Interlude 8, part 3
——————- (written by Nurklear)———edited by me—
Location: Katinka, Aurigan Coalition, Gunhold Spaceport
Date: December 25, 3025, 12:00
Nuklear sighed as he drove down the road to where he was told to meet with the ZBBC Mechtechs, arranging his transport to… wherever he would be working. He wished his scout bike from home could be brought with him, but his brother still needed a way to get to work. The man wasn't that much of an asshole to take away their only ride.
Besides, the TRK took up all of his allocated space on the ship here, and boy, was Jacob pissed when he found out he couldn't bring the bike. Ha, if he and his friend hadn't already signed the contract with the ZBBC, they might have refused to go.
His best friend, who was a bit of a jerk, had taken the truck loaded with the TRK bike and headed to the local ZBBC base to send it home. Unfortunately, he was still dealing with spaceport security when his friend left. Surprisingly, the security was touchy about vibroblades and explosives, especially with all the mercenaries around.
Nuklear couldn't believe how flaky his old buddy was. He brings along his dinky little custom mech, the same one that got them both thrown in the slammer fifteen times in two months back in their hometown and now he expects Nuklear to walk—without being able to pilot said mech due to the doctor's orders.
At least Jacob's brother, Michael, had hung around and even found a rental bike he could pay for at the port, even if it were meant to get someone from point to point as it was. The limited speed was telling. However, it allowed the Mechtech to keep pace with the original Fleache. A ZBBC combat convoy would bring his prototype battlemech to the location under heavy guard. However, he wanted to meet his new bosses, so he went ahead without his product.
Exiting the spaceport city limits, they passed a patrol of mechs and combat vehicles. All of them were of Aurigan design, which reminded Nuklear of when they had planned to go to Mangzhangdian for a design contest.
The road was constantly turning, so Michael took it upon himself to act as his bodyguard for the trip. True, the mechwarrior felt that he owed Nuklear. However, the Mechtech hoped this wouldn't get his friend in trouble.
Nuklear's mind drifted back to the day his life changed after he created those two mechs.
***** some months earlier *****
Location: Katinka, Aurigan Coalition, Ignatius
Date: February 1, 3025, 08:00
Nuklear walked into his best friend Jacob's house without knocking or announcing himself. He waved at Jacob's father's confused expression but ignored Jacob's mother, who had made inappropriate comments about him and his mother yesterday. She apologized, but Nuklear would not forget what he felt.
Rushing to the rear of the house, he finally came across the door he was looking for. With a swift push, it flung open, revealing a sight that left him bewildered. He stood there momentarily, blinking in disbelief, before quickly retracting and slamming the door shut. His face flushed with embarrassment as he turned to face Cassie, who had just opened said door. "My apologies, Cassie. I had no idea you were already back."
"No problem. I will have to grab you faster next time," Nuklear heard Cassie's reply, noting the humor in her tone and remembering what their parents were still regularly bringing up. Thankfully, Cassie pointed to the hallway with the oversized garage. "Michael is back in with Jacob."
Nuklear nodded and headed towards the last room. He opened the door and found one of his targets—a man in his twenties with tan skin and dark hair. The man had new, paler scars from the previous round of raids after the failed coup attempt. He was sitting on a chair in the corner, staring at a battle on the screen. Jacob wasn't there, but the missing motorbike told him that his friend might have already left for the base without his brother.
Nuklear rolled his eyes, walked over to the man, grabbed him by his hair and ear, and started walking away, saying, "Come on."
"SON OF A… WHO THE… LET ME GO, YOU ASSHOLE" Nuklear smirked at the pained cursing. He knew the exact moment the Mechwarrior realized who had him from the increased severity of the cursing. The Mechtech dragged the man out of the garage and into the hallway. He nodded to Micheal's wide-eyed father as he passed the living room. He noted that Michael had grabbed his wrist but was smartly not trying to free himself this time.
Instead, Michael tried to stop Nuklear from pulling on his hair and ear. "YOU CAN FREAKING LET GO!"
"You have been sulking since your battlemech blew up, and I asked you to come two days ago." Nuklear shrugged before continuing. "So I came to find you still sulking and no Jacob. Also, you didn't warn me your sister was back."
"Oh," Michael chuckled, looking at me with a pained grin. "Even if I wanted to, do you think I am willing to risk her and my parent's reaction.
"Fine," Nuklear tilted his head, then let go of Michael's ear and hair and pushed him towards his scout bike. "Get on."
Michael looked from Nuklear to the bike and back. "Ah, I can take our truck."
