Disclaimer: I'm feeling lazy, see Ch.1
AN: ok folks round 2, and special thanks to xSojix for leaving a review. With that as motivation I managed to turn this out in a week or2 once i sat downinstead of month. Other than that thanks for reading.
Chaos Theory
Rated M for language, violence and mild adult themes
Ch.2
Red in the Morning
Ignorance is bliss, but often the death of you
Blade42
Bard slowly opened his eyes, he vision slowly cleared to give him a better view of the grey featureless ceiling. He instantly agreed that the view of the inside of his eyelids was better and closed them again. Bard's other senses came online as he did. He heard bacon, and other sizzling nicites of the morning hours. The smells drifting into his nose were so strong he could taste them ten feet away. With a groan Bard rolled himself out of his hammock and onto the floor. He tugged on his shirt to get the bunches out of it and made sure the button on the front of his boxers was firmly fashioned. Bard walked into a scene he didn't think happened on this rig, a normal sit down meal; somehow Bard got the impression that was a rarity around here. Sei was already dressed along with Ami who looked like she had been up for sometime. Kyohei was cooking, as usual. Meg and Jo were both down the hall by their room's door. Meg was still in her night gown, really a blue t-shirt with an extra foot of material at the bottom and Jo was in one of Bard's plaid flannel shirts.
Bard sat down in a seat only have to stand up again to allow Meg to sit down. Jo sat across from them with Sei and Ami. Bard glanced over at Jo and shook his head. Bard's mother had given him one of those shirts for a Christmas many years ago. It wasn't really the style at the time but Bard made a point of wearing them for his mother. He started sleeping in them to that end. Somehow the habit stuck, mostly because they're warm and the good ones are soft to the skin. That's always a plus with New England winters. Jo was wearing one of his shirts as people chatted over breakfast. While Jo wasn't much of a talker she wasn't the subtle type either. Jo wearing Bard's shirt was a big ol' truce flag. "A let's pick up were we left off" kind of thing. The only problem was "were we left off" seriously conflicted with his speech last night to Meg. So he was praying Meg didn't read into the full meaning of the gesture and only thought of it as a sign of good friendship.
"Is something wrong with the food?" Kyohei asked "you haven't eaten yet." To be honest Bard hadn't even looked at the plate; it was bacon, scrambled eggs and some kind of fried fish.
"Nope nothing." Bard speared a hunk of fish and chowed down. "Just trying to think too hard after just waking up."
"Oh that's fine. I thought I messed up trying this American dish. I wasn't sure bacon and eggs would mix with fish."
"They don't my boy." Bard said flatly. He took a bite of fish, and then tried to stick a slice of bacon with his fork. He realized it was too crispy for the task so he ate it with his fingers. "But they do compliment well."
Bard cursed loudly as couple volts of electricity danced across the water molecules in his left hand trying to find ground. Bard rolled out from under the consol in the RV's command cabin rubbing his left hand. Sei was seated in seat opposite him trying very hard not to laugh at him. She was failing miserably and was giggling at him.
"Oh shut up." Bard growled. He whacked the consul with his non-shocked hand "fucker." Bard was trying to set up a command and control system in the RV. It was a self contained unit that was radio tactical map, holographic displays and all the other goodies one needs to command a unit in combat while not in combat themselves. While the system did have an internal battery the system's drain on them was too large for a battery to power effectively. The battery as is had about a 30 hour charge. The problem was it weighed about 40lbs and took 48 to 60 hours to fully charge depending on the recharge source. so the system tended to be deployed only where there was a secure energy source or enough extra troops to guard the battery truck. Which was why Bard was under the consul trying to link into the RV's electricity and getting a nasty shock in the process.
"I'll have to wait for the kid to show up then." Bard commented "that damn Spaniard can fix anything with a plug with his eyes closed."
"Is he your mechanic then?" Sei asked having finally stopped laughing at him.
"No he's a pilot; he just has a knack for electronics. From what I understand his father owns a high end computer company in Madrid, deals mostly in servers and other business things."
"Who is your mechanic then?" Sei asked raising an eyebrow.
"There isn't your people asked for a minimal team. Everybody is pulling a double shift on this one. The kid for example is a pilot, our electro expert and a surprisingly good cook, myself am the tactical commander, lance commander, one of 3 capable of maintenance on the M-5, a spare pilot and everyone and double as a medic in a pinch." Sei nodded her head in acknowledgement of the info. She did however wonder why Grandfather would cut corners like that; she made a note to ask him latter.
"A very diverse history. Do all the men in your company's employment have that sort of wide use of skills?"
"No." Bard answered settling into the seat across from Sei preparing for a conversation. "He just had them when the silver dragons went into Spain during the Spanish civil war."
"Seems like a bad way to employ, from the lands you fight in, even for a Mercenary company." Sei pointed out.
