2
Bishop Steiner, on 01 March 2017 - 04:13 PM, said:
In celebration of seeing the "little Urbie who could" come to life, I wanted to create a contest, in conjunction with PGI to celebrate the little guy, now official to MWO as the UM-K9 "K-9" Urbanmech Hero.
(Note, the mech pictured above has been modified to more closely resemble original concept art, and does not reflect the actual finished geometry and paint selection of the UM-K9 Hero Mech)
This will be a three way contest, for Fan Fiction, and both Digital and Traditional Art.
This is the Entry Thread for FAN FICTION ONLY.
By Fan Fiction, I mean TRO write ups, historical, actual short story, etc
All entries must be new and original, created especially for the sake of this contest. The Winner in each category will be gifted a shiny new UM-K9 "K-9" Urbanmech Hero. (dunno if there should be anything like MC, premium time, etc for 2nd/3rd place, or if it's an all or nothing type of party?)
For the fictional background informational aspect, a few details of the mysterious Urbanmech come to be known as theDeputy Dawg...er.... K-9.............. 
PRIZES:
1st Place: K9 Hero Mech
2nd Place MC Injection (1250 MC)
3rd place: Cockpit Item or Color of Choice
Winners will be decided by a Panel of PGI Judges, our Community Manager, Tina, and Myself!
This is all in good fun, of course, but I wanted some way of saying THANK YOU to all the members of the community who helped me get first the Urbanmech, and finally, my beloved Hero, into this game! And an extra special Thank you, to PGI, not only for bringing my Deputy Dawg to life, but supporting this contest, also!
Oops! I forgot! Contest ends 11:59pm EST, March 15th, 2017, after which we will judge and post winners hopefully soon after!
(Note, the mech pictured above has been modified to more closely resemble original concept art, and does not reflect the actual finished geometry and paint selection of the UM-K9 Hero Mech)
This will be a three way contest, for Fan Fiction, and both Digital and Traditional Art.
This is the Entry Thread for FAN FICTION ONLY.
By Fan Fiction, I mean TRO write ups, historical, actual short story, etc
All entries must be new and original, created especially for the sake of this contest. The Winner in each category will be gifted a shiny new UM-K9 "K-9" Urbanmech Hero. (dunno if there should be anything like MC, premium time, etc for 2nd/3rd place, or if it's an all or nothing type of party?)
For the fictional background informational aspect, a few details of the mysterious Urbanmech come to be known as the
Spoiler
The UM-K9 first came to notice in the capitol city of Zhi-Chiang, on the planet Hsien, in the newly formed Chaos March. Associated with the paramilitary police that also acted as the local Militia, the K9 and it's associates were constructed from scraps left after the Fourth Succession Wars, with large quantities of destroyed Urbanmechs and Valkyries being interred in the scrap yards under governmental control.
Needing a functioning fighting force to deal with the unrest and Liao sponsored Guerrillas, the commander of the local Garrison got the idea to raid the scrapyards for working tech, and a small force of frankenmech Urbanmechs were built, using the combining the engines and leg actuators of Davion Valkyries into the much easier to maintain and repair Urbanmech shells.
Weaponry and reliability varied greatly from mech to mech, but over the years, most of the bugs were worked out, and the sight of these "Police Special" Urbanmechs became source of pride for the citizens of Zhi-Chiang. Surviving the Xin Sheng Campaign of Sun Tzu Liao in good order, things took a turn for the worse with the coming of the Word of Blake's Jihad.
Holding out for over a year, fighting both the Blakists and the Hsien Hotheads, eventually the members of the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary were forced to retreat offworld. Ever since, the K-9 and his unit have shown up at various hotspots throughout the Inner Sphere, to fight for the locals, then disappear again.
Why and how the nephew of Frederick Steiner came to drive an Urbanmech on a planet so far away from home as Hsien is a matter of speculation, as are the pilot's motives.
The UM-K9 first came to notice in the capitol city of Zhi-Chiang, on the planet Hsien, in the newly formed Chaos March. Associated with the paramilitary police that also acted as the local Militia, the K9 and it's associates were constructed from scraps left after the Fourth Succession Wars, with large quantities of destroyed Urbanmechs and Valkyries being interred in the scrap yards under governmental control.
Needing a functioning fighting force to deal with the unrest and Liao sponsored Guerrillas, the commander of the local Garrison got the idea to raid the scrapyards for working tech, and a small force of frankenmech Urbanmechs were built, using the combining the engines and leg actuators of Davion Valkyries into the much easier to maintain and repair Urbanmech shells.
Weaponry and reliability varied greatly from mech to mech, but over the years, most of the bugs were worked out, and the sight of these "Police Special" Urbanmechs became source of pride for the citizens of Zhi-Chiang. Surviving the Xin Sheng Campaign of Sun Tzu Liao in good order, things took a turn for the worse with the coming of the Word of Blake's Jihad.
Holding out for over a year, fighting both the Blakists and the Hsien Hotheads, eventually the members of the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary were forced to retreat offworld. Ever since, the K-9 and his unit have shown up at various hotspots throughout the Inner Sphere, to fight for the locals, then disappear again.
Why and how the nephew of Frederick Steiner came to drive an Urbanmech on a planet so far away from home as Hsien is a matter of speculation, as are the pilot's motives.
PRIZES:
1st Place: K9 Hero Mech
2nd Place MC Injection (1250 MC)
3rd place: Cockpit Item or Color of Choice
Winners will be decided by a Panel of PGI Judges, our Community Manager, Tina, and Myself!
This is all in good fun, of course, but I wanted some way of saying THANK YOU to all the members of the community who helped me get first the Urbanmech, and finally, my beloved Hero, into this game! And an extra special Thank you, to PGI, not only for bringing my Deputy Dawg to life, but supporting this contest, also!
Oops! I forgot! Contest ends 11:59pm EST, March 15th, 2017, after which we will judge and post winners hopefully soon after!
*********ENTRIES to Date************
1) -RoKeNx2-
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S0DOyhWbOO9_EUW-LFryjmtrPrTW7WhLBZ5GAWfcCcg/edit
not sure why this link keeps breaking, the one in the OP seems to work
2) -Barantor-
https://docs.google....TRpZaqojb0/edit
3) -Cato Zilks-
Spoiler
A large ditch by railroad tracks in the middle of a sea of grass.
Claybrooke
FWL frontier, bordering the Capellans and Canopians
Late July 3045
Nothing about this world is easy. The days are long, years longer; summers are hell, yet every year hell freezes over and we all crave hell's heat. The worst part is the smell of cow crap that permeates everything. But, those cows are the biggest cash crop on the planet, so we can only complain so much. If the politicians in Sheridan would get over themselves maybe we could start mining our two moons and start growing our economy. Leave it to a bunch of cowboy politicians to stick to their guns and be unable to figure out some kind of deal. Hard to really blame them though, a decade ago their job was to stymie the FWL appointed "governor (dictator), which they did exceptionally well. You can't really blame a dog for only knowing one trick, they only know what you teach them.
