Chapter 15

May 2, 3025

Above Kevilston

Suk II

Few things really beat the thrill of flying. It was even more nice when the wind from the VTOL's rotors was adding a nice breeze to the passengers of the Diana's Wish, a rather spacious private craft sent to pick up Emily and J.J. Another few hours of flying and the jungles of Gimli were far behind them. They were passing above the 2nd largest city on the planet. Really the only place big enough to be called a city other than the capitol of Mach 'Beh. There were plenty of suburbs all around both cities, and plenty of smaller villages further out. Some even had their own water treatment plant. But if they didn't break 1 million people, their town's names weren't officially recognized as a city, and thus were still considered part of the larger city.

That didn't make the view any less impressive. The passenger hold was mostly empty except for them large and boxy and somewhat resembling what a Heuy from ancient Terra would look like. The doors were open on both sides which let the air in and gave them the chance to look out to the west.

Jungle was everywhere, but it contained threads of grey running through it, stretching on until the horizon, continuing even further towards the mining districts and mountain resorts poking out from just over the edge. Craggy, pointy-looking mountains from jutted up from here, and it looked like the planet had grown a lower set of canine teeth along most of what they could see in the distance. Beyond was the continent of New Syria, with matching teeth on the opposite side of a large channel and even more jungle. Volcanic eruptions long before mankind ever settled in to the planet so many centuries ago had moved rich mineral veins closer to the surface to be extracted. The wind speed was lower on this planet than most, so the mountains hadn't been rounded down to make them more climbable.

Directly under them was a large expanse of grey, black, and various streams of color (mostly green) throughout the city. Emily and J.J. were clearing it on the northern side, though looking back the streams of traffic of people going about their every day lives was visible as small metal ants traveling across a net of ferrocrete on a bed of green beneath it. Many roads were elevated, allowing trees to grow underneath and in many cases, around the highways. Giant trunks, possibly half a millennia old at this point, were still able to hold their own weight as they twisted around buildings built in their shadows. It gave the feeling that the entire city was being hugged by these green monsters. The artistry of Kevilston from this height made it look like the city came first, and the trees weaved their way around as they grew.

This city was known throughout the Inner Sphere for its architecture, and many younger colonies and cities throughout often mimicked the pattern. Over 25 million people lived in what was nicknamed the Keviltrees. Here the quality of life was higher than most metropoli that had even more access to better health care and technology. It had a lot more traffic accidents though, typically at low speeds as tourists often rubbernecked the views only to gently bump into the vehicle in front of them, mesmerized.

Emily didn't want to turn her eyes away until the VTOL sadly pulled the city out of sight. She was compensated by an even grander view up ahead, as the capitol of Mach 'Beh came into view. It was an absolute giant, with even some of the outer-most buildings being massive and often cylindrical in shape. Her VTOL began to gain more altitude just to clear these "smaller" buildings that rose higher than the first skyscrapers of the 20th century. The ones in the center were probably twice as tall. Construction sites half as tall as the outer buildings were all around the edge of the city. One had a bright pink billboard flashing "Who needs the country when you can see it all from your home in the clouds?"

The view directly below them was blurred by the thick, rapidly-displaced air of the fans on either side of Diana's Wish behind them, as well as one beneath them to the front. It made the buildings seem to vibrate by themselves, then slowly melt across the streets and come back together as the craft passed over. She couldn't make out the tallest buildings up ahead, mainly due to some of the light noon-day smog obscuring the skyline, but they nonetheless continued upwards. Despite technological advances in transportation, the internal combustion engine was still a thing, even though the fuels were much cleaner and the amount of pollution in the sky of such a massive city was even less than 21st century levels, when alternate fuels were just starting to come out.

I'd hate to be the guy handling all the permits for solar panels on these beasts, Emily though to herself. Like Kevilston's overall design looking like a group of large vines had overgrown a scale model of the city, Mach 'Beh had similar architecture, but in a more metallic, less twisty variety. Various tubes connected most of the larger buildings towards the center like giant ropes, allowing transport from building to building without having to spend an hour going up and down, and also giving every building more support. Which allowed them to build things as high as they did. The central metropolis of the Capitol resembled the tallest rodent cage in the universe, assuming the rodents were the size of humans. The entire silhouette of the skyline ahead of her looked like one big cat's cradle laid on top of a bed of popsicle sticks with needles sticking out of the top.

