Twilight was as the fabulous sunset told in the ancient
Celtic tale Ryo had read as a child. Yet, that sun which had set
was Epsilon Eridani. How could a Celtic bard of two millennia
past have dreamed someone would relate his tale to that distant,
orange sun? Ryo couldn't recall the name of the story, nor the
bard who had spun it so masterfully. No matter, he thought. The
past was the past.
A cool breeze wisped through Ryo's long, blue tinted hair,
whipping it chaotically across his face. He needed a haircut,
but didn't care. Like Samson, Ryo's hair told of his great
power. Blue hair was a side effect of an altered RN-450 gene.
Blue hair meant he had genetically enhanced reflexes. That
intimidated some people and made potential foes think twice about
attacking. Of course, in a forty ton mechasuit, a potential foe
wouldn't be able to tell that Ryo had blue hair nor that his RN-
450 gene was altered. At least, not before it was too late.
As the orange sun sank away, the pink and purple clouds
slowly faded to black, giving way to the star speckled night.
Ryo looked across the other-worldly heavens and spotted the
small, rapidly moving speck. Right where it should be, he
thought. The Imperial Star Carrier Vigilant, flagship of the
Imperial Terran Republic, orbiting high above. Seconds later the
ship vanished over the horizon as it continued its orbit around
the globe.
"Ryo," came a soft voice behind him.
He turned around and leaned back on the balcony railing.
"Ah, JT. I thought you were in the rec room with the others."
She smiled her little smile Ryo liked best. "This is the
fourth night of shore leave and the fourth time you've come out
here to watch the sunset."
"We've been on ship for a solid month. I never really knew
how much I enjoyed the sunset until the day it never came. In
space it's always night..."
JT walked up to the railing and stood beside Ryo. She
looked into the starry sky. "It's a beautiful night. See that
constellation over there?"
Ryo looked where she was pointing and saw a cluster of
stars. "I guess. Is it the one that looks like a diamond?"
"No, no, silly! It's a sword. The four brightest stars in
that area of the sky -- Sirius, Procyon, Arcturus, and Barnard,
make up the hilt. Several other distant stars make the blade, but
it's Sol herself which marks the point of the blade."
"Yeah, I see."
"It's called the Sword of the Empire because all but two of
the brightest stars are major Imperial systems. The others are
Frontier systems. But I've heard we may have some secret bases
in both the Arcturus and Barnard systems, so I guess they could
be counted as part of the Empire."
Arcturus, thought Ryo. A secret base in Arcturus... Yes,
that was it! "Damned is the star Arcturus, Ryo," flashed a
fragment of that last, desperate message his father sent him long
ago. "And damned is the stabbing blade which rests on her hilt."
Now he knew what that part of the message meant. A cold chill
ran down his spine. But perhaps some things were better left
unknown...
"Ryo?"
"Yes," he replied softly.
"Are you okay?"
"No, JT. I'm not."
"What's wrong?"
Ryo pulled JT closer to him, placing his chin on her head.
He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her body. "I wish
I knew. I only wish I knew..."
* * *
"I can't believe they won't let me into Falmore-Glave!"
exclaimed Taeon Toshio.
Taeon's older sister, Sara, crossed her arms and sat down.
"No Imperial Space Force personnel can enter the city," she
stated. "Supposedly, the conflict between our house and House
Ammar is classified as a feudal dispute, therefore subject to the
Law of Fief. The ITR cannot intervene unless the dispute
compromises the Empire's holdings."
"Some shore leave this is. I can't even go home."
Sara sighed and ran her hand through her light brown hair.
"I believe father wants you to help us. He told me to give you
this holodisk." She reached into her jacket and pulled out a
small black disk.
Taeon took it and switched it on.
Baron Balmor Toshio appeared in the air above the disk. It
had only been a month since he had seen his father, but he looked
a decade older. "My Son," started Baron Balmor. "As you know,
our home is under siege by House Ammar, the ruling house of the
neighboring barondom of Durshaan. I fear we may not be able to
stand against them much longer. We, as well as House Ammar, have
but a few mecha. What ones we have are antiquated by Imperial
standards. We are fighting the war mostly with tanks, troops,
and fighters. One Imperial mechasuit could sway the tide of
war... I know it could!"
Baron Balmor looked away from the camera and rubbed his
tired eyes. He looked back and Taeon saw a flicker of hope flare
in those ancient eyes of his. "Son, I am asking you to fight for
your family and our holdings. Your brother, Kanis, is commanding
our army, as he is my designated heir. But should you sway the
tide of battle I could enact the Power of Divergence and grant
you full inheritance rights to the Barondom of Falmore-Glave."
Taeon starred blankly at his father's image. He could be
Baron? One day, could he rule the majestic city-state of Falmore-
Glave, the City of the Seven Spheres?
The view zoomed in closer on the Baron's face. "Son, take
your mecha and join this battle to save our lands. The future of
my barondom... no, your barondom, rest in your hands." The
holograph fizzled away and was gone.
"I'll do it, father," replied Taeon. He stood and
straightened his shoulders. "Falmore-Glave shall never fall!"
