Chapter 18

Meridian Manufacturing Plant Two

New St Andrews IV, The Periphery

Rimward of the Circinus Federation

3 June 3077

              

               The morning after the battle at the pirate camp the Hussars were back at work, trying to repair their damaged machines with the obsolete parts Meridian’s factories could provide.  Simple things like armor and heat sinks were easy enough to fix, but Katamari would be handicapped until they could get new actuators for its arm, and Wolf needed even more work.  The little Commando was going to be suspended in a repair gantry until they could find parts for it.

               Caradin had been right that there were spare parts out in the woods.  As soon as the first ‘Mech was good to move, the Hussars started their patrols again, ranging out into the battlefield to dig up whatever salvage they could.  As not only one of the less damaged ‘Mechs but also the only one currently with two hands, the Blossom was frequently sent out on these missions.

               Marie felt sick, getting the Blossom fixed up only to have Thomas climb inside.  With her access code he’d been able to synch his old neurohelmet with the LAM and take her out into the woods.  Marie had tried talking with Caradin about the reassignment, but the lieutenant hadn’t had enough time to talk for days, as she coordinated salvage operations and had meetings with Meridian that put a dark look on her face.

               For her part, Marie was on double duty, called to assist in repairs of all four of the Hussars’ ‘Mechs while also supervising the prisoners.  Despite Caradin’s efforts, Meridian refused to allow any captive pirates to leave the Plant, instead keeping them in a group of hastily-retrofit dorms while the Hussars and Meridian teams gathered up the salvage scattered through the woods.

               Once the salvage was back at the camp, the pirate prisoners were put to work going over it, fixing what could be fixed and tearing down the rest for spare parts.  Only a few of the prisoners had balked at being used as manual labor, and they had changed their minds shortly afterwards.  Marie was unsure what had changed their minds, but she had noticed some bloody lips and bruises among them.  It was enough to make her glad she was the one in charge of supervising them.

 

 

               Not that this is a dream job, she thought from her seat in a folding chair outside the Plant, watching the pirates strip the battered Quickdraw.  Around them were the Meridian security detail, a dozen men with rifles.  Likely the men were glad to appear useful after weeks of ineffectually trying to guard against BattleMechs.

               Marie suspected the guards weren’t just there for the prisoners, either.  With the pirates broken and the Hussars heavily damaged, Meridian’s security forces were the strongest military on New St. Andrews.  The guard team was a quiet reminder to everyone of where things stood.

               Meridian was certainly taking advantage of its new leverage: Marie had talked with Bower and a few others to confirm that the company was indeed tightening the purse strings, withholding most of the bonus from defeating the pirates until after the Hussars had secured the stolen goods.  Normally this sort of contract re-negotiation was strictly dealt with under the oversight of the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission.  Unfortunately the MRBC was still reeling from the chaos of the Jihad, not the least of which was the Word of Blake jamming the HPG network that allowed interplanetary communication.  With the MRBC sitting dozens of light years away and already backlogged with complaints, a lot of mercenary units were left having to fend for themselves when it came to employers changing the terms. 

               She looked up at the sound of roaring engines, seeing a flatbed rolling in with the latest load of wreckage in its bed.  Walking alongside it, the Blossom followed the truck into the camp, where it began unloading the parts from the truck.  Marie seethed in annoyance at the sight of it.  The Blossom was an athlete, and she was being used like a dockworker.

               She couldn’t decide what burned more: forcibly loaning her ‘Mech to Thomas, or the irony that defeating the pirates had put the Hussars in a worse spot than when they’d been fruitlessly hunting for them.  Either way, she felt responsible for being in this situation.  If she had shut up and let Caradin decide on strategy they could’ve just kept up their patrols until the pirates left, with minimal damage to the Hussars’ machines.  Or if she had fought harder, moved faster, even just kept her feet under her, she could’ve headed off the pirates before they’d escaped.  If she’d had the guts to open fire on them…

               Every time she thought about things like that, a knot in her stomach got a little tighter.  She pushed those thoughts out of her head and opened the latest beer.  Meanwhile the latest pile of mangled wreckage was heaped next to the remains of the Wolverine and the battered Chameleon, the latter of which still sported most of the panels meant to disguise it as an Atlas.  The ‘Mech was technically functional, but inside it was a mess.  Marie had been assigned to getting it on its feet, but the thing made the Tweedles from Huntington look simple and forgiving by comparison.  The cockpit was a mess of loose wires and jury-rigged control panels, and there was a separate remote control duct-taped to the seat to fire the rocket launchers that had been attached to the mech’s hip and shoulder. 

