CHAPTER 8

WE ALL DIE YOUNG

Review Corner

longbowchris50: About time!

jdoug4118: There are more of those scenes. The joy of writing R (M) rated fanfic is I don't have restrictions. I can be as explicit or as implicit as I want. It's just the way I like it.

Port Krin, Antallos,
Inner Sphere Periphery,
December 20, 3064

Trystan didn't know how long he was out. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he realized was the hideous twinge at the base of his nose. It hurt so bad tears ran down his cheeks. Each take of breath felt like a dagger shoved up his nostrils. He was forced to breathe through his mouth until the throbbing subsided.

As his regain consciousness, he tried to rub his nose but was surprised when he couldn't move his arms. He shook his head and flashed his eyes to figure out what was going on with his body, and the revelation forced him to whimper like a little girl. He was hanging about a foot above the ground. A metal pole was secured under his armpits and his arms were tied around it, exposing his bare chest. Half a dozen men, presumably Band of The Damned members, congregated in front of him. The revulsion in their eyes and the various sharp objects in their hands gave a clear hint about what would happen in the next 5 minutes…

… or 5 hours, depending how long they wanted Trystan to pay for his insubordination.

"The rabbit finally awakes," one of them spat with disgust. "I start to worry that we have to skin a dead animal."

"Probably easier that way," another one added. "He won't move as much."

"No, no, please, please, wait a minute," Trystan stammered, thrashing to free himself from the bound. "I am not trying to escape, I am not…"

"Who's talking about escape?" another guy blurted. "Nobody talks about escape. Why are you talking about escape? Are you trying to escape?"

"I'm not trying to escape!" Trystan felt his whole body tremble. He had seen what the pirates were capable of. He couldn't believe this kind of atrocity still existed in the 31st Century. But it was as real as the medieval age itself. Now he was part of it. "You've got to believe me, I am not trying to escape!"

"Then what were you doing at Al Hafedz?" another one said. "Where did you get money?"

"I stole a jacket!" Trystan made up a story. "There was so much chaos at the hangar. I saw a jacket on the ground with money in the pocket. I was hungry, so I ran to Al Hafedz to eat. Believe me, please, that was what happened!"

"This is a woman's jacket," another one stuffed Saskia's jacket to his face and took a lungful of sniff. "You wore a woman's jacket?"

"I had no idea it was a woman's jacket! It was lying on the ground! I just took it and found money!"

"I don't think that was what happened," somebody else tuned in. "I think you just did something very, very naughty."

"No, I didn't, please, I didn't do anything wrong!" Trystan pleaded. "I was just hungry! I wanted to eat!"

"Why didn't you work? Who is your master?"

Trystan remembered his promise to not include Lei Fong in this situation. Even if Lei Fong denied any knowledge, the fact that Trystan was found far from his job would damage Lei Fong's credibility. He couldn't do it. He knew the consequence of defying the pirates would be severe. He probably wouldn't see the light again. But he just couldn't drag Lei Fong into his mess.

"I uh… I can't tell you that," he sighed, knowing that he would suffer greatly because of this.

"Oh, you won't tell us? Did he have something to do with your escape?"

"I did not try to escape! I just tried to have better food."

"Then tell me your master!"

"I can't."

"Let's just skin the sonofabitch!" somebody broke through from the crowd with a scalpel on his hand.

"No, you're just gonna kill him," another one grabbed the guy's shoulder. "He's no use for us dead!"

"You're wasting time!" the guy with the scalpel yelled. "I want his guts on the floor! Now!"

"In due time," another one pushed the scalpel guy back. "We want to savor the meat as long as we can. Let's start with something less coarse…" He swung to the back and pried Trystan's pinky nail with a plier.

Trystan didn't expect such savagery so soon. The pain surged through his veins, overcoming the twinge from his nose. His whole body went into shock. His scream barreled out of his lung with abandon. He tugged and heaved his arms as hard as he could, but the restraints kept them in place until the pirate tore the nail free from his pinky finger.

"No, no, no, please, stop, stop please," he blabbered in between whimpers. "I did nothing wrong! All I did was trying to eat! Please, listen to me…"

"We give you food every morning! Yet you skipped breakfast and wandered around until a jacket with wad of dough magically appeared, then you went to Al Hafedz! That doesn't sound very convincing, does it?"

"You know what that sound like? Treachery!"

"Bullshit! I'll cut his tongue off!"

"No, no, no, I am telling the truth!" Trystan writhed as hard as he could before the guy with the scalpel could get a hold of his face. "I just wanted to eat, guys! Please believe me!"

