CHAPTER 23

BAD BLOOD

Review Corner

The Colonel: They didn't know what they were up against.

AncientRaig: The recurring sequence is mostly my mediocrity as an amateur writer. I always strive to improve, but from time to time my so-so skill catches up with me. I will remember it next time I write a fight sequence.

Regarding the heat, in the the games (table-top and computer-VG) myomer does not generate a lot of heat. In the novels, it does. I tend to follow the novels because I think they make more sense (myomer is modeled after human muscles, which get hot and fatigued in a strenuous activity, like walking in mud). I did mention that the Thunderbolt was already hot long before the shooting started. The heat management of the -5Sd is great, but when you start hot, you'll get to the top quicker.

jdoug4118: I'm glad that you are. Stay tuned, there's a lot more to come.

Dropship FCS Thousand Sunny,
CharaIII, Freedom Theater,
Lyran Alliance, Inner Sphere,
March 10, 3065

There was a time when Trystan used to play table-top games with pewter battlemech miniatures. His favorite scenario was Jason Youngblood's Operation Liberty, where Jason led his elite Crescent Hawks to infiltrate DCMS stronghold at Dieron, right under the nose of Theodore Kurita. He played the scenario so many times that he knew every turn, every bends, every enemy position. He owned a few more scenarios based on Youngblood's exploits, from 4th Succession War to Clan Invasion, but Operation Liberty was always his favorite.

Now Trystan perched on the bridge overlooking Chara III, Youngblood's hometown where – at 18 years old – he single-handedly resurrected the elite Crescent Hawks and fended off Kuritan army from overwhelming Pacifica. His ingenuity, leadership, and loyalty to Katrina Steiner prompted her to give him his nickname: Wunderkind. The Wonderboy.

The comm officer turned on the holo-projector in the middle of the room, then a bust hologram of a middle age man materialized. Wrinkles adorned his face like trophies for many battles and campaigns throughout his career that spanned nearly half a century. But despite being inactive for the last decade, he had not lost his touch, evident from the reflection of light from his eyes.

"This is Lieutenant Colonel Jason Youngblood. Welcome to Pacifica."

"Sir," Trystan straightened up his stance and snapped a salute. "Trystan Vandenberg. It's an honor to have your support."

"Young Vandenberg, I was with your grandfather on his last day at Kaesong. I only knew him in passing, but I heard nothing but good things about him. He was a great man. His loss is dearly missed. I worked with Maria, your mother, a few times to rebuild the Blazing Aces. I am saddened by her untimely death. But I am glad I am taking part of the continuing legacy of the Blazing Aces through you."

"My mother is murdered, Sir, and the Blazing Aces was stolen from me."

"That is the sitrep I have from Commander Sheila Arla-Vlataa and Captain Kyle Garrett. Sheila sent the Blazing Aces to Chara III on a bogus contract. They arrived 10 days ago and immediately went on a witch hunt around the city of Starpad."

The hologram disappeared, replaced by an overhead map of Chara III. The image zoomed in on an agricultural settlement south of the capital. "Starpad is an agrarian community on the south. The terrain is flat, with a few wooded areas south and west of the city. On the far north-eastern part of the city lies a small island with an empty Star League cache. The island is a good ambush site. North-east of Starpad is a landing strip. The Blazing Aces may dock their dropship here. South-east from Starpad is the Citadel, my home, the Pacifica Training Academy. I have cleared a small field near the barrack for your bivouac. Sheila had included a mission parameter for the Blazing Aces not to deal with Pacifica, so your command center is well camouflaged. I also assigned a lance of new recruits, with modified Commandos, to serve under your command. See to my son Jeremiah when you arrive; he will set you up with the lance."

"Thank you for your support, Sir," Trystan nodded gratefully. "I am forever indebted to you."

"Good luck, Son," Jason flashed a small smile before his hologram disappeared into static.

"Fortune has seen numbers swollen," Saskia stood next to Trystan. "Four new recruits, yours to command. Set them hard to purpose and see vengeance served in blood."

Trystan beamed from ear to ear. "About time!" He turned to Lei Fong. "Are we ready to drop?"

"All mechs and zoid had been secured," Lei Fong replied. "Strap on, I'll inform the captain."

"Come, it is time to embrace the future," Trystan grabbed Saskia's hand and led her to the passenger quarter. But instead Saskia walked toward the ramp overlooking the hangar bays. The Gilvader occupied most of the space, being loosely secured to several bays using chains. The beast saw Sakia, and started to yank the chains to break free. It had been secured in a cramped space for too long, and it made sure its displeasure was well voiced.