               With the cockpit such a mess and no activation code to work with, she’d have to replace the security box to even hope to get the ‘Mech usable.  That promised to be at least a full day’s work, assuming she could get the parts she needed from Meridian.  Then she’d have to reconfigure all the systems and rewire the cockpit to handle the new hardware, which would be at least another day’s work.  But if she could do that, the Hussars would have another ‘Mech, and maybe then she could revisit Caradin loaning the Blossom out from under her.

               She glanced at her wristcomp, double-checking some calculations she’d been doing.  With her current salary she’d have bought off the Blossom in about five more years.  Once the LAM was hers she could walk away from Caradin and go find a place in another unit, but she wasn’t sure she could make it that long.  Maybe if she transferred more of her paycheck to buying the ‘Mech she could be at 50% ownership in a year.  But she wouldn’t be able to keep supporting her mother with that kind of pay cut.  And she’d really have to straighten out the Blossom’s aging internal systems if she was going to be serious about owning her.  Maybe while she was installing new electronics on the Chameleon she could make time to work on the LAM’s cockpit, too…

               She took a long swallow of beer and tried to focus on the more immediate problem: the Hussars were running out of time.  The pirate dropship would be jumping in-system any day now.  Assuming the pirates had set up a landing zone to use as a fallback point, the ship would land for long enough to pick up the pirates the Hussars had missed – along with the material and equipment they’d spent almost two months gathering – and then it would take off, along with any chance of getting the bonus payout the Hussars desperately needed if they were going to make anything off of this contract.

               As much as she hated being taken out of her ‘Mech, Marie knew that she was the best chance the Hussars had of finding the remaining pirates.  Aerial patrols had worked the first time, but the remaining pirates would be lying low now, and Caradin couldn’t waste time flying around randomly looking for a quarry that would be leaving the planet in a week.  If the Hussars wanted to catch a break, Marie had to find out where the pirates had fallen back to.

               Unfortunately their best chance of finding the pirates was also their only way to get decent repairs done.  Right now the prisoners were busy stripping the Quickdraw’s carcass for parts.  Marie wasn’t sure the machine’s actuators would be able to support the Katamari’s 80-ton weight, but they were still a league above anything Meridian could make. 

               Melody had become a sort of unofficial foreman, ordering the others around on the salvage operation.  Marie had been watching her work all day, and she could tell Melody knew her way around a ‘Mech.  The woman was surprisingly efficient, especially considering she was doing the job under armed guard.  Marie wasn’t sure she wanted to interrupt the salvage process with questions.  After all, even if they knew exactly where the pirates were, it’d be worthless if the Hussar ‘Mechs were in no condition to go after them.

               Marie grimaced as a comm handset at her side chirped.  Thomas had been checking on her regularly all day to see what she’d been able to find out.  “Nothing’s changed in the last five minutes, Blossom,” she bit out annoyedly as she answered it.

               “My apologies, I had not known there had already been a check-in.”

               Marie’s eyes widened.  “Sorry Hoshino,” she said.  “Is something happening?  Did you find anything?”

               “Sadly, no.  I remain on patrol.  But I find myself staring at the woods out here, and I wondered how you were doing.”

               Marie scratched her head – the orange dye had been ruined by sweat and rain, so she’d changed the streak in her hair to a bright purple this morning.  She absentmindedly pulled down one violet lock, examining the color as she considered Hoshino’s question.

               “Nothing new out here,” she finally answered.  “The sergeant is checking in every half hour to see if I’ve gone crazy.  And the slave labor’s working away.”

