CHAPTER 18

International Zone,
Solaris City, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater, Lyran Alliance,
February 3, 3075

Vash was inspecting the new recruits when Risa came into the hall. Not wanting to interrupt Vash from his job, she started to exit the hall. But she was too late. Vash saw her, and decided she was more important than the new recruits.

"Chu-I, the company is yours!" he said to his 2nd-in-command, then ran after Risa. "It's not common to see pretty babes around bombs and blades. Especially one with racks and hips like you. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Uhm, I don't want to stop you from your work," Risa said rather awkwardly.

"That's fine. I can take a break from dealing with ugly grunts to talk to you." Vash gave her a wink. "Or do you want to go to my quarter?"

"Well, then, I have been thinking about your offer the other day," Risa found the courage to make her intention known. It was good that they were in a public place, lest things went out of control. "And I am flattered that you thought of me that way. But we are in the advent of a big war, and… and… I think, it will be less complicated for both of us if we remained unattached. I don't want your feelings for me interfere with your job, and I don't want it happens the other way, too. That being said…" She paused to remain composed. "I don't think we should see each other anymore."

Vash knew where it was going, and why it happened that way. "I see what's going on here. I think we both know that work has nothing to do with your decision."

"If you respect me, then you will respect my reasoning," Risa tried to remain calm. She had seen what Vash could do, and she tried not to put him in a situation where he would use his battlefield skill to make a point. "I treasure every moment I spent with you. But with the advent of Operation SCOUR, I don't think we should invest our time in relationship. We both hold positions that would determine lives and deaths. I think that should be our priority."

"So where does Keiichi stand in this development?" Vash blurted curtly.

"Please don't make this difficult. Keiichi has nothing to do with my decision." Risa took deep breaths. "I just lost a lover. I don't want to lose a friend, too."

"Well, then, I will respect your decision," Vash relented. "It's been a real pleasure spending time with you, and I mean it literally. You'll make somebody very happy and satisfied, and I still wish it would be me, when you decide the time is right. Still, call me up when you need somebody to warm your bed. We don't need complicated relationship to have fun."

"I try not to think about it at the moment," Risa's face turned red. "Let's turn attention at the matter at hand, and see what the future brings."

"Sure. I can do that." Vash advanced to kiss Risa, but she flinched and took a few steps back. "Oh, sure, I guess a little gesture of affection will distract us."

"I will see you later," Risa forced a smile, then scampered out of the hall.

"Well, it's your loss," Vash scoffed curtly. He drew his comset and dialed some number. "Hey, Joy, what's going on? You free tonight? My shift ends early, and I can take you to dinner. There's some fancy eateries around here. And after that, maybe we can continue our 'fun time' that Tai-I Noloty interrupted the other day…"


Indrahar Hospital,
Kobe, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater,
Lyran Alliance,

February 3, 3075

Noloty twiddled the tip of her ponytail while waiting for the nurse to let her in Scarlet's room. Her hair had reached the small of her back. She didn't remember the last time she had a haircut. Mechwarriors typically kept their hair short, and Clanners were known to shave their temples to connect with the neurohelmets better. Noloty had thought of doing that for sometime, but she just hadn't had the time. Appearance lied at the bottom of her priority list.

"You can visit Sho-sa Scarlet now, Tai-I," the nurse said blankly.

Noloty understood that Scarlet was a proud mechwarrior. She might not like to appear weak. So she let her superior gain confidence before she came to her presence. To be honest, she would rather talk to Scarlet in a week and let Scarlet fully recovered from the ordeal. But she thought Scarlet might want to know what had become of the Ryuken-go. She was just going to brief her and be on her way.

The room was all white. The walls were white. The bed sheet was white. Scarlet's scrub was white. Even her face was kind of white, a sure sign of dehydration. The only thing that made the room lively was Scarlet's hair. It made her presence known in the otherwise dreary, lackluster hospital room. And it gave Noloty so much relief.

"Make it brief, Tai-I," Scarlet's voice was weak but still had weight. "I hate it for you to see me this way."

"I will not think less of you, Ma'am, but I'll be straight to the point," Noloty snapped a salute and posted a perfect stance, but refrained from staring at her. "Number wise, the Ryuken-go has grown to full strength. I was able to fill the ranks of the battlemech company. Also, we managed to salvage a Charger Kamikaze, two Orions, two Dragons, a Wolverine, and a very rare Thor C. I know, save from the Charger, these mechs were not typical Kuritans, but in time like this I don't think we have much choices. So please have an open mind and consider these additions."

