The fire popped and hissed as the wood burned. The sun was going down and the temperature was starting to drop. Anastasia was tired. She had spent the afternoon helping re-attach the arm of Mag's Jenner. Because she was notoriously bad at repairing armor she was stuck with the task of reconnecting and testing the 'mech's lasers. Most of this was running the wires and power cables, splicing the broken ones and making sure they were properly secured in their trays and conduits. When she was done she found herself helping Mags pull the myomer 'mech "muscle" and reattach it to the arm. It was nearly four hours of work and the armor still needed to be mounted on the armor.
She had multiple cuts and burns and sore muscles, but she felt good about her work. Now she was curled up with Selene on a pseudo-couch made of palettes stacked in front of LRM reload containers. She was happy though, Brant was impressed. He usually found some way to make a snide remark about House Davion, and remind her and everyone that she did a pour job of patching armor. Today Brant seemed genuinely happy with her work.
Anastasia never got more than a few private minutes with Hap, but he mentioned Mags was struggling with how close she came to ejecting. It sounded like there was a series of complex emotions from feeling incompetent, to feeling that even considering ejecting was betraying her father. Hap tried to assure her it was more his fault for ordering her to engage the Cataphract, but Mags maintained if she had been better, or a little quicker she would have prevailed. Hap mentioned she no longer felt invincible in her 'mech, but maybe that was a good thing.
After work was finished and she had gotten cleaned up Anastasia had also found a sweatshirt among Hap's clothes. It was oversized for her, but warm. It was almost like wearing a blanket with sleeves. It was warm and comfortable and smelled faintly like Hap. All of this made up for the fact it had the Albion Military Academy logo embroidered on the left breast.
Hap hadn't noticed that Anastasia was wearing his sweatshirt. At the moment he was standing with the other men around the grill that Brant fabricated. Brant's grill looked similar to the outer casing for a jet engine but he swore he could cook any meat with any fuel. He touted the grill's double wall construction and specially designed grill created a super efficient cooking surface. Anastasia was too tired to care how it worked.
Roweyna and Kate walked up and found their own camp chairs around the fire and sat down and got comfortable.
"Are ye sure we cannot fly back tonight?" Roweyana leaned
"Outside my duty day, Roweyna." Kate said, "I warned you this would happen when you told me you wanted to fly with me."
"Well then ye may as well have a bit of this." Roweyna said as she pulled out another hip flask from a different pocket of her briefcase. She took a swig and passed it over to Kate.
She shrugged as she drank. "8 hours bottle to throttle, when do you want to leave tomorrow?"
"Oh 0800 I suppose."
"Well that gives me plenty of drinking time between now and midnight." Kate said as she took another swig before passing the flask toward Anastasia.
Anastasia took a tentative sip. It was a smokey scotch whiskey. She swallowed the mouth full of alcohol, suppressed the urge to cough, and gave the flask back to Roweyna, "How was your conversation with commander Nyugen?"
"Oh good, good. He explained that there was a mis-understandin' with his staff and he personally took responsibility for it. Claimed he told his subordinate to ensure that ye did not get placed in a position to run afoul o' the enemy patrol."
"And you believed him?" Kate asked.
"Well I've met his subordinate and he's a right nasty piece o' work. He seems like that perfect blend of stupid and mean. So if his commander told him to do somethin' I would not be surprised if he found some malicious way to make it look like he was tryin' to obey when disobeyed."
"That's a very accurate assessment." Anastasia said.
"Aye, and the commander let our techs have a go at selecting some of the best salvage. I think between that Marauder and Cataphract we can build out a Marauder."
Kate gave a low whistle, "That's a pretty sweet deal, but I'm sure I strafed both those 'mechs to scarp. If Brant can resurrect that Marauder from that slag, he's a better tech than he's been letting on."
"I'm better than that vodka swillin' Aerotech you got." Brant yelled from across the fire. "At least I can speak English."