               “Slaves?  That seems harsh.  It is a form of justice here.  Circinans are known to traffic people, when it suits them.  Turnabout is fair play, as they say.”

               “Don’t you start,” Marie shot back.  “Can’t anyone just hear me when I say I want these people treated decently?”

               There was a pause of a few seconds in response.  “I suppose so,” Hoshino said quietly.  “Is everything all right?”

               “You were there.  You tell me, is everything all right?  Is that how after-action debriefs always go in this unit?”

               “Well…Caradin does want the best from us.  She tries to bring our mistakes to light so that we may learn from them.”

               “Yeah, my dad did the same thing.  But never like that.  What am I supposed to do when she dresses me down in front of the whole unit?  Blames me for everything?”

               “Yes, that was unfortunate.  You should not antagonize her like you did.”

               “I antagon…” Marie repeated incredulously.  “What the hell did I do?  Just before getting in she said I was doing great.  Why does she get to come down on me like that just because she’s mad?”

               “She is the lieutenant, her job is to give orders and see they are carried out.  If she takes issue with our behavior, it is our duty to listen to her and think on it.  Perhaps call it a learning experience?”

               “Learning to do what?  Just…you know what, forget it.  I heard all I needed to at the debrief, and I know whose side you’re on,” she said.

               There was silence on the other end for a long few moments.  “For what it is worth, I think you are doing well,” Hoshino finally said.  “You are simply finding your own way, young one.  Everyone who pilots a ‘Mech must find their definition of what it means to be a warrior.” 

               “I’m not in a ‘Mech, remember?” Marie asked.  “I’m grounded.  Maybe I can hotwire one of those aerospace fighters, but Caradin doesn’t seem too excited about them.  She barely even mentioned we got a couple of fliers.”

               Hoshino chuckled.  “Three fliers and only one Pilot, the math does not work very well.”  When Marie did not return his laugh, he became more serious.  “The lieutenant is old-fashioned.  She is used to ground operations.  Perhaps she does not wish to risk flying units or our only pilot for them.”

               “Yeah, she mentioned something about that,” Marie replied skeptically.  Quietly she suspected something much simpler: most MechWarriors simply didn’t think about flying units.  It was natural, as ‘Mechs were usually the biggest, deadliest things deployed on modern battlefields, with aerospace fighters only showing up for support here and there.  She’d met quite a few MechWarriors who stopped paying attention the moment they saw wings.  She wondered if Caradin was among their ranks.

               Marie shook her head at that.  She was still suspicious of Hoshino after what Caradin had said about him, but his energy was encouraging.  It was enough to push her to ask him something else.

               Her eyes trailed over to the Plant, where the Blossom’s empty gantry sat waiting for Thomas to come back.  “I’m kind of stuck until I can buy my machine.” she began.  “But the Katamari’s yours.  A decent MechWarrior with an assault ‘Mech, I’d bet you could get a spot in plenty of units.  What keeps you around?”

               “I…I apologize, young one, but this is not something I can speak on,” he answered.  “It is not your place to know.”

               “We’re teammates, aren’t we?  Caradin said she thinks the unit is like a family.  Can’t you share anything about yourself, make the new girl feel a little more at home?”

               “I…I am sorry.”

               Marie grimaced at the stonewall answer.  “All right, how about some pointers for your junior.  I need to get answers out of these people or I’m guessing Thomas will be driving the Blossom a lot longer.  Caradin’s put you on interrogation duty before, right?”

               Hoshino made a rumbling noise as he thought.  “I have been asked to find information now and again.  Sometimes people will lower their guard around me.  Perhaps you can work with sergeant Thomas?  He has a way of putting people on edge, after which a friendly face can cause them to open up.”

               “The good-cop bad-cop routine?” Marie asked dryly.  “Gotta be honest, right now I’m not feeling like giving the sergeant any more of my time.”

               “I can understand, he is…difficult at times.  But he is the lieutenant’s second for a reason.  He gets results.”