"Heart withers to see arms tethered within constricting walls," Saskia tried to calm down the dragon. "Yet it regains form with the promise of the sky. Linger but a moment longer, we shall see this journey ended."

The Gilvader yanked the chains harder, letting Saskia know that it did not take its restraining lightly.

"We stand as one for this cause, do we not, Gilvy?" Saskia spoke with increasing urgency. "My hands, bound to your strength. Heart, fastened to your core. I beg of you, do not break this bond. I need you. I need you in the surviving of the coming days. My words, we shall pull through this madness and fall to the comfort of home."

The Gilvader caught the gravity of Saskia's plea. It let go of its anger and sat still in its restrain.

"I still don't understand how you can control a 300-ton of stubbornness with mere words," Trystan jested.

Saskia shot a blank look at Trystan, then took an empty seat in the passenger quarter. He followed her to another empty seat, just as Lei Fong's voice blared through PA. The red light flashed, followed by intermittent klaxons, signaling that atmospheric entry was underway. Soon the entire dropship shuddered in a violent fashion. Lei Fong's voice was buried under twisted-metal screams and the anxious roar of the Gilvader. The shuddering became more intense by the minute, then slowly faded after 30 minutes. It slowed down to mere pulses, then ended in a jarring quake. The klaxon stopped and the red light turned green.

"Drop complete," Lei Fong echoed through PA. "Welcome to Pacifica."

"This is it, ladies and gents! Let's go to work!" Trystan jumped from his seat. "Ronan, Dee Dee, set up perimeter defense. Saskia, run a complete recon on the city of Starpad. I want a detail map of the position of the Blazing Aces. I want to know where they stay, where they sleep, where they eat, where they go to the bathroom…"

"With all due respect, Commander, I am the air support of this team, correct?" Vicky unexpectedly interjected. "You hire me to provide coverage for the ground units, do you not? It is my job to do reconnaissance. Why does she get to do it?"

"We only have one aircraft at the moment, Lieutenant," Trystan replied, taken aback by Vicky's sudden assertion.

"Then why don't I get to fly the aircraft?" Vicky pressed on.

"It staggers mind, to think Gilvy will trust undeserved hands upon him!" Saskia snarled.

"It's a machine; it will let whoever the better pilot's hands upon it," Vicky came back just as nasty.

"Fact falls to numb brain," Saskia bared her teeth. "You know not the meaning of trust."

"Trust has nothing to do with the fact that I am the better pilot," Vicky stood up in an offensive manner. "I am a Lieutenant, with hours of flight under my belt. You are a Master Sergeant with mediocre flight hours, most of which were assisted by artificial intelligence!"

"Yet I stand entrusted, both by the ranking officer and by the most pigheaded zoid in Mother Zi!" Saskia met Vicky's animosity with her own. "You, you stand empty. It bears witness to one whose life promises nothing greater than misgivings."

"You point a finger at me, yet three fingers point back at you!" Vicky fired her fury full force. Saskia stood 3 inches taller and weighed a full 50 lbs more than her, but she fought back as if she was the bigger woman. "I saw how he looked at you, and I saw how you stuck your tongue down his throat! I am not the one who wiggle tongue in the proper assholes!"

"Hey, hey, stop, stop, stop!" Trystan quickly came between the two girls, who were ready to elevate their argument to violence. "What is the matter with you? You are adults, ferrchrissake! Start acting like ones!"

"You know I am the girl for the job," Vicky turned to Trystan. "Why am I being restricted?"

"I told you, we only have one aircraft, and it is her aircraft," Trystan understood her frustration, but he knew he couldn't possibly assign Vicky in the Gilvader. "When we get a new aircraft, I promise, it is yours. For now assist Osiris to recon the landing strip and possible logistic supplies."

"Acknowledged," Vicky grumbled. "Just to make sure this is not a preferential treatment."

"I provided counsel regarding Vicky," Saskia groused as Vicky stormed out of the room. "You turned deaf ears, and now see the result."

"Saskia, please, stop!" Trystan rubbed his temple. "I look up to you as my guidance, and this is what you give me in return?"

"Why are you defending her? She gives you nothing but grievance!"

