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I, Kerensky
by Roguebaron |
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Mayor’s Office, City Hall
Hogye, Engadine,
Melissa Theater, Lyran Alliance,
April 3, 3058
Yesterday’s excursion was a rousing success. Everywhere I went people exulted our triumph over the nolans. Sometimes the stories blew up into exaggerated epic. But the bottom line was that the somber mood of Hogye had lightened with hope. The fact that two of the warriors were killed in the battle did not stop them from singing, dancing, and chanting of miracles. The deceased were soon forgotten and, sadly, were left to be mourned only by their families.
While most of Hogye’s citizens were out partying, Megi demanded a follow-up meeting regarding the future of Hogye. Only Fercyn, Cedro, the Cutlass warriors, and myself attended the meeting. Unlike the rest of the citizens, Megi and Fercyn did not show any emotion at all. I could see their point. Beating the nolans was only the first step towards their independence. The hardest part was still waiting to fall upon us.
“So we did bring the battle to the nolans,” Megi muttered. “Did we solve this problem, or do we just put it off for a while?”
“I believed we delivered a crushing blow to the nolans yesterday, and we can be assured that they will not come back for a long time,” I spoke confidently. “We can use the hiatus to train more citizens, make more Cutlass battle armors, buy more weapons, and set up a defense grid. Turrets are a good idea, as well as city wall or electric fence. Your budget may be stringent, but with this adequate defense, you might be able to pull off the Rooting next year.”
“That’s certainly good news, Parker. But we still have a problem,” Megi said. “The mercenaries will come in 5 days to demand justice.”
“I will surrender myself in exchange for your freedom,” I suggested. “I caused the problem, and I will take full responsibility for everything. They can take me as long as they do not come back to Hogye. But that should pose no problem since you have the capability to build your own unit to defend Hogye from the nolans. I think this is the best course for everybody.”
“You know I can’t allow that, Parker,” Megi persisted on her point of view.
“I don’t understand how you can be this pig-headed, Megi,” Fercyn sighed in exasperation. “You heard him yourself: he’ll take the full responsibility. Now you’re not just putting everybody in peril, you’re preventing him from do the only thing that can be done! Why, Megi? Why?”
“You know what kind of man Viper Viveros is, Fercyn!” Megi shot up from her seat. “He’s a man with no honor whatsoever! Think of the most demented torture possible! Think of how Parker will go through the final moments of his life in the hands of Viveros! And remember, we’re talking about Parker who gave us back our dignity as humans! How the hell do you think I’m supposed to live knowing that I’m allowing this disgrace to happen?” She paused for a moment to catch her breath. “No, Fercyn! It’s not gonna happen! Parker stays, and that’s final!”
“It is obvious to me that you are not the same Megi I knew two years ago,” unexpectedly Fercyn put his badge on the table. “You make my job so damn hard that I can’t do it anymore. I’ll leave the Commando for you. You need it more than I do. Call me a coward, but at least I don’t die as fools. However, I’ll be cheering for you. All the best.” He bowed, then walked out of the door, leaving behind a macabre silence.
Fercyn’s leaving was a deathblow to our plan. He was the only experienced mechwarrior in Hogye. He had been the backbone of Hogye’s defense and the rock where Hogye’s citizens put their hopes on. I turned to look at the Cutlass warriors. Doubt flickered in their eyes. Suddenly their confidence shrunk, replaced by the same reluctant facade that they had worn for a long time. I could understand why they felt that way. They were not soldiers. Fighting the mercenaries was a whole different league than fighting the nolans, especially without Sheriff Fercyn at the Commando.
“If anybody wants to follow Fercyn, now is the time,” Megi finally spoke after minutes of bone-crushing hiatus. “I understand what I’m putting you in, and I won’t hold a grudge against you. Walk now, or forever be silent.”
“But Senorita, how can we fight without Sheriff Fercyn?” Cedro moaned.
“Alright Parker, can you drive a Commando?”
I paused. If I were a mechwarrior before, piloting one should not be a problem. Everything would come back eventually. But if I was not, then I only had 5 days to learn. I did not think it was possible. So I had to devise two separate plans, one assuming I were a mechwarrior, the other one I was not.