               “Gets results,” she repeated flatly.  The image of the sergeant shoving Melody to the ground came unbidden to her mind.  “All right, thanks Hoshino.  I’ll see what I can come up with.”

               She looked at the salvage team again, watching them work.  After a few minutes she got on the comm to the Plant’s cafeteria.  Half an hour later a couple of workers came by with a motorized cart of prepackaged meals.  Marie took the cart towards the salvage team, giving a quick nod of acknowledgement to the ring of guards.  Her knee protested with every step, making it a very long walk.  As she approached the salvage team, Melody looked up.  The woman’s face darkened as she noticed Marie.

               “We’re working as hard as we can, all right?” Melody snapped, annoyed.

               Marie nodded placatingly.  “It’s after noon.  Lunch break for you guys.  Help yourselves,” she said with a gesture to the cart.  Melody looked unimpressed, crossing her arms and looking away, her nostrils flaring. 

               Marie shrugged and stepped away, stopping only to pick up a toolbox from the ground.  She sat back down in her folding chair and detached her leg from her thigh.  She popped her kneecap off and examined the internals.  Her brow furrowing, she took a pair of pliers and started pulling at the components inside the knee.  After a few minutes she became aware of attention on her.  She glanced up to see Mel sitting on the Quickdraw’s foot, eating a sandwich and watching Marie work.  Marie raised one hand, beckoning her over.  Mel made no effort to hide her annoyance, but still came over.

               “Yes, ma’am?  How can I serve you today?” she asked, the sarcasm practically dripping from every word.

               “I need an extra set of hands.  Hold this,” Marie said flatly, handing a flashlight to Mel.  Mel grudgingly took the light and shone it into the knee, still eating her sandwich out of her other hand. 

               “Don’t suppose you’ve ever worked on anything like this?” Marie asked.

               “Here and there,” Melody answered, her mouth half-full.  She looked the leg up and down.  “More likely my granddad worked on them.”

               “They still work,” Marie replied.  “Just like swinging brings around with my hips.”

               Melody made a noncommittal noise.  “So what did you really call me over for?”

               “I told you, I need an extra hand.  Also…how are you guys doing out here?”

               Melody shrugged noncommittally and took another bite of her sandwich.  “We’re doing the best we can,” she answered bitterly after swallowing. 

               “Yeah…” Marie hesitantly replied.  “Look, I’m sorry about how you were treated when you got here.  The sergeant was out of line.”

               Melody shrugged again.  “Not like I expected any better,” she grumbled.

               “Any other problems?  With the sergeant or anyone else?  Hoshino?”

               Melody shook her head slowly.  “The big guy with the Charger?  He’s been by once or twice, tried telling a couple jokes.  Someone needs to tell him he’s not as funny as he thinks.”  She gave Marie a suspicious look.  “Something you want to tell me?”

               Marie unconsciously looked Melody over.  The woman looked only a few years older than her.  On a second look, she could see the tattoo on Melody’s cheek and arm was covering an old burn.  Mel looked dirty and rough, but she was still pretty.  If Hoshino caught her alone somewhere…

               “I guess not,” Marie answered with a shake of her head.  No sense worrying her over it.  “So…I have to ask.  You guys have some pretty good tech on hand.  Why go to all this effort just to steal a couple Arbiters?

               “Because Hesperus II is too long a walk,” Melody flippantly replied.  When Marie spread her hands in exasperation, the woman smirked.  “Why don’t you ask your friends here?  Their holo-ads did most of the work.  Got half the Periphery believing this Arbiter is the most dangerous thing this side of an Atlas.  A couple enterprising MechWarriors show up on your doorstep driving those, odds are the local defense surrenders without a shot fired.”

               Marie blinked.  “You watch the ads?”

               “Well the Solaris replays are a little slow to stream out here,” Melody answered.  She looked Marie up and down.  “We had a bet going on whether you were a real pilot or not.  You cost me.”

               Marie’s mouth tightened, half in annoyance and half in embarrassment.  “What were you going to do when someone actually pushes back and finds out how quick those Arbiters break?”

