CHAPTER 2
Thor's Shieldhall, Silesia,
Solaris City, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater, Lyran Alliance,
January 15, 3075
The famous sports bar was thick with the smell of tobacco and the stench of alcohol. Several holovids featuring game highlights, pundit analyses, and mechwarrior odds occupied each corner of the watering hole, with fans and mechwarriors alike congregated around them in a concoction of yelling and screaming. Servers slithered their ways among customers, hauling liquors and food out, and stacks of c-bills in. There had never been a busier time at Thor's Shieldhall than during a tournament.
"Thor's Shieldhall!" Kayoko spread her arms as she entered the bar. "I can't believe I'm here!"
"This reminds me of my academic years," Kiyomi followed suit, not as animated, but no less impressed than Kayoko. "We had a small arena next to the freshman boot camp. I never got tickets, so sports bars were the way to go."
"Well rejoice then, we're in the sports bar of all sports bars!" Kayoko grinned as she savored the fume. "My God, the smell of money and victories! Let's find chairs! I'm gonna stay here all night!"
The two girls made their way to the center of the bar, dodging waitresses and loitering fans like in a driving course. The main holovid on the center showed a live broadcast of a match, with mechs of all classes bashing each other with a plethora of weapons, trying to be the last mech standing. Each blow was accompanied by a chorus of yells from dozens, if not hundreds, of drunken fans circling the holovid.
"Looky here, two front seats!" Kayoko grinned from ear to ear as she snatched the empty chair close to the center. "Maybe this is an omen!"
"Maybe we should order drinks and enjoy the show," Kiyomi sat on empty seat and called a waitress. "Two Timbiqui Dark, please!"
"First time at Thor's Shildhall?" the waitress popped the tops and handed in the bottles.
"Yeah! We just arrive!" Kayoko enthusiastically grabbed the bottle and put down almost half of the content. "Holy shit, this is great stuff!"
"It's our best-selling product to date," the waitress smiled. "Seven c-bills a pop, but the first round is on the house."
"Free round? Unbelievable! Noloty is crazy to miss this!" Kayoko hooted. "Hey, what are we watching here?"
"This is one of the VEST Invitational Sweet-Sixteen rounds," the waitress explained. "That one on the center, the Banshee, is Zuko Fen-Wi from Valhalla Chosen stable. He's a fan favorite and a strong contender for the championship. If you're on the betting circuit, you definitely want to have him on your lineup. The odds is not great, but at least you're gonna get your money back."
"Thanks for the heads up, but we're just watching," Kiyomi raised her bottle.
"Maybe not for long," Kayoko finished her bottle in one big swig. "One more Timbiqui Dark, please."
"Hey, hey, hey, pace yourself!" Kiyomi blurted. "I don't want to drag you out of this place drunk and broke!"
"Broke? Perhaps. Drunk? No. I can drink like nobody else in the battalion!" Kayoko chuckled. "But you know, it's worth. How many times we get to spend some time in Solaris in the midst of a tournament?"
"One at a time, alright? Now let's watch this Zuko and see if he is worth our investment."
The Banshee exerted its domination in the battlefield, and the holovid captured every second of it. A Stalker -8S tried to challenge its authority, bringing in its massive Heavy Gauss rifle for the gambit. The monster gun barked, sending 200-kilograms of pure destruction to the center of the Banshee's torso. The Banshee torso-twisted but the slug grazed its shoulder pad. A geyser of shards burst as the 95-ton giant took a few steps back.
Brimming with confidence, the Stalker fired its twin ERPPC, trying to clip the Banshee's maneuver. But the Banshee took it to the sky, shifting 60 meters left in a single bound. The Stalker's particle bolts struck a plume of smoke, gaining nothing for the shooter except waste heat.
The Banshee smelled heat trouble. It landed on squared feet and fired its Plasma Rifle. White streak gored the Stalker's torso, right above the Heavy Gauss cannon. Molten slag dripped, and the Stalker shuddered. It turned to protect its main gun, but the heat buildup debilitated the myomer functions, turning the 85-ton platform into an oversized sloth.
But the Stalker still had aces up its sleeves. It fired its short-ranged weapons in a brilliant display. Multiple laser beams scourged the Banshee from multiple angles. The Banshee held hits left arm upright as cover. A few streaks peppered the armor on the arm, turning it into glowing molten slag.
Using every bit of its speed, and taking advantage of the Stalker's sluggishness, the Banshee shifted left and launched a cascaded Snub-nose PPC salvos. At a mere 50 meters, the effect was devastating. The Stalker's monstrous gun exploded, breaching the entire hosting torso. The Stalker lurched to the other side, and its skinny leg joints couldn't handle such weight shift. The large mech toppled, then disappeared behind a plume of black smoke. With no arns, there was little chance of the assault mech to get back up, if at all.