"As long as the armor holds, and the wings don't fall off, Dmitry is good shit in my book. I don't care what he swills or how he speaks." Kate replied as she took the flask from Roweyna.
"We have half o' Marauder back in the Tir na nOg, so once we meet up with father we'll be able to put it into service, or sell it for mint."
"Are you still going to report our mistreatment to the MRB?" Anastasia asked.
Roweyana shook her head, "Nay, it jest wouldn't do. The commander and I had a long talk and I truly believe he lost control of his subordinate and he wanted to make it right. No need for raise the issue any higher."
"What about all your talk of mercenary professionalism and keeping faith with other mercenaries?"
"Anastasia, I know I said some high an' lofty things, but ye have to understand when a field commander offers ye good salvage ye know he's tryin' to make amends. No one died, and we have our 'mechs. If my father were here he'd be tellin ye the same thing. 'Pocket yer money. Take yer salvage, and at least act grateful'."
"Sage advice." Anastasia said.
"How much whiskey did you bring with you?" Kate asked after taking another swing from the flask.
"Enough to last me till 0800 tomorrow, so make sure yer ready to go wheels up by that time." Roweyna said as she opened the outer pocket of her brief case closer and pulled out a slender curved bottle containing a brown liquid.
Brant came by with a tray that looked like it was made of sheet metal. The tray was laden with hamburgers. "Alright ladies, the Compact was kind enough to give us a couple kilos of ground beef and we found some bread for buns. So, we're having a good old fashioned Taurian burger burn. We also got some type of root vegetable like potato that Masja and Tasja are frying into chips." As he mentioned them Brant nodded his head toward the twin techs standing over a large pot full of oil.
Hap walked over and passed a bottle of wine to Anastasia, "I had to trade our ration of beer for this, and I think it's just a red blend, but I thought you'd like it more than rice beer."
Anastasia smiled as she accepted the bottle. She looked over the label it, like everything she had experienced on St. Ives was in Chinese, Russian, but there were small gold letters that read, "red wine" at the bottom and "3025".
Anastasia reached into her go-bag and pulled out a wine key and began to cut the foil. "3025 was at least a good year for technical readouts, lets see how the wine fared."
"You carry a corkscrew in your go-bag?" Joker asked as he took a hamburger and sat down in a folding camp chair next to Mags.
"How else would one open a wine bottle?" Anastasia screwed in the cork.
"Well the one time, and I should clarify this was the only time before today, that I ever saw a wine bottle anywhere near a battlefield Hap just broke the neck off of it and we drank out of our canteen cups."
Hap shrugged as he took the wine bottle from Anastasia and pulled hard, "You've had a certain civilizing effect on our lance." As he spoke the cork came out with a pop.
Anastasia nodded as she took the bottle, put it to her lips, and tipped it high for a long drink.
"I think we've had the opposite effect on Anastasia." Joker said.
She handed the bottle to Hap, "No, wine should be enjoyed from glass, not a steel cup. The steel will chemically interact with the wine and spoil the taste. Glass is inert, and since this is the only potable glass container we have handy I'm using it as a field expedient wine glass."
Hap took a long drink from the wine bottle. "I'm still a little concerned about how hard you hit your head."
Mike brought the tray of burgers over to Hap and Anastasia, "Mighty generous of the Compact to give us some real beef."
"Oh, you think so?" Kate said, "You should see what they had back at the head shed. I think the evening menu was lobster in a cream sauce with capers and Ouzo served over linguini. The Capellans had apparently poached some real choice supplies. Which the Compact found and dispersed as they saw fit."
"To the victor goes the spoils" Roweyna said as she lifted her glass bottle in a mock toast.
"And somehow we still get the scraps." Mags noted
"It's all good." Joker told her, "The fact the Cappellans were saving it up for our victory party makes my burger taste better." Joker said as Masja and Tasja came up with a try of fried potatoes. "Thanks ladies." Joker said as he grabbed a handful then tried not to howl when he burned his fingers on the hot oil. Tasja shook her head as she put the tray down on a large upturned cable spool near the fire.