               Melody scoffed and gestured to the wreckage on the ground.  “You see those things?  I had guys holding guns to my head forcing me to keep them running when they’re ready to fall apart.  It’s not like there’re many ‘Mech factories in this corner of the galaxy.  We’re all in the mud out here.  You get by with what you have, or you starve.”

               Marie stared at her pensively for a long moment.  “Is that what you call what you’re doing?  Crushing farmers and stealing Arbiters is just you trying to get by?”

               “Way of the galaxy, sweetheart.  If you’re winning, it means someone else is losing,” Mel answered.  “Bet it’s real easy to judge people when you’ve got a daddy who gives you a flying ‘Mech and a Clan helmet for your birthday.  You’ve got your easy ride, that’s all that matters to people like you.”

               Marie felt the knot in her stomach tighten even more, and a simmering anger she’d been holding back started to bubble up.  She clenched her fists and glared at Melody.

               “I lost my father when I was twelve, on Galedon, the same place I lost my legs,” Marie began slowly.  Mel flinched at the name of the cursed planet.  “I have spent the last eight years of my life doing scutwork on dropships so I don’t starve, and having people look at me like I’m some freak because I don’t have all my original parts.  My own brother abandoned me because he thought I would slow him down.  I stole my ‘Mech from some asshole who tried to kill me,” she added.  “You want to talk about having a gun to your head?  I’m one mistake away from losing her and falling right back in the mud.  Don’t talk like you’re the only one who has it hard.  Sweetheart,” she bit out through clenched teeth.

               Melody drew back at the outburst.  Her nostrils flared again and she looked away from Marie, over at the destroyed Quickdraw.  “At least you’ve got something left to lose,” she muttered half to herself.  She groaned quietly and looked back at Marie’s leg.  “Move over.  Let me have a look.”

               Marie raised an eyebrow.  “Why should I?”

               “Because you knocked your knee out of alignment when you fell on it, and you’re trying to unstick the actuator without re-aligning it first.  You’re going to grind straight through the joint before you figure it out.”

               “You offering to do something about it?”

               “Just shut up and let me see.”

               Marie gave the woman a suspicious look, but Melody was already turning the detached leg around to inspect it.

               “What, you’re a medtech too?” Marie asked guardedly.

               “Medtech, battlemech tech, aero tech, septic engineer, electrician, carpenter…where I’m from, if something breaks, you fix it, because you’re not getting a new one,” Melody replied, distracted.  “But I’ll guess you can understand that much…from the look of these legs, you’ve been keeping them running for a while now.”

               “These were all we could afford,” Marie answered defensively.  “My mom had to buy them out of a scrap heap.”

               “They look it.”  Melody worked in silence for a few more seconds before glancing at Marie again.  “Don’t tell me you found that Clan tech in the same scrap heap.”

               Marie shook her head.  “Something my dad took off a Clanner,” she said.  “It’s all I’ve got left of him.”

               Mel became overly concerned with adjusting the knee.  “You pilot the flier, with these things?”

               “I’ve had some time to get used to them.  Precision movements aren’t so hard after the first five years,” Marie answered.  “I’m sure the helmet is picking up the slack.”

               “And I’m sure it’s not.  You’re an idiot, using that helmet for that ‘Mech.”  When Marie tensed at this, Melody did not flinch.  Instead she rapped her knuckles on the side of her head.  “You realize the Clans split their aero pilots from their Mech pilots, right?  And that’s pretty obviously a ‘Mech helmet.  A Clan Aerotech helmet would be bigger.”

               Marie nodded slowly at that.  She’d heard that Clan aerospace fighter pilots had enlarged craniums, a product of their intense genetic engineering.

               “Your helmet’s designed to run ‘Mechs, and you’re making it fly a jet,” Melody went on.  “It’s a miracle you haven’t cratered that machine by now.  Too bad your daddy couldn’t give you an aero helmet to go with the ‘Mech one.”

               Marie’s brow furrowed, her anger evaporating as she quietly processed that.  Melody smirked and returned to her work.