“I do not have the answer until I try it, Mayor,” I gave my answer. “But assuming I can, one Commando can only carry that much firepower. We are fighting a mixed company of mechs and tanks. We need more firepower. Is there a way we can end this conflict in negotiation? Talk to the CAMR CO?”
“All communication in and out of Hogye had been knocked out,” Megi groaned. “And even if we make contact with the CO, I’m not sure if he will reason with us. It may take more than 5 days. I can pull off another negotiation with Wade Avery, but if Viper Viveros resumes command of the Hunt Lance, there’ll be no negotiation at all. He’ll just march into Hogye until he gets what he wants. We have to slow them down, if we can’t hold them at all.”
“Kinst has 5 tanks,” Cedro suddenly spoke gallantly. “They’re rusty, but I think I can make them work just fine. I know the technician who works on the tanks. He’s pretty good.”
“That’s not much, but certainly helps,” Megi nodded. “Plus we have 6 Cutlass battle armors.”
“We are still outgunned,” I reckoned. “There is a hole we can exploit, but it is extremely risky, and we will need a lot of luck. But if we succeed, we will give the Viper and his crews a blow they will never forget for the rest of their lives. Our lives will not be the same.”
I knew I sounded too optimistic. But I had to flare their morale after being abandoned by Fercyn, their guardian angel for so many years. I knew that giving them false hope would only make them fall harder if my plan did not work. But I had no choice. I could not handle the mercenaries alone, and Megi would not let me do the only thing I was certain would help. So I gave them the most plausible scenario I could think of, and hoped that they would accept and do it wholeheartedly. It was the only way.
“When they came the first time, the Hunt Lance took the entire company to intimidate us,” I unveiled my strategy. “I would assume that it would happen the same way this time. If that is correct, then Kinst is left unguarded. So, assuming Kinst is willing to help us, the tanks can follow the mercenaries from a safe distance. That way, they have the element of surprise.”
My mind was racing to come up with something to convince these people that we had a chance.
“If the Kinst tanks can hold their own against the CAMR tanks, we just have to find a way to neutralize their mechs, which is a whole different ballgame. But as insane as it sounds, I have a plan for dealing with them. Cunning and trickery seem to be a part of my past as well. But bear in mind that this scenario is extremely dangerous and needs very good coordination between us and Kinst. Too many mistakes may spell disaster.”
“I will go over the details with you all shortly. And remember our overall objective is to declare that Hogye can take care of itself just fine. If the Lord-President hears that we can beat the mercenaries, he hopefully will review their contract and terminate it.”
I paused, giving them time to think while wondering myself what in the world I was doing. I was taking a huge risk, even bigger than they had to. These people had never had military training, let alone working together in such a critical mission. Assigning them to jobs that needed extreme precision was reckless. There were holes where my plan could go wrong. But I did not have any other way. If I wanted them to be able to defend themselves, if I wanted to cut their bonds, I had to trust them.
“What if something wrong happens?” Megi asked while scratching at her hair.
“Many things can and will go wrong, Mayor, but given the circumstances that you do not let me take the easy way, this is the best I can think of for us. Should things happen to go to hell, we will fix it.”
There was another silence, as if everybody was thinking about the plan. In the end, Mayor Megi rose from her chair and said, “Fine, we’ll do it your way. I will sneak to Kinst to ask their assistance. Meanwhile, you see if you have any experience piloting a mech. Cedro will help you. And nobody say anything about what we discussed today. Keep everything to yourself. Alright, get out of here and do your job. Parker, meet me again tonight and tell me what you find about yourself.”
As everybody dismissed, I saw a perfect opportunity to ask the mayor about the rune I found yesterday during the excursion. When the mayor walked toward the door, I halted her and asked, “Mayor, when I was out looking for Elbil yesterday, I found this rune…”
By the way Megi jerked her head, I knew that this had really surprised her. Moreover, I found it in her eyes that she wished I had never said it. “Whatever you saw down there, Parker, don’t mention it to anybody.” She spoke with lower voice. “Not to Cedro, not to your lance mates, not even to me… ever again!”