Still, listening to them crow about their roles in the Army of the Resistance is just downright irritating. When we were fighting the Andurien occupation force, most of them did exactly what they do best: be rich and do nothing. We did all the work and they take all the glory. Now they make even more money selling our "frontier" goods from the brave "folk" who didn't even need FWL to help throw off the Andurien yolk. Does any of that extra money get passed along to the hard working people of Claybrooke? No, of course not. Ok, I kinda like that last part. I don't mind if they brag about us not needing the League. Just so long as they don't provoke them into sending an "governing" force, or worse: the 8th Orloff Genadiers who will flatten a town to kill some pirates.
"Uh... sir, I think I see something coming. About eh... 1,000m out... 280 degrees west by north west." His scout's report snapped Jim Bishop out of the political ramblings in his head. "Rodriguez, bring your men to the west embankment of the ditch! Spencer! Jackson! Turn your dadgum vehicles on!"
Their forces were light by most battle standards, but that was probably Jim's fault. He was a sheriff with a big mouth and a disdain for politicians (who incidentally, controlled the budget for his militia-esque police force.) Consequently, when Jim petitioned for a battlemech to help guard the trainlines, he was expecting a Spider or a Firestarter with a few quick vehicles. If he was lucky, maybe he would get an Assasin. Needless to say, speaking your mind to your bosses has draw backs: they gave him an Urbanmech decorated like a police car and two Hover APCs. Literally, the slowest mech in their price range with two vehicles that only had machine guns. And he was expected to cover miles of open plains.
Making the best with what he was given, Bishop retrofitted his Urbie to have a bit more "reach" on the open plains and trained his men in the art of the ambush. They were actually remarkably successful. In fact, rumors where that he could smell bandits coming from miles away (even through the odor of cow dung.) He knew where they were going to be, and even if they could run away that dang Urbie would track them. Thus the mech garnered the nickname "K-9." Bishop liked it, the reputation made his job easier.
But this summer had seen a sharp uptick in train robberies. Rumors were that these bandits were organized. They were certainly efficient, as evidenced by the lack of witnesses thus far. Jim was a bit disconcerted that he had not found them until now. How had they hidden so well? His men were well trained to avoid killing the bandits if possible, better to arrest them and make an example of them. But this group seemed more efficient than those he had tracked before. Could his posse stand up to these ghost-like bandits? They didn't have much of an option. He knew that if he couldn't stop these bandit raids, the chances were high that a contingent of the 8th Orloff Grenadiers might get redeployed here. He didn't want to deal with the civilian death toll they would assuredly leave in their wake.
Sergeant Spencer shattered Bishop's train of thought "sir, I don't have any contacts on my radar." They had upgraded the sensors in Spencer's APC, so they should have radar contact by now. "Alberts, you still have visual?" Bishop barked at his forward scout. "Roger, sir!" the scout answered, "700m out, it looks like two mechs... kinda triangly" "Power down!" Bishop yelled.
He had not seen a Raven, but he did not know of any other triangle shaped mechs carrying an ecm suite. "Who has covert battlemechs working on Claybrooke?" he thought to himself. The sheriff began barking out orders, "Alberts, when the mechs get within 150 meters of us, holler! Spencer, Jackson stay powered down until the fighting starts, then fan out! Rodriguez, get the SRMs up front and fire on Alberts' signal!" He was not confident they could win this, but he was gambling that these mechs were not supposed to engage the enemy.
The waiting was hard, but his men knew what they were doing. When Alberts gave the signal, all hell broke loose. The SRMs from the infantry legged one of the Ravens. Jim Bishop peaked his K-9 over lip of the ditch and began ripping into the its side torso. The remaining mech began running north, but then turned and opened fire on his comrade. The second Raven's alpha was enough to destroy his crippled ally, likely destroying any evidence they could have gained about who sent these mechs. As the second Raven turned to flee, sheriff Bishop bellowed, "do not pursue!"
Given the circumstances, the battle went well: only two died and four wounded while they had brought down a state-of-the-art battlemech. But, Jim Bishop knew that news about this encounter could be disastrous. It could provoke the League to send a new "governor" or worse they could send the 8th in to clean things up. "Ladies, gents" Bishop began "salvage what you can from that mech and then destroy the rest before the train arrives. We will not mention this to anybody. Am I clear?" A chorus of "yes sir!" answered him. "We don't need the League to get involved and muck everything up! We can take care of ourselves! Now hurry up, that train is only fifty minutes out!
A large ditch by railroad tracks in the middle of a sea of grass.
Claybrooke
FWL frontier, bordering the Capellans and Canopians
Late July 3045
Nothing about this world is easy. The days are long, years longer; summers are hell, yet every year hell freezes over and we all crave hell's heat. The worst part is the smell of cow crap that permeates everything. But, those cows are the biggest cash crop on the planet, so we can only complain so much. If the politicians in Sheridan would get over themselves maybe we could start mining our two moons and start growing our economy. Leave it to a bunch of cowboy politicians to stick to their guns and be unable to figure out some kind of deal. Hard to really blame them though, a decade ago their job was to stymie the FWL appointed "governor (dictator), which they did exceptionally well. You can't really blame a dog for only knowing one trick, they only know what you teach them.
Still, listening to them crow about their roles in the Army of the Resistance is just downright irritating. When we were fighting the Andurien occupation force, most of them did exactly what they do best: be rich and do nothing. We did all the work and they take all the glory. Now they make even more money selling our "frontier" goods from the brave "folk" who didn't even need FWL to help throw off the Andurien yolk. Does any of that extra money get passed along to the hard working people of Claybrooke? No, of course not. Ok, I kinda like that last part. I don't mind if they brag about us not needing the League. Just so long as they don't provoke them into sending an "governing" force, or worse: the 8th Orloff Genadiers who will flatten a town to kill some pirates.
"Uh... sir, I think I see something coming. About eh... 1,000m out... 280 degrees west by north west." His scout's report snapped Jim Bishop out of the political ramblings in his head. "Rodriguez, bring your men to the west embankment of the ditch! Spencer! Jackson! Turn your dadgum vehicles on!"
Their forces were light by most battle standards, but that was probably Jim's fault. He was a sheriff with a big mouth and a disdain for politicians (who incidentally, controlled the budget for his militia-esque police force.) Consequently, when Jim petitioned for a battlemech to help guard the trainlines, he was expecting a Spider or a Firestarter with a few quick vehicles. If he was lucky, maybe he would get an Assasin. Needless to say, speaking your mind to your bosses has draw backs: they gave him an Urbanmech decorated like a police car and two Hover APCs. Literally, the slowest mech in their price range with two vehicles that only had machine guns. And he was expected to cover miles of open plains.
Making the best with what he was given, Bishop retrofitted his Urbie to have a bit more "reach" on the open plains and trained his men in the art of the ambush. They were actually remarkably successful. In fact, rumors where that he could smell bandits coming from miles away (even through the odor of cow dung.) He knew where they were going to be, and even if they could run away that dang Urbie would track them. Thus the mech garnered the nickname "K-9." Bishop liked it, the reputation made his job easier.
But this summer had seen a sharp uptick in train robberies. Rumors were that these bandits were organized. They were certainly efficient, as evidenced by the lack of witnesses thus far. Jim was a bit disconcerted that he had not found them until now. How had they hidden so well? His men were well trained to avoid killing the bandits if possible, better to arrest them and make an example of them. But this group seemed more efficient than those he had tracked before. Could his posse stand up to these ghost-like bandits? They didn't have much of an option. He knew that if he couldn't stop these bandit raids, the chances were high that a contingent of the 8th Orloff Grenadiers might get redeployed here. He didn't want to deal with the civilian death toll they would assuredly leave in their wake.