Sara took the holodisk back and studied Taeon for a moment.
"Kanis would make a great dictator. He's good at being a tyrant.
But you..." she frowned as she fumbled for a word. "I don't
know. You're a warrior at heart, like me. You're too impulsive,
too overconfident and careless to make a good leader."
"What are you talking about?" asked Taeon. "I will one day
rule the City of the Seven Spheres!"
"You're also an arrogant egocentric megalomaniac. But then
again, you wouldn't be an evil dictator like Kanis would be. I
suppose it would be for the best if you ended up with Falmore-
Glave."
"Can you help me out here? I've got to steal a mecha from
Fort Avia."
"Sorry bro. I need to get back to my command bunker. House
Ammar is laying siege to our lands and I need to help lead our
troops. What little troops we have left, that is. Kanis needs
someone to help him make strategic decisions. He may be General
Kanis, but I think General Chaos is more in line with his war
strategy."
Taeon remembered how Kanis, Sara, and he played some of
those old war games when they were kids. Kanis always lost.
"Yes... I'd better go get my mecha."
"You'd better hurry, too."
* * *
Taeon arose early the next day and went directly to the main
mecha bay. A few mecha had been transferred from the Vigilant to
the base for a Type One refit. Among them were most of the mecha
from the Third Wing, including Taeon's Storm Giant. He could
only hope the new gravitic turbine was installed and operational.
"Good to be ground-side," said the guard at the mecha bay
entrance.
"Yes, it is," replied Taeon, handing over his clearance
card.
The guard zipped the card through a reader and glanced at
some data on his terminal. "Second Sergeant Taeon Toshio,
mechasuit pilot. Clearance level two. Currently assigned to a
modified Storm Giant. May I ask what your business is in the
mecha bay?"
"I wanted to see if my mecha's new gravitic turbine has been
installed."
"Yep. According to the maintenance schedule it has."
"Great. I just wanted to take a look."
"Fine by me. Just don't go running off on any unscheduled
test drives."
"Hell, I was hoping to pop off to the firing range for a
little while," complained Taeon.
The guard flipped through some pages on his reader pad and
looked up. "Tell you what, buddy. I'll check you into the
firing range schedule. There's an opening right now, not
surprising as it is pretty early in the morning."
"Thanks," stated Taeon. "I own you one."
"Right. I'll have Control open the bay doors for you."
Taeon gave the guard a thumbs up and went into the mecha
bay. "One's born every second," he said to himself.
He walked into the ready room and put on his piloting suit
and proceeded into the mecha bay. The Storm Giant's cockpit
opened as it detected Taeon's approach. He climbed the rope
ladder and entered the chest cockpit compartment. The rope
retracted and the mecha's chest closed and sealed. All around
screens, displays, and consoles flared to life. A low hum
radiated through the mecha as the new gravitic turbine rose to
full power.
"All systems nominal," stated the computer in a calm,
feminine voice.
Taeon grabbed the controls and guided the mecha to set down
its autolaser rifle. "Piece of junk laser blaster," grumbled
Taeon. "Lot of good it did me in the last mission." He looked
around the mecha bay and spotted a larger rifle weapon in the
mecha armory.
Taeon piloted his Storm Giant to the armory and took the
best looking weapon in hand. "Type RG-80 55mm semi-automatic
armor-buster rifle," reported the computer as the mecha's hands
locked around the weapon's grip. "Twelve shot high-explosive
ammo clip."
Not enough ammo, thought Taeon. He grabbed two more ammo
clips and latched them on to his mecha's belt mount, choosing a
high-explosive ammo clip and one anti-personnel "swarm cloud"
clip, for use just in case he ran into infantry.
As soon as the bay doors opened, Taeon activated the Giant's
thrusters and blasted out of Fort Avia. A minute later Control
demanded what he was doing and where he was going. Taeon never
responded to control's messages.
After ten more minutes the officers at Control gave up and
alerted Fortress Command.
* * *
Major Katana Falcon was pissed off. She wanted to go after
Sergeant Toshio herself, but knew such drastic action would look
childish on her part. Instead, she waited impatiently for Ryo
Gunn to answer his intercom. Finally, the sleepy face of
Sergeant Gunn appeared on the screen. "Sorry to wake you this
early Sergeant, but your shore leave has just been canceled."
"What?" demanded Ryo. "But JT and I were going down to
the..."
"Your pal, Taeon, just went AWOL with his Storm Giant."
The tiredness suddenly fled from Ryo's eyes. "What!"
"Apparently, he's going to interfere with the House
Toshio/House Ammar feudal conflict. I knew leave on this planet
would cause problems with him, but I didn't think he'd actually
go this far. As you may or may not know, the Empire cannot
interfere with feudal disputes unless they directly threaten the
holdings of the Empire. Taeon's actions could generate severe
hostilities from House Ammar and their allies toward the Empire.
Such civil unrest would disrupt much of Eridani's military and
economic power."
"Just one mecha could throw the balance of power completely
out of whack?"