The Banshee shifted its attention to the next victim, a limping, coolant-gushing, smoke-billowing Warhammer with both arms gone and half of its right torso caved it, a sure sign of Gauss hit. But credit to the mechwarrior, the decrepit machine still firing whatever it had left at the Banshee. Two unguided missiles slammed home at the Banshee's left leg. A few laser bolts strip a layer of torso armor. And for whatever reason the mechwarrior thought as a good idea, the Warhammer's machine guns rattled in a long burst of defiance.
A Plasma shot to the midst ended the Warhammer's run in a blinding pyre.
The two girls were too engrossed in the game to notice that the waitress had returned with a glass of shot on her tray. She handed Kayoko the shot glass, and it took several seconds for Kayoko to notice that it was not the beer bottle she had been expecting.
"Uhm, I didn't order this," Kayoko gave the waitress a dumb stare.
"You didn't," the waitress smiled and pointed to a man across the bar. "He did."
Kayoko and Kiyomi turned their attention to a man across the hall, who raised his shot glass. He was of a heavy build, easily weighed as much as Kayoko's and Kiyomi's weight combined. His musculatures peeked from behind his military fatigue. His flattop black hair perked up atop his head at full attention. His wide mouth curled into a wide smile.
"Well well well, you haven't been here a day and you already garnered attentions," Kiyomi quipped.
"What can I say, I exude finesse," Kayoko bantered back. She turned to the waitress. "Ask him to join us."
"Be careful, we don't know what he wants," Kiyomi turned into a defensive mode.
Kayoko looked at Kiyomi with mischief in her eyes. "What can we do against the two of us? In the middle of the most famous sports bar in Solaris, no less? Besides, it is rude to not invite the guy who buys you a drink."
"That is bullshit," Kiyomi reached down and released the safety holder on her blade, sheathed safely on her belt. "Keep your guards up. We are easy preys in this place."
"It's just a drink, Kiyomi," Kayoko scoffed. "What, you expect me to drink this… this… whatever this is alone?"
"It's called the 'PPC'," the guy arrived, holding a shot glass just like Kayoko's. "It's one of the most famous exotic drinks at Thor's Shieldhall." He turned to the waitress, who now held a zippo in her hand. "Flame it." The waitress clicked the zippo and lit the surface of the shot glass, creating a blue flame closely reminiscing a PPC bolt. "That's where the name came from."
"I'm aware of the PPC," Kayoko raised her glass, and the waitress lit it.
"Oh, so you're a mechwarrior?" the guy raised his glass for a toast. "Are you in the tournament?"
"Yes and no. I am a mechwarrior, but I'm just visiting for an R-n-R," Kayoko clinked her glass with his. "My name is Kayoko Kuraishi." She rolled her shoulder to show the triple blue bars on her shoulder. "Chu-I Kayoko Kuraishi, Ryuken-go. This is my friend, Tai-I Kiyomi, but don't serve the same branch. She's a tank commander."
"Ah, Kuritans!" the guy bowed his head politely. "Isamu Oyama, at your service!"
"So to what do we owe you this pleasure, Oyama-san?" Kiyomi asked dubiously. "Do you do this often, buying drinks for girls of ranks and uniforms?"
Kayoko shot a nasty look at Kiyomi. "What are you, my mother? Get off my back!"
"That's alright, I understand the concern," Isamu replied without taking his eyes off Kayoko. "Solaris City is a dangerous place. But I don't do this often. In fact, I have never done this before. It's unusual for a place like this to get a visit from a beautiful customer like yourself, so I thought I'd pay tribute."
"Awww..." Kayoko's face turned red from the liquor and embarrassment.
"That's so lame," Kiyomi sighed under her breath, but loud enough for Kayoko to catch it.
"Are you jealous? You're jealous, aren't you?" Kayoko snapped back.
"I don't mean to cause trouble," Isamu stepped back.
"No no no no no no, you can stay," Kayoko quickly rose and grabbed Isamu's hand. "Join us! Tell me about yourself. Are you in the tournament?"
"Yes, I am in the tournament!" Isamu's gruff voice boomed. "I'm in the top 10 seed. I am determined to win this tournament!" He caught the skeptical look in Kiyomi's eyes. "I'm serious! I will win the tournament. I streamrolled through 2 elimination matches with 13 kills total. One of them was a Cyclops, my biggest kill so far. The mechwarrior was an old veteran who had been in Solaris circuit for a long time. I showed him that he was no match against a young hungry lion that I am. BOOM! He was down for the count! Now I am in the Sweet Sixteen waiting for my next match against Solaris bests!"
"That's pretty impressive," Kayoko smile. She turned to the holovids at the center of the room. "Zuko Fen-Wi, Valhalla Chosen stable. He looks dominant in this match. Will you fight him?"