"Saskia, stop!" Trystan couldn't believe the way Saskia act. It was as if Vicky triggered her evil side, and vice versa. "You have work to do. You have to map out the positions of the Blazing Aces. Please, just focus on your mission. People in Chara III have not seen your zoid, so stay out of their visual range. Do not engage the Blazing Aces; not all of them are bad. We may be able to convince some of them to join us, so stay out of fighting at all cost. Are you up for this?"

Saskia took a deep breath. "Yes," she finally said. "Your will, my hands."

"Good luck," Trystan gave her a reassuring nod. "Take your puppy to the sky. It's due."

It was not the recon and logistic assignment that aggravated Vicky. It was losing to another girl that put her in a very bad mood. She knew well that she was a better pilot than Saskia. She hated losing to somebody she deemed 'inferior' to her. She knew she could beat Saskia in any sortie in any type of flying machine. Helicopters, aerospace fighters, zoids, turboprops, turbofans, turbojets, name it and she'd ace it. Trystan's decision to pick another girl to do her job made her blood boiling.

Especially since she knew how Trystan felt about Saskia.

"You know what it is? It is nepotism," Vicky groused as she jumped onto the jeep. "I am the ranking officer in the air division! I am a lieutenant, she's just a master sergeant! Master Sergeant! That's not even a real rank for a pilot! I'm the only real pilot! I can beat her ass in a straight dogfight!"

"It does not matter," Osiris replied halfheartedly as he started the jeep. "The decision has been made. Suck it up and do it. That is the warrior's way."

"I'll do it if it's a fair decision," Vicky kept ranting. "He hired me because he had seen me flying. For three years I was the alpha dog in the Ingress Legions Air Support Division! You know what people called me back at Ingress?"

"Should I care?" Osiris mumbled.

"AlleyCat! Because I fly slick! I am The AlleyCat! He knows I'm The AlleyCat! He saw me as The AlleyCat and he knows I am the best girl for the job! Then in came this trash-talking tramp flashing her boobs in his face and suddenly she was his number-one choice and I'm bound to do jobs for dregs and miscreants!"

Osiris slammed his foot on the brake and shot a nasty look at Vicky. "Dregs?! I would have you defend your claim in a circle of equal, right here, right now!"

"I uh… I don't mean to insult anybody, Captain," Vicky was taken aback. "I'm just stating the obvious, at least from my perspective. Between me and Saskia, I am the better pilot. I hold the higher rank. I have way more flight hours than she does. I fought in one of the fiercest theaters in the Inner Sphere. But none of it matters, because Trystan has a crush on Saskia."

"I share your sentiment," Osiris spat begrudgingly. His Clan upbringing looked down upon romantic feelings. "His judgment is clouded by emotion instead of strategy; he sacrificed tactical advancement for a disgraced concept as," he paused, trying to gain composure to utter the most loathsome word in Clan culture, "love."

"Thank you!" Vicky threw her hands in the air. "I'm glad somebody sees it my way." She calmed down a little, then started to digest Osiris' strong reaction to emotion. "You had quite an opinion about love, though. Don't get me wrong, I had my share of getting screwed up by love, but I wouldn't go that far. When I met Trystan, I slept with his sister's boyfriend. There was nothing to it beyond physical attraction. He was horny, I was horny, we made it happen, crash boom bang, done. But Trystan loves his sister so much. I think part of his decision to favor Saskia over me is that I had hurt his sister. That I accept. Sucks, but I deserve it.

"I'm sorry, Captain, I talk a lot when I'm angry," she said sheepishly after a brief reckoning. "Or sad, or nervous… hell I talk a lot. Sorry. So what's your story, Captain? Have anything to share?"

"No!" Osiris growled. "This conversation is pointless!"

"Pointless? You think human interaction is pointless?"

"That is why you freebirth scum will never be our equal," Osiris said under his breath. "Your feelings interfere with your perception of honor and glory!"

"Tsk, freebirth?" Vicky scoffed. "What are you, Clanner?" Upon seeing Osiris' stern reaction, she realized it was the truth. "Jesus H. Christ, you are a Clanner, aren't you? What are you doing here? As a mercenary, of all the things?"

"Mercenary!" once again Osiris slammed the brake, jerking the jeep so violently Vicky almost flew off the passenger seat. "I am NOT a mercenary! I am a descendant of Alexander Kerensky! Created through the Clan's finest eugenic programs! Bred to war and die for the glory of Wolf Clan! I am NOT about to desecrate the sanctity of war for money!"