"Indirectly, yes. It could appear that the Empire is
secretly assisting House Toshio. That would make the other
houses very resentful."
"I guess we have to stop him."
"No. You have to stop him."
"Me? But we have hundreds of mecha at this base, not to
mention all the orbiting warships! It's not like I'm the only
one you can send for this mission."
"True. But I've been advised to take all precautions
necessary to keep this problem quiet. We do not want the other
houses knowing about this, and we certainly don't want the public
to know how easy it was for a mecha to get stolen."
"Oh, like this is the first time a mecha got stolen," said
Ryo, remembered Major Briggs' escape.
Major Falcon just smiled. "I picked you because you've run
sims against Taeon and have fought alongside him in combat in
every major engagement. You know his fighting style and
strategy. I also feel that you'll bring him in alive. And I do
want him back alive. If I send Destiny Gray or Michael Avenger,
they may not give any regard to his life."
"Why not send Kay?" asked Ryo. "I think she sort of has her
eyes set on him, if you know what I mean. I doubt she'd kill
him."
"I think she may have her eyes set on you, if it wasn't for
your relationship with JT. But I'm not confident, nor trusting
enough of her abilities. She may have preformed superb in the
sims but she failed to engage the enemy in her only actually
battle. I need to send you, Sergeant Gunn. Capture Sergeant
Toshio and bring him in alive. If at all possible, I would also
like that Storm Giant back in one piece. Is this understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," replied Ryo.
"Depart at once. He already has a good head start on you."
* * *
Dawn came like a holocaust of fire. As the ocean of red
spilled over the horizon, Taeon could see the destruction the war
had wrought. The scorched land was pitted with craters and strewn
with charred war machines. His sweaty hands clinched the mecha
controls as he skimmed over the devastated land. He prayed to
whatever deity there might be that Castle Toshio was still
standing.
"This is Falmore-Glave Battle Guard to approaching mecha.
Identify or be destroyed."
Taeon closed his eyes in relief. "This is Taeon Toshio, son
of Baron Toshio."
"Transmit code," stated the still placid voice.
Taeon sent the code and waited.
"Code checks. What's your destination, milord?"
Now the Battle Guard operator was sounding a bit more
respectful. "The Castle."
"Very well, milord. We will lower the Castle shield as soon
as you are in range."
"Acknowledged," replied Taeon. Here, in Falmore-Glave, he
was somebody. Here he was not some lowly sergeant, he was the
son of Baron Toshio. Taeon liked it already.
In seconds, the Storm Giant passed into the city. Much of
the outskirts of Falmore-Glave had been devastated, but the inner
city looked relatively untouched. In the center of that vast
urban sprawl was the gothic fortress of Castle Toshio. The
octagon-shaped outer wall was over one hundred meters high and
spanned six hundred meters from end to end. At each corner of
the outer wall a huge tower stood mounting an ungodly array of
weapons. Behind the outer wall stood the towering, pyramid
shaped Castle, sixty storied in height.
As Taeon's mecha passed over the wall, he could see the
Outer Court below him, cluttered with hundreds of servant houses,
offices, recreation parks, supply depots, barracks, and vehicle
bays. All of it was protected behind the massive outer wall and
force shield system.
"This is Taeon Toshio," stated Taeon on the comm.
"Permission to land."
"Permission to land in mecha bay one granted, milord,"
stated the landing control operator.
Taeon guided his mecha down into the first mecha bay and
landed, flexing his mecha's legs like a paratrooper as he touched
down. The mecha bay, he found, was sadly empty. His father
wasn't kidding when he said they had only a few mecha, and those
mecha were either missing critical limbs or were being completely
overhauled. Taeon entered the nearest mecha scaffolding and shut
down his Storm Giant.
He had hardly stepped out of his cockpit when his father ran
into the mecha bay. "Taeon," he called. "You have arrived at
last!"
"It was a simple matter, father," said Taeon as he climbed
down the rope ladder. "And crushing House Ammar shall be as
equally simple."
The Baron looked at the massive Storm Giant. "Indeed. This
machine by itself should inspire fear in the hearts of the
Durshaanian troops. Those who fail to flee will be destroyed by
our power. At last, we have a chance to extinguishing our
century-old blood enemy."
Taeon frowned. "I thought we only wished to drive them from
Falmore-Glave."
"Of course, of course. That is our first goal. But why
stop there? First things first, my son. I have not seen you in
a month! How is the Imperial Space Force? Are you earning honor
and glory for our house?"
"I rescued Admiral Steele from the hands of the GSC, and
have been in several major battles."
"Indeed. I heard of your triumphant rescue of the Admiral.
I am very proud of you, son. Ah, here is your younger sister!"
Taeon glanced to the main entrance and spotted his younger
sister coming in. Xandra was only eleven years old, but she had
the air of a person three times her age. She was an extremely
powerful telepath, but her powers were wild and chaotic. She
even demonstrated amazing telekinetic abilities. Occasionally,
she had full control of those power, but at other times she was
crazed with vast diver-energy. Tragically, Xandra suffered from
schizophrenia, a type that the Baron's army of psychologists were
as yet unable to cure.