Traveling by VTOL was the way to go in this town, in a city of over one hundred million. The entire town appeared to be the nest of a colony of metallic bees, floating along lanes of traffic up and down the city, while others went in their own circular patterns from rooftop to rooftop. Or in some cases, rooftop to the side of a building, where various landing pads jutted out in every direction. Had these bees not been buzzing around, blowing some of the pollution further away from the city and into the jungle to "pollinate" the trees hungry for carbon dioxide, Emily guessed this city would have a much darker sky than it did.

While slightly gaudy in its appearance, it was nonetheless impressive for a first-timer. Emily was simply in awe. She said nothing for the last ten minutes while taking in these views. Even by air, it still took that long "as the crow flies" to reach the downtown area. She also suspected the pilot of their VTOL was instructed to "go slow" to allow them to take in the glory of their planet. J.J. was about as bored as you could imagine, somehow. Finally, he nudged her with his elbow, speaking loudly into the microphone connected to his headset. "Down there, Wright-sama." She looked at where he pointed, which was a building far shorter in height than the other downtown buildings, but stouter and more square-like, like an ancient Terran cathedral or mosque. Only three-times the height of the ancient ones.

"Parliament Hall, I think." He shouted. Emily simply nodded and stared. J.J. had obviously been around a little bit longer than anyone in the Coyotes, so he was just a little more used to this kind of thing.

Over both of their headsets, a voice from the front chimed in. "The PM asked me to give you a loop around the city first. Want one? You'd better be strapped in first." Emily enthusiastically said, "Hell yeah!" and the ship banked left to allow them a view directly over their own mid-day shadows, wherever those were. Somewhere down there, she thought. Really wish Pearl could have come on this ride. As her new XO, it meant they would be apart more during official business like this. One of them had to hold the fort down. As the VTOL circled outside the lanes of traffic below them, both on the ground and above it, she realized how loud this town could actually get with all the vehicles in every direction.

How did people even have a conversation in a town like this if you weren't inside? Then she remembered how hot it normally got, and probably figured if they weren't on some nature hike, they were probably indoors. It seemed most people were indoors, anyway. At least up here it seemed pretty comfortable, but she knew better. She had sweat her ovaries off for about two months straight. She probably drank as much water as it took to keep five people hydrated on some other more temperate planets.

After their loop, which basically showed more of the same from this height, they came down onto one of the landing pads of Parliament Hall. People were coming and going from this place even faster than most others, and the two of them quickly fell into pace behind their greeter. Almost everyone here seemed to wear some variation of a ceremonial Roman toga. Probably more comfortable than my sweaty tank top and shorts, and I probably stink to high hell by now. Am I really coming in to negotiate a contract like this? J.J. wasn't much better off. He was probably thinking something similar, because he wound up asking the question first to their guide. "Is there a place we can take a shower before we meet with such high-ranking officials?"

The guide, a short, arguably tiny woman, whose own toga would probably only qualify as a top or a bottom for Emily, grinned widely. "Yes, I will take you there now."

This must have been a common practice on this planet, especially for off-worlders coming to negotiate business deals or political disputes between neighbors, because they had a nice facility dedicated to just that. And some kind of a machine that washed and dried their clothes and had it hanging out and ready for them within five minutes, sans stink and fortunately not any smaller than before.

The feeling after a cool shower on a hot day and feeling two months of grime just roll off your naked body, and putting on clean, dry socks was no doubt the best feeling one could experience. Ahh…better than SEX, she thought, sighing loudly and not caring who heard it. J.J. simply smiled at her and was far better at containing his emotions, but when the eyebrows went up to his hairline and the eyes closed in pure relief as he slipped his own socks on, Emily simply giggled. "Don't try to hide it, J.J. I won't tell anyone. Best feeling in the world, right? I feel kilos lighter."

He laughed. A short one, but still the first one she'd heard out of him in two months, despite the now-threesome's attempts at trying. Even a few pranks only got a smile and nothing more out of him.

