Here Without You, Baby

Chapter Four: Rogues

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

Note: this chapter spans about six to eight months from when the group first landed on Zi (last chapter). It starts two hours after they first entered Zi's atmosphere.

~

[Two hours after start of operation Meteora]

            A gleaming silver point streamed across the desert, headed to a big green mass. The big green mass had patches or yellow and red, and long black lines reached for the sky. As the silver bullet closed the distance between it and the green patch, something invisible stole away high in the air.

            "Delta Squadron was taken down in the Inner Forest. Our orders are to bail out any survivors," said the captain as the twin-engine Thrust Master made its way to the forest. "We have been warned that there may still be hostiles in the area, so be careful."

            The troop transport reached the forest entrance and slowly landed onto a clearing nearby. The troops stepped out of the vehicle and activated their CORE modules, initiating their scout mode. They ignited their jetpacks and shot into the maze that was the forest.

            "Marlene!" the commander beckoned before she was out of radio range.

            "Yes Commander?"

            "Try not to shoot our guys this time?"

            "Sure, Commander," the blonde haired young lady said, corkscrewing into darkness.

            Damn that Marlene…I would court martial her by now if she wasn't so good.

            Marlene was feeling very giddy that day. She spun, did loop de loops and other acrobatic movements. She loved to fly, that's the only reason she was part of the HES corps. True, she was the best her school had to offer, but she didn't really like the military. She liked… watermelons. Big, juicy watermelons. Especially the ones with the seeds still in them, since they were usually sweeter then the ones without seeds. She didn't know why, but that didn't matter. As long as she had her big slices of Swiss Cheese. Large white slices with big holes in them.

            It seemed like coincidence that she saw it. The parachute, I mean. It was tangled up in the trees, large holes all over it. She slowly approached it, scanning it for hostiles. All she found was a pilot suspended in the air by the parachutes lines. Her computer couldn't register if it was hostile or friendly since his face was turned away from her, but she could tell he needed help. She burned a little more with her attitude jets and hovered right below him.

            "Hey, you still alive?" Marlene asked poking his back. She was hoping that the wounds on his head would have killed him. Then she could go back to flying. And fantasizing about watermelons and Swiss Cheese.

            "Ugh…"

            Damn…she thought. Now I can't fly anymore. But I could just leave him here, pretend I didn't see him. Suddenly, a branch broke and he fell down, repositioned so that he was suspended right in front of her. A hole in the foliage happened to let the sunlight filter through so she could see his face clearly. Subject not hostile. Her tactical computer responded. His eyes fluttered open.

            Ba-dump

            "Hello," he said casually.

            "Hello," she said back. As if meeting a person suspended in the air by parachute lines and hovering in front of them with an HES on was normal. What's going on?

            "Who are you?"

            Ba-dump

            "My name is Marlene, what's yours?" she asked curiously. Why do I feel so weird all of a sudden?

            "My name is Victor," he said. His eye color was fluctuating between the aquamarine of a Class 4 HES and the green of his own eyes. The fluctuating quickly lessened and they remained green. His eyelids fluttered for a few seconds, and he locked eyes with her for a moment. Then he passed out.

~

            Joanna had located a lot of radio traffic somewhere in the far northwest. At first she didn't think much of it, but her intelligence showed her that there was a lot of movement of people and supplies going to and from a certain facility in that general direction. So she devised a mission to see what was going on there.

            It would be simple, the X would drop a HEV near the facility to provide line of sight. Then the X would fly around taking pictures. Of course the use of a HEV would get them caught in a short amount of time, so it would be a flash op. Mark would fly the X as usual and Catherine would pilot the Liger X. Joanna would stay in the X and process the pictures as they were taken to asses the importance of the facility.

            The operation started at 0100 hours. Mark made a clean drop off and Catherine successfully hid from the enemy. She engaged her laser-sight and waited for the mission to end. At 0115 hours, the X was at low flight altitude and taking enhanced night images. At 0125 hours, the laser sight was spotted and Catherine was being chased after.