"Hello, little brother," she spoke in a chilling voice. A
voice far to cold to be that of a mere child.
Taeon didn't know why she called him 'little brother', but
she always did. Xandra rarely spoke to her other siblings Sara
and Kanis. As far as he could remember, she has never addressed
anyone by their actual name, and always used the prefix 'little'.
"Little brother has come to vanquish the evil from my
kingdom," she stated, clutching her stuffed bear close to her
small body. "Do not let my kingdom fall!"
Taeon watched her turn and depart, somewhat disturbed by
Xandra's delusion that his barondom was actually her kingdom. "I
take it she's not doing very well."
Baron Toshio shook his head. "No. She is quite mad. A real
shame for someone so young. The psychologists believe that her
wild diver powers have shattered her perception of reality, but I
suppose you're already aware of that. There is nothing that can
be done except to watch her and try to make her as comfortable as
possible. But we can do nothing for her if House Ammar destroys
us."
"What must I do?"
"Your brother is in the War Room. He will give you some
strategic points to strike on the Durshaanian line."
"As you wish, father." Taeon turned and headed into the
castle to find his older brother.
His little sister was insane, his brother was out to
eliminate him from the line of inheritance, his older sister was
a war monger, and his father was a melodramatic. As he walked
through the dark halls of Castle Toshio, Taeon realized how
disturbed his family really was.
He shook his head, entering into the War Room. Several
officers were working on tentative battle plans. Video screens
and strategy maps covered the walls, and a large holographic
table filled the center of the room. Kanis stood at the far end
of the holotable, dressed in a crisp FG Guard uniform.
"So, my brother wants to be a hero?" Kanis asked with a
smirk.
Taeon met his brother's eyes. "You're the one want to be
the hero. I seek only save our family's holdings."
"Cut the noble honor crap. We both know my father wants you
to take my place. We also both know that Imperial law prevents
him from enacting the Power of Divergence without proof that your
noble virtue is greater than mine." He laughed. "Good luck at
that!"
"It won't be hard to prove, believe me."
"Humph," mocked Kanis. He walked behind the holotable and
brought up a topographical map of the surrounding fifty kilometer
area. "Well, you're in luck today. You'll have the opportunity
to prove that you can fight for our house. Or, on the other
hand, you could die. If you succeed, I'm sure you'll be quite
happy; if you die you'll be indifferent."
"Just tell me where I'm needed."
"You're needed everywhere. But here," he pointed at a
section of rolling hills just outside the city limits. "House
Ammar is setting up a strong hold. We believe this may be used
as a staging ground for their next wave. Our troops have been
unable to break their line of defense. They seem to be trenched
in along these hills. Your mecha should be able to cut through
them easily."
"What sort of forces am I looking at?"
"Three heavy tanks, four or five troop platoons, and
possibly some fighter cover."
"Any mecha?"
"We think all of House Ammar's mecha have been destroyed."
Normally a mecha could easily take out a tank or a platoon
of troops, but not against so many. "I'm not sure. Will I have
any support?"
"You need support?" questioned Kanis. "What kind of a ruler
would you be if you relied on others for support?"
"A ruler relies on his people for support."
"Nonsense. A ruler relies on power. Your mecha is your
power. If you let others support your back, you'll collapse when
you move out on your own. Besides, I can't spare any more
troops. I have to strengthen the southwestern lines."
"Very well. Consider the Durshaanian strong hold
destroyed."
Kanis nodded. "Father will be proud."
Taeon left the War Room with the sinking felling that Kanis
was laying a trap.
* * *
The Storm Giant blasted across the war torn landscape. As
Taeon neared the target area flak fire exploded around him. He
readied his RG-80 rifle as his sensors locked onto three AA
cannons.
The Storm Giant thundered out of the sky and landed solidly
on the ground a few hundred meters away from the nearest AA
cannon. He pointed his rifle and clicked off a three round
burst. The 55mm bullets ripped into the cannon and detonated the
remaining ammunition. The hillside erupted in a column of fire
and a shower of exploding shells. With a few more shots, the two
remaining cannons were likewise blasted apart.
"So much for their anti-aircraft defense," thought Taeon.
His sensors indicated a large nearby bunker. "Five tanks,
forty ground troops, and a Raptor class mecha. Damn. Kanis's
recon team must have missed seeing the mecha." Taeon launched
his Storm Giant into the air to attack the enemy forces at the
bunker. "Or more likely Kanis lied to me."
As he approached, the Durshaanian forces scrambled. Taeon
knew the Raptor was the greatest threat. He landed his mecha in
a small valley between a pair of large hills, just a few hill
tops away from the enemy bunker. Several tanks and a platoon of
troops charged over the northern hill, followed moments later by
the towering Raptor.
Taeon directed his Storm Giant's motions, clutching the
massive RG-80 rifle with both hands and aimed it at the
Durshaanian Raptor. The Raptor fired a burst from its own
autorifle but, being a far less powerful weapon, the bullets were
well beyond their effective range and missed. In return, Taeon
popped off a burst from his armor-buster rifle. Thunder echoed
through the valley as the 55mm shells tore through the air.
