Alternate Reality

Chapter 13: "The Real Cavalry"

Location: New Mombasa ruins, Africa, Kenya.

Date/time: 2553/3073 Mar 13th 2:17 GST

Specter immediately fired his jets and leaped forward to dodge the Daishi's counter attack. Three Clan LBX 20 scatter-shot rounds pulverized the ground where Specter had been only moments before. Specter noticed that the Daishi's most powerful weapons needed six seconds to reload, he also noticed that they were placed in the most armored sections of the mech's torso, providing him with a blind spot on either side where He wouldn't get shredded like a piece of paper. Hannibal jumped his mech onto high ground, landing in a cloud of smoke on top of the pile of Phantom rubble. He fired his Particle cannons and scorched the side of the Fafnir.

Falcon twitched with expert efficiency only gained from her training that had begun the moment she had existed. She dodged the dual blast of the Fafnir's heavy gauss rifles and fired her auto-lock medium range missiles, a salvo of thirty missiles streaked across the rubble and blasted armor from around the right gauss rifle's barrel.

Beowulf darted forward like a hawk, his short range missiles perfect for a close fight as he had five racks of them and they recycled in seconds. He fired his small missiles in quick succession, every two seconds another flight being ready to fire.

Specter brought his attention back to the Daishi as the six seconds were up and a trio of shotgun rounds crunched into his side. The armor splintered, cracked, and shattered in a brilliant display of sparks and light. The shock nearly caused Specter to fall, but he used his momentum to fool his opponent, and just as it seemed he was going to go down, he aimed up at the Daishi's left leg and fired all three of his gauss rifles one after the other into the leg's knee joint. The joint, crushed, couldn't bear the weight of the hundred ton mech and the Daishi fell into the dust. Specter noticed with glee as the Daishi's cockpit exploded outward and the pilot ejected in a tiny flash compared to the actual size of the walking tank.

The Fafnir by now stumbled pitifully, though Specter could tell that Hannibal's Thor was missing his right arm, and that Falcon's nose was crunched awkwardly. Only Beowulf had avoided damage, his heavy but light-foot mech darting circles around the beast while continually firing salvo after salvo of SRM's. The Fafnir's pilot panicked as the action swirled around him, and he too ejected into the sky.

"I'm the Preceptor!" Specter mocked over the comm. "What a bumbling fool..." He trailed off, describing how pompous and pathetic the now dead leader of the WOB was.

"Specter, we're all clear for now sir, I've got someone on the line that you'll want to speak to." Katrina voiced this with a hint of success as if the skirmish were over or as if they had somehow found help.

Peter stood in the mechbay of the Overlord as it descended through Earth's atmosphere. Luckily his magnetic soles kept him where he was despite the shaking of the ground. He glanced over his shoulder to where Victor waited by his Daishi the "Prometheus" talking with one of the techs. Victor seemed pretty upset about something, his face was read with exersion hot even considering their travel through fire into the atmosphere of this world. Peter, knowing his older brother well, decided it would be best to find out what was the deal. So he stalked over there, taking deliberate steps to avoid falling as the ground shook beneath him. As he got closer he could hear some of the conversation.

"...I asked two weeks ago that it be repaired! How come no one worked on it this whole time?"

"Sir, right after the taking of Tharkad we had to repair the regular mechs as they were in the most damage.'

"I don't care how damaged they were! You had a week since we got here, why..." Victor sighed and pushed his hands into his pockets. "Just repair it now I have no time for this."

It was at this time that Peter strode up calmly and examined their faces. The Tech was annoyed but was trying hard not to let it show as he forced a placating expression onto his face. Victor was utterly exasperated as he waved his hands and walked off to look at the other mechs. Peter knew him well, he hated having to fight in anything but his favorite mech with his favorite specifications. The Prometheus had taken quite a bit of damage before the end of the conflict when they finally put his sister behind bars and dethroned his aunt Nondi Steiner.

Victor finally decided that he would have to go with the mech that was deliberately named after him. The humanoid Victor was a balanced mech, capable of bearing nearly every weapon system available to a mechwarrior: and a Prince had resources far greater than any common soldier. Victor ordered the techs into a flurry of motion as they outfitted the mech to fit his needs. Soon the Victor was repainted,had fresh armor plating, its right arm bearing a heavy gauss rifle, his left arm carrying an LBX 20 shotgun, and an extended range large laser set into his mech's left shoulder. Victor climbed up the ladder as the dropship hit dirt and the doors began to groan open.