Sergeant Spencer shattered Bishop's train of thought "sir, I don't have any contacts on my radar." They had upgraded the sensors in Spencer's APC, so they should have radar contact by now. "Alberts, you still have visual?" Bishop barked at his forward scout. "Roger, sir!" the scout answered, "700m out, it looks like two mechs... kinda triangly" "Power down!" Bishop yelled.
He had not seen a Raven, but he did not know of any other triangle shaped mechs carrying an ecm suite. "Who has covert battlemechs working on Claybrooke?" he thought to himself. The sheriff began barking out orders, "Alberts, when the mechs get within 150 meters of us, holler! Spencer, Jackson stay powered down until the fighting starts, then fan out! Rodriguez, get the SRMs up front and fire on Alberts' signal!" He was not confident they could win this, but he was gambling that these mechs were not supposed to engage the enemy.
The waiting was hard, but his men knew what they were doing. When Alberts gave the signal, all hell broke loose. The SRMs from the infantry legged one of the Ravens. Jim Bishop peaked his K-9 over lip of the ditch and began ripping into the its side torso. The remaining mech began running north, but then turned and opened fire on his comrade. The second Raven's alpha was enough to destroy his crippled ally, likely destroying any evidence they could have gained about who sent these mechs. As the second Raven turned to flee, sheriff Bishop bellowed, "do not pursue!"
Given the circumstances, the battle went well: only two died and four wounded while they had brought down a state-of-the-art battlemech. But, Jim Bishop knew that news about this encounter could be disastrous. It could provoke the League to send a new "governor" or worse they could send the 8th in to clean things up. "Ladies, gents" Bishop began "salvage what you can from that mech and then destroy the rest before the train arrives. We will not mention this to anybody. Am I clear?" A chorus of "yes sir!" answered him. "We don't need the League to get involved and muck everything up! We can take care of ourselves! Now hurry up, that train is only fifty minutes out!
4) -Thomster-
Spoiler
First of all a big sorry for all possible gramatical errors. With german being my main language (Schwyzerdütsch to be exact) many things might sound, well, rather germanic. And forgive me my constant fight the different past tense forms. Having written the story in one session, shooting pretty much from the hip, it might seem confusing or even plain wrong at times (no pun intended). And then there's the thing with the gazzillion comma blunders. But I hope you can still get the whole picture. Same goes for trying to stay within Lore of course. I stayed with Sarna as the main source for the Mechwarrior relevant material.
I hope I am within bounds of the contest and if not, so be it. Hopefully one or another likes it. So here is, without further ado, my story about the UM-K9 "Rintintin"
UPDATE: I made some corrections in the text, ironed out some time issues or obvious mistakes, polished some sentences to better support the story and adjusted some timeframes to better embed Rintintin into the bigger picture. Hope it makes now even more sense than before ;-)
"Good Dog!"
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1600h local adjusted time
Zhi-Chiang Constabulary Main Vehicle Hanger
“Startup Sequence initiated”
“Engine building fission-ready status for idle operation”
“Engine idle level reached"
"Higher function access demands personal authentication”
“Please enable Neurohelmet access protocols”
Lieutenant Clay Hawthorne clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, flipped the switch his finger has been lying on, and felt that dreaded thumping jolt in his brain, almost blacking him out.
As his blurred vision became clear again, he was wondering whether this would end well. This time it has been even worse than the few times before. Even now, moments after, he felt a lurking headache just under the surface and he was hoping it would not break out the worst possible moment.
“One day that cursed contraption will fry my brains out” he cursed into himself, cautious not to trigger the voice command services, and continued the remaining routine procedures to fully prepare his Mech.
Lieutenant Clay Hawthorne had been part eager and part resilient to start his daily shift that day, patrolling Zhi-Chiang City, and upholding order in such chaotic times. It has only been 3 months, since he had been assigned to his first Mech command, being the main pilot for this UM-K9 UrbanMech with the special setup that was so typical for the legendary 4 Mechs of the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary. Having been a regular Police Inspector in a small City near the Capital Zhi-Chiang and a lifetime Mech-nut, he had visited additional classes and trainings in his spare time to be accepted for Police Mech training and when he was finally admitted, he passed with flying colors. Not that this was testament of his skills, of course. He knew it was rather due the lack of sophistication of the training courses and the possibly low level required to pass all the tests as good as he had.
Nevertheless, it has been the proudest moments of his life, when he had finally been assigned to the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary and to his Mech: The UB-K9 UrbanMech with the call sign RinTinTin.
That was until he encountered inherent technical issues this Mech had. It had been seemingly impossible for the Techs to pair the Mech with a new Neurohelmet and after destroying two new helmets trying to do so, he was asked if he would agree to use the old one. As it was the same model he had during his training, he had agreed to it, and after a few calibration sessions with the Medtechs, he had his first startup sequence in his first Mech.
It was during the second month of Mech service, just about six weeks ago, when he experienced the first issues with that Neurohelmet. The startup sequence started to be growingly disturbing as he felt more and more neural feedback into his brain, almost like an electric shock to his synapses. And it had just been the week before this one, when he had an overwhelming Deja-vu moment during the late hours a patrol shift in the outskirts of the city. He had been walking through a long street when he suddenly had the feeling his mind would rewind and then found himself warped back to the beginning of the street, walking the same part of it as he had just done. The next moment that superimposed image was gone and he found himself almost walking over a hover car that has been parked there. A car that has been a least 0.3 klicks out just moments before.
He had been ready to blame that on late hour duty and his inexperience on the stick. But then dreams came, where he saw himself walking that street again and again, just like a piece of Holo on repeat, trapped in an infinite loop.
The next day he tried to talk to the Mastertech of the Constabulary about his experiences. Clay was not sure whether this was expected behavior or just equipment malfunction. He even considered perhaps not being physically able to be a proper Mech Pilot in the first place. But what Mastertech Demios then told him about the Mechs history was more disturbing and frightening, than he could ever imagine:
The K9 unit had been assigned to former Deputy and XO William Newland.
“Startup Sequence completed”
“RinTinTin is ready to serve justice”
The last status message threw Clay out of his thoughts for a moment. There was something that highly irritated him about that last status notification. Was it the sound of the voice? To be honest, he had not really been paying attention to what it said.
“Repeat last status message”
“RinTinTin is ready to serve”
Clay could not put the finger on it and besides his growing disturbed feeling in his guts he knew it was to time to go on patrol.
He checked the clamp status of the Mechbay and got green-lit to walk out. His hand shifted the throttle gently forward and stepped out his bay and was ready for duty. And his thoughts wandered back to its former pilot.
XO William Newland.
A highly-decorated Police Officer.
And a convicted murderer, who committed suicide.
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1900h local adjusted time
City Ring North, Marker 15
As the hours on his long tour through the city passed without any incident, his mind drifted away again to the former pilot of this Mech. He had been digging around for information after the revelation through the Mastertech, and what he found was material a Holo drama would be perfect for.