"Maybe, but its not like we're picking up random bums. Its people that proved that could and would fight under orders in questionable situations of correctness. Hell that's how I came to be with the Silvers. I was in the militia for the California revolt, fought in the first and second battle of San Francisco."
"I heard those were hard battles."
"Hard? More like suicidal. There was 65 percent turn over rate for units in those battles; we wouldn't have survived if Jo and I hadn't tagged a long with the dragons in the area."
"You're Merc Company?" Sei asked.
"Ya, there used to be a base of operations in southern CA, they were protecting their assets and helping their primary employer. The US government is 60-70 percent of our contracts. For those odd jobs they can't be attached to, officially at least. How the world works I guess. A government protects it's people by any means necessary." Bard shrugged in a "who knows", Sort of expression.
"I didn't know you worked for the Silver Dragons." Sei stated
"Never came up." Bard answered. The silver dragons were the only branch of Bai-lan that separated with the main body under peaceful terms. Peaceful in the fact that in 1860 the Pacific Ocean was a large deterrent to retaliation. When the cold war flared up in the 50's the two organizations were able to work together because of 2 major factors, one the Silver dragons did a large hunk of their work with the OSS in Europe while Bai-lan stayed completely independent from the Japanese government. The two organizations never met in combat over the separation or in open war reducing any possible bad blood between the two. Second the two organizations had the same enemy the communistic Russians. If the Russians got a hold in Japan it was a lose-lose situation for everyone. Because of this an invasion of Japan didn't happen, and the 2nd eastern fleet got a nuke dropped on it in the best kept secret of the 20th century and the only tactical use of nuclear arms to date. In the passing years sense then the Americanized Bai-lan offspring has done as near a 180 from it's predecessor as anybody could in this business. While Bai-lan sank deeper in the shadows of society, the Silver Dragons has become a public company. Not public in the sense that the US people know about them, although the locals certainly aren't stupid. The US Gov and Canada sure as hell know about the armed services they could provide.
Bard just shrugged
"Didn't seem to important." He Sei said nothing back, a tense silence settled in the air.
"Not to change subjects, but…." Sei spoke shattering the quiet.
"I don't know what Jo is thinking any better than you people do." Bard lied, he had a better guess than most people in the trailer, he wasn't lying when he said he didn't know what Jo thought. A hard book to read isn't impossible. Compared to the others stumbling around in the dark of Jo's mindset with a flashlight, Bard had a set of headlights. But in the dead of night and the grand view of the world that still wasn't much.
"Why do you care?" Bard asked, he rubbed his left hand, it still tingled.
"Because I don't understand how she thinks." Sei said
"Do you trust her?"
"Yes."
"With your life?"
Yes."
"Then don't worry about it." Bard crossed his arms and settled back into his chair. "That's all anyone really needs to know about somebody."
Bard watched from the comfort of the stair well as Francisco's (AKA the kid) feet moved about in contentment as he patched the C&C system into the trailer's power supply. That kid breathed electronics. Bard shifted his back against the wall he leaned on working out the kinks.
"Stiff." Jo said in a not really question tone.
"Very." Bard said still stretching. "Your friends are a very unique bunch."
"I knew that." Jo said sitting down a step or so below him.
"They're curious about you. They don't know much about you."
"I know that too, Meg isn't."
"Meg isn't interested in your past." Bard said, looking at Jo with a neutral/ bored expression.
"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Jo growled at Bard.
"Not my place to say, that's between you and her." Jo's aggression bothered Bard about as much as cold does a penguin. Jo shrugged
"Whatever."
"All set Ese." Fran said from under the consul, "I even patched her into the network for you."
"Thanks mi hermano. You are a god with all things that go sparkly and humm with energy from the bad black clouds."
"If you were anybody else I'd call you a jackass." Fran told Bard bluntly.
"I try." Bard crowed with a faked smugness. "Hey Jo do me a favor and gather the chicas. I think the Boss may have our mission figured out by now." Bard was asked with staring intently at the screen start up and run it's preoperational checks.
The image of the Mr. Johnson hovered in the primary screen on the C&C unit, like some skin toned statue. Bard watched for Sei to return to the command cabin.
"Come on run the vid already." Ami complained impatiently, I wanta know what's going on."
"That's a live feed Ami." Bard answered her stonily. As he said so Mr. Johnson reached off screen and picked up something.
"Ready?" he asked
"Yes." Sei said positioning herself in view of the screen.
"Alright ladies and grunts this is the skinny. A terrorist cell is threatening to do some major damage if it's demands aren't meet."
"Again?" Fran asked tiredly. "This has to be the third one this year."
"quiet Frano, calling this a terrorist cell is like calling the sun a ball of gas, while that's what it is there is little more to it. The group wants a coup, a new government. One that's more in tune to the people's needs."
"Weird why to put it." Bard said
"It's a direct quote from the cell's website. They're posing as a political party."