"You got us 8 mechwarriors and 7 battlemechs in a week?" Scarlet shot up from the bed. "Where did you get the money?"

"Uhm… no money needed, Ma'am."

"Did you steal them, then?"

"Not steal, Ma'am. Aquired. From a disbanded Solaris stable."

Scarlet looked at Noloty like an old-school teacher looking at a troubled student. "What in the name of Tartaros is that supposed to mean? Define 'Aquired'!"

"I struck a deal with a stable master to aquire some battlemechs, but he made attempt at my head, so I terminated him, disband his stable, and offered his stable members a chance to join our cause against the Word of Blake. It turns out some of them were sick of fighting in the arena, and used my offer as a vessel to get out of Solaris VII."

"Compensation?"

"Standard DCMS salary and ration for new recruit." Noloty cleared her throat. "This place had worn them out so much they grabbed the first opportunity to leave. I hope you can give them the same chance you gave me to prove themselves."

"Last time I cheked, you were the one that raised alarms about the quality of Solaris mechwarriors," Scarlet groused, but with a little bit of a smirk of satisfaction in her pale lips. "Now you argue with me to fill Ryuken-go ranks with mechjocks. What makes you changed your position?"

Noloty smiled at the irony. "I don't want to sound like a suckup, Ma'am, but I stand corrected. We don't have much choice in the matter. I make do with what I could get, and hope for the best."

"Do you think they are combat ready for Operation SCOUR?"

"They are crude and unrefined. All except one have been fighting in Solaris arenas for some time. They are not used to carry order; rather they live and fight in their own drumbeat. But with proper training, it is possible to have a tight-knit unit that we expect from academy graduates."

"And the one? Is he combat worthy?"

"He's uh… a Smoke Jaguars expatriate." Noloty braced herself, not knowing how Scarlet would react.

Scarlet's brows curled. "Smoke Jaguars? How did you come by that?"

"He was a bondsman of the stable master that tried to kill me. I managed to beat him, and transferred his bonds to me. He has been off battlemechs for a long time, but he is a Clanfolk. A little jog of his memory will make him tactical in a short time. He was of a crusader line, so he may hate every single one of us. But he knows no other lives besides the military, which helps us keep the Solaris mechjocks in checks."

"And how do you keep him in checks, considering he hates every single one of us?"

"His heart has but one desire: to die in honor. I promise him that, if he gives his allegiance to Ryuken-go."

"Smoke Jaguars, huh? Never thought of that," Scarlet cringed. "You never cease to amaze me, Tai-i."

"I hope it is not a statement of contempt, Ma'am."

Scarlet scoffed. "Well, carry on."

"The armor company also aquire reinforcement. Tai-I Kiyomi added 3 Tokugawa tanks to the armor company, complete with the crews. They already proved their worth, taking the brunt of Capellan firepower during our raid to Burgton. Tai-I Vash found some reinforcement as well. The infantry company has reached full strength of 120 personnel. I have not seen the infantry recruits, but I trust Tai-I Vash's judgment. And our Medical Corpse recruited a new member, too. Chief Medic Risa met a shop assistant with medical background that agreed to join Ryuken-go. She was a greenhorn, but shows promise."

"Looks like you have everything under control, Tai-I," Scarlet rested her head on the pillow. "What about Gunjin Mirabel?"

Noloty shook her head morosely. "I'm sorry, Sho-sa, we couldn't find any trace of her. You were the only one left in the dungeon. We are very fortunate that, whoever did this to you, somehow left you behind, under the care of some bizzare, atrocious, biological torture agent. Nothing else was found."

Scarlet let out a long, drawn-out sigh. Nights of suffering under the ministration of Capellan mercenaries started haunting her, and she averted her eyes from Noloty, as if trying to hide her vulnerabiltiy from Noloty's quizzical stare.

"Forgive me if I speak out of turn, Ma'am, but I sense something dubious behind everything," Noloty chose her words carefully. "I have a feeling that the bastards are sending a message by leaving you alive. What message, and to whom, are yet to be uncovered. I'm sorry, but I have to ask," she swallowed hard, then looked into Scarlet's eyes in the earnest, "Who did you meet? And what did they want from you?"

There was a moment of vulnerability in Scarlet's eyes, as if she wanted to cry her eyes out, fall into Noloty's embrace, and divulge the horror of her captivity. But Scalet only let it happen a mere second. Her steel-cold stare quickly drawn out the mellow gaze in her eyes. "It is need-to-know-basis only, Tai-I Noloty. The less you know, the better."

