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Absolutely no offense intended to the author (Cattra Kell?) as I am fully aware of how difficult it is to write a story, no matter how short, so Kudos for making the attempt.
Admittedly, not being around firearms much, I don't know much about the actual .44 so I have taken my cues from the original backstory.
Please feel free to critique the story and let me know what you think.
*EDIT I suppose this should really be in Fan Creations
, sorry mods*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Butte Hold
Periphery
25th April 3049
Master Tech Cole Briarson leafs through the repair order paperwork, his long straggly brown hair falling to cover his eyes as he slowly shakes his head “What have you done to my baby this time Upsalom?” Briarson asks the tall, blond haired female MechWarrior standing beside him. Looking sidelong at him, she tilts her head and replies in a cold, hard tone “Your baby? Forty-four ain’t no-one’s baby but mine, you’re just the grease monkey that keeps her in trim” The two stare levelly at each other for a few heart beats before they burst out laughing, the MechWarrior; Ivy Upsalom, slaps Briarson on the shoulder saying “It’s good to see you too Cole, you grumpy old son of a goat herder” “Hey I resemble that remark!” Briarson retorts with a tone of feigned hurt “My father was a highly respected farmer, I’ll have you know”.
Turning toward the towering war machine not twenty metres from them, Briarson points to the bright yellow paintwork and again shakes his head “You know how much time it takes to repaint that damnable scheme every time we have to replace an armour panel? It’s a pain in the rear hip actuator; can you PLEASE bring your baby without taking a pounding, just for once?” looking up at her modified Quickdraw 5K, now christened a QKD-IV4 by the Tech crews of Redjack Ryan’s pirate stronghold of Butte Hold, Upsalom has a faraway look in her eyes “That last one was a good pilot, she gave me a good fight but I still hold the title”, “Aye we’ll get that thirtieth silhouette on there for you” Briarson replies with a snort, his voice taking on a high and mighty swelling tone “Ivy Upsalom; the best female MechWarrior in, or out of the Inner Sphere. Come one, come all challengers and tremble before the sound of her guns” Upsalom turns to face the slightly shorter man, a look of irritation passing briefly over her attractive face before being replaced by a broad smile, her voice dropping to a staged whisper as she looks around conspiratorially “Okay you old goat, you’re work on forty-four has a little something to do with it, just don’t go telling anyone I admitted it. You’ll ruin my reputation as a hard-nosed, stone hearted killer!”
Chuckling to himself, Briarson leafs through the repair order once more before his tone turns business-like “Well the good news is you managed to not damage either of the side torso mounted SRM6 launchers, the crew will have your two tonnes of ammo reloaded in a couple hours. The bad news is a bit longer” pointing up at the ‘Mech, Briarson indicated the arm mounted class five autocannons, first the left “Your left arm cannon needs a new barrel, there’s some nasty heat distortion in there, PPC strike or two I would guess”, looking to Upsalom he sees the MechWarrior merely nodding at him, shifting his focus back to the Quickdraw pointing at the right arm weapon “the right ain’t as bad, just a clean and realign, then reload the two tonnes of ammo and their both good to go” Flipping to the next page on the clipboard, quickly reading a side note left by one of his Tech’s, Briarson points to the ‘Mechs centre torso “The medium pulse lasers are knocked out of alignment, again, thankfully a quick tweak and they’ll be fine but your last conquest managed to get past some of forty-fours armour and crack some of the engine shielding. That 240XL is a tough little beast though, so once we’ve got the shielding repaired it should be fine. Add in a few replacement Ferro Fibrous armour panels and a bleeding repaint, you should be good to go in twenty four hours. Not the worst state you’ve brought her back in and I’m glad you managed not to wreck any of the JumpJets this time” flipping to another page, Briarson indicates a series of red crosses “I just need your Jane Hancock here, here and here. We’ll get our baby fighting fit and ready for action.
Smiling at the Master Tech, Upsalom scribbled her signature next to each of the marks and handed the clipboard back to him, eying the small line of text on the second sheet ‘why is it called forty-four?’ “Time for the best female MechWarrior in or out of the Inner Sphere to go get some rack time and I appreciate the efforts of the best Master Tech in or out of the Inner Sphere” pausing for a moment, Upsalom points a hand up toward the Quickdraw “Oh and let your Junior Tech know; she’s called forty-four because in the fashion of the old Wild West gun slinging villains on Terra, I’ll be known as the “Lady-killer” and my baby here is my weapon of choice. Just like the old slug thrower did for the cowboys, forty-four will help me go down in the history books” With a grin Ivy Upsalom, sketched a salute, turned and strode off, leaving Master Tech Briarson to stare up at the Quickdraw a smile on his face.
Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 May 2014 - 12:17 AM.