All refreshed (and arguably twice as tired now that the grime came off), the two were escorted into a small but luxurious room. Despite the grandeur on the exterior of the building, most of the inside they had seen was all business. And hallways. Lots of hallways and doors. No doubt many meetings were going on in some of those rooms over…who knew what. Construction was probably a big one, given the expansion on the edge of the city she noticed.

That thought was interrupted by the early arrival of two people, a man and a whoa, what a woman, entering the room and sitting down immediately. Emily resisted the urge to stand as part of the greeting, but was informed when she arrived on-planet the custom for whoever came in the room was to match whatever position everyone else was already in. Having an open chair by a doorway helped reinforce that custom.

What struck her first was the unusual dress she wore, with the almost 1-meter train behind it. A deep green, it was far more form-fitting around her waist than the various colors of brown togas Emily saw everyone else wear, including the man with her.

What struck her second was how drop-dead gorgeous she was. She probably was at least 10 years her senior, but looked like she could be almost half Pearl's age at 36. Pearl, you'd better be damn glad I found you first, or I'd be all over her like grease on a myomer muscle. Only a couple of lines in her face betrayed her true age, but Emily was probably sure she didn't cover that up to give her more of an air of authority and experience.

"Greetings, both of you, and thank you for coming. I am Orsula Alvarez, head of the Planetary Ministry of Safekeeping. Which is a fancy title for "I look after the planetary militia and any help it may receive on the side." She exchanged smiles at Emily, knowing she clearly won points by not sugar-coating her job right off the bat. "This is my aide, Jonah Orlianne. Goes by mister these days but he used to lead a company of infantry in the militia before retiring early as a Captain to become my aide." Everyone simply nodded at each other as introductions finished across the room. Not shaking hands is just weird, to me, but whatever, Emily thought.

"The Coyotes. Yes, I've heard. At first, I thought you were called the Jackals. That was embarrassing." She smiled and shook her head. "But your achievements have definitely caught our attention. I asked your contract liaison to come just so I can confirm in person that you are indeed available for a new contract. We'd like to get your assistance against…exactly what you have been doing the last two months, really. And there's one other thing…" She trailed off, standing up to look out the small window at the metallic rope tubes connected to some of their building.

"Yes?" Emily asked. Oh, just get to the point already. You're totally doing this on purpose.

Alvarez turned, the bright Suk sun dancing off her dress, creating a shadow on the floor that seemed to reach out to Emily. Nope, taken. Taaaakeennn

"There's been a lot of unrest in the streets since the raids on our water facilities. We still have plenty of functioning treatment plants, but we still haven't located the commandos or their base of operations, or who they're working for. Intel suggests they might be Combine, but we can't be sure yet. Whoever they are, they caused a lot of stress on the people of our planet. There's been increased looting, protests, you name it. Things haven't gone to the level of straight rioting yet, and our police has taken on extra recruits in the last week to help out. But the people…well large groups of them…just a nudge this way or that could start some serious problems, infrastructure damage, maybe even loss of life."

"Are you asking us to help with potential riot duty?" Emily asked indignantly. "Ma'am, with all due respect, that's not what the Coyotes are good for. We're guerrilla specialists and restricting ourselves to the streets of Mach 'Beh or Kevilston would be hiring us for maybe…25% efficiency of what you're actually paying us for."

She nodded, looking to her aide. He spoke, with his deep, baritone voice making Emily wish she was bisexual. Lots of sexual tension in this damn room, to be honest, she thought. And what's with hair on this planet? Was everyone just born with perfect hair or what? "What we were thinking were more along the lines of helping guard the mining districts to the west and possibly the south. We've asked Roughrider garrison units to assist more directly in defending our water supply, which leaves openings for contracts for defending the industrial heart of our planet.

Several guerrilla units of smaller size than yours have begun to make probing attacks near those districts. We understand that you took some heavy losses during the Langley Affair, and we're willing to help you get rebuilt with the necessary parts." OK, now we're getting somewhere.

Emily answered, "I'm aware there are some rather large towns near those districts. Are people more upset near the districts than the treatment plants? I sure would be if it meant my hard work was going to waste."