He reviewed the plans they had set before their arrival. They had tracked the last WOB ship to Terra and found an alien fleet in orbit around the planet. He had set his small flotilla of ships against the aliens while his dropship descended to the center of the action. He knew that this was a different universe, and as such the Word of Blake didn't control Terra in this universe. He intended to keep it that way. He determinedly punched in his codes and pulled his mech into a cold start. He pounded out the door and surveyed the area with his sensors, ruined buildings, rubble, crushed bodies, and smoke filled the horizon. He swiveled so as to get a view of the three mechs trailing after him. Peter had forsaken his still damaged Fafnir and strode proudly in a Mad Cat, one of the best mechs in existence. It had two missile racks, one on either side of a snub-nosed torso with two arms underneath the missile racks. It had backward knee joints, and its polished paint glistened with light, even through the smoke, and played off the dangerous CSTRKMRM20 warheads above his shoulders. His arms carried a particle cannon each, and its speed and maneuverability put it at the front of their formation in seconds.

"Jealous?" Peter asked. the nose underneath the cockpit had a painted toothy smile of a shark.

"Just going for second best." Victor replied. "Let's go to the center of the conflagration, one our way down we detected battlemech IFF's heading in that direction."

"Moving." Peter answered, perching on the ruined carcass of dead Wraith tank, ducking his nose down to inspect the wreckage. "I've never seen anything like this."

"Focus Peter." Victor chided.

Katrina chuckled lightly. "Your real employer." She cut the line and switched over Specter's signal so he could now hear light breathing coming into his ears.

"Yes who is this?" Specter demanded, he scanned his surroundings seriously and when he decided it was safe he placed on foot victoriously on the remains of the Preceptor's Atlas.

"This is Prince Victor Steiner-Davion." The voice was completely level and serious. And Specter was sure he had heard it before.

"Mind if I ask why you're here?" He idly tapped his fingers against his command console.

"Specter, this is Peter." Some one else broke in. "We followed the Word of Blake to Terra after they followed you into the wormhole."

"You might not have seen it as it appeared right as your ship jumped." Victor cut in.

"Where are they?" Peter asked.

"I think either dead or hiding on their new ship." Specter yawned. "Follow my signal and we will examine the ship ourselves"

Specter sighed, their search for the odd work of ONI seemed so promising. He was suspicious that the Word of Blake might have been to this universe before. But there was no way to be sure. "I'll have to investigate around here some more before I go back."

Victor and Peter caught up with them within minutes. They had minimal directions from Castle of the whereabouts of the WOB ship, and got lost in the twisting corners of the ruined city more than a few times. It seemed like an age had passed when Hannibal jetted his mech into air and landed in a cloud of dust upon the roof of an especially plasma-ravaged building. He announced his finding with an anxious taint in his voice.

"They seem to have been hit numerous times by plasma weaponry. The ship is mangled and crash-landed in the side of the far building." Hannibal paused noticeably as he examined the scene further. "It looks like they crashed into some kind of factory, they are dangerously close to the molten steel."

Specter had had jets installed in his Templar and eagerly jumped his mech to Hannibal's Side. He soon saw the worst part of it: "There's Covenant swarming all over it sir, and they seem to be very interested in what's inside."

The others walked around so they could get a view. Victor took a sharp breath. "What is that Adept doing? Look!"

They all watched in shock as the aforementioned Adept walked slowly down the open ramp that led into the ship and strode proudly up to a large hulking Jiralhanae Captain. There were pointed fingers and raised voices, and even obcene gestures from both of them. The final resuilt was the Brute grabbing the Adept and raising himself above his head.

The Adept swung out of the alien's grasp and activated an alien plasma sword of a different design that Specter had never seen. The sword created the shape of a large two-handed longsword reminiscent of the Medieval Crusaders' swords. The Brute jumped back as the Adept swung at the alien's arm.

"Should we?" Hannibal started.

"Quiet!" All the others screamed at him as they watched in fascination. The smaller aliens created a circle around the two combatants. It looked oddly like a Clan trial of Position. They were a blur of motion, but finally the Adept severed the head of the brute and knelt with his blade's point digging into the earth. He glanced at the Unngoy and motioned with his sword back at the ship as if he were ordering them to do something.

This answered Specter's question. "Yep, they've been here before... that guy has a lot of experience with those aliens."

"Then why are they here?" Victor asked.

"Maybe they've been trying to save humanity and take over at the same time while subverting the aliens." Hannibal suggested.

Falcon merely coughed. "That was a good duel."

"I think we need to stop this and get some answers." Specter stated loudly over the comm.

"No Specter, we need to go about this carefully. Do some investigative work and trace these leads to find the true source of this. We must find out how influenced this universe is by them." Victor ordered. "Go to passive sensor and find a place to hide. I take it you already made them your enemy."

Specter's Templar shuffled on its feet uneasily. "Yes sir. We'll hide out somewhere and check our leads."

"Wait, you already have leads?" Peter asked.

"Well, yeah. I only just remembered that while I was spying on a government project I saw the Word of Blake handprint insignia with a sword emblazoned on the lab coats of the doctors." Specter replied as his memory sparked.

"What kind of project was this?"

"They were augmenting someone's body with steroids, encasing their bones, and many other things, why?" Specter asked... "Wait..."

"Manei Domini." Peter confirmed. "It seems they want to have their presence here without diminishing their number in our universe."