A split second later the Raptor's left leg exploded and
shattered like dried wood as the first bullet punched through.
Taeon grinned as he watched the second bullet blast into the
Raptor's abdomen, then as the third exploded into the left
shoulder. The mecha's torso twisted apart and it toppled to the
ground a burning wreck of scrap.
The ground troops panicked and scattered away as the
towering metal knight crumpled to the ground, consumed in flames.
The tanks kept their attack course, and several more joined them,
bring the total number of enemy tanks to five.
Not wanting to waste ammo on such feeble targets, Taeon
threw his rifle over his shoulder and took his mecha's beam sword
from the hip storage compartment. The weapon ignited and a blade
of plasma-fusion energy extended from the hilt. He piloted his
Storm Giant forward, ready to slice the tanks to ribbons.
Naturally, the Durshaanian tank commanders didn't want that,
and opened fire with their 80mm hyper-kinetic rail cannons.
"Good night!" exclaimed Taeon as a shell slammed into his
mecha's right leg.
"Warning," blared the computer's voice. "Armor penetrated
on lower right thigh. Critical damage to knee articulator joint.
Favoring limb to compensate."
Taeon launched his mecha into the air as more shells
whistled past him. "Those slug's pack a punch!"
The Storm Giant arced upward, but Taeon skillfully brought
it out of the climb and the mecha raced back toward the ground.
He brought his sword arm around to a strike position and swooped
over the cluster of tanks. As he passed over one, he lashed out
with the weapon and cleaved its entire turret off at the collar.
Spinning around he came down on top of the second tank. The
mecha's left foot crushed the tank's turret into the main
chassis. He lifted his foot and kicked the lifeless hulk of
metal. Being nearly twenty tons, it didn't budge, but it
mattered little. The tank had been reduced to a crumpled, ruined
mass of scrap.
The remaining three tanks swiveled their turret cannons
around to target the Storm Giant. Taeon acted quickly and sliced
his beam sword through the nearest tank. The tank was chopped
clean in half and Taeon doubted the humans inside could have
survived the extreme heat generated by the beam sword's blade.
The last two tanks were out of the sword's range so Taeon
switched from his sword back to his rifle. One of the enemy
tanks fired, but missed. The shell exploded some distance away.
Taeon aimed his rifle at the two tanks and strafed his gun back
and forth, spraying the area with the remaining bullets in the
gun's clip. The hail of 55mm shells turned the valley into a
region of Dante's Inferno. When the smoke and blinding walls of
chemical fire evaporated, Taeon watched in satisfaction as the
ground cooled from a liquid state into something resembling crude
glass. There was no sign of the tanks to be seen.
He ejected the spent clip and locked in his anti-personnel
magazine. "They didn't have a prayer," said Taeon as he started
toward the now defenseless bunker to finish off the infantry
platoon.
* * *
"Target: Storm Giant. 6.75 kilometers," stated the computer.
Finally, thought Ryo. Even though the tracking link with
the orbiting Vigilant had pinpointed Taeon's location, it had
taken him over an hour to sweep across half a hemisphere to his
location. It would have been so much easier to just blast the
mecha to ash from orbit, but Major Falcon didn't want him killed.
For some reason, she was under the impression that Taeon was
going to want to come back peacefully. That was highly unlikely.
If worse came to worse, he'd just have to apologize to the Major
for neglecting the "bring him back alive" part of his orders.
Ryo switched on his comm and turned it to the Storm Giant's
hailing channel. "Taeon, surrender."
"Ryo?" asked Taeon on the channel. "Is that you?"
"Yes. Surrender, rogue!"
"Rogue? You called me a rogue? I'm defending my family and
honor! If you were in my shoes wouldn't you do the same?"
"My family's dead," replied Ryo. He glanced at the distance
counter: 3.5 klicks.
"My duty is to House Toshio, then to the Empire," stated
Taeon.
"The Empire has higher precedence over your clan. Get your
priorities straight!"
"You, who failed to defend his own family, would now deprive
me the right to defend my own?"
Ryo gnashed his teeth. How dare he say that... "Forget
surrendering. You die!"
Down to 2.1 klicks. His energy guns were within effective
range, but his targeting system would be somewhat unreliable. No
matter. Ryo fired the Killing Wind's proton gun. The solid beam
of near light-speed tridium nuclei lanced out of the mecha's left
shoulder gun mount.
The beam sliced past the Storm Giant as Taeon launched into
the sky. "We don't have to do this, Ryo!"
"Blasted! I missed!" exclaimed Ryo. The range counter was
now under one klick. He could see the Storm Giant coming at him
on the visual scopes. His targeting computer locked on. "I
won't miss this time."
"I don't want to kill you Ryo," stated Taeon, taking very
careful aim with his rife. He clicked off one shot, and one shot
was all he needed.