It must have been around 3 years ago, when then Deputy William Newland, XO and commanding officer of the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary UrbanMech Police Lance, had been on night solo duty once more. The case files stated, that it had been 0214h LAT, when Newland failed two times to give a scheduled status report of his tour. When he left out a third status report to Patrol-Central, and would not react if called upon, Patrol-Central had activated his backup transponder and sent backup units to his detected location, way out of his normal patrol route.
They had found him in the caretakers flat of an abandoned industrial building, covered in blood, kneeling over the dead body of his wife.
Deputy William Newland had been taken into custody and although he had always said he was innocent, and being the victim of a setup, nobody had believed him. And his allegations of a Police Force member being a hostile informant had made it only worse. He had always been seen as a rather vigilant, if not paranoid and pedantic character, so people had made up their mind about him. Also, the evidence just had been too overwhelming saying something in his favor. His wife must have been killed while Newland has been “off grid” already and the position beacon of his Mech placed him right there and right then where it happened. The coroner confirmed, that she must have had intercourse with another man just before and so the prosecutor had built his case on the basis, that Newland had observed his wife, tracked her down, surprised her with a lover and killed her out of jealousy. Especially because he had been a decorated Police officer, the legal system seemed to turn completely against him. When the final verdict fell for “life in a high security penal labor colony” on the Mining Moon in the Hsien system, Newland must have lost all will to live. They found his dead body hanging in his cell. Consensus seemed to have been, that justice have been served and the case was shelved to dissolve in the realms of eternal bureaucracy.
The more Clay learnt about this story, the less he liked it. There was something fishy about it and he started wondering whether it has been a coincidence that he had been assigned to that particular Mech. It turned out he has been the first pilot since Newland, who has been able to activate this unit as quite a few pilots before him have failed. This was normally to an incompatibility with a certain Neurohelmet. But since this specific Mech insisted on this specific Neurohelmet this ended up in a “the Mech chooses its pilot” scenario. And that was the most frightening thought of them all.
Static crackled through his earpiece and the voice of Patrol-Central echoed through the cockpit loudspeakers as well.
“Unit 12, we have a 211S at corner Royal and 3rd. Armored delivery from the mint called silent alarm. Possibly false alarm. Check and report. Engage only if needed. Backup on your request”
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1924h local adjusted time
City Ring North, Marker 15
That was it. Time to prove himself. Time to show why he wanted to get into a Mech cockpit since he was a little boy. All lingering doubts washed aside, he leaned in and pushed the throttle to full ahead. Not that an UrbanMech had a “top speed” that really earned its name, for a light Mech he was laughably slow. But within the city it felt like twice the speed and with his small and compact size and the possibility to torso twist the full 360 degrees, it was the perfect Mech for urban engagements.
As he approached the designated site he saw many vehicles fleeing in the opposite direction and loads of pedestrians running and hiding. He did not even have time to formulate a thought about that in his mind, when he stepped around a corner and saw the site of the attack on the mint monetary transport convoy.
3 armored trucks that must have been hijacked by attackers and a fourth one opened like a tin can. And 3 Light-ish humanoid Mechs grabbing packs of money and shoving them into each other’s torsi. The whole scenery was so surreal, that he just stood there baffled for a few seconds until the target acquisition computer identified the Mechs as a MR-7 Marco industrial Mech variant, armed with a Med Pulse Laser each, equipped with cargo holds, terrifyingly agile and with 30t weight the same combat weight as RinTinTin.
Just that there were three of them and one of him.
And the three of them just noticed him.
The moment he wanted to react on this detection, his Neurohelmet acted up itself. As he wanted to lean left to avoid the incoming laser fire, RinTinTin leaned right. Not that he could really complain, the way he would have moved, would have him receiving the full volley of 3 Med Pulse Lasers. Instead he was able to avoid this attack completely. Trying not to stick his mind to it, he turned his hips to the left and while throwing the Urbie in a wide circle run around his targets he kept the UAC5 constantly firing on the one Marco who seemed still primarily engaged in clearing the armored truck from its treasures.
“Critical hit, right arm, UAC5 damaged but operational, heat sink damaged”
The UAC started jamming almost immediately, restraining him for precious fractions of seconds between shots, focused on that one particular Marco and shaking of the incoming fire of the other two. For a second he glimpsed for civilians in the area, but the streets were completely empty. Citizens of Inner Sphere planets were usually quite accustomed to clear the area when big Mechs went at it. At least he did not have to be concerned hurting innocent bystanders there.
As he was almost half a circle around his targets he saw the hijacked trucks moving away but he did not care. His onboard systems have been on full broadcast since he engaged the Marcos anyway so Patrol-Central knew what was happening.
He must have fired a pretty decisive round into his prime target, because that Marco suddenly turned into a lump and fell onto the gutted armored truck. Clay turned his right arm into the incoming fire as it was already damaged and he did not have many rounds left anyway. With large steps, he reached another street corner and headed, full speed ahead, into an alley.
Or so he thought.
Just when he reached the end of the alley, he felt that thump in his brain again, warping him back to where he just came from. He felt sick from his stomach and fought to keep the Mech on its feet. Again, the image faded and he was presented with the reality of him steaming, full frontal into the wall of a dead-end street. His sight was overlapping again with another upcoming image that was forced into his mind and he felt being pressured in his seat. RinTinTin rose on his roaring jump jets into the air to surpass the blocking wall, while his pilot struggled with the reality of his thoughts.
~nIghT~
~darkNesS~~
~AnGer~~~
~~rAiN~~
Clay could not defend himself against the constant stream of impulses flowing into his thoughts, it felt like his thinking was overwritten by someone else’s memories and impressions.
The impact of his landing Urbie brought him halfway back to his senses and he tried to keep the Mech on full speed, stomping through a small park. The Marcos were still behind him, jumping the wall as he just did and were closing in.
“Target Marco Alpha 350m and closing”
“Target Marco Gamma 320m and closing”
The constant flickering of his damage indicator told him, that the pulse laser fire of those Marcos wore him down. And this happened way faster than he was comfortable with. Clay would have to go into the offensive. And it had to happen now.
On the left he spotted a very narrow alley and a desperate thought crossed his mind. He stepped into the alley sideways and with sidesteps he moved deeper into it.
The first Marco appeared in the entry of the alley and tried to squeeze through it. Completely sideways and the weapons arm in front, the Marco closed in on him. Clay stopped his Mech and turned his narrow can-like torso towards the Marco, unleashing a full Alpha strike with his UAC5, the Large Laser and both Small Lasers. His salvo pulverized the Marcos left arm armor, its weapon, and the underlying structure in an instant and left a completely defenseless and stuck opponent, barely being able to keep his Mech standing. Smoke pouring out of the torso indicated internal systems damage and imminent shutdown, but Clay knew that the remaining pilot in the last operational Marco was now even more vigilant and would not step into the same trap.
The heat in the cockpit was barely breathable and the damage report was nothing to lift Clay’s spirit either. His frontal and side armor was pretty much gone. His UAC5 had 1 round left and he lost 3 Double Heatsinks. And then there was that Neurohelmet. He started to ask himself, if this Mech was possessed or rather cursed, and just as if he had asked for it subconsciously, another wave threw him out of his reality into a lucid dream.