"Which I am sure in no way would wind up being driven by your sister." Nuklear sniped back as he noticed the woman near the truck in question.
Nuklear observed a marked improvement in Michael's demeanor as he looked at him challengingly and said, "So what?" This starkly contrasted with the depressed moping the Mechwarrior had been engaging in since he was informed that his beloved Wasp was beyond repair and irretrievable.
"First off, I didn't get clearance for her and don't feel like either spending three hours filling out paperwork to get clearance or ten hours of talking and paperwork to get her out of a cell if she went without it," Nuklear said, holding up a finger before slipping on his helmet and then holding up two.
"Secondly, last time I went anywhere with the two of you, without Jacob, I almost wound up having to get married because-"
"And what's wrong with my sister?" Michael cut Nuklear off, his tone dangerously neutral.
"Nothing," Nuklear said with a shrug as he climbed on his bike. "She's one of the most attractive females in the area. However, I am older and have a genetic condition that is going to kill me. I can't fix it because treatment costs as much as a brand-new assault mech. Also, I am openly considered insane, and she could do much better." Mechtech looked at the truck without Cassie around. Where did she go? Nuklear continued and pretended not to notice anything off. "The third reason your truck is too freaking slow."
"What?" Michael said flatly, his face blank from the last part. Nuklear smirked under his helmet since he knew adding that last bit would throw the Mechwarrior off.
"Well, I am not waiting around forever at the gate for you to catch up, so get on," Nuklear said, starting the bike with a grin.
"I will take the truck," Michael growled and marched to the vehicle.
"Fine, but you're gonna need me to get past security, and I'm not waiting for you…" Nuklear yelled as he held up Michael's BattleROM, waving it enticingly. He gave a mischievous grin at the wide-eyed mechwarrior's surprise. The Mechtech released the brake and twisted the throttle. The scout bike took off at maximum velocity as the Mechwarriors cursed and started the truck.
****
"...LET THE PERIMETER DEFENSE SHOOT BOTH YOU IDIOTS!" Jacob finished screaming at his unrepentant best friend and sheepish brother. Honestly, he considered just letting them get shot next time via him shooting them.
Several minutes prior, he waited at the gate for Mechtech's return with his brother after being informed that his friend had gone to pick them up.
Nuklear forgot he had his way of getting here and had already hired another mechwarriors to do the job. His little brother had done enough and shouldn't be piloting an experimental mech.
Jacob rubbed his head, wishing he had gotten here earlier. Michael and Nuklear, being in the same areas, made it seem like they were giving Inferno rounds to the Combine. Nothing good could come from it.
Luckily, he had convinced the perimeter guards to stand down. A few minutes ago, he heard a high-pitched whine that quickly became a shrieking roar that meant Nuklear had the supercharger on the scout bike he had built running at full.
***Thirty minutes earlier***
Jacob was in the middle of reprimanding some of the overly anxious militia members guarding the site. They were still on edge from recent raids, and a few were raising concerns about potential ground raids due to the supercharger's high output.
Jacob witnessed the moments just before the militia ceased firing. He saw a modified scout bike emerge from the trees in the distance. The bike's supercharger and turbines produced a deafening howl as it quickly closed the distance. Shortly after, a pair of trees at the treeline were obliterated as a combination of a swift wind and missiles tore through them. Following the bike was a flatbed hauler that emerged from the tree line, with the militia bikers in hot pursuit.
Obviously, they decided to just cut straight through the trees and fuck the road's curve. Those vehicles launched onto the road, nearly clipping the signs as the Mechtech's scout bike power slid onto the road. It came to a stop near Jacob's waiting old spot.
Seeing one of the targets next to a VIP, the militia bikes suddenly roared as the drivers slammed down on their accelerator. One nearly clipped the Nuklear's bike's rear wheel before stopping and tackling the Mechtech. Jacob's eye twitched even as he grabbed the nearest radio and started talking fast.
The first fight when the vehicles stopped hadn't helped the situation.
*****
"What? I brought him here," Nuklear said as he rubbed his jaw and gave the middle finger to Michael. Micheal looked both embarrassed and outraged at the same time. That was when the mechtech threw a battleROM to a nervous-looking Astech standing nearby. The Astech gratefully accepted the drive and hurried away from the situation. "Also, we arrived twenty minutes before we needed him here."
"Hey, where is he taking my ROM?"
As the Astech began to head towards its destination, Jacob, with a sense of urgency, moved swiftly to block his brother from following them. The Mechwarrior, who was following the worker, was taken aback by Jacob's sudden movement and looked at him with a perplexed expression. Jacob quickly gestured to the nearby security tower.