“But mayor,” I argued, “there was a battlemech inside the rune… a very big one…”
“Listen to me Parker,” she interjected. “A lot of people will get hurt if you keep talking about it.”
“Hurt?” I could not believe my ears. “Why? A mech that size could help us in our defense against the Hunt Lance. I do not understand why people will get hurt.”
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with, Parker,” Megi looked at me like a mother looking at her son. “Let’s keep it that way. The less you know, the better it is for everybody. Including you. So let’s forget about the rune and the mech, hmm? This conversation never happened.”
How could I assume the conversation never happened? I did not understand why Megi wanted to conceal this fact so much. Even if I could not drive it properly, the big mech would deal a tremendous blow to the Hunt Lances’ morale. I could only guess the rune and the mech were parts of a dark page in Hogye’s history. Or maybe it was personal to Megi, that she would rather not see the mech again, even though it could even the odds a little. I did not seem to have a choice. I thought I just had to respect her wish that I did not bring the mech into my defense plan.
But still…
“Mayor Megi, there is something else. I met somebody down there, a man, who seems to be living in the rune. He seems to know me. Who is he? At least give me that, Mayor,” I pleaded.
I could see it was hard for Megi to answer my last question. I heard her heaving a labored breath, then spoke firmly, “He’s just an insane wanderer who poses no threat to anybody, so we just ignore him. Don’t let your mind be bothered by little things, Parker. You have a much bigger task. Forget about him and learn to drive the Commando. I’m leaving for Kinst.”
I pressed her again for answers but Megi shrugged off my attempts and left me alone. I felt dejected. I knew she knew that the rune and the mysterious man were a critical element to unearth my forgotten past, yet she blatantly denied me from the truth, declaring a massive catastrophe if I continued my quest. Seriously, who was I? Was I a hitman of a crime syndicate? A godfather? A mad scientist? A terrorist?
I did not know how long I stood there pondering about my past. Cedro woke me up with a harsh shake on the hand, “Parker, amigo, what are you doing? Planning the battle, no? Let’s try out the Commando. You’ll like it.”
So I followed Cedro to the mech garage. Other technicians were working hard to brush up the remaining Cutlass and the weapons. In the distance I saw Trejo, the manager, looking at me with a hateful stare. His business was halted by this incident. Although the Hunt Lance did not pay him, the mech repair and maintenance allowed him to use up spare parts. He lived off the bonus from the big mech industries such as Kallon, Defiance, or Irian. I knew he hated me for sending away the Hunt Lance, thus ceasing his cash flow.
Cedro led me to the Commando at the corner. It was a small mech, barely five times the height of typical technician in the garage. The bulk of its torso was monopolized by a huge missile launcher with six tubes gaping just above the waist. Two holes peeked from the upper side of its right arm, another one on the left. Two antennae jutted out from behind the head.
“This is an old COM-7X, a very rare variant of the Commando,” Cedro tutored me while the elevator took us to the cockpit. “It replaces the traditional arm-mounted SRM-2 of a COM-2D with double medium lasers, and uses the extra weight for armor and heat sink. You have comparable firepower, but more protection, and less dependency of ammunition. But…” Cedro paused a moment while opening up the hatch to the cockpit, “pay attention to the heat gauge. You can fry yourself easily by overusing the triple lasers.”
“I will keep that in mind,” I replied while trying to get comfortable in the small cockpit.
“I will talk to you through the comlink,” Cedro put on my helmet. “This neurohelmet will merge you with the mech. You and it will become one. Controls are very much self explanatory…” he ceased, shot a strange look at me, then said, “Do you even need these tutorial? Have you not piloted one of these before?”
“We will see, Cedro,” I gave him my thumb. “We will see how much I can remember.”
Cedro closed the hatch, and I waited until he reached a safe distance from the Commando. In all honestly, I did not remember one bit about being in a walking nuclear reactor, a battlemech. Sitting inside this cockpit was just like sitting on a car, and these blinking gauges were more annoying than instructive. I did not remember how to read these gauges, and I had a feeling that I would never need them.
