The following is a MechWarrior/BattleTech/MechAssault fanfiction.
I DO NOT OWN any pre-established characters, vehicles, planets, or BattleMech diagram rights to the I.P. This is a passion project and is in no way, shape, or form connected to FASA, TOPPS, Catalyst Game Labs or any subsidiary companies associated to these companies.
Please, enjoy.
--
CHAPTER I.
PLANET: DUNIAN SHIRE
LOCATION: MAGISTRACY OF CANOPUS
DISTANCE FROM TERRA: 509.44ly
DATE: MAY 17 3066
The first thing that Marcus "Greyback" Greene knew, was light. As when all children are born, they are born with their eyes closed, blinded by the sudden and jarring experience of one of our most incredible and important senses. Some open their eyes within twenty minutes of birth, and Marcus was one such child. It's what he knows now. The sickening yellow from an aging, overhead light bore it's way through to the back of his eyes.
Marcus opens his eyes with an overwhelming urge to roll over and go back to sleep. He tries, but the sound of keys and metal rollers on rails as his cell door slams open, brings him back to reality. "Get up, Taurian." Said the guard on duty. Marcus sits up on his bunk, and again opens his eyes slowly. The cold, tiled floor beneath his feet brings aches and pains, all over his body to the forefront of his mind.
A headache from hell hits him, like a truck as the memory of the past two days floods over him. He was on Dunian Shire, in Canopus. A backwater planet compared to the rest of the magistracy, Marcus was in what could only be the equivalent to an Old Earth jail cell. The guard spoke again, "You're free to go." Marcus looked over at her, the left arm patch of her perfectly fitted, dark navy Militia Defense Corps duty uniform carried three, four-pointed golden stars, in front of three purple spheres these were above an oblong oval with what seemed like the night sky inside of it.
She looked at him with pale, hawkish eyes that peered out from under a symmetrical bob cut. An upturned nose, with a too perfect slope, like a sky ramp launch track, acted as iron sights for her while she stared him down. 'You practiced that look.' Marcus mused in his mind. He stands up off of the cheap, hard bunk that he was sitting on the edge of.
"You are lucky someone posted bail. Otherwise, I would have just left you here to rot away, all alone." Marcus opted to not respond to her blatant attempts to make him lash out at her. "I'm ready to go, unless you want me to waste more of your precious time." He said with a drawl that natives of Renfield are known for.
She sneers at him, and jerks her head to the side. Walking down the hall from where they were, they passed other empty cells. One was close to being sanitized, after an unhinged prisoner smeared her feces on the walls. She was drug out of there the night prior, kicking and screaming like a lunatic. Marcus hoped that 'Ramp Nose' got tagged by one of the muck covered hands.
He and Ramp Nose continued on to the jail's property office. The fat man sitting behind the window looked up from noteputer as they walked up. "Finally that day, hm?" 'Fat Man' asked Marcus. "Yes, sir." He replied. Fat Man turned around and came right back with Marcus' belongings.
Fat Man said the quantity and name of the objects' as he set them down one at a time: "One: wristwatch, one: Taurian I.D. and travel pass card, one: Taurian Bank card, one: Taurian Defense Force service medal, one: belt, one: worn, TDF FC with "Coronet" rank, one: set of composite combat boots. Finally, one: cropped leather mechpilot jacket, with patches." As each one was set down, Marcus put them into his cargo pants or put them on to wear. When he grabbed his jacket, Ramp Nose yelled: "Detainee secured!" A loud buzzing noise filled the air as the metal bars behind them slammed home, and the ones in front of them opened. They continued walking for another few minutes, weaving their way through a small maze of corridors.
When she and Marcus reached the lobby, a man with red hair, a greying beard, and friendly grey eyes met him. He wore a pair of cream colored work pants, a rich blue shirt under a jacket just like Marcus', and a pair of dark brown, calf high riding boots. He held an old, terran style cowboy hat from the 20th century. "Cousin!" Jameson called! Marcus breathed a sigh of relief, and embraced his 'older brother'. "Unless you want the private suite, I-" Ramp Nose started. "How about you go get the prisoner I have in my car, before he decides my backseat is his toilet, Ratcliffe?" Jameson broke in suddenly.
She sneers again. "The magistrix may have continued funding, for your little 'program', but you do not have authority to give me orders, Marshal Greene.", "As foreign representative of the Fronc Reaches, I'm able to release persons of interest as long as it serves both of our nations. Also, as long as I carry this, the Magistracy Intelligence Ministry excuses any actions I perform for the sake of that interest." He pulls out a letter that was signed by Tanya Gallegos, the soon to be former director of MIM.
Ratcliffe's blood drained from her face, and she promptly signalled two other guards to follow her in getting his prisoner. "You're a rep of the FR, and you're here with permission from the MIM? You have been busy." Marcus says, finding the whole situation amusing. Jameson gives him a wink; "A lot of benefits come with helping to save the leaders of two periphery states." Marcus and Jameson make their way out of the front of the jail, giving Ratcliffe a smirk as they walked out. They walked out to Jameson's 'World Rover' and started driving, they left the small city and continued through residential streets, driving further into the flat country beyond the city limits.
"I guess classics DO die hard." Marcus says about the rover. "You're damn right they do!" Jameson affirms, "For fifteen years, she's kept me safe from a-to-z." The drive continued like this for another hour, small talk, laughs, and jokes rolling off the tongue. After they ran out of stories, things went silent in the car, both of them being content with just being silent and enjoying each other's presence. The scenery continued to become more, and more wild. Proper roads faded to gravel, that faded to dirt.
After thinking for a while, Marcus asked: "Where are we going, and why did you come to get me?" He didn't ask before, as he trusted Jameson with his life, and was just happy to see a familiar face after eight months of drifting from planet to planet. Jameson kept his eyes on the road, and took his time to respond. "It's better if you hear it in person, from people who're authorized to disclose it." They fell back into silence for another twenty minutes, and started to slow down at the end of a road.
"We're here." Jameson said, "It'll be a five minute walk from here, there are people who want to meet with you, after I brought up your abilities with a 'mech." Marcus and Jameson hopped out of the car, each of them grabbing a water flask from the backseat, as well as a small travel bag from the backseat. "Inside, there's basic hygiene items, and a set of rolled clothing. These are for after the brief, where we're goin', it'll be our home for the next two weeks."
Marcus nodded, and they started off down a trail. Eventually, they reached a squat, bunker like building with a steel door. With Jameson leading the way, they walked into a room of roughly sixty-eight square meters. There was nothing inside, smooth walls, floor, and a ceiling. The only light inside the bunker, was a single fluorescent light, that was attached to the center of the ceiling.
"What?" Marcus asked. "Are we playing poker with a group of dogs, and being served stiff liquor by Peter Rabbit?" Jameson snorts and smirks, and shutting the door behind them, a magnetic *shunk* can be heard from the door locking. He walks past the hinged side of the door, and pushes a hidden panel in the corner, sitting right on the floor. The panel slides back, and reveals a series of buttons which he presses in a seemingly random order, and the floor begins to sink down, into the ground.
"You're about to meet the cats, dogs, and not only Peter Rabbit, but also his second cousin, Lucky." Jameson says answering his question. "We are goin' to meet people who don't 'officially exist'. Standard procedure here is: You'll be stripped down and checked for weapons. After a quick background check, to verify you are, who you are, you'll follow me to a briefing room."
The thirty seconds it took for the elevator to sink six meters below where the floor was, ended with a small hallway, and a set of opaque sliding doors. Jameson looked behind himself, and at Marcus. "From when you first saw me, this never happened." Light was all that Marcus knew.