               “Of course then you’d just have to change helmets in midair,” Melody added on.  She made a few more adjustments.  The knee joint shifted as something popped into place, and Mel let out a breath of relief.  “There we go.  All right, try that.”

               Marie reattached the leg and tested it, finding that the knee was moving more smoothly and no longer made a grinding noise.  “Wow,” she remarked.  “I was sure I was going to need to replace something.”

               “These old prosthetics are heavy, but they’re tough.  They overbuild the actuators to handle the weight.  Bet you’re an unholy terror on the football field,” Melody remarked.  She put on a half-smile at the annoyed look this got her, and picked up the discarded kneecap.  “You’ll want to get something better than this plastic junk, though.  It bends too easy and then it jams your joint.”

               “I’ll see what I can do,” Marie said.  She pulled her pant leg back down and checked the knee again.  “Bet you’re useful to have around, keeping all that hardware working while you’re moving around.”

               “You’ve got no idea.  They drop us off with the bare minimum to keep things going, and told us to figure out the LZ.  It’s on my back to keep it all in working order.  You know I had to work without sleep for days to keep that Quickdraw in fighting shape?  Fat lot of good it did me.”

               “No, it was impressive.  Your team gave us a run for our money.”  Marie gave that a moment to sink in.  “Talent like that’s in high demand, you know.”

               Mel gave her an apprising look.  “What are you getting at?”

               “The unit’s growing,” Marie answered with a shrug.  “We could use someone with skill on our team, and it sounds like the Circinans aren’t your friends.  I’m guessing this job wasn’t really your choice?”

               “You don’t get many choices where I’m from,” Mel answered.  “So, what?  You want to hire me on?  And all I’d have to do is tell you where to find my not-friends, is it?” she asked flatly.  Marie tried to shrug nonchalantly in response. 

               For a moment, Melody looked like she was thinking about it, until she noticed how intently Marie was staring at her.  She smirked and shook her head. 

               “You’re a worse interrogator than you are a MechWarrior.  You think I don’t know how that ends?” Melody asked.  “I had to hose out the Chameleon cockpit.  I’m supposed to trust the people who did that?  Thanks, but no thanks.  If I’m going out, I might as well still have some honor left to my name.”

               Marie tried to cover her disappointment.  “Hey, just paying respect to someone who deserves it.”  Mel looked unimpressed at the compliment, but Marie decided to push a little harder.  “Bringing a ForestryMech was smart.  Bet that could clear out a camp for you anywhere you needed.  And you could keep it running with sawdust if you have to.  They’ve been on my back about fuel a lot lately.”

               “Fuel,” Melody repeated with a roll of her eyes.  “Always with the fuel.  You know how much water we had to electrolyze just to keep those aerofighters gassed up?  Practically had to use the ‘Mechs as generators for the damn things.”

               Marie paused, choosing her words carefully.  “That’s how you kept tabs on us, isn’t it?  The aerospace fighters were on high-altitude patrols, talking to the Wolverine on the ground.”  Melody just shrugged at that, saying nothing.  “I thought for sure you were just using drones or satellites.”

               “I wish they gave us drones.  All they gave me was the guts of an old Hi-Scout and told me to make do.  You have any idea how hard it is to get sixty-year-old comms gear working?”

               “Can’t be harder than keeping a transforming mech from the Star League operational.”

               “Oh yeah?  Does your ‘Mech have one mother unit and six slave packages all in communication with it?  That’s seven different sensor packs and comm systems that all have to be in sync with each other, operating over a hostile engagement zone that wants nothing more than to keep it all from working.”

               “Wow.  And all without actually having any drones to put them in?  Guess you had to get creative.”

               Melody shrugged again.  “Got to work with what you have.”

               “Like, maybe moving the sensor and comms gear to something you had on hand?”  Marie asked.  She glanced over at the wrecked ‘Mechs.  “You know, I was wondering about something.  If there was a ‘Mech standing in your hangar with its sights right on you, why bother going into a trashed Locust you know you can’t start in time?  Even if you’d left your tools in it, were you expecting to need them?”