The facility's commander puffed up like an adder, face red. "Is this your idea of-"
"This contest is Mangzhangdian's chance to actually develop some industry and possibly get some kind of economy going, but only if our entries do well enough in this contest." Nuklear interrupted the man. That deflated the commander a bit.
"I am aware," the base commander growled out, "but what does that have to do with you setting off every alarm in the facility and almost getting yourself killed over a childish race?"
Nuklear shrugged. "You were the one that demanded I have him here by three pm. It was this or going over your head to the planetary Governor again to keep one of your wannabes from screwing this up for us."
"You…" The commander's face reddened as he waved to a young man in a MechWarrior cooling vest. "My selection…"
"Is the nephew of the second richest man on the planet, graduated from the Turian military academy less than a year ago at barely the middle of the class, has at least a thousand hours actually in a Battlemech all in heavies or above, and has a father desperately hoping to get out of spending millions on a mech for him." Nuklear cut him off, suddenly serious as he looked the man in the eyes and waved his hand at Micheal. "He's literally the best light mech pilot on the planet and willing to work for your system. I don't like him, but I know his skills, you know it too, or you wouldn't be trying to get your hands on a light mech you can tempt him into the militia with."
The man in charge of the base sputtered and puffed up more, but nothing came of it. Nuklear walked off in the same direction as the Astech. Jacob took that as the signal to let his brother follow the Mechtech. The park took them towards the main facility as the mechtech continued his lecture. "Last I heard, the CC Two still needs a pilot. All three men you chose backed out once they heard the name and what it was based on. You can put your political favors to allow the Mechwarriors to join the Mangzhangian's militia in return for the ownership of the prototype."
As they entered the building, Micheal slowed and started up at the three nearly finished battlemechs standing in the mechbay.
"Hey 'Irvine'" Micheal jumped and glared at Nuklear's yell of his calling. Was he ever gonna live down landing in a patch during ejection training? You would think scratching uncontrollably for weeks would be enough grief over it.
"What?!"
"Meet the 'Fleache,'" Nuklear pointed to one of the light mechs. "You're piloting that one."
Micheal looked at him blankly. "Huh?"
"That's right, you've been sulking," Nuklear sighed and rubbed his temple. "The Reach has a contest going on for battlemech designs right now. These two designs passed the first round of tests, and we could afford to build prototypes to send to the final stress test that ended the competition. Mangzhanian needs this to go well. We are working with scraps compared to most systems putting in entries. You are the best light mech pilot on the planet, not part of Katinka's militia or the ACM. Looking through the records, the governor could get me, and we need every edge we can get."
"Wait, you want me to…" Micheal looks from the mech to Nuklear.
"To pilot my new mech, yes." Nuklear took out a flask and took a sip. "I know you used to mech with arms, but it's the same tonnage as your Wasp." Mechtech looked away from his prototypes to speak directly to his friend, only to see an empty space. "Where'd he go?"
Nuklear scanned the area and noticed Michael standing at the foot of the mech. He was conversing with the Astechs who were setting in the battleROM. To Nuklear's dismay, the Mechwarrior asked the questions he should be answering as the designer.
Before he could smack Michael, Nuklear heard his best friend speak up.
"Thanks," Nuklear turned and looked at Jacob, now looking at his brother with relief.
"Nothing to thank. He held off three mediums with a Wasp for nearly an hour. The arrogant pain in the ass is the best we have." Nuklear said, shaking his head, "And if he helps us get close enough to winning to get people to buy them, I will let him keep it."
"Do you have authorization-"
"Don't need it." Nuklear waved off Jacobs's worries. "Mangzhangdian could only afford to build one of the Fleache and the Crosscut mark two. That one is mine. I used every bit of scrap I have owned, called in every favor I could, and spent more of my savings than you would believe in scraping up enough materials to build a second. So if he pulls this off, he can have it. I already asked the base commander to get the necessary paperwork read. You can consider it a bonus to whatever the government is paying."
**** Present day*****
Michael's behavior improved that day, and they even earned massive rewards after the competition. Jacob falsely claimed that he had already paid for the mech and promised him the Fleache upon good performance. However, they saw through that bull and watched the award ceremony that the ZBBC broadcasted.
Especially, Nuklear thought, since technically, the ZBBC bought the mech from the planetary governor after the stress test. While he was happy that he got reimbursed for the cost of Michael's Fleache, it pained him that his plans failed. Thankfully, the governor gave the mech to Michael rather than selling it to help maintain the militiamech plant the ZBBC built.