"So why give a damn?" Jo asked
"Because they have this." A image of a machine appeared on the side screen. It was looked like it was based on a self-propelled artillery carriage. Except that it was about 200 ft long and 75-90 ft wide if the scales on the side of the screen were right. The weapon's barrel stuck out a little bit over the end of the transport chassis. On the end of it was a strange curved metal aperture, it seemed to cover the end of the barrel but not totally, there was a hole in the center for what ever the thing launched. Bard stared at the image dumbfounded.
Jo said in aw. "I thought that was destroyed.
"It was, I ran with the screening force. Wedged ourselves between the gun and a mechanized company while the assault team went in. they disabled the Co2 cooling system and started firing into the ocean, it overheated and exploded rather spectacularly. Anyone within a mile was blinded. I was looking the opposite way and had my eyes screwed shut and I still was seeing spots for 3 days."
"When was that?" Jo asked, seemingly hurt about having missed the party.
"About 10 hours after the bombardment on Grover Street, you were still out."
"Will somebody please explain to me what the hell that is!" Meg bellowed. Bard looked back at the image of Mr. Johnson
"If I may sir, I know this weapon in detail."
"Same here." Jo added, still watching the image of the Chaos gun rotate on the screen
"The Chaos gun is the first practical application of a magnetically launched projectile system, better known as a rail gun. There isn't any special meaning to the name it was named after the man who's theories made the weapon possible, Dr. Benjamen Chaos."
"And he is…" Sei started to ask.
"Dead." Jo finished
"2010, at the ripe old age of 77." Bard sighed and continued. "The gun accelerates a 75 lbs solid Iridium shell at 2/10th the speed of light. When that thing impacts it's like Hiroshima right under ass, just BOOM!" Bard made an explosive gesture with his hands.
"That weapon will destroy companies cy-bots, anything it touches."
"I've seen that fucker annihilate entire buildings." Bard added "that damned round hits it and the skyscraper evaporates, a 70 story building, WHAM! Story 15 to 50 is gone. Nothing left but air and melted I-beams. What's left of it just folds over like a wet noodle. That cannon is the reason there was a 60 percent turnover rate in the San Francisco battles, it's also the reason there isn't a San Francisco"
"There isn't? I studied it in school" Ami asked.
"You studied it's history, there is nothing left, check any modern map it's not there. The battle was 2-3 years ago. Nobody has even made the attempt to rebuild. Bodies still lie in the streets."
"That's terrible!" Meg exclaimed.
"It happens." Jo preached emotionlessly.
"That's beyond the point." Mr. Johnson cut in "we know they're hiding the thing in Onaka the lawless region, prefect place for them to hide. The area is like the in-city forbidden zones. The locals can't control the people so went fuck in and simply contained them. We'll be start probing the area today or tomorrow depends on the satellites and their orbits. In the mean time we'll start a desk recon, use our friend's connections and the local net to pull info, history, crime rates commerce and get your grubby hands on every area map you can, power, roadway, Topo, any and everything. Questions?"
"Yes sir." Bard answered cynically "why the hell did someone build a second Chaos gun! What the fuck sir! I thought the UN and every 1st world country on the planet banned the weapon! Why would the Gov take the chance of that getting out never mind the fact that somebody would thing of using it after seeing the wreak in made of S.F!"
"The military didn't build this one." Mr. Johnson seemed to have this explanation on a cue card somewhere. "It was built by NASA to experiment with as a satellite launch platform. The final product is immobile with a 450ft barrel. This was a test bed about half the firepower and a 1/3 of the range."
"I could still put a round over Japan the long way." Bard sneered
"True, but on the up side Iridium is hard to get outside a governmental level. So these people are shooting something else, melted down scrape metal probably useless cars are a likely source." There was a loud thunk as Bard whacked his head on the consol
"Why me?" he groaned "what did I ever do to deserve facing that monster twice?"
"Get a grip of yourself." Sei complained "we have a job to do."
"And I have every intention to do that job to my dying breath, but in all honesty if I had a good hard grip on reality I would have shot myself ten minutes ago." Bard shot back never taking his head of the consol. "Life just got very suckie." Jo patted Bard on the back of the head
"We survived last time." She then the room to do something, she knew what the mission was now she'd get the finer details later from either Sei or Bard. Ami was too tech oriented to has any useful info and Meg, despite how good of a "friend" (quotations for a reason) she was, she was no fighter. Wouldn't know what info to look for and pass on.
As Jo left the remaining 3 girls and the expression on their faces as if Meg and stormed naked and announced she was pregnant, smoking the good stuff with plenty to share and was engaged to marry Saturday, all in one breath. Bard simply stood up and moved out of the command cabin.
"We're all gonna die." He foreshadowed.
AN: 1 for the record the story is not named after the Chaos gun.
2 Please leave a review on your way out, I know your reading I have the hit counter to prove it! But seriously it's endlessly annoying to get a 70+ hit counter and only 1 review. Thank you
Speaking of which thanks again xSojix