               Melody said nothing to that and just shrugged again, putting on a show of being bored though Marie could see she was getting paler.

               “Unless you weren’t taking something out at all.  Maybe you were making sure we couldn’t use something in there.  The cockpit was such a mess, it’s not like we’d notice one more broken computer.”  Marie thought it over.  “Hi-Scout sensors and comms are old, but they’re nothing to laugh at.  If you wired the Hi-Scout’s mother equipment into the Wolverine and a slave unit into the Locust, then the ‘Mechs could sync sensor data even with all the scrambling from this damn planet.  And if you put the same gear in the aerospace fighters, you’d have a real-time map of everything for two hundred kilometers.  All synchronized through the mother’s comm system, which you could also use to intercept anything less secure than a tight-beam transmission.”  This just got another shrug.

               “And if any of those other ‘Mechs have slave gear in them, they’d communicate with the mother unit too, wouldn’t they?” Marie asked.  She glanced at the wrecked Wolverine.  “The comms gear in that thing might still work even after the explosion…if we powered it up, it would lock in on any slave unit within range.  We’d get sensor data from all your remaining units.  And their locations, too.”

               Melody had stopped breathing, but Marie went on.  “Even if your guys shut their slave units down, we’d still get a hint.  And by this point they’re committed to wherever they’ve fallen back to.  Not enough time to clear another landing zone that could support an Overlord, especially not if we’re looking for it.”  She glanced at Melody.  “I can still say you helped us figure that out, you know.”

               Mel stared at her blankly for a moment, before her mouth cracked in a bitter, angry smile.  It was an unsettling expression to say the least.

               “Typical MechWarrior,” she muttered.  “For a second I forgot you were one of them.  But you didn’t, did you?  I’m just another little peasant to you.  See what you can get out of me so you can go crush something else under your big metal jackboots.”

               “Hey, I’ve got a mission.  And I’m trying to help – ”

               “Don’t!” Melody snapped.  “Don’t you dare try to say you’re helping.  You know you’re not.  At least be honest enough to admit it.  You were just getting into my head.  Well, it’s not working any more!” she said, standing up quickly, her fists clenched at her sides.  Marie nervously saw a few of the guards eyeing Melody.

               “Now just wait a minute – ” Marie tried to say.

               “No, I’m done.  I’ve got work to do.  Congratulations, you can go climb back up on your metal horse again.  I think I like you more up there anyway, at least there you’re not trying to pretend you’re one of us.”

               Before Marie could say anything more, Melody had turned and stormed off back towards the Quickdraw.

               Marie sat there a few minutes before she mutely stood up.  She went over to the guards long enough to tell them to lock down the Wolverine and keep the prisoners away from it, then made her way back to the ‘Mech bay.  She went over to the Blossom’s gantry, still empty with Thomas out in the woods.  She stared into the empty bay for a long minute, her mind a mess.  

               She put a cigarette between her lips and lit it.  The smoke gave a haze to the air and encircled her as she sat in silence.  After a few minutes she ground the cigarette out under her heel. 

               “Goddammit,” she muttered.  Then she lifted the radio handset to her mouth.  “Blossom, this is McCloud.  I’ve got a status update.”

 

*End Chapter 18*

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Battletech and Mechwarrior are the property of Catalyst Game Labs.

 

Rachel McCloud, the Bristol, Marie Rose (Sr.) and the Black Thorns are creations of James Long, who among other things wrote Main Event and DRT for the Battletech universe.

 

Image of the salvage team working comes from Cromwell on Twitter: @AndrewZ24597481

 

A gallery of images from this story is compiled on my Ko-Fi page.  Donations are not required, but they are appreciated, and help me pay the artists to make more images for this story.

 

Follow me @lucendacier on Twitter for story updates and the occasional BattleTech meme.

 

Audio version of this story is available at https://lucendacier.podbean.com/ , and on Apple podcasts.

 

Audio with images is available on Youtube, which also includes music I found out on the wilds of the Internet.