"Ma'am…"

"That'll be the end of it, Tai-I. Let it go."

Noloty smelled something fishy behind Scarlet's behavior. She could tell that her superior definitely hid something. It was a little maddening that Scarlet kept her in the dark, as if she didn't trust her even after Noloty orchestrated a daring raid to save her life. But she understood that there were things beyond her rank that would never reach her, just as there were things that she was not allowed to share with her subordinates, even her best friend Kayoko. It was just the nature of military hierarchy. Everything was based on need-to-know basis.

But that wouldn't stop her from finding it out herself.

"Sho-sa Scarlet, somebody is here to see you," the nurse interrupted the briefing.

"Sho-sa Scarlet is not taking visitors at the moment," Noloty coldly brushed the nurse off.

"He said his name is Major Fernandes from the Fed Sun 1st Armored Cavalry."

Noloty knew the name, and she knew his ties with Scarlet. "I will handle Major Fernandes, Ma'am."

"That's alright, Tai-I. I will handle him myself." Scarlet turned to the nurse. "Send him in."

"With all due respect, Ma'am, you barely made it out here. I don't think it is the time to collude with a Federated Suns operative, one that may or may not be responsible for your situation."

"Your concern is duly noted, Tai-I," Scarlet huffed. "And I appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart. But I can take care of myself."

"At least let me stay with you…"

"That wouldn't be necessary. Continue your duty until I am discharged from the hospital, which shouldn't be too much longer." Scarlet sat up and brushed her long hair with her finger. "Thank you, Noloty, for coming after me."

"You would do the same for me, Sho-sa," Noloty let a small smile escape her lips. "I'll see myself out."

Noloty bowed, then walked toward the exit. She opened the door almost at the same time Major Fernandes did the same thing to get in. The stealthy mischief in his eyes prompted her to raise her guard up, and if there were not in a public place, she would've shoved her wakizashi up his throat.

"It's interesting to see your growth, Tai-I Noloty," Fernandes threw a sly smile. "I can see why Scarlet fought for you. She made the right judgment to keep you, one that I sorely regretted."

"Sho-sa Scarlet is not in the right state of mind," Noloty ignored Fernandes' silly banter. "If you are trying to take advantage of that, I will come after you."

"You are not Scarlet's bodyguard, Noloty, no matter how much you want to be," Fernandes scoffed.

"I'm not doing it for Scarlet. I'm doing it for Ryuken-go." She looked deep into Fernandes' eyes, making sure he knew she was dead serious. "She's expecting you."

Noloty didn't wait for Fernandes' answer. She walked away toward the elevator. Yet she barely took a few paces when Keiichi came barelling out of the elevator and came toward her.

"There was a break-in at DC Equipment Liaison," Keiichi blurted, trying to keep his breathing under control.

"Break in?!" Noloty immediately throught of the worse. "Hamlet?"

"Hamlet is… still here, somewhat," Keiichi grinned awkwardly. "Somebody tried to hotwire him, and there was fire. The entire cockpit caught fire."

"Oh Thank God!" Noloty sighed. "So the asshole is crispy bacon now?"

"You would wish, but that's not what happens. We can't any trace of flesh in the cockpit. Whoever made the attempt is still out there, along with 4 other Ryuken-go mechs we just aquired."

"Shit," Noloty sighed. "Do you know who did this?"

"No, but you should know," Keiichi replied coldly, "Drake is missing, too."

Noloty put her hand over her mouth. "He planned this. He approached us because he knew we had a lot of stuffs in our inventory. I knew he had an ulterior motive when he talked to us. It is my fault I let him get close to our assets. Do you know where he's taking the mechs?"

"I'll know if I have access to the manifests of each dropship that dusted off between now and the time of the break in."

"I may be able to get those." Noloty turned around. She pulled out her comset and called Kayoko. "Kayoko? Somebody stole a lance of mechs from our repository. I need Isamu's Solaris network to get the manifests of dropships that took off in the last few days. I don't care where he gets it. Tell him if he gets this done quick, I'll leave him alone."

"Do you want to chase him across the Inner Sphere?" Keiichi stated incredulously. "The missing battlemechs, we didn't spend our money on those."

"It's not a matter of money," Noloty replied. "Anybody stealing from the Ryuken-go shouldn't be let unpunished. I'll set everything in motion, but I'll let Scarlet decide who would take Drake's head. For now, bring back Hamlet to nominal condition. I have a feeling I'm going to need him soon."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Keiichi tossed an enthusiastic salute and scurried back toward the elevator.


END OF BOOK V