            The defenders were like nothing they expected. A whole regiment of Kodiaks. Before Catherine could radio in her situation, she was hit by a NARC beacon and all the Kodiaks were locked onto her. She ran. Ran like hell. The Kodiaks fired volley after volley of Swarm LRM missiles, making potholes wherever they landed; including on the Liger. They also fired shell after shell from their autocannons and melted slabs of her armor off with their deadly assortment of lasers. Finally, one of the Kodiaks, a red one, fired ball after blue ball of PPC emissions at her.

            Her comms were out, but Mark could tell that the Terrans had found Catherine once he could see the fireworks groundside. It was gruesome. Energy and light from a 200-meter wide formation was concentrating on a single point, Catherine and the Liger X. Mark told Joanna to strap in and activated the shields. He locked onto as many Kodiaks as he could, and fired all the weapons simultaneously.

            The cloak went down and the base got them on radar. Underground AA batteries popped out and fired at the X. But Mark had done all he had to. He distracted the Kodiak regiment enough for Catherine to make substantial distance as they fired on the X. He struggled to stay out of the base's and Kodiaks line of fire and finally landed at the extract, bay doors already open. Catherine jumped in just as Mark touched off. And not too soon. A spilt second later, four PPC emissions and seven Gauss rifle slugs converged where he had landed. He quickly reactivated the cloak and flew away as quickly as he could.

            When they reached their base of operations, Mark just landed. Seymour and James rushed outside with 'tuggers' (small vehicles that moved disabled aircraft) and forced the X onto the landing pad. When the X was secured on the pad, the platform went underground into the repair bay of the dropship.

            "Since when did they have that much firepower?" Mark demanded.

            "They've always had it Mark," Catherine said, "just not so concentrated."

            "I can't believe what you did to her!" Seymour accused. The X was missing a rear dorsal fin and one of its boosters was mangled.

            "No wonder I was tilting so much," Mark said.

            "You could've blown the engine apart if you left it on anymo- NO!" Seymour saw the Liger X. all its rear armor had evaporated and there was a big holed where the NARC beacon had been deployed. Many of the joint actuators were slag. The control panel was covered with red lights. "What the hell did you guys fight, an army?!"

            "Kinda," Catherine said, downing a bottle of water that Renee brought in. "But I wonder, why did they have such a strong defense there?"

            "This is why," Joanna said, showing the people present a picture she had just developed.

            "Oh my god…" Catherine said.

            "How… how horrible," Seymour said.

            "Damn," Mark said.

            "Who runs this- this thing?!" Catherine said angrily.

            "It has to be the Viceroy of this planet, Viceroy Johnson McAllister," Joanna said.
"Everything that happens here is under his jurisdiction. And this is something only someone like him could be able to pull off."

~

            The downed pilot had regained consciousness a few hours ago. The Commander ordered Marlene to see him. Which was odd because she was just about to ask him if she could. Wasn't life funny?

            Marlene had a pretty good life, and never had to go to the hospital, for herself or because of anyone else. The waiting room seemed as normal as and other public room. But the hospital itself was very strange. The smells were the first thing to stand out. Marlene thought that it would smell dirty. But it smelled really clean, as a sterile environment usually smells. The lighting was very different too. She thought that hospitals were depressing places, but the bright lights changed her mind. When she finally arrived in Victors room, her views of hospitals had completely changed.

            "Hello," she said, handing him some flowers. She found a chair and sat next to him.

            "Thank you," he said and plucked a petal. He looked at it hesitantly and started munching on it. "Do you want some?" he offered.

            She giggled.

            "No. Flowers are for smelling, silly. You don't eat them"

            "Oh, that's good to hear. They don't taste that good."

            "Here," she said, and gave him a lollipop. He smelled it. "You're very funny," she said, and put her elbows at the edge of the bed and supported her head with her hands as she leaned forward. She stared into his green eyes for a few minutes, enchanted by their mystery. She couldn't stop a big goofy smile to appear on her face, which the pilot tried to imitate. This only caused her to smile more.