Still, it was odd that his best friend's brother was escorting him instead of his other mech. Michael may be acting under orders. There have been reports of Directorate remnants and pirate remnants creating problems in various places, which could have made the officials concerned that they might attempt something against the picked-up mechtechs. However, this doesn't explain why Jacob left without them.
Nuklear spotted something off in the distance. He grits his teeth and curses while pulling off the road to park the bike. Getting off the motorcycle, the Mechtech threw Micheal a hand signal, causing the Mechwarrior to stop his Fleache beside the bike. The battlemech slowly torso twists to keep watch of the area. Nuklear quickly walks into the tree lines to see what he has seen.
After a bit of searching and not finding anything, Nuklear walked back to his bike. As he passed by the final tree before his motorcycle, a pair of arms tried to pin him. The Mechtech's vibroblades were out before his conscious mind had registered what was happening. The arms fell to the ground with spurts of blood from their stumps, coating his clothing as its owner dropped dead.
Multiple voices started to yell just as the ambush registered he was throwing himself at an armed man in camouflage stepping from around a tree in front of him. The vibroblades slashed through their rifle as he pushed past them and into the open field, with a tree between him and the assailants just as bullets started his temporary barrier.
Nuklear cursed, swallowing hard to keep his lunch down. This wasn't the first fight he had been in, but it was the first time he had been outnumbered this badly. It was then the trees beside him shattered as the Fleache pushed past him, its medium and small laser flashing as it slaughtered the ambushers. The mech's loudspeakers crackled, and Michael's voice shouted, "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, YOU IDIOT!"
Nuklear didn't need to be told twice. He dashed for the road, cursing that Jacob had his scout bike to his brother. The Mechtech managed to reach the road and caused louder noises at the bullet holes in the borrowed bike's fuel tank. The damage was what likely tipped Micheal off to what was happening.
Shaking his head, Nuklear ran back into the trees for cover. He slid his vibroblades back into their sheaves before hitting an emergency beacon he received at the spaceport. Their chief of security advised him that cases like this happened and to start running parallel with the road.
So Nuklear kept the road barely in sight, glad he wore dark clothing, as the Mechtech headed away from the sounds of fighting and onto an old gravel road.
As Nuklear ran down the road, he heard the distinct sounds of a Scorpion tank approaching from behind. He looked back and noticed several of them in the Katinka defense forces colors, which relieved him a bit.
However, he couldn't help but feel guilty for leaving his friend Micheal behind to fight alone. Even though he didn't like Jacob's brother and knew he wouldn't be much help, he still felt like a coward for running away.
The thought of betraying his friend's trust weighed heavily on him, no matter how rational his decision seemed at the time. Nuklear tried calming himself down by taking slow breaths, but he couldn't shake off the guilt lingering in his mind. The mechtech blinked at finding himself lying on his belly at the bottom of a small gully, no more than a foot deep. Looking around, he swore and crawled under a nearby clump of bushes to catch his breath. His hand is clutching something he must have found here.
A glance revealed an odd metallic sphere that wasn't a grenade but felt warm to the touch. Nuklear put it in his pouch, which was attached to his belt, before focusing back on the road.
Nuklear lay there listening for anyone following him as his breathing slowed to normal and the adrenaline dropped. That was when he realized how tranquil the surrounding area became. He grits his teeth and reaches for the tubes from his belt. He would make those attackers pay for it, if nothing else. A quick shift of his hands allowed him to slide one of his vibroblades from his pocket.
A few moments later, the ground started to vibrate rhythmically, then stopped as a familiar crackly voice called out, "You have ten seconds to get out of the bush, or I'll feed you a laser."
Nuklear sat up, looked at the Fleache, and waved his vibroblades. "It's me. Let me get my stuff."
"What the hell were you doing in a bush beside a gully?"
"Catching my breath." Nuklear quickly gathered everything in the bushes with him before pushing his way out, wincing slightly as one of his knees complained. I gotta fix those loudspeakers," he muttered as his friend's orders distorted somewhat.
As he limped toward the road, he could feel Micheal shaking his head.
****
"Get away from me, you…you… You QUACKS," Nuklear growled at the medical personnel as he limped after Jacob alternately. He tried to get around Micheal to grab either one of his vibroblades or any of the items stored in his belt while avoiding the grasp of the Doctor and nurses.
———————-
AN: this was a write up on introducing some side characters who had impacted the background of the story.
Slowly getting back into writing again. Mainly because I enjoy it and help with making me happy.
