CHAPTER 7

Pummelo, Outworlds Alliance,
May 18, 3074

The plant's defense grid was still in pristine condition, save for few laser and ballistic holes from the last fight. Turrets froze in suspended animation, like trees in winter, shedding their leaves and shriveled under the extreme cold, waiting for spring to bring in warm weather. But unlike the trees, the turrets would get up and run full speed as soon as the power was restored. Unfortunately the power generator had been severely damaged. It would take a miracle to rebuild the power generator in a short time.

"How long does it take to get the turrets running?" Neptune wondered.

"Based on that power generator? Probably three years," Alec replied matter-of-factly. "Perhaps before you ordered it to be destroyed, you should've thought of an alternative."

"Yes, keep the generator up while we battle the Yakuza. That would be convenient," Neptune's replied was laden with sarcasm.

"There are enough smaller generators around this complex," Ian threw in a suggestion. "The techs should be able to create a makeshift generator."

"You mean the Okita techs? Why would the Okita techs help us?" Neptune said doubtfully. "We just laid waste to their home."

Ian shrugged. "Probably because it's freezing here, and if they didn't do it, they'd freeze to death?"

"We're sitting on top of nuclear reactors. Those techs would have to burn a lot of furniture to keep them warm," Joezen added. "Let them help us by helping themselves."

"Alright, see to it that they don't stab us in the back," Neptune said. "I want power on the command center and turret grid only. The Okitas did a lot of work to make this place impenetrable. Let's use it against them. I want to turn this place into a firebase, using the Kuritan own weapons to fight them."

"Right away, Boss," Ian and Joezen threw a quick salute, then scampered toward the flattened generator building. Alec just smiled and snapped a half-assed salute, then went the other way.

Neptune gave the plant one more look, then walked toward the command center to check on the captured mechwarrior. The command center was running on backup generator, but it was only enough to minimally support living condition. The main radar and communication systems were disabled, and even then the temperature was way below comfortable level.

Neptune tightened his parka as he dove deeper into the command center. The captured mechwarrior was held in a gym, secured on an exercise bench. Her arms were zip-tied to the bench's posts, and her legs were stretched forward, tied on a suspender. Her light-red bob hair was tussled and sticky with sweat. She was still wearing her mechwarrior gear, which didn't provide much coverage, making her shivering in the cold, arid air. But despite all the discomfort, she maintained her defiance, bleeding anger from her eyes.

Sergeant Mogami and her crews had been grilling the captive for a while, but the shade of frustration in their eyes told Neptune that they didn't get much out of the mechwarrior.

"So this is the Kuritan we captured during our attack?" Neptune said.

"Yes, that's her. An officer with Kuritan color. A lance commander, if I'm not mistaken." Mogami grabbed the captive's jacket and showed Neptune the insignia of a Kuritan lance commander.

"A Kuritan officert? What are the odds?" Neptune smiled tauntingly. "We shall torture her for info. But if she refuses to talk, we will continue until she breaks."

"You idiots! I know nothing, and even if I did, you think I would tell you that easily!" the Kuritan mechwarrior growled. There was fire in her eyes but also fear, sprung at Neptune's mentioning of 'torture'.

"You think this is a joke? We keep you alive only because you are close with the goddamn Langmore family. So you'd better give us what we want or this predicament might take longer than we planned."

The Kuritan just looked at her without a word.

"Goddamn stubborn Kuritan. Let's hope this will refresh your mind," Neptune shifted toward the Kuritan's legs and quickly removed her boots. The Kuritan grunted and growled while wildly twisting her feet, but all effort was in vain. In a matter of minutes her boots clattered on the ground. Her dainty, bare-bone feet came into contact with the cold air, eliciting a soft gasp from the Kuritan's lips.

"Perhaps we should consider…"

Mogami's comment was lost in the hard thwacking sound, and the groan afterwards. Neptune whipped the girl's balls of feet with her own socks. It was not a hard strike, more like a warning strike, but the cold weather made her skin brittle and more sensitive. The Kuritan girl moaned loudly, and her body spasmed in response.

"You better talk, cause this is only the beginning!" Neptune croaked.

"Go to hell!" the girl responded.