            "Captain said that you're going to be my partner from now on."

            "Who's the captain?"

            "He's kinda like my boss," Marlene said.

            "Is he my boss too?"

            "We don't really know. But we're pretty sure that you were one of the Zabat pilots that were attacked. If you really were, your boss died," she said, her giddy smile still on her face.

            "That sucks."

            "Hey, the doctors said that you can leave in a few days. All your wounds have healed, so if you pass the mental tests you can meet the team as soon as tomorrow."

            "I love you," Victor suddenly said.

            Ba-dump

            "Huh?"

            "I don't know. That just slipped out for some reason. I think you remind me of someone," he said absentmindedly.

            "Oh," she said. "Well, I have a city to slaughter, so I'll see you later," she quickly said and left the room.

            "Good bye, Cream Cheese," Victor waved goodbye.

            Marlene walked away as quickly as she could. The Commander must have fixed me somehow. I'm never this jumpy around anyone. She reached the Commander's office in record time and all but tore his door off its hinges. The Commander had a woman on top of her and he suddenly dropped her on the floor.

            "What did you do to me?!" she demanded, making a thin dagger come out of her CORE module and putting it up to his jugular.

            "Calm down Marlene, we don't want to do anything rash," he said nervously, putting his pants back on.

            "Ever since you started making me see that guy, my heart starts racing and I feel weird inside. Its like you put some drug into me!" she said in rage.

            "I wouldn't do anything like that Marlene," he said, trying to move his neck away from the dagger slowly. The woman on the ground ran outside.

            "Then what's going on? Why are you forcing me to stay with him?"

            "To tell you the truth, Marlene, he keeps you on a leash." She made a drop of blood come out. "Think about it Marlene. He seems to be that one thing you're missing." She eased up. "Ever since you found him in the Inner Forest, you haven't been pulling your usual crap," he said, and showed her a graph. "This was our expenditures before you met him," he said, pointing to a graph redlining, "and this is our expenditures now," he said, motioning to a graph well inside the blue. She retracted the dagger.

            "What else could I do Marlene? My superiors have been demanding that I lower our expenses, and this was the only thing I could do." He fixed his tie.

            "Okay," she said, suddenly calm. The bullshit he was giving her had somehow put her into a state of enlightenment. "Thanks Commander," she said cutely, slightly tilting her head to the side. Then she left the room as giddy as ever.

            Damn… that crazy girl almost killed me! The Commander thought. But at least she's out of my hands for now. Who would have thought that she would have become attached to a Class A HES pilot. Once we get him certified, whoever commands him will get Marlene as part of the package. He smiled. He put a line on the pilot "Victor's" dossier that he would only work with Marlene or not work at all. And with a HES pilot like this Victor, no one would oppose such a small demand. His smile grew bigger.

            "Clara," the Commander said to his secretary via intercom, "tell Viceroy Johnson that I am ready for that inspection that I've been delaying for so long…"

~

            "From the intelligence we've gathered from the last few missions, I have located the secret location of the Terran Command Center, and its commander, Viceroy Johnson," Joanna told everyone in the tactics room. Joanna planed a series of missions that would intercept convoys heading to and from the camp.

            The camp… That's what Viceroy Johnson was running. A death camp. Those convoys were full of people. Political prisoners, resistance fighters, and people that the Terrans just felt like killing. Of course, no one could know of the death camps or the whole planet would revolt, and that's where the regiment of Kodiaks came in. No one without authorization came out of there alive.

Except for the Rogues, of course. That was the nickname that the Terrans had given them. The looted and plundered the Terran convoys with such military precision that the Terrans thought that they were a rogue unit pissed of at Command. It was true, to a certain degree; everyone except Amy was a Terran. And they were pissed off at Command. Very pissed off.