"You gonna be okay dining on this peasant food while our allies enjoy their Lobster Thermidor?" Brant asked.
Anastasia swallowed a mouthful of hamburger, "I suspect our allies are enjoying Lobster with pernod-capers butter. Lobster Thermidor is usually made with brandy and the lobster is served in the shell. However, no, I'm right where I want to be." She leaned into Hap and smiled, "I'm in good company with good food and drink. We're all safe, and like Joker said this is one of the best hamburgers I've ever had. Thank you for cooking."
Brant looked taken aback, "Alright. Yeah. You're welcome." He took a few steps away, "Hey maybe you could cook Lobster Thermidor for us sometime. Let us see what it's like eat like a fancy noble."
"We'll need fresh lemons, lots of eggs and cream, gruyere cheese, brandy, and of course lobster." Anastasia answered.
"I'll talk to Henry about getting all of that, might be a nice meal to celebrate getting off this rock."
"I'll make you a list with all the acceptable substitutions in case Henry has trouble finding everything."
"Much appreciated." Brant said as he offered burgers to Masja and Tasja.
"I'll not authorize extra money for purchasing food for the ship's mess." Roweyna said, "but I'll offer up the brandy."
"Henry's a pretty savvy scavenger, that shouldn't be a problem." Brant answered as he took a burger and put the rest of the tray on the spool by the potatoes.
"You know for someone who doesn't eat much you sure know a lot about food." Joker said to Anastasia.
"I try to make every calorie count." Anastasia said.
"Not me." Kate said, "I try to eat like every meal is my last, and run it off later if I manage to survive. Although my survival rate has been pretty good so I might need to cut back." Her voice dropped as she added, "little Katey is having trouble outrunning her inner fat girl."
"You consider yourself a connoisseur of military rations, how is that 'eating like every meal is your last." Joker asked.
"I'm enjoying every meal, that's how." Kate said. "Good burgers by the way, Brant."
"Salt, pepper and beef, can't go wrong." Brant said as he took a second one.
Chyou walked into the fire light, "May I join you?"
Anastasia used a piece of hamburger to entice Selene to move off the bench and lay down at Hap and Anastasia's feet. Anastasia and Hap moved to accommodate Chyou, and she thanked them as she sat down and stared at the fire.
Everyone was quiet for a moment before Anastasia offered Chyou a hamburger.
"Thank you my friend, but-"
"Wait, didn't you have fancy Lobster dinner?"
"Our meal was an unpleasant and quarrelsome affair where Zhang attempted to turn several of the other officers and NCOs against the commander. He felt that the Commander showed too much generosity and respect toward you and your company, and encouraged the other officers to join him in his displeasure."
"Yeah I know a lot about unpleasant and quarrelsome meals. They happened every time my uncle came to visit and tried to borrow money from my mom." Joker said.
"Quiet Learnin' disability," Roweyna said as she slouched in her chair and took a long drink, "Yer commander jest let that little shitehawk try to raise a rabble against him?"
"Not for long. Zhang has on several occasions spoken ill of the commander's decisions behind his back. Today he made a malicious comment at the officer's mess and the Commander ordered Zhang to speak plainly and explain his meaning. This led to Zhang to impugn the Commander's leadership and decisions openly. The result is that Zhang has now been removed from active mechwarrior status, and will be transferred to command of an infantry basic training company."
"Your leadership is putting Zhang in charge of a basic training unit? That doesn't sound wise." Hap said
"He will be surrounded by professional NCOs so there is little risk to the trainees. He was also told explicitly that if his performance fails to be satisfactory he will spend his career as an infantry officer with no opportunities to be on mechwarrior status again. This is his last warning."
Everyone was quiet for a moment as the fire hissed and crackled. A log broke in two and Mags used a prybar to catch it before it could roll away from the other logs. She added another log to the fire.
"Damn. Zhang got dispossessed by his own Commander. That's cold." Joker said.