"I don't understand," Vicky caressed her breasts which got squeezed by the seatbelt during Osiris' tantrum. "If you hate it so much, why do you do it?"

"That surat Trystan ambushed me!" Osiris gripped the steering wheel so hard he started to dismount the wheel from the stub. "He forced me to acknowledge him as my bondholder, or he would sell me as a slave!"

"And you just agree and follow his order?"

"I gave him my words," Osiris leaned back on the seat. "Bondsman is a prisoner by honor. Better be a bondsman than a slave. I am bound by honor to be Trystan's bondsman."

"Prisoner by honor?" Vicky started to chuckle. "I don't know much about Clan culture, Captain, but it doesn't make any sense in any language."

"Then defend your position in a circle of equal!" Osiris stepped out of the jeep and posed a challenging posture. His thumb started to graze the hilt of his kukri. "Let us see if you fight as hard as you run your mouth, freebirth!"

"I'm sorry, Captain, I don't mean to insult you," Vicky was not well-versed in Clan lives, so she was mortified to learn that Osiris would kill her for some silly argument. She was not much of a martial artist. She knew she had no chance to win against the bigger, stronger man. "I think we bring a lot of anger into our conversation. Anger that doesn't even have anything to do with each other. So instead of killing me for my ignorance, why don't you educate me about your culture? I'd love to learn."

Osiris was a proud Clansman. He took great pride in his Clan heritage. He always considered himself a part of a Wolf pack, even though in reality his career was not a contributing factor in the struggle of the Wolf Clan. Vicky's insulting comment put him in a bloodlust mood, and he was ready to defend Wolf's honor against Inner Sphere savages, but her subsequent declaration of intention to learn Clan's culture strangely gave him a satisfying feeling. It might just be Vicky's ploy to avoid getting beat up by an angry Clanner, but Osiris decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"What do you want to know?" he sighed as he slipped back into the jeep.

"Everything! What's your career look like?"

"Not much to brag," Osiris tried not to give out too much. "I was produced in a sibko from Carns-Fetladral bloodlines. As a sibkin I was trained since birth to be the finest warrior there is. I beat an Elemental in my Trial of Position, and was inducted into the warrior caste. I served as a general infantry in the 7th Battle Cluster, Gamma Galaxy, reaching the rank of Star Captain until I was taken bondsman by Trystan Vandenberg. When my service is complete, I will return to the Wolf Touman and serve my clan until I die for the honor and glory of the Wolf Clan."

"Honor and glory for Wolf Clan," Vicky cocked her eyebrows. "Is it all there is to it for you Clanners? Honor and glory for your Clan?"

"Nothing else is worthy of consideration in the life of a Clan warrior."

"Don't you have some personal desire, like maybe a special girl that you like to hang out with?"

"Coupling is just a past-time activity, like dodgeball or knitting. We Clan warriors do not burden our couplings with emotional attachment."

"No relationship, just sex? I kinda like that idea. Maybe you and I should try it sometime."

"I only couple with an equal," Osiris grimaced. The idea of sleeping with an unrefined individual sickened him.

"So you think I am not your equal? You think you are superior to me?"

"I do not think. I know it for a fact," Osiris replied with derogatory tone. "Clan warriors are products of genetic refinement for hundreds of years. We are superior to you in any way. We are stronger, faster, have better reflex and perception about combat than you freeborns."

"Yet Trystan beat you," Vicky scoffed bitterly. "He is a freeborn, am I right? If you're superior to freeborns like you said you were, how come you got beaten?"

"He ambushed me! Stravag savashri! If it were a circle of equal, I would have taken him bondsman, or better yet, separated his head from his body!"

Osiris' arrogant disposition about himself aggravated Vicky. But before she could burst his bubble, they arrived at the landing strip. A few dropships docked in the bays, none of which bore the mark of the Blazing Aces.

"Looks like the Blazing Aces parked their dropship somewhere else," Vicky mumbled. "They're not as dumb as Jason Youngblood made us believe."

"We will continue reconnaissance," Osiris took charge. "I will circle around for more tactical information. Open your eyes and report any target of opportunities that we can use in the upcoming battles."

"Before we do that, why don't we stop at a local ethnic restaurant?" Vicky replied. "The food at the jumpship is blech. I crave quality cuisine."

As a matter of fact, Osiris was starving. He had not eaten anything in the past 48 hours. Against his better judgment, he decided to go with Vicky's suggestion. "Ten minutes, then we continue our mission."