The shell screamed toward Ryo's Killing Wind. For a
heartbeat Ryo though the round had missed. A fraction of a
second later, his mecha lurched back as the projectile slammed
home. Ryo heard an explosion above him and all the scopes went
dead.
"Critical damage," reported the computer. "Head unit
destroyed."
"No!" yelled Ryo. All his sensors, jammers, and comm
equipment were house in his mecha's head. Without them, he was
blind to everything outside. It would be a miracle if he could
even land without killing himself. "Blast the forward portal!"
A small section of the mecha's chest blew off, giving Ryo a
limited "eye-slit" view through a triple pane of carbi-laminated
glass. The view was worthless for combat, but better than
nothing. He spotted the Storm Giant in the view port and
centered it with the crude cross-hair targeting lines. "Sorry
friend, but it's my skin or yours." He triggered the hellfire
megablast.
The Killing Wind reached back with its right hand and
grabbed the back mounted super-cannon. Ryo pivoted around and
swung the cannon into position. It locked into place along the
Killing Wind's waist and he grabbed the firing lever in hand.
"Good-bye," whispered Ryo between clenched teeth. He pulled back
his mecha's hand to trigger the weapon and looked away, as he
knew the view port could not block the blinding light from the
fusion blast.
Seconds later, a flood of fusion energy pulsated from the
Killing Wind's monstrous cannon. Taeon watched in horror as a
flood of nuclear hell washed over his mecha. He reached for the
ejection lever but knew that if he ejected in this sea of hell he
would be atomized instantly. All sensor screens and lights went
out. Nothing remained but the twisting wail of disintegrating
metal as the limbs of his mecha were turned to red hot twigs,
vaporizing into clouds of metallic gas. Taeon grabbed his seat
and felt his mecha plummet from the sky. Waves of heat washed
into the cockpit. Seconds before total destruction, the
thundering storm passed. Everything was still darkness, but
Taeon knew the wave of energy was at last over. He grabbed the
ejection lever and shoved it back. The mecha's chest blew open
and the entire piloting pod launched out of the still molting red
torso.
The windows in the cockpit pod allowed Taeon a clear view of
the Storm Giant as he departed. That instant he knew only the
Hand of God could have spared his compartment inside that
plummeting mass of bubbling red-hot scrap.
What little remained of the Storm Giant slammed into the
ground and tumbled down the rocky hill. Such a graceless and
undignified conclusion to the machine that had served him so
well. The parachute fluttered out of the back of the pod and
floated him safely to the ground.
Ryo Gunn was amazed Taeon had even survived. No matter, he
thought. The Storm Giant was destroyed, but maybe if he could
manage to bring Taeon in alive he would not loss his chances for
that next promotion.
He tried as best he could to land his blind mecha near
Taeon's jettisoned piloting pod, and was adequately successful,
coming down a few dozen meters away. He unplugged his control
suit and took off his helmet. Ryo knew that in all probability
Taeon would resist capture, so he took with him his laser rifle
and departed from his mecha's cockpit.
Ryo cautiously walked across the scorched earth and
approached the jettisoned piloting pod. As he neared, the hatch
opened and Taeon stepped out. His old friend took aim with a
heavy laser pistol.
"You've just cost me my family!" he yelled. "You've opened
them to House Ammar's final assault!"
"Sorry, buddy. Just doing my job."
"You're not my buddy! You've betrayed me! How can the
Empire trust someone like you! You, who betrays as if it was an
inbred quality!"
"What do you know about it? I have my orders. Drop your
weapon or I'll have to kill you!"
"Then we'll both die!" screamed Taeon, and fired.
Ryo darted to the left and charged forward as the beam of
light stabbed through the air. The beam sliced into Ryo's suit,
nicking his shoulder, but did little damage. He took his rifle
by the barrel and slammed the butt of the gun against Taeon's
head.
Taeon never was one for physical combat, thought Ryo, as he
carried his old comrade back to the Killing Wind.
At least he got him back alive.
* * *
No comm, no sensors, no GPS link. Nothing. "Dammit Taeon,
why'd you have to blow off my mecha's head?" Ryo strained to
look out the small view port. Flying a mecha with nothing but a
thirty by twelve centimeter view port was probably the most
ludicrous thing he'd ever done.
Taeon pulled on the ropes that bound him to the cramped
passenger seat. It was useless. Either Ryo really knew how to
keep a prisoner tied or he had absolutely no skill at escaping.
"Well, why'd you have to blow up my Storm Giant?"
"Order's are orders. Of course, I wasn't ordered to blow up
your mecha or even try to kill you, but man, you could have
wasted me back there! What was I supposed to do?"
"You were supposed to yield and let me protect my family, as
is my right."
"Cut the family stuff out of this!" barked Ryo. "Your
making me depressed."
"My father... My sisters... Even my brother... They're all
doomed now. All because of you."
"Quite. I'm trying to fly with no scopes."
"Are you sure it's safe to fly like this?"
"No," said Ryo. He typed across the sensor console control.
Of course, nothing appeared on the display screen. "I'm going to
have to set down some place and take some..." He was cut off as a
fiery explosion swept past the view port.
