.
"You did a fine job, my son," he said as two guards untied the deceased Garj and dragged the body off. "Failures learn lessons, and winners earn their place in my hall of fame."
"Y... yes, Father."
"Garj's blood is not on your hands."
"Yes, Father."
"Your mother and I are somewhat worried, however. You continue to hesitate and falter in your duties. That must stop."
"Yes, Father."
"If my elite four do not make it to the top of the Grand Games Tournament, you will get another chance to prove your Storm worthiness on them. Henry, Xavier, Kathy, Chen... they might be in the next chair. You understand that?"
"I..."
Donovan's hands tightened somewhat. "I asked you a question."
"Yes, Father." Mac had to tear the words from his own mouth.
Donovan's hands let go, and he patted the boy's head. "Wonderful. Get upstairs. Your mother wants to see how much Plato you can recite. I would like to hear it, too."
"Yes, Father."
*o*o*o*o*
BattleMech Hangar, Silesia, Solaris City, Solaris VII
Lyran Commonwealth
January 1st, 3053
"Are you ready?" one of the technicians asked Chen.
"Just about." Chen fitted on his cooling jacket and picked up his noteputer. He typed a message into the chat with Henry, Xavier, and Kathy. About to fight my match. See you in the second phase!
Xavier didn't respond, but Henry responded with Make me proud, Scrappy and Kathy responded with some tantalizing bedroom talk if Chen impressed her today. Grinning to himself, Chen stowed the noteputer in his locker, climbed the scaffolding, and hopped into his Black Knight's waiting cockpit.
Here goes nothing! Chen felt his heart racing as he trotted through the hangar, up a wide ramp, and into the waiting Roman-inspired battle arena. He was greeted with a hell of a sight: around the rim of this massive structure waved huge flags of every Inner Sphere nation, and Chen spotted the green and black House Liao flag between the House Marik and St. Ives Compact flags. Meanwhile, all kinds of fireworks were going off, and a number of zeppelins hovered over the arena with advertisements on their display screens.
This was just one of 128 different free-for-all matches being fought in the Grand Games Tournament's first phase, and across Solaris City, five similar matches were behind held for today. The Grand Games Tournament's next phase wouldn't even start until February!
Chen stood at his appointed spot, noting the terrain. Thick but damaged columns broke up the arena here and there, and aside from that, it was an open space where there was no cover for tricks or traps. The winner here would make it to an eight-player single-elimination tournament, one of sixteen such events to be held in the second phase. Damn, this Grand Games gig was huge.
The horn went off.
"Already, huh?" Chen muttered as a cluster of LRMs came racing his way. He saw who had fired them: a heavily modified Cataphract painted pink and white, the 'Mech closest to his left. Fifteen missiles arced through the air, and Chen slammed his foot on the pedal to break into a mad sprint. He sharply changed the angle of his sprint at the last moment to confuse the missiles, and it worked: only four of them hit, chewing a bit of armor from his left arm.
Autocannons, missiles, and lasers flew every which way, and Chen recognized the logos on the 'Mechs that were busy slaughtering each other. Many of Thunder Blast's most bitter rivals were here, including that Cataphract, which hailed from the Crimson Demons stable. Or that Bandersnatch, which belonged to the Metal Magic stable. Donovan would skin Chen alive if he lost to any of them!
But first, that flesh-hungry Cataphract. Chen angled after it and kept running, his crosshairs fixed on the oddly-shaped Capellan machine. Did it have the advanced weapons typical of these arenas, like pulse lasers or ultra autocannons? Chen, for his part, kept things simple with his Black Knight and sheer skill, but damn, pulse lasers were scarily accurate...
Chen got a lock and fired his PPC to test out his opponent. He scored a hit; the azure beam smashed into the Cataphract's right torso and burned a dark crater into the armor. Unfazed, the Cataphract extended its left arm's gun pod and spat out a large pulse laser.
Another one! Everyone here is nuts about pulse lasers. Chen tried to dodge, but the pulse laser wasn't thrown off so easily. The cruel beam vaporized armor from Chen's Black Knight's right thigh, and his 75-ton 'Mech wobbled from the awkward loss of mass.
That was the Cataphract pilot's chance to strike. The MechWarrior fired an ER PPC from their right gun pod, and the beam scoured armor from the Black Knight's left torso at a rapid rate. If that weren't enough, the enemy MechWarrior pushed their heat to the limit by firing their LRM launcher again. Fifteen warheads emerged from the 'Mech's left torso, and all but three peppered Chen's 'Mech all over.
Chen narrowed his eyes as he watched the pink and white Cataphract back up a few steps, smoke still wafting from its LRM 15 launcher. That pilot's machine was nice and hot by now, though the LRM launcher was the least heat-intensive weapon it had. If Chen hit back hard enough, that Cataphract's pilot would surely respond with more missiles.