Although everything seemed to be in false color and shown in constantly flickering, shifting or warping images, he found himself in the cockpit of RinTinTin. But it was night. The wet street reflected the light of the city and the moon as the Urbie ate up the distance towards an unknown target.
Abruptly, RinTinTin stopped. Clay stood in front of an old industrial building, abandoned, but well intact and he could see lights on the second floor of the corner wing of the wide spread building.
“Warning: Critical Damage”
“Reactor heatsink 2 and 3 damaged”
“Reducing reactor output to sustain operation”
Clay was back in an instant and much more clear-headed than he could have hope for. Still, it has rather been the voice of RinTinTin that has pulled him out, than the hammering sounds of the enemy pulse laser turning his armor into ferro-fibrous mist and now parts of his structure into vapor.
“Override distribution automatic” he yelled into his microphone.
“Prioritize weapon system up to complete leg actuator shutdown”
“Command confirmed, adjustment set.”
He didn't even wait for the systems confirmation of his commands when he was stomping the jump jet petal to the metal and was lifting the little Mech up into the nightly sky and he did not know where this jump would lead to.
“Anywhere is better than here” he thought to himself and on the zenith of his flight he detected a small backyard of a local gardening company just next to the place he had lifted off. Bending the torso slightly to adjust his jumping trajectory he aimed his legs to that backyard and tried to locate the remaining Marco.
And this was in fact disturbingly easier than he had hoped for as he had only to follow back those pulse laser fingers trying to reach him from the ground. Fingers who fully reached him just a moment before he landed.
“Critical damage gyroscope”
“Critical damage gyroscope”
Was it only his own panic surfacing or did the synthetic voice just show signs of stress? Indeed, he had enough reason to panic, the moment his jaws slammed together as his jump jets coffed out their life 15 meters above ground and let 30t of immensely damaged light Mech hammer into soft grassy soil. The momentum drove the Urbie forward for 2 or 3 involuntarily steps and then finally crash, “face” first, into a massive concrete wall of a neighboring building.
“Catastrophic damage gyroscope”
This time, he felt the neural wave coming long ahead. Just like the air of a nearing thunderstorm seems to charge up, right before all hell breaks loose, he could sense the neural feedback of his dying gyroscope crawling back into him. Time seemed to stand still and for a brief moment he considered himself to be trapped in a freeze frame of reality. He closed his eyes and opened himself up to the unavoidable.
Flashes of light and thumping headache.
Echoes of sound he could not decide whether they were a memory or something he was hearing for real.
And again, he is there. That unknown and unremembered night. The building with the lights on the second floor. He sees his hand (HIS hand?) adjusting the sensors of the Urbie for people detection overlaying magnetic anomaly and infrared data. Two people seem to be in the flat, one stationary and probably sitting, the other one moving around erratically. Another adjustment is made and the sensor scan seem to focus on the moving person. The targeting system is activated and another layer of target information falls upon the tactical screen and the moving figure lights up under the appearance of detected gear. He hears the distorted voice of RinTinTin analyzing and finally listing the found objects:
“Neuro stun gun detected on target. Model SG42. Standard police force issued model”
“Ocular implant detected on target. Model EBA-12. Known source Maskirovka”
“Advanced booster pacemaker implant detected. Model CAR64. Standard issue model”
“Embedded short range data transfer module implant detected. Model DBTM54. Known source Maskirovka”
Clay feels an almost aerie calmness as the words and the image on the screen burn into his memory.
A final time his eyes wander to screen just as he sees the moving figure pull out a weapon and firing.
He hears the Urbies voice calling “Weapons fire! Weapons fire” and sees the second person falling over lifelessly. And then an unknown voice in his head, a voice he would never forget and filled with unspeakable pain:
“Carlaaaaa!”
Harder than ever before he was jerked back out of this imaginary world as everything turned black around him and he found himself in the cockpit of RinTinTin. Unbearably, the Neurohelmet kept on thudding this black void into his head, he had no other choice but to remove it.
Not that he would do another step in his Urbie. The situation looked bleak at best. He was leaning, full frontal, into a concrete wall. He was completely immobile and with a minimum of energy left for his weapon systems.
And as this would not be enough, the remaining Marco just landed behind him, starting to torture his surprisingly untarnished back armor with deadly fire.
“Let’s see if you remember that trick, you *******!" he snarled into the strangling heat of his cockpit and stood onto the torso twisting pedals. Deafening and teeth shaking screeches broke through the little Urbie as he turned around 180 degrees to bring the Marco with the reach of his weapons. The Marco, that seemed genuinely stunned about that capability and stood there motionless and obviously baffled. Clays aim wandered over the head piece of the Marco and when he found the perfect spot he closed his eyes and pulled all triggers.
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1938h local adjusted time
“Your little Paradise” Gardening Service
“Come in Unit12!”
“Unit12 do you read?”
“Unit12 are you there?”
He never thought the voice of his Patrol boss could sound so worried. Until now he always considered the man to be a cold hearted and efficient machine.
He slowly opened his eyes and what his mind has been blending out until now, stormed over him completely unfiltered. Crackling burning fire and sirens of police force, ambulances services and firefighters alike as well as the metallic ticking of cooling down alloys. And the headless Marco sitting on the floor, legs wide spread, looking like a beheaded puppet.
Clays mind felt like booting up and piece by piece he got back into rational and analytic thinking as the level of adrenaline slowly faded from his system.
“Unit12 here” he said with a scratching and gnarling voice that scared himself “3 enemy Mechs neutralized”
“My God, kid, that’s the understatement of the year! We got your broadband of all data and were biting our nails without being able to reach you”
“What about the 3 remaining trucks?”
“We got them, no worries kid. Without armored protection, we picked them like berries”
“Are you ok? In-between we received some secondary black box sensory data with a different timestamp”
“Different timestamp?”
“Kid, you have no idea what was going in here, while you fought those Marcos. Commissioner Chapman has just been taken into custody. His pacemaker gave him away.”
“What?” Clay asked bare any belief. While he was struggling to get back a sense of time, the universe must have turned around him quite a lot.
“The sensor data. The guy with the pacemaker. He has one of them. That exact model. And he was in here when the data poured in. He was so obviously shocked by the pictures, that he panicked and tried to flee the precinct. Guards got him on his way out. He’s locked up for good, the traitor. You got him good, kid. You and RinTinTin!”
Clay was worn out, completely out of breath, half deaf and he could not decide whether he should faint or puke.
But one thought made him keep his things together.
This tough little Mech had just helped him solve the murder mystery surrounding his former pilot.
EPILOGUE
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
July 4th. 3064 1400h local adjusted time
Military Cemetery
The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of events and the things happening within the Constabulary ended up in a veritable earthquake. Turned out that Commissioner Chapman had been a Maskirovka sleeper and informant for many years and what was already revealed seemed just like the tip of the iceberg. As it seems, the Commissioner needed Newland out of the picture as the Deputy had been growing quite suspicious about Chapmans many activities. And as far as the prosecutors have found out, Newlands suicide had also been staged, alongside forged DNA results, that have placed Williams wife in another men’s arms. The government had reinstated Deputy William Newlands good name and his rank and after having exhumed them, were now laying him and his wife to rest with all military and civilian honors possible.