"Aye, I recall once we came to a Jump point and there was no Jump Ship for days. We were in enemy territory and too low on fuel to get to a habitable world even if we wanted to try. One of the crewmembers started similar mischief talkin' about how Father was a fool, and he was going to get us all killed."
"When Father got wind of it he called everyone together and confronted the man and any other would be mutineers. Henry damn near marched the dissenter to the air lock, but Father confined him to his bunk, forbid him from speaking to anyone. If'n he failed to abide by that, he'd be removed from the vessel. When we got to a friendly port Father terminated his employment, cited him for breach of contract and warned him not to use him as a reference."
"Damn, where's 'the family love'?" Joker asked.
"Mutiny aboard a space vessel is no joke." Kate said as she took another sip from Roweyna's liquor bottle. "It seemed every class I took at NAIS on ship board ops at least mentioned that a mutiny was something to be taken seriously. Obviously the focus was keeping high moral and being transparent with leadership decisions, but if that failed…"
Brant motioned for the liquor bottle, "I gotta know, how did the morally upright and virtuous academies of House Davion suggest dealing with mutineers?"
"In the most Taurian of fashion." Kate said grimly, "Aggressively, decisively, but with restraint so that the crew wasn't decimated. Kelly's response would have been textbook, Henry's response…well depending on the circumstances, not to many Drop Ship Commanders I know would have questioned it."
Brant took a long drink than passed the bottle back to Roweyna, "Aggressive, decisive, but with restraint, that's the Concordat's style alright. Maybe there's hope for House Davion yet."
"Or maybe were not so different." Kate said quietly.
"You know, given the choice I think I'd rather be spaced than dispossessed." Joker said.
"That right there is why people think you have a learning disability." Mags said.
"What's next for you Chyou?" Anastasia asked.
"My work and experience for the Compact has been noted by my superiors and Her Grace has been made aware that I was the daughter of landed nobility. I have been told I will receive the title and holdings of my father, but I must still serve in the military." Chyou said.
"Our holdings included large tracts of farming land for rice and grains. Soon I will take leave, find worthy stewards and ensure that the farmers have what they need, lest we create a famine. Once the farming is secure I will return to the army and defend my people while I govern from afar."
"Have you heard from your father?" Hap asked.
"Mother has sent a note that he is quite conflicted and has seen things within the Confederation that has made him question the war and his loyalties. She says the news lies about the Compact, and they have seen for themselves that Maximillian Liao is selfish, abusive, and possibly insane, and his daughter Romano is little better. There are problems caused by the war with the Federated Suns, but the selfishness of the Laios and the brutality of their government has exacerbated the tragedy."
"Do you think he'll rejoin you, maybe help you?" Hap asked, "Could he be one of those stewards?"
Chyou shook her head, "His pride and the politics makes that impossible. He would lose much face to return now, especially now that I have received his title and our holdings. Further, it would create a question of our family loyalty. Were we opportunist that played both sides? Is our loyalty only to our holdings? Will we run back to the Cappellans if the Compact appears weak? No. He must stay where he is, at least for now."
Chyou was quiet again and the fire continued to crackle and pop. Anastasia looked over at her friend and saw a tear streak down her cheek.
"Even if your dad can't come back, does he at least acknowledge he has a daughter again?" As Hap spoke he reached over Anastasia and gave Chyou a friendly shoulder squeeze.
Chyou nodded, "Yes. Mother says that father no longer considers me naïve and impudent, but wise and honorable, and it pleases him . That at least has been some comfort to me."
The conversation turned as Joker argued why losing a 'mech was a fate worse than death, and the other MechWarriors weighed in on what they would do if they lost their 'mech or could no longer pilot a mech. Anastasia snuggled up to Hap and imagined a day when she was quietly governing Hazelhurst with Hap at her side. The conversations continued until the drinks ran dry and the eventually the fire burned down to embers. After that everyone split up to their sleeping areas.