"Well aren't you the tough one!" Neptune drove in his index finger into the flesh of the Kuritan's sole. The Kuritan mechwarrior snapped her head back and bit her lips, denying Neptune the satisfaction to see her suffer. "Considered talking?"

"I know nothing! Let me go!" Her voice trembled with fear, and her eyes were welded shut, anticipating the worst yet to come.

"I've been fighting the lot of you for months now," Neptune traced his fingernails up and down her captive's sole, flitting from the ball of her feet to her heels, "and every time I catch one of you Kuritans and bring in for interrogation, it's always the same jabber. But then, I start removing their shoes. And..." he grabbed the Kuritan's hair and forced her to look at him. "Silence… Every single one of them shuts up." He dug his fingernails deeper into the flesh, eliciting whimper from the captive. "Kuritan mechwarriors are one of the best in the Inner Sphere. Too bad all that toughness come with one flaw: sensitive skin."

For the next half hour Neptune brought all his fingers to scramble his nails all over the Kuritan's bare feet. The Kuritan jolted and tried to lift herself off the bench but the restrains held fast. A proud warrior, she struggled to maintain her fearless, rebellious posture by denying him even a single cry of whimper. Neptune, however, was unfooled, as her constant squirms and heavy breathing proved how close she was to the breaking point. Driven by urgency, he inflicted great agony upon her naked soles without relent. His nails scrambled wildly deep into the Kuritan's defenseless arches, raking up and down her now pink soles. She shook and tugged fiercely with every scratch across her sole. But despite the surge, her desperate effort were in vain, and soon the Kuritan began pleading for a chance to catch her breath.

"Lance Commander, I need you to stop!" Mogami didn't have the stomach for the suffering.

"Stop? What prompts you to stop?" Neptune grimaced. "Do we have a result? Do we know anything about their operation? Do we know what the Yakuza after in this world?"

"Leave us!" Mogami sent her lance mates off the building. As they walked out, she returned to Neptune, wrath bleeding from her eyes. "There is a way to extract information from a prisoner of war that does not include humiliation and abuse!"

"And where that way has led you?" Neptune grinned, taunting her.

"I'm working on it!" Mogami growled. "If you were in her place, you would expect the enemy would treat you with respect!"

"Which I won't get," Neptune gritted his teeth. "You know what they would do if you fell into their hands? They would string you up, strip you naked, and scourge every inch of your skin, knowing that you stand high in Davion chain of command. You're lucky if they gave you water or food. Why would we treat them different?"

"We are not falling into their level! We are Federated Suns, not barbarians! Ares Convention still has meaning! But of course, I can't expect you to understand, since money is the only one that matters to you."

"Oh, so you think mercenaries are barbarians? Is that what you're saying?" Neptune started to get tired of Mogami's presumptuous attitude. "You are not Federated Suns. No matter how loudly you said you were, you're not. You're just a bodyguard of small-time periphery mafia who sells contrabands. The only reason the Federated Suns give you support is because they are interested in the same thing that the Yakuza is trying to exploit, the thing you're either too ignorant to see or intentionally preventing me to find out!"

Mogami let her hand fly, but Neptune caught it before it made contact with his face.

"Careful there, Sergeant. As of now we are working together against a common enemy. But if you stab me in the back, I will pull my lance out of this place, and you know you won't be able to hold back the Okita/Yakuza mechs without my lance's support!"

"Your reputation will suffer for that!" Mogami yanked her hand free. "I will make it my business that you will not find a job in this line of work again!"

"Like you said, Sergeant, I am a mercenary," Neptune hissed. "My true allegiance is money."

Mogami shot a nasty glare at Neptune as her mind rolled through a list of things she would do to dispatch the mercenary quickly. But in the end she knew his words rang true. She needs Neptune's support. Her lance alone would not be able to hold position against the Okita-Yakuza collaboration, even with the addition of the turret grid.

Yet she couldn't bear the sight of a suffering warrior.

"You don't have to be here. I'll share the information." Neptune looked into her eyes in the earnest. "I might be a mercenary but I know how to work in a team. We are a team, at least for now, so I will treat you as my counterpart, regardless of what you think of me."

Mogami let Neptune knew that his maneuver was let go but not approved, then left the command center.

Neptune exhaled audibly, then returned to the captive, still gasping for air. Her sweat steamed in the cold air and her face contorted in fear. "Now… where were we?"