Clay was moved by the ceremony and how sincerely apologetic everybody was about what has happened. He was impressed about how personally many of Newlands former colleagues have been touched by his discovery. They felt genuinely and deeply ashamed that they have been so misguided and blind sighted and they tried to redeem themselves in various ways. Many trusts have been opened in William and Carla Newlands name and loads of social initiatives were made.
Later that day he went down to the Mech hanger. There stood his Mech. Rebuilt with grade A parts, a new reactor and new weaponry he looked perfect. Fresh from the factory assembly belt perfect. As he walked towards the Urbie his view wandered over that trusted companion that had proofed himself twice.
Redeeming William Newland.
And saving his own *** in the process …
When he finally reached the Urbie he just stood there for minutes, proudly looking up to that magnificent little fighter. And then, with a smile on his lips, he gently tapped its foot with his hand.
“Good Dog!”
First of all a big sorry for all possible gramatical errors. With german being my main language (Schwyzerdütsch to be exact) many things might sound, well, rather germanic. And forgive me my constant fight the different past tense forms. Having written the story in one session, shooting pretty much from the hip, it might seem confusing or even plain wrong at times (no pun intended). And then there's the thing with the gazzillion comma blunders. But I hope you can still get the whole picture. Same goes for trying to stay within Lore of course. I stayed with Sarna as the main source for the Mechwarrior relevant material.
I hope I am within bounds of the contest and if not, so be it. Hopefully one or another likes it. So here is, without further ado, my story about the UM-K9 "Rintintin"
UPDATE: I made some corrections in the text, ironed out some time issues or obvious mistakes, polished some sentences to better support the story and adjusted some timeframes to better embed Rintintin into the bigger picture. Hope it makes now even more sense than before ;-)
"Good Dog!"
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1600h local adjusted time
Zhi-Chiang Constabulary Main Vehicle Hanger
“Startup Sequence initiated”
“Engine building fission-ready status for idle operation”
“Engine idle level reached"
"Higher function access demands personal authentication”
“Please enable Neurohelmet access protocols”
Lieutenant Clay Hawthorne clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, flipped the switch his finger has been lying on, and felt that dreaded thumping jolt in his brain, almost blacking him out.
As his blurred vision became clear again, he was wondering whether this would end well. This time it has been even worse than the few times before. Even now, moments after, he felt a lurking headache just under the surface and he was hoping it would not break out the worst possible moment.
“One day that cursed contraption will fry my brains out” he cursed into himself, cautious not to trigger the voice command services, and continued the remaining routine procedures to fully prepare his Mech.
Lieutenant Clay Hawthorne had been part eager and part resilient to start his daily shift that day, patrolling Zhi-Chiang City, and upholding order in such chaotic times. It has only been 3 months, since he had been assigned to his first Mech command, being the main pilot for this UM-K9 UrbanMech with the special setup that was so typical for the legendary 4 Mechs of the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary. Having been a regular Police Inspector in a small City near the Capital Zhi-Chiang and a lifetime Mech-nut, he had visited additional classes and trainings in his spare time to be accepted for Police Mech training and when he was finally admitted, he passed with flying colors. Not that this was testament of his skills, of course. He knew it was rather due the lack of sophistication of the training courses and the possibly low level required to pass all the tests as good as he had.
Nevertheless, it has been the proudest moments of his life, when he had finally been assigned to the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary and to his Mech: The UB-K9 UrbanMech with the call sign RinTinTin.
That was until he encountered inherent technical issues this Mech had. It had been seemingly impossible for the Techs to pair the Mech with a new Neurohelmet and after destroying two new helmets trying to do so, he was asked if he would agree to use the old one. As it was the same model he had during his training, he had agreed to it, and after a few calibration sessions with the Medtechs, he had his first startup sequence in his first Mech.
It was during the second month of Mech service, just about six weeks ago, when he experienced the first issues with that Neurohelmet. The startup sequence started to be growingly disturbing as he felt more and more neural feedback into his brain, almost like an electric shock to his synapses. And it had just been the week before this one, when he had an overwhelming Deja-vu moment during the late hours a patrol shift in the outskirts of the city. He had been walking through a long street when he suddenly had the feeling his mind would rewind and then found himself warped back to the beginning of the street, walking the same part of it as he had just done. The next moment that superimposed image was gone and he found himself almost walking over a hover car that has been parked there. A car that has been a least 0.3 klicks out just moments before.
He had been ready to blame that on late hour duty and his inexperience on the stick. But then dreams came, where he saw himself walking that street again and again, just like a piece of Holo on repeat, trapped in an infinite loop.
The next day he tried to talk to the Mastertech of the Constabulary about his experiences. Clay was not sure whether this was expected behavior or just equipment malfunction. He even considered perhaps not being physically able to be a proper Mech Pilot in the first place. But what Mastertech Demios then told him about the Mechs history was more disturbing and frightening, than he could ever imagine:
The K9 unit had been assigned to former Deputy and XO William Newland.
“Startup Sequence completed”
“RinTinTin is ready to serve justice”
The last status message threw Clay out of his thoughts for a moment. There was something that highly irritated him about that last status notification. Was it the sound of the voice? To be honest, he had not really been paying attention to what it said.
“Repeat last status message”
“RinTinTin is ready to serve”
Clay could not put the finger on it and besides his growing disturbed feeling in his guts he knew it was to time to go on patrol.
He checked the clamp status of the Mechbay and got green-lit to walk out. His hand shifted the throttle gently forward and stepped out his bay and was ready for duty. And his thoughts wandered back to its former pilot.
XO William Newland.
A highly-decorated Police Officer.
And a convicted murderer, who committed suicide.
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1900h local adjusted time
City Ring North, Marker 15
As the hours on his long tour through the city passed without any incident, his mind drifted away again to the former pilot of this Mech. He had been digging around for information after the revelation through the Mastertech, and what he found was material a Holo drama would be perfect for.
It must have been around 3 years ago, when then Deputy William Newland, XO and commanding officer of the Zhi-Chiang Constabulary UrbanMech Police Lance, had been on night solo duty once more. The case files stated, that it had been 0214h LAT, when Newland failed two times to give a scheduled status report of his tour. When he left out a third status report to Patrol-Central, and would not react if called upon, Patrol-Central had activated his backup transponder and sent backup units to his detected location, way out of his normal patrol route.
They had found him in the caretakers flat of an abandoned industrial building, covered in blood, kneeling over the dead body of his wife.
Deputy William Newland had been taken into custody and although he had always said he was innocent, and being the victim of a setup, nobody had believed him. And his allegations of a Police Force member being a hostile informant had made it only worse. He had always been seen as a rather vigilant, if not paranoid and pedantic character, so people had made up their mind about him. Also, the evidence just had been too overwhelming saying something in his favor. His wife must have been killed while Newland has been “off grid” already and the position beacon of his Mech placed him right there and right then where it happened. The coroner confirmed, that she must have had intercourse with another man just before and so the prosecutor had built his case on the basis, that Newland had observed his wife, tracked her down, surprised her with a lover and killed her out of jealousy. Especially because he had been a decorated Police officer, the legal system seemed to turn completely against him. When the final verdict fell for “life in a high security penal labor colony” on the Mining Moon in the Hsien system, Newland must have lost all will to live. They found his dead body hanging in his cell. Consensus seemed to have been, that justice have been served and the case was shelved to dissolve in the realms of eternal bureaucracy.