"Eventually. If you know the seed system at all, all seeded players are kept away from each other so they don't fight at early stages. VEST knew the potential of a high-level match between Zuko and myself, so they want to milk it. When we fight, it will be at the very end of the tournament where only the bests left standing."
"I can't wait to watch it," Kayoko beamed with excitement. "So… what else did you notice?"
Over the next 15 minutes, Isamu divulged outrageous stories of his exploits in Solaris games, about how he climbed up the ranks, how he butchered highly-modified battlemechs with 20-to-30 tons advantage, how he won several tournaments by beating high-ranking opponents, how he was offered multi-million c-bill contracts from high-profiled stables, only to reject them all because big stables did not reflect the spirit of the games anymore. Most of his stories were too excessive to believe, but Kayoko didn't mind. She just loved the attention he was giving her, much to the chagrin of Kiyomi.
However, it all changed when another man passed their table. He was as tall as Isamu, but more lithe. His blonde hair stuck out of his head, and his goatie highlit his cocky smile. He flashed as quick smile at Kiyomi, then shifted his attention toward Isamu with impish stare in his eyes.
"Isamu, my man!" he blurted. "How's life outside the arena?"
"I don't know, I'm too busy beating people up!" Isamu snapped. "Why? Can't wait for your turn?"
"I look forward to it, but I'm afraid I have to wait longer, considering your mech is in the shop."
Kayoko cocked her brows. "What happens to your mech?"
"Cheap-ass Irian electronics," Isamu sneered. "My mech will get back online in no time."
"Probably on the next tournament," the new guy smiled and threw a wink at Kiyomi.
"You know what, Henry, if you can't wait to get busted by me, why don't we do it right here, right now!" Isamu stood briskly and assumed fighting position. "You don't have to wait until the next match!"
"Here? There's no money fighting here!" the guy called Henry stepped back. "Are you so desperate to get back to the game that you'll do it with no money on the table?"
"I don't care about money! I care about you kissing the ground eating my fist!" Isamu growled. "What? Coward?"
"Well, if you say so," the Henry guy put up a fighting stance. "Whenever you're ready, jerk!"
"Hey hey hey!" Kayoko stood in front of Isamu. "This is a private party, Mister. I suggest you mind your own business and take a hike!"
"You know what, Kayoko, let's get out of here!" Isamu grabbed Kayoko's hand. "This place is a dump! I'll take you to classier places with nobody snooping around to crash your party!"
"Sounds fun! I'd love to explore Solaris City!" Kayoko replied jovially.
"I don't think it's a good idea to split up," Kiyomi chimed in.
"Well, I'm sorry, opportunity presents itself, and I think I'll take a bite before it gets cold." Kayoko hooked her arm around Isamu's and shot one last wolfish smile at Kiyomi. "I mean, wouldn't you?" She tugged Isamu's arm toward the exit. "What say you, Milord? Are you feted to rescue this damsel from the cusp of her own ennui?"
Kiyomi watched Kayoko and Isamu walked away from the tavern, then indifferently turned her attention to the main holovid, watching the Banshee wrapping up the match to advance to the next stage.
"Sorry, I don't mean to get you stranded," Henry took Kayoko's seat next to Kiyomi. "I just can't help bursting that braggart's bubbles."
"That's fine, I'm about to leave anyway," Kiyomi replied halfheartedly.
"Leave? The fun just gets started," Henry ordered another bottle of beer. "None of these interests you?"
"I'm a tank commander. Battlemechs don't keep my engine running."
"Tough chance, since you're in a world of battlemech games. But I know some arenas that pit tanks. They're not as rambunctious as mech arenas, but if they can 'keep your engine running', may be worth checking out."
Kiyomi looked at Henry, wondering what the guy actually wanted. "And what's in it for you?"
"A different perspective," Henry threw a small smile.
Kiyomi looked at him some more, then decided it was worth pursuing. "Kiyomi, Tai-i. Ryuken-go."
"Ah, Draconis Combine," Henry raised his bottle. "Henry Laxus, Magic Metal stable."
"Stable, huh. So you're in the tournament."
"Kinda hard not to. Everybody wants that VEST massive winning lot and the reputation to go after even bigger contracts."
"What's your record? Is it as 'spectacular' as that Isamu guy claimed?"
"No, Ma'am, I'm just a humble opportunist," Henry snickered. "Win one game at a time and see where my luck takes me."
"Well, Henry Laxus, I wish you good luck in the tournament," Kiyomi rose from the chair. "I will take leave, but I look forward to your offer to see some tank action."
"Meet me here tomorrow around 1 in the afternoon." Henry stood up. "Can I take you home?"
"No, I'll be fine." Kiyomi bowed her head in respect. "I will see you tomorrow."