"I'll tell you what, find a story that we can believe, then we'll let you go," another one grabbed the plier from the other guy and twisted Trystan's nipple with it. Trystan howled like a banshee. Tears and sweat blended into streams, creating swaths of water on his dusty face. All muscles strained for release, but the restraints held fast. He had nowhere to go.

"Hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?" suddenly a familiar face sorted through Trystan's agonizing cry and the pirates' chortles. "What the hell are you doing with my slave?"

The six pirates dispersed to see who was brave enough to interrupt them. Trystan had never been so happy to see Lei Fong. He didn't want to include Lei Fong in his failed escape, but after a couple of torture stints he was going to break anyway.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the pirates blurted.

"Who the hell am I? You're asking me who the hell am I?" Lei Fong charged the man with unequaled intensity. He was a small guy, but his dauntless disposition made him look like he was the bigger man. "I'm the one that makes your battlemechs running! And you have the guts to ask who the hell am I? That's the problem with all mechwarriors! No respect to techs and mechanics whatsoever! We're the ones that fix your mechs because your half-assed lousy piloting job!"

"You're a tech? Then what are you doing here? Go back to the hangar and do your job!"

"The hangar is bust, half of the mechs are under the rubble, and you are savaging my slaves! Get him down and let him work, for crying out loud! What's the matter of you?"

"Is he your slave?" one of the pirates tried to take control of the situation.

"Damn straight he is! Now get him down and get him to work! Do you want your mechs to get fixed? Then get me my slave back!"

"He was found far away from the hangar…"

"I asked him to get a few things!"

"What things?"

"What does it matter? You mechwarriors don't know anything about mechanics, so just stop pretending like you care!"

"He was found unconscious at Al Hafedz…"

"Because you've been giving him shit all day! Have you eaten your own food? They taste like sewer!"

"Who do you think you are, Liao?" the guy with the scalpel started to get impatient. "You think you can summon Capellan dogs to back you up? This is Port Krin, asshole! No Liao wants to come here!"

"Why is every ignorant white trash assumed I am a Liao?" Lei Fong let out his fury at the scalpel man with reckless abandon. "You people spit on every man that is not an ignorant white trash! You, who take lands from people that are not ignorant white trash and murder generations of generations of people that are not ignorant white trash like yourself! You are the ones who should be spat on because you are the worst kind of human beings!"

"OK, shut up, shut up!" the first pirate took control before Lei Fong launched another tirade. "Cut the guy loose!"

"You got to be kidding me!" the scalpel man growled. "Do you actually buy this guy?"

"Do you want to be infantry for the rest of your life?" the first pirate snapped back. "Cut the guy loose, or you'll never get to pilot a battlemech again!"

"You are not our leader, you know that?" the scalpel guy approached the first one, raising his scalpel.

"Hey, white trash, I'm on the clock here," Lei Fong bravely interjected. "The sooner this is done, the sooner you go back to wrecking battlemechs again! Now cut my slave loose!"

The scalpel guy shot a nasty stare at Lei Fong. He was a decent size guy, with taut muscles that would certainly overpowered Lei Fong in a matter of seconds. But Lei Fong's fearless demeanor took him by surprise, so much he started to respect the little man. He cut Trystan's bondage, causing him to splatter to the ground as if he had no bones in his body.

"Alright, back to work!" Lei Fong grabbed Trystan's arm and hauled him away. He pretended to haste, but when they were far away from the pirates, he stopped to check on Trystan's wound. "Pirate bastards!" he sneered as he wrapped a clean cloth on Trystan's pinky. "I've warned you about this."

"We were ambushed," Trystan replied, still hyperventilating from the shock of the torture. "I did exactly what you said. We stopped for water and food, and something hit me in the face. Next time I knew, I was here." He took several deep breaths and checked on his bloody pinky. "Thank you thank you thank you, you saved my life. I don't know how I can repay you."

"Forget your escape," Lei Fong rattled his teeth. "Go back to work like I said you would."

"No, I can't," Trystan shook his head. "This is not a place for me. I have to get out…"

But Lei Fong grabbed Trystan's jaw. "I just saved you from live mutilation. Are you so dumb that you're going to do the same thing, expecting a different result?"

"No! Had I not been ambushed, they wouldn't have caught me!"

"Ambushed? By whom?"

"By… Oh My God! Saskia!" Trystan suddenly realized something. "Whoever ambushed us has Saskia!"