The more Clay learnt about this story, the less he liked it. There was something fishy about it and he started wondering whether it has been a coincidence that he had been assigned to that particular Mech. It turned out he has been the first pilot since Newland, who has been able to activate this unit as quite a few pilots before him have failed. This was normally to an incompatibility with a certain Neurohelmet. But since this specific Mech insisted on this specific Neurohelmet this ended up in a “the Mech chooses its pilot” scenario. And that was the most frightening thought of them all.
Static crackled through his earpiece and the voice of Patrol-Central echoed through the cockpit loudspeakers as well.
“Unit 12, we have a 211S at corner Royal and 3rd. Armored delivery from the mint called silent alarm. Possibly false alarm. Check and report. Engage only if needed. Backup on your request”
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1924h local adjusted time
City Ring North, Marker 15
That was it. Time to prove himself. Time to show why he wanted to get into a Mech cockpit since he was a little boy. All lingering doubts washed aside, he leaned in and pushed the throttle to full ahead. Not that an UrbanMech had a “top speed” that really earned its name, for a light Mech he was laughably slow. But within the city it felt like twice the speed and with his small and compact size and the possibility to torso twist the full 360 degrees, it was the perfect Mech for urban engagements.
As he approached the designated site he saw many vehicles fleeing in the opposite direction and loads of pedestrians running and hiding. He did not even have time to formulate a thought about that in his mind, when he stepped around a corner and saw the site of the attack on the mint monetary transport convoy.
3 armored trucks that must have been hijacked by attackers and a fourth one opened like a tin can. And 3 Light-ish humanoid Mechs grabbing packs of money and shoving them into each other’s torsi. The whole scenery was so surreal, that he just stood there baffled for a few seconds until the target acquisition computer identified the Mechs as a MR-7 Marco industrial Mech variant, armed with a Med Pulse Laser each, equipped with cargo holds, terrifyingly agile and with 30t weight the same combat weight as RinTinTin.
Just that there were three of them and one of him.
And the three of them just noticed him.
The moment he wanted to react on this detection, his Neurohelmet acted up itself. As he wanted to lean left to avoid the incoming laser fire, RinTinTin leaned right. Not that he could really complain, the way he would have moved, would have him receiving the full volley of 3 Med Pulse Lasers. Instead he was able to avoid this attack completely. Trying not to stick his mind to it, he turned his hips to the left and while throwing the Urbie in a wide circle run around his targets he kept the UAC5 constantly firing on the one Marco who seemed still primarily engaged in clearing the armored truck from its treasures.
“Critical hit, right arm, UAC5 damaged but operational, heat sink damaged”
The UAC started jamming almost immediately, restraining him for precious fractions of seconds between shots, focused on that one particular Marco and shaking of the incoming fire of the other two. For a second he glimpsed for civilians in the area, but the streets were completely empty. Citizens of Inner Sphere planets were usually quite accustomed to clear the area when big Mechs went at it. At least he did not have to be concerned hurting innocent bystanders there.
As he was almost half a circle around his targets he saw the hijacked trucks moving away but he did not care. His onboard systems have been on full broadcast since he engaged the Marcos anyway so Patrol-Central knew what was happening.
He must have fired a pretty decisive round into his prime target, because that Marco suddenly turned into a lump and fell onto the gutted armored truck. Clay turned his right arm into the incoming fire as it was already damaged and he did not have many rounds left anyway. With large steps, he reached another street corner and headed, full speed ahead, into an alley.
Or so he thought.
Just when he reached the end of the alley, he felt that thump in his brain again, warping him back to where he just came from. He felt sick from his stomach and fought to keep the Mech on its feet. Again, the image faded and he was presented with the reality of him steaming, full frontal into the wall of a dead-end street. His sight was overlapping again with another upcoming image that was forced into his mind and he felt being pressured in his seat. RinTinTin rose on his roaring jump jets into the air to surpass the blocking wall, while his pilot struggled with the reality of his thoughts.
~nIghT~
~darkNesS~~
~AnGer~~~
~~rAiN~~
Clay could not defend himself against the constant stream of impulses flowing into his thoughts, it felt like his thinking was overwritten by someone else’s memories and impressions.
The impact of his landing Urbie brought him halfway back to his senses and he tried to keep the Mech on full speed, stomping through a small park. The Marcos were still behind him, jumping the wall as he just did and were closing in.
“Target Marco Alpha 350m and closing”
“Target Marco Gamma 320m and closing”
The constant flickering of his damage indicator told him, that the pulse laser fire of those Marcos wore him down. And this happened way faster than he was comfortable with. Clay would have to go into the offensive. And it had to happen now.
On the left he spotted a very narrow alley and a desperate thought crossed his mind. He stepped into the alley sideways and with sidesteps he moved deeper into it.
The first Marco appeared in the entry of the alley and tried to squeeze through it. Completely sideways and the weapons arm in front, the Marco closed in on him. Clay stopped his Mech and turned his narrow can-like torso towards the Marco, unleashing a full Alpha strike with his UAC5, the Large Laser and both Small Lasers. His salvo pulverized the Marcos left arm armor, its weapon, and the underlying structure in an instant and left a completely defenseless and stuck opponent, barely being able to keep his Mech standing. Smoke pouring out of the torso indicated internal systems damage and imminent shutdown, but Clay knew that the remaining pilot in the last operational Marco was now even more vigilant and would not step into the same trap.
The heat in the cockpit was barely breathable and the damage report was nothing to lift Clay’s spirit either. His frontal and side armor was pretty much gone. His UAC5 had 1 round left and he lost 3 Double Heatsinks. And then there was that Neurohelmet. He started to ask himself, if this Mech was possessed or rather cursed, and just as if he had asked for it subconsciously, another wave threw him out of his reality into a lucid dream.
Although everything seemed to be in false color and shown in constantly flickering, shifting or warping images, he found himself in the cockpit of RinTinTin. But it was night. The wet street reflected the light of the city and the moon as the Urbie ate up the distance towards an unknown target.
Abruptly, RinTinTin stopped. Clay stood in front of an old industrial building, abandoned, but well intact and he could see lights on the second floor of the corner wing of the wide spread building.
“Warning: Critical Damage”
“Reactor heatsink 2 and 3 damaged”
“Reducing reactor output to sustain operation”
Clay was back in an instant and much more clear-headed than he could have hope for. Still, it has rather been the voice of RinTinTin that has pulled him out, than the hammering sounds of the enemy pulse laser turning his armor into ferro-fibrous mist and now parts of his structure into vapor.
“Override distribution automatic” he yelled into his microphone.
“Prioritize weapon system up to complete leg actuator shutdown”
“Command confirmed, adjustment set.”
He didn't even wait for the systems confirmation of his commands when he was stomping the jump jet petal to the metal and was lifting the little Mech up into the nightly sky and he did not know where this jump would lead to.