"Not just their hard work, but their profits as well," Orsula added. "The main people coming forward to me with their concerns are the foremen and heads of these mining companies with government and private contracts to fill, and frankly they don't even feel comfortable having their people on the job if there's the potential for a cave-in due to a firefight and such. I know I wouldn't. You probably already know this, but hover tanks are a pretty significant export of this planet. We don't have much in the way of mech facilities, but Lucas Technologies has a medium-sized production facility between that district and the capitol, and the tariffs on exports for military hardware helps our economy greatly."

Emily knew about the facility and saw several LTV-4 hover tanks back at Firebase Yankee. 50 tons each and carrying both a Particle Projection Cannon (or PPC) as well as an SRM with 4 tubes made it a sight to behold when a lance of them focused on one target. And it was fast, reaching top speeds of 110 kph. Probably replacements for some of the vehicles they brought from off-world that we wound up capturing. Maybe they were going to use them to help catch us, since we bagged some of the slower tanks.

"The western districts sound more our speed, but we'll need a couple days and a dropship to move over there. I'll need access to some kind of a maintenance facility near the district, even if it's not a 'mech one, so my techs…what's left of my techs can get some proper repairs done. Up until now my people have done field repairs in the jungle using vines and trees to rig up pulley systems and done most of the lifting by hand. As of right now I have one fully-functional lance, two lances in various states of repair, and one lance of confiscated hover tanks from the Roughriders. I might negotiate my hovers back to them in exchange for parts and/or a replacement mech, but right now that's what you're looking at.

"Our people are best on defense, which is what you'll be paying us for. We would focus primarily on perimeter defense and attempts to bait and capture hostile mercenary forces, but for now we're shorthanded. Instead of a higher contract price, I'm willing to negotiate some of that in exchange for direct support from the planetary militia." Emily held up a hand, delaying any interjections for now. Orlianne clearly looked like he had something he wanted to say.

"What I'm asking for are two lances of some of the heaviest tanks you can offer, or one heavy to assault mech lance, in exchange for a portion of our fee, or even close to all of it, and they answer to me during the contract. This allows me to set up traps to acquire enemy units to add to our own force. For the time being, we need an anvil for our hammer. Their risk will be minimized—the Coyotes are the ones that act as the bait. Our TO&E allows for that easily. Half the reason we came to Suk II on our previous contract was to grow our force, and now it's smaller than it started as, thanks to Langley. Help pay our operational costs and wages, help with our repair and rebuild and give us some big guns to entice people to surrender more quickly, and give us…let's say 90% salvage rights, and we can defend your mining district. That alone should help with most of the unrest in that area. If you want us to do riot control, you're better off going with someone else."

J.J. was the first to break in, bowing in his seat. "I can confirm the 1st Iron Coyotes are no longer under contract. We consulted with the Roughriders' lawyers and agreed to a permanent cease fire, and the Coyotes are free to hire, for the right price." He smiled at Orsula and Jonah and sat back. This part of his job was the part he enjoyed most, getting shuttled around at someone else's expense to simply confirm a few statements in person. A free shower was sometimes worth more than gold.

Orsula looked at Orlianne for a moment, and he nodded, indicating this was a fair offer. "Done," she said. "Mr. Orlianne will help take care of the details and fine print."

"What about you, Sho-sa?" asked a curious Orlianne. "Will you return to the combine now that your duties with the Coyotes are finished?" His voice filled the room like he was singing a song instead of just speaking plainly.

J.J. was silent for a moment longer than he needed to be, then nodded to himself. "Something happened at Langley that I do not agree with. Whoever was responsible, and we still don't know who yet, did something dishonorable in the eyes of the Dragon. I want to stay and find out who. Since I was expected to be here for another 10 months, I see no harm in offering my services to the Coyotes during that time while I investigate. I know how to work the system in my favor. I've done this for years."

He turned to Emily next to him in his chair. "Major? What do you say?" Oh, you picked a hell of a moment to ask, you clever dog.

She stood and offered his hand, breaking the local custom in the room. Hell with it. "Welcome to the Coyotes, Sho-sa. But now we officially get to call you 'Captain J.J.'"