"The girl? You are unbelievable!" Lei Fong threw his hands in the air, venting his frustration. "You just escaped a horrible death and all you can think is the girl! Is your brain in your dick?"

"You don't understand…" Trystan rubbed his temple, trying to find the best way to explain everything to Lei Fong. But in the end he gave up. "It's hard to explain. All I ask is just trust me this: I am her only chance to survive in this world. Not even her overblown puppy could save her."

"You're not making any sense!" Lei Fong groused. "How long have you known her?"

"About a day. Why?"

"You want to risk your life for a girl you just met a day? What are you, a spoiled princess from Arendelle?" Lei Fong looked at Trystan in the earnest. "Forget the girl, you Nordic dumbass! No girl is worth your own skin!"

Trystan understood Lei Fong's logic, and deep in his heart he agreed with the tech. But he could not just abandon Saskia. She was somewhere fighting for her life, alone in a world she didn't understand. Trystan knew how it felt to be alone and abandoned in a foreign world. To think about turning away from her when all she had was him was absolutely preposterous, especially for a man with high standard like him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I have to save her."

"Fine." Lei Fong started to walk away. "Trying to escape is stupid enough. Trying to take a girl to escape with you is the worst idea. But you certainly have a death wish. Who am I to hold you back?"

"I don't have a death wish. I'm just trying to get back to my old life," Trystan sighed heavily. "This place is not for me, nor you. How about you join me?"

"You just don't get it, do you?" Lei Fong turned back, shooting fire from his eyes. "You think you can succeed, now that they're alert? You go ahead with this plan, they'll catch you again, and they're gonna drag me with you! I was lucky they didn't hold me responsible for your insubordination! Next time they'll skin me the way they would've skinned you!"

"You said you had a dream of being a chief tech for a mercenary unit," Trystan said.

"A dream, Trystan, a fool's dream. I don't live to chase dreams like you. I'm a realist. There is no place for foolish dreams in real life."

"There is one for yours, out of Antallos," Trystan sighed as he went closer. "My name is Trystan Vandenberg. My grandfather was Duke Gideon Vandenberg, the founder of Blazing Aces mercenary unit. I am the rightful heir or the Blazing Aces."

"And yet you're here, scraping for food and water," Lei Fong scoffed curtly. "If you were an heir of something, you are not anymore. You are a slave. Accept the fact, or die to prove otherwise."

"I am a slave, but I won't be any longer. There is a dropship waiting for me tomorrow at noon. The dropship will take me out of Antallos. When I'm free, I will retake command of the Blazing Aces and banish those who betrayed me. And when I take command, I will need a strong, reliable chief technician to keep the battlemechs in nominal conditions. Somebody with high moral standard, unquestionable loyalty, and dedication to the job. I really wish it could be you."

Lei Fong didn't answer. He looked at Trystan for a long time, trying to decide if Trystan's offer was worth considering.

"Come on, this world is too low for someone like you," Trystan tried to persuade Lei Fong. "These pirates have no regard of humanity. They are like animals. You are far above them, a gem in the rough. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life working for them? Pirates who think you are nothing but a lowly tech?"

"What difference does it make?" Lei Fong grumbled. "They are all the same. Spheroids, Clans, all mechwarriors think they are the kings of the battlefield because they ride the almighty battlemechs, and forget who make their battlemechs run in the first place."

"I'm not talking about mechwarriors and technicians. I'm talking about living with pirates, crooks, savages. Is this what you really want?"

"This is better than being tortured to death!"

"I have this one chance, and I'm going to take it," Trystan started to walk away. "I know I'm risking a violent death but I still think it's worth a try. Better die in flame than live in shame." He stopped to face Lei Fong for the last time. "I still owe you my life, and I swear I will find a way to repay it, in this life or the next."

Lei Fong didn't answer. He averted his eyes, and waited until Trystan turned away and walked toward the darkness. But before he completely disappeared, he asked, "Where is the dropship?"

"Dock F, landing pad No. 12," Trystan replied. "I hope I will see you there tomorrow."

"For the last time, Trystan, forget the girl," Lei Fong barked. "You'd think it's hot to save a damsel in distress, but it's not. It's stupid. Find another girl after you're out of Antallos."

"No, I have to get her back," Trystan said. "We don't even have this opportunity if it's not because of her. It's hard to explain, but she gave me this chance. She gave us this chance. I'm not taking it without her."

"Then you're a fool," Lei Fong spat and walked the other direction. "I want no part in your heroic scheme."

"I would not ask it," Trystan replied. "If I don't make it, then I wish you a long and happy life."