This is no time to hesitate!
So, Chen broke into a zig-zag run despite his awkward loss of armor, and he fired his PPC again, hitting the same spot as last time. The beam chewed its way deep into the Cataphract's torso, and now that he was close enough, Chen added three medium lasers to the mix. His heat gauge crept up to the orange range, but in return, he scored big at last.
Yes! Chen's lasers cut right into the Catphract's torso and blasted apart its heat sinks, blowing up at least two of them. With those hot energy weapons and an LRM 15 launcher in the left torso, that 'Mech was probably stowing its heat sinks in the right torso, and indeed it was. The Cataphract stumbled back, and it fired that LRM 15 once again. This time, Chen was ready; he evaded the missiles with some fancy footwork, and fed two more medium lasers into the enemy 'Mech's ragged right torso. To his pleasant surprise, he actually hit another heat sink.
That didn't dissuade the other pilot, though, who aimed the left gun pod at Chen's Black Knight and fired that vicious large pulse laser. Like Chen, the Cataphract's pilot wanted to focus on wounded spots on its enemy, to breach the armor ASAP. In this case, Chen's Black Knight's right thigh took some serious damage, and one more ER PPC or large pulse laser would breach the armor and break the titanium bones inside. If Chen lost his mobility in an arena like this, he'd be dead meat in no time. He would have no chance to limp off into cover and set up an ambush; in a colosseum like this, there was no room for such trickery.
The Cataphract's pilot tapped into the comm. "You're good," came a young woman's cheery voice. "Going for my heat sinks... how'd you know I'm running doubles?"
"Double heat sinks?" Chen blurted out. He kept forgetting that Solaris jocks often had access to the best Star League-era tech out there. Now, in the early 3050s, the dark ages were over, and toys like double heat sinks, XL engines, pulse lasers, and ultra autocannons were commonplace once again. This ain't the 3030s anymore, Chen, he chided himself. Catch up!
Chen had taken out three of the Cataphract's double heat sinks, so that ER PPC would be too hot for the pilot to keep firing. But that large pulse laser was so accurate, it was worth the heat buildup, and that LRM 15 launcher was relatively low-heat when firing. Should Chen get in close to nullify that LRM launcher? But at such a close range, the Cataphract's pilot could hit Chen's Black Knight with that pulse laser even if she were blindfolded!
Damn pulse lasers.
Chen steeled himself for the worst and charged in. He was sure that the Cataphract's pilot had stashed her other heat sinks in her legs and inside the engine to keep them all from getting destroyed, so Chen couldn't count on taking them all out in a duel. But he could wear her out!
A large laser was Chen's first shot, and he narrowly missed as the Cataphract pilot got moving and slipped to Chen's left. She fired back with that LRM 15 launcher again, but as Chen had hoped, the LRMs were awkward at such a close range, and a mere two of them hit Chen's Black Knight. He retorted with twin medium lasers that cut glowing scars across his enemy's chest.
Again and again Chen tried to bait the Cataphract pilot into firing back with her ultra-hot energy weapons and overheat, but she wasn't biting. Damn it, what was she waiting for? She couldn't win with that LRM 15 launcher alone, and Chen was starting to score some serious hits. Anytime now -
Then he got his answer. That Bandersnatch intervened, and Chen altered course at once. He ducked behind a pillar just as the Bandersnatch fired one of its LB-10X autocannons, and the cluster rounds pounded the column without mercy.
"See you, Black Knight!" the Cataphract pilot taunted him as she sprinted off toward the arena's other side.
Chen cursed under his breath. So much for the heat-based battle of attrition! This Bandersnatch barely had a dent on it.
"You, in the Black Knight," the Bandersnatch's pilot said smugly. "Not bad fighting that Crimson Demons lackey. But now you're up against the Metal Magic stable. We're ranked #11, you know. Thunder Blast isn't gonna make it to the second phase. Want to see why?"
Chen didn't care that much about inter-stable politics and rivalries, but he was motivated to impress Donovan and avoid the man's wrath. A small part of him wondered whether his biggest enemies lurked outside the Thunder Blast stable... or within it. "I'll take that challenge. No promises on honor, though."
"Keep your honor. I already took out a 'Mech, no sweat. You'll be my second. Then I'm winning this."
Chen was certain that the Crimson Demons, Metal Magic, Passione, and Star Knights stables (some of Thunder Blast's biggest rivals) had all entered five MechWarriors into the Grand Games to maximize their odds of getting someone in the top sixteen in the third phase. Even if Chen took this goon out, he'd probably face another Metal Magic jockey in the second phase. That stable's owner, Roy Blackwater, was known for having an eye for talent.
But so was Donovan Storm.
"You want a fight, you'll get one," Chen said as he emerged from cover. "Show me what you can do."