“Anywhere is better than here” he thought to himself and on the zenith of his flight he detected a small backyard of a local gardening company just next to the place he had lifted off. Bending the torso slightly to adjust his jumping trajectory he aimed his legs to that backyard and tried to locate the remaining Marco.
And this was in fact disturbingly easier than he had hoped for as he had only to follow back those pulse laser fingers trying to reach him from the ground. Fingers who fully reached him just a moment before he landed.
“Critical damage gyroscope”
“Critical damage gyroscope”
Was it only his own panic surfacing or did the synthetic voice just show signs of stress? Indeed, he had enough reason to panic, the moment his jaws slammed together as his jump jets coffed out their life 15 meters above ground and let 30t of immensely damaged light Mech hammer into soft grassy soil. The momentum drove the Urbie forward for 2 or 3 involuntarily steps and then finally crash, “face” first, into a massive concrete wall of a neighboring building.
“Catastrophic damage gyroscope”
This time, he felt the neural wave coming long ahead. Just like the air of a nearing thunderstorm seems to charge up, right before all hell breaks loose, he could sense the neural feedback of his dying gyroscope crawling back into him. Time seemed to stand still and for a brief moment he considered himself to be trapped in a freeze frame of reality. He closed his eyes and opened himself up to the unavoidable.
Flashes of light and thumping headache.
Echoes of sound he could not decide whether they were a memory or something he was hearing for real.
And again, he is there. That unknown and unremembered night. The building with the lights on the second floor. He sees his hand (HIS hand?) adjusting the sensors of the Urbie for people detection overlaying magnetic anomaly and infrared data. Two people seem to be in the flat, one stationary and probably sitting, the other one moving around erratically. Another adjustment is made and the sensor scan seem to focus on the moving person. The targeting system is activated and another layer of target information falls upon the tactical screen and the moving figure lights up under the appearance of detected gear. He hears the distorted voice of RinTinTin analyzing and finally listing the found objects:
“Neuro stun gun detected on target. Model SG42. Standard police force issued model”
“Ocular implant detected on target. Model EBA-12. Known source Maskirovka”
“Advanced booster pacemaker implant detected. Model CAR64. Standard issue model”
“Embedded short range data transfer module implant detected. Model DBTM54. Known source Maskirovka”
Clay feels an almost aerie calmness as the words and the image on the screen burn into his memory.
A final time his eyes wander to screen just as he sees the moving figure pull out a weapon and firing.
He hears the Urbies voice calling “Weapons fire! Weapons fire” and sees the second person falling over lifelessly. And then an unknown voice in his head, a voice he would never forget and filled with unspeakable pain:
“Carlaaaaa!”
Harder than ever before he was jerked back out of this imaginary world as everything turned black around him and he found himself in the cockpit of RinTinTin. Unbearably, the Neurohelmet kept on thudding this black void into his head, he had no other choice but to remove it.
Not that he would do another step in his Urbie. The situation looked bleak at best. He was leaning, full frontal, into a concrete wall. He was completely immobile and with a minimum of energy left for his weapon systems.
And as this would not be enough, the remaining Marco just landed behind him, starting to torture his surprisingly untarnished back armor with deadly fire.
“Let’s see if you remember that trick, you *******!" he snarled into the strangling heat of his cockpit and stood onto the torso twisting pedals. Deafening and teeth shaking screeches broke through the little Urbie as he turned around 180 degrees to bring the Marco with the reach of his weapons. The Marco, that seemed genuinely stunned about that capability and stood there motionless and obviously baffled. Clays aim wandered over the head piece of the Marco and when he found the perfect spot he closed his eyes and pulled all triggers.
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
June 11th. 3064 1938h local adjusted time
“Your little Paradise” Gardening Service
“Come in Unit12!”
“Unit12 do you read?”
“Unit12 are you there?”
He never thought the voice of his Patrol boss could sound so worried. Until now he always considered the man to be a cold hearted and efficient machine.
He slowly opened his eyes and what his mind has been blending out until now, stormed over him completely unfiltered. Crackling burning fire and sirens of police force, ambulances services and firefighters alike as well as the metallic ticking of cooling down alloys. And the headless Marco sitting on the floor, legs wide spread, looking like a beheaded puppet.
Clays mind felt like booting up and piece by piece he got back into rational and analytic thinking as the level of adrenaline slowly faded from his system.
“Unit12 here” he said with a scratching and gnarling voice that scared himself “3 enemy Mechs neutralized”
“My God, kid, that’s the understatement of the year! We got your broadband of all data and were biting our nails without being able to reach you”
“What about the 3 remaining trucks?”
“We got them, no worries kid. Without armored protection, we picked them like berries”
“Are you ok? In-between we received some secondary black box sensory data with a different timestamp”
“Different timestamp?”
“Kid, you have no idea what was going in here, while you fought those Marcos. Commissioner Chapman has just been taken into custody. His pacemaker gave him away.”
“What?” Clay asked bare any belief. While he was struggling to get back a sense of time, the universe must have turned around him quite a lot.
“The sensor data. The guy with the pacemaker. He has one of them. That exact model. And he was in here when the data poured in. He was so obviously shocked by the pictures, that he panicked and tried to flee the precinct. Guards got him on his way out. He’s locked up for good, the traitor. You got him good, kid. You and RinTinTin!”
Clay was worn out, completely out of breath, half deaf and he could not decide whether he should faint or puke.
But one thought made him keep his things together.
This tough little Mech had just helped him solve the murder mystery surrounding his former pilot.
EPILOGUE
Zhi-Chiang, Planet Hsien, Chaos March
July 4th. 3064 1400h local adjusted time
Military Cemetery
The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of events and the things happening within the Constabulary ended up in a veritable earthquake. Turned out that Commissioner Chapman had been a Maskirovka sleeper and informant for many years and what was already revealed seemed just like the tip of the iceberg. As it seems, the Commissioner needed Newland out of the picture as the Deputy had been growing quite suspicious about Chapmans many activities. And as far as the prosecutors have found out, Newlands suicide had also been staged, alongside forged DNA results, that have placed Williams wife in another men’s arms. The government had reinstated Deputy William Newlands good name and his rank and after having exhumed them, were now laying him and his wife to rest with all military and civilian honors possible.
Clay was moved by the ceremony and how sincerely apologetic everybody was about what has happened. He was impressed about how personally many of Newlands former colleagues have been touched by his discovery. They felt genuinely and deeply ashamed that they have been so misguided and blind sighted and they tried to redeem themselves in various ways. Many trusts have been opened in William and Carla Newlands name and loads of social initiatives were made.
Later that day he went down to the Mech hanger. There stood his Mech. Rebuilt with grade A parts, a new reactor and new weaponry he looked perfect. Fresh from the factory assembly belt perfect. As he walked towards the Urbie his view wandered over that trusted companion that had proofed himself twice.
Redeeming William Newland.
And saving his own *** in the process …
When he finally reached the Urbie he just stood there for minutes, proudly looking up to that magnificent little fighter. And then, with a smile on his lips, he gently tapped its foot with his hand.
“Good Dog!”
5) -orcrist86-
https://www.dropbox....ction.docx?dl=0
6) -MarksmanKNG-
https://drive.google...UhIdjV1SGc/view
..... more to come?
Edited by Bishop Steiner, 14 March 2017 - 10:31 AM.