They determined from the intelligence that a full frontal attack on the death camp was suicide. Joanna decided they needed less direct methods, such as forcing the Viceroy to admit to the public the existence of the camps and give full disclosure of their activities. The Terran Command Center was fully mechanized and had very few HEV or HES pilots protecting it. Either Viceroy Johnson was very optimistic about Terran AI programs or he was very stupid. The mission to kidnap the Viceroy was ready to roll and Joanna gave everyone the low down.

It would essentially be a hit and run. The second they attacked, everything that could move would migrate to the Command Center. It would also have to be very exact, since they would have a very small window. Joanna set up cameras in and around the Command Center to observe Viceroy Johnson's daily movements. One thing that he seemed to always do was take a half an hour jog in the central courtyard. He was always covered by at least four security personnel at all times except when he went to a fountain to do some kind of yoga. His guards were kept a short distance away, but far enough for them to be sniped without Viceroy Johnson noticing.

            Once Catherine sniped all the guards, she, Amy, Joanna, Seymour, and James would distract the bases defenses while the X would land in the courtyard and abduct the Viceroy. Mark would fly the X, while Renee would sedate and secure the Viceroy and Molly would assist her.

            Mark prepped the X for launch while everyone else boarded the ship. Catherine, Amy, Joanna, Seymour, and James had already loaded their HEVs. Catherine had the Liger X, Amy had the Daishi, Joanna had the Mad Cat, and Seymour and James both had Command Wolfs. They all sat in the passenger cabin since it was a long trip, almost a quarter of Zi's circumference.

            The ride seemed like it took forever. Everyone was anxious about the upcoming mission and all it would entail. The thought that they were taking their first big step in their war against the Terrans was gut wrenching.

            Of course, everyone tried to keep busy as to keep him or herself from getting too nervous. Joanna and Seymour chatted casually as did Renee and James. Molly and Catherine conversed while Amy kept to herself, staring out at the setting sun. She ekpt on getting thoughts of those romantic nights she and Crass had on the Xian territories before this whole operation started and that brief period when she had just met Crass when he first crash landed on Zi.

[Flash back]

This time I wore this cute orange swimsuit I got last summer. He wore the same baby blue swim shorts. My face was red the whole ride to the park (my car was fixed by now).

When we reached the park we met up with my friends, who were on their way to the water slide, so we tagged along. We split up into guys and girls, and we talked among ourselves. I could hear Crass' voice, and then all the guys would laugh. I felt bad for him, since he was embarrassing himself, but knowing him, he probably had no idea what was going on.

"So Amy, are you two going steady yet?" said Cynthia.

"Um… no." I replied

"Why not?" said Melanie

"I don't like him like that" I said

"Yes you do" said everyone in unison

"No…"

"Oh come on. You always go goo goo when ever you're near him. And you even pretended to be his boyfriend when we first met him" (by now everyone had found out about his amnesia, and didn't hit on him anymore, but the guys for some reason became friends with him real quick)

"No! You girls have some issues"

"Then can I ask him out?"

"No!"

"See, I told you."

"I meant, why are you asking me? I'm not his mother or anything…"

"Sure"

"Really"

"What. Everrr." Then we all went on the slide, and we had a pretty good time the rest of the day. We all went home in a big caravan. A big caravan of newly waxed expensive cars. We got home around six.

            "Amy," Catherine softly said, trying to wake her up.

            "Sorry, I'm awake now. What can I do for you?"

            "It's okay Amy. Just came to tell you that we're almost there and that we have to get inside our units."

            "Oh, really? I didn't know it's been that long."

            "Its okay, we still have fifteen minutes," she said. "Amy, are you alright?"

            "Yeah, I'm fine. Why ask?"

            "Well, you seemed sad while you were asleep."

            "Oh, well, I was just dreaming of some memories I've had."

            "…it must be hard," Catherine said softly.

            "It is sometimes…" Amy said darkly. "But I would rather face the pain and have these memories then not have had them at all," she said a little bit more cheerful. "So, shall we?"

            "Yeah… lets go," the younger woman said.

~

This story will start to go by really quickly at this point. I'm even thinking about continuing after this story (tragically!?!) ends.