"What was that?" yelped Taeon.
Ryo looked out the view port and caught a glimpse of a
fighter squadron swooping past them. "Fighters... Could be
yours, could be from House Ammar. They could even be Imperial
fighters. I can't tell. As you know, I have no IFF transceiver."
"Can you make out any markings? A triangle with a big eye
the middle?"
"Yeah... I think there's a triangle on that ones wing..."
"That's the crest of House Ammar."
"Time to toast some air-jocks," Ryo swung the Killing Wind
around, readying the mecha's Inferno beam gun.
"We have no sensors," reminded Taeon. "No targeting, no
tracking. How are you going to fight them?"
"I wasted your mecha without any sensors. Surely I can take
on these simple fighters."
The Killing Wind trembled with a multitude of explosions as
one of the fighters pummeled them with autocannon fire.
"Maybe not!" exclaimed Taeon.
Ryo guided his mecha as best he could to combat the
Durshaanian fighters. Blind as he was to every mode of sensory
input, save his naked eye, Ryo was able to hold his own quite
well. Maybe it was the mecha's state-of-the-art reflex control
system. Maybe it was sheer skill. Ryo believed it was his
skill. Taeon told himself it was just the reflex control suit.
The Killing Wind leveled out with an oncoming fighter and
hovered in the air directly in its path. Ryo triggered the
proton gun and lanced it across the fighter's flight path. The
craft was sliced in two, the cut divided it down the plane's
horizontal axis. The two halves plummeted to the ground with no
sign of a parachuting pilot.
"Weapon power supply depleted," stated the computer. "Power
cells below acceptable levels for combat readiness."
Ryo cursed having a power cell system on board instead of a
reactor core, but knew he didn't have time to think of such
things. The next fighter dove at him and launched a pair of auto-
tracking missiles. Ryo jerked back as hard as he could and the
Killing Wind blasted away from the attack, missing doom by
inches.
As the jet shot past, Ryo launched after it. He reach down
with his mecha's arms and grabbed the fighter by its fuselage and
hung on. Through his view port slits, Ryo could see the cockpit
canopy where the enemy pilot was. The terrified pilot looked
back at the massive mecha that had grappled his aerospace craft.
Ryo knew his mecha out-massed the fighter two to one, and he
could easily force it into a crash landing. But that was not his
intentions. The third and last fighter was swooping in on him,
yet it was not firing for fear of hitting the now captive
friendly craft.
"Don't you know? Friends aren't worth dying for," said Ryo.
He slammed his mecha's thrusters hard to the right and
released the enemy jet. At the same time he kicked the plane in
the general direction of the third fighter. As he had
calculated, the incoming jet smashed into the first. Both
exploded and together they tumbled to the fields of death below,
a massive fireball of twisted, molten metal.
"Not bad," said Taeon. "For a guy with a reflex control
system."
"Stop talking Toshio. I've got to find a place to land and
get this mecha's head fixed, or at least my sensors. Is there
any place near-by?"
"Sure. Falmore-Glave."
"I'm not going to Falmore-Glave, dammit!" objected Ryo.
"You think I am stupid or something?"
Taeon nodded.
"If you don't help me, we'll both die up here. I was
extremely lucky just then. I don't think that kind of luck holds
up forever."
Taeon sighed and gave in. Ryo was right, and he wasn't keen
on dying either. "There was a House Ammar supply and command
bunker back where you engaged me."
"Yeah, I remember seeing it. Looked pretty shot up."
"I took it out, but there's still some good equipment down
there. A couple tanks and APCs and stuff. Maybe you could
salvage some sensors out of them."
"Got it."
Ryo piloted the Killing Wind around and flew back to the
battle zone where he had fought Taeon. "Hang on, I'm taking us
down."
The Killing Wind landed rather awkwardly next to the bullet
riddled bunker. It was not a good landing, but rather well
executed in light of the mecha's lack of sensors. Ryo shut down
the mecha to conserve what little energy it had left. "Okay,
Taeon. I'm taking you out here with me because I might need an
extra hand. I expect you to help, as this is a life and death
situation. Is that understood?"
Taeon grinned. "Of course, Sergeant Gunn."
"Don't even think of escaping."
"Escape? Why, I wouldn't even think of it."
"Never mind. I don't trust you. But I'm certainly not
leaving you in this cockpit."
"Damn," cursed Taeon. "Didn't work."
Ryo opened the cockpit and tossed the rope ladder down to
the ground. "Come on."
* * *
"I can't help you very well unless you untie my hands,"
observed Taeon.
"Look, I'm not falling for that," stated Ryo. He pulled a
large black box out of the open electronics compartment on the
damaged tank. It was the least damaged tank, the one that Taeon
had cleaved off the turret. "Thermal-decoder's intact. Good."
"It's getting dark."
Ryo looked around. His nervous system wasn't the only thing
genetically enhanced. His eyes were capable of night vision,
similar to that of most nocturnal animals, and the enhanced rods
in his cornea could even pick up trace amounts of heat, similar
to the tank's thermographic imager he was attempting to salvage.
