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Sins Remembered
Pirates have an unnaturally bad day
by Solarmech |
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It took several minutes for Condord to wake up and the first think he noticed was that it hurt. Nothing wrong with pain though. Pain meant he was alive, and that was the most important thing. Condord open his eyes and looked at the inside of his ruined cockpit. "What a mess." he thought, "But what...." and then he remembered the desperate battle with the Warhammer.
"SHIT! Where is it?!?" Looking frantically out of the battered windows. "Gone" he whispered. He could see the wrecks of the pirates he had led, but of the Warhammer there was no trace. Even the area where the 70 ton mech had exploded seemed undamaged. Condord didn't pay attention to that though. He only knew one thing. "I won" he said softly, "I won". And then he started laughing. " I WON you sonofa BITCH!! I'M STILL ALIVE!!" he screamed.
As Condor announced his triumph he waved his arms around the Marauders damaged cockpit. His right arm struck on of the overhead displays and jarred it out of position. This allowed fresh air to enter the sealed area behind the console.
Behind the console a small fire was already burning. It was a very small fire, smaller than one you would find on an old style wood match. But with fresh oxygen ,the fire grew. In a normal mech, this fire would have nothing to burn. But pirate's often use whatever material and parts are handy. In this case the insulation on the wires was not fireproof. And so the fire grew.
It was some time before Candor calmed down, and started taking stock of his situation. The Marauder was finished, he knew that the moment he started looking. "Shit" he muttered, "Gonna be some time before I can get another ride like this one." He tried to unbuckle his safety harness. But the buckles refused to release. "Fuck, NOW what?" he swore. "Well" he thought "More than ONE what to out of a harness." as he reached for the survival equipment and pulled out a knife. As he cut away the first strap he noticed that it was getting hazy. Coughing, he realized the haze was not outside, but inside, with him. Realizing at last that he had a fire inside his cockpit. Condord grabbed frantically for the fire extinguisher while trying to locate the source of the smoke. He open a service panel on the console and heavy smoke immediately started pouring out. Condord pushed the nozzle of the extinguisher into the hole and pulled the lever. Nothing happened. "What?!?" he screamed. Condord jerked the extinguisher back and checked the charge on it. Empty.
As flames started licking out of the open panel Condord slammed it shut, but smoke started escaping from other parts of the console and flames soon followed. Condord grabbed the fallen knife and frantically cut at the straps imprisoning him, but only managed to cut a gash on his own leg. By then flames had worked their way out of the console and where spreading. Coughing painfully in the smoke filled cockpit, Condord looked down to see flames eating away at the fabric of his command couch.
In a last desperate attempt at survival he grabbed the ejection handle and pulled. Unfortunately the explosive bolts, poorly maintained and damaged, fired incorrectly. The Marauder's ejection hatch moved 2 inches and jammed. With the hatch jammed in-place the rest of the ejection procedure was automatically halted.
As the cockpit filled with flames, Condord started screaming.
The screams lasted a very long time.
***
Two days later
Mechwarrior Jerrod Sims of the AFFC was trying to explain what he knew to his commanding officer, Lt Terrance (Terry) Darkhorse.
"Well, that's about all we have been able to find out so far." He finished.
Terrance sat unbelieving in his hospital bed. "You mean to tell me, that someone came in save our asses by destroying the pirates and we don't know who it was?"
"Uh, yea" Jerrod stated glumly
"Now I know we where all KO'ed by the time this help showed up, but didn't ANYONE see who saved us? Wasn't there anything from the pirates cockpit recorders? You said they recovered a pirate pilot.
Jerrod sighed. "The pilot they captured, he was in the mech you downed by the way, isn't talking. He just looks at the wall. The only reaction they got out of him was where they started throwing mech names at him. The said "warhammer" and he freaked out and they had to sedate him. When he woke up, he just sat looking off into space again. As the Blackjack they recovered its electronics where shorted out by the blood."
"Blood?"
"Yeah, from the looks of things the mech fell and a piece of metal inside the cockpit broke loose. It sliced her neck open." Jerrod said and drew is good hand across his throat.
"Ouch" winced Terrance
Jerrod continued "And the ground at the battlesite is so messed up we can't make heads or tails of anything. About the only thing we do know is that whoever helped us didn't leave anything behind, the only "remains" we have found where the pirates or ours."
"So" mussed Jerrod "the only clue is 'warhammer'... Hey, I just remembered, your originally from around here..."
"No" Terrance replied to the half asked question. "As for as I know there are no warhammers on planet. The last one I know of was, well, my Fathers. He was killed fighting a delaying action against some raiders about 20 years ago. Matter of fact it was the same place as where we fought. I was only three at the time, and mother didn't take it well. If they had found a body it might have helped. She still wanders around saying how Dad will be back to protect us. Crazy."
Pausing Terrance shook himself and asked "What of the other pirate's mechs and their Dropship?"
"It lifted off planet about 2 hours ago. We don't have any aerospace that can go chase it, so it looks like they gonna get away."
"Shit"
"Hey, buck up Terry! We are still all alive, most of the pirates aren't. And that's a good thing"
"And how are Misha and Jack anyways? They won't tell me."
"Jack is reported to be the first human bruise the doctors have ever seen. Misha.... might loose some of her fingers, they don't know yet."
"Shit" muttered Terrance again.
"She's still alive and that the important part. I had better go before the docs find out I've been in to talk to you. I'll be back tomorrow." Jerrod said as he walked out the door.
Terrance laid back in his bed and tried to adjust the cast on his leg so it didn't itch so much. He paused and lay back in the bed and looked out the window towards the battlesite. "Crazy, Just plain crazy. There are no such things as Ghosts." But even as he said it, somehow it sounded a little hollow. |
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