However, this strange feeling started to creep inside of me. The same feeling that I had when the first time I saw the pictures of battlemechs on the hospital. It was a blend of thrill, conceit, wrath, sovereignty… and immortality. I wondered if it was a product of sitting elevated inside this war machine, knowing that with a flick of my finger I could destroy anything… or because somehow my brain still recognized how it felt to be a mechwarrior.
There was only one way to find out.
Slowly I pushed the thruster forward. My mech responded with a gentle gait. I could hear the stomp of its feet echoing throughout the mech garage. Using the joystick on my right hand I steered the mech to the right, going for the large door. My adrenaline rushed through my veins, and my heart felt like pounding in my ears. The sunlight illuminated the cockpit as I walked out of the building. It was a totally different perspective. I never saw Hogye from this angle before, and it gave me a jolt in my stomach. I felt like a god of war.
“Muy bueno, amigo, muy bueno!” Cedro screamed in my ears. “You do remember, no? Now try to give it a full run outside the town! It’s been a long time since somebody stretches its legs!”
I guided the mech through the street until I reached the perimeter. I pushed the throttle to maximum, and the mech dashed forward. I felt like I was being nailed to the command couch. The speed gauge showed 96.5, which was impressive, considering the age of this relic. Cedro must have done a very good job maintaining the nominal condition of this mech.
“Now let’s see if you remember how to shoot,” Cedro crackled again. “Look at the right joystick. Red button is for fire. Press that button and everything inside your targeting reticule will fry. You can fire the weapons individually, or link them together with the green button. The orange button is for alpha strike. It’ll trigger all weapons at the same time. It’s very powerful, but you’ll overheat after two or three rounds. Come on, give it a shot!”
I did, and a gush of heat hit me as the weapons blasted. Three emerald streaks blitzed in the air, and six missiles leapt from the tube, creating white trails of smoke. They erupted in the ground, creating a geyser of dust and pebbles. I waited until the weapons recycled, and hit the alpha strike button again. The heat spiked to half maximum level, and I started to sweat. But I was not through. One more alpha strike, and the computer beeped, telling me that I had reached a dangerous heat level. The Commando slowed down, and I started to smell burning rubber inside the cockpit.
“Remember, if you’re getting too hot, flush the coolant a little,” Cedro informed me. “It’ll cool your mech faster. But you have only so much coolant. If you flush too much, you’ll get dry, and nothing will help you from being roasted inside the mech. So carefully pace your weapons.”
“I get it,” I replied. “I reckon it goes the same with the ammunition.”
“Si, Parker. Try different things, then bring it back when you’re done.”
I took my time, taking the Commando to different parts of Hogye, sprinting up and down hills and valleys, just to get the feel of the control. By this time I was confident that I was a mechwarrior before. I did not remember what I piloted, but everything felt right. I knew that I belonged here in the cockpit. The longer I stayed, the more comfortable I felt. My hands felt like merging with the joystick and throttle, and my brain became more and more adjusted to the neurohelmet signals. For a moment, I became a child with his beloved toy, and I did not want to go back to Hogye. I wanted to be here forever.
It was already late when I parked the Commando on the garage. Cedro had been waiting impatiently, and his edginess painted the garage through his eyes as the elevator brought me down. I was surprised to see Mayor Megi in the garage, but when I saw the sparks in her eyes, I knew she could not wait to tell me that she had won five more battle tanks.
“Kinst answered our call to arms,” Megi stated, just as I expected. “They heard what happened, and they are eager to fight the Hunt Lance with us. Their old tanks are slow, but their firepower is still formidable. I believe you can use them wisely.” She paused a moment, then looked at me in the earnest, saying, “Thank you, Parker. Thank you for giving us back our dignity.”
“It is the least I can do to repay your kindness,” I replied. “I feel I will always be indebted to you.”
“Well then, I guess we can call it even,” Megi said, smiling. “Now get to rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day for us.”
I watched the mayor until darkness swallowed her figure. I knew she was hiding something. I could feel it. But right now, I felt like I was in a crossroad. I could force her to tell me what she knew, but would it change anything? Would it change everything? Or I could just accept me ‘as is’, but I would never know my true identity. Was this my life, or was this the life Megi wanted me to live?
I felt like I would never find the answers. |
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