It was an ability that proved to be an asset at times, but made
it difficult to tell the difference between night and day. "Oh
yeah," he said noting the elongated shadows. The lovely orange
sun was already gone. He had been too busy removing the tank's
sensors to notice the sun set. "Better head back to the bunker
and find a clean place to crash for the night. Preferably a room
without too many dead bodies."
"I only unloaded one ammo clip on the bunker," Taeon said
with a grin. "I have no idea why it looks like Swiss cheese."
"It was anti-personnel ammo! Those bullets frag out when
they reach muzzle velocity. You sprayed the place with ten
million pencil-sized needles! What do you expect it to look
like?"
"I find it hard to head back to the bunker, what with my
feet being tied as they are."
"Hop."
"Just untie my feet."
Ryo shrugged and knelt down. He quickly untied Taeon's leg
bindings.
"You... wretched scum..." came a grinding, rather spiteful
sounding voice.
Ryo looked around and spotted a man at the top of a nearby
hill. He had a large rifle in one hand, but his left arm hung
limply at his side.
"Hands up!" yelled the man. He slid down the hill into
better view. Ryo could just make out the House Ammar crest on
his blood stained uniform. His left arm was badly mangled, it
would probably never work right again. He walked up to them with
a limp. "How dare you come back here. Guess you thought there
were no survivors, huh?"
"Well, I shot up that bunker pretty good," explained Taeon,
nervously.
"Yeah? You killed everyone in there, didn't you? But I was
in a tank. That tank you're working on right now, as a matter of
fact."
"Uh, your arm..." started Ryo.
"I tried to get away with the infantry, but seems you
sprayed us with meat-grinder rounds even in our retreat."
"That wasn't me," said Ryo. "It was him. I was in the
mecha that came down and took him out."
"Oh, yeah," said the man. "I saw the fight. Saw it as I
lay bleeding with the mangled bodies of my fallen friends!
You're both from the Empire aren't you? What business do you
have here?"
"What do you mean?" asked Ryo. "Eridani is part of the
Empire. Taeon went rogue I'm just bringing him in. If you could
help me..."
"Taeon? Taeon Toshio?" grunted the man. His gun wavered in
his hand. He seemed to be blacking out. But before Ryo could
act, the man snapped back to full focus and shoved his rifle
toward them. "Son of Baron Toshio? Hell, I'll just kill you
both. I don't know who the hell you are, you blue-haired
Imperial dirt bag. This ain't your fight, so I'll just kill you
both. Yeah..."
"My name's Ryo Gunn, and you logic is not making sense."
"This is a war, you fool! Its not supposed to make sense!
I just kill. That's my job. I kill for the great House Ammar.
To hell with all you Imperial dogs."
"But you're a citizen of the Empire," stated Ryo
"I'm ah..." he staggered back again, this time it looked
like he was about to fall. "... I'm a soldier of House Ammar.
Long live Baron Ammar...!"
Ryo knew the man was weakened from blood loss. He charged
and slapped the rifle from his hand, and shoved the Durshannian
soldier to the ground. The soldier offered no further
resistance.
"Ha!" laughed the man weakly. He pointed to a small
communicator on his belt. "I've got this thing on an open
channel back to HQ..."
"You what?" asked Ryo, looking down at the communicator on
the man's belt. A small red light was on, indicating activity.
"Had it on so their search and rescue team could find me.
Since they can overhear what we're staying, they all know Taeon
Toshio's here. I'd guess half of our army will be coming in less
than ten minutes. Taeon'd make a great hostage... yeah..."
Ryo grabbed the rifle and shoved it in the man's blood
smeared face. "You lie!"
"What's the point in lying?" choked the man. "I'm dead
anyhow. At least you'll be joining me in hell. Heh! I'll tell
the Ferryman to wait up for you." He coughed and rolled his head
to the right. "I'm sure we won't have too long to wait."
Ryo relaxed the gun. The soldier laughed one last time and
died.
As he turned around, a powerful blow smacked Ryo in his
ribs. He doubled over, barely catching a glimpse of Taeon.
Another kick landed itself on Ryo's jaw, forcing him back into an
upright position. Taeon spun around and slammed his foot into
Ryo's stomach, knocking him to the ground.
"Sorry, friend," said Taeon. "I have a duty to my family."
Ryo looked up, just in time to see Taeon's boot in his face.
The last thing he remembered thinking was how nice it would be to
have a pack of cold ice.
Written and Directed By
Mark Chase
http://www.meta-earth.com
Copyright 1998. All rights reserved.
Casting By
Mark Chase
Starring
Ryo Gunn - Mathias Russ
Taeon Toshio - Jonathan Fuller
Other Characters - Mark Chase
Balmor Toshio
Kanis Toshio
Sara Toshio
Xandra Toshio
J.T.
Katana Falcon
Mecha Designs
Raptor - Mark Chase
Storm Giant - Jon Fuller
Killing Wind - Mathias Russ
(all mecha were constructed under
the Mekton Zeta© RPG system,
by R. Talsorian Games, Inc)