Part one, The Fall
*Flashback, Draco’s continuing nightmares, that start as his memories but then become a twisted form of themselves*
Draco was back in Wolf Fang, the air was warm with his mech’s heat, as the battle raged. No, it wasn’t a battle, it was their fighting retreat, but, the Dropship would be blown out of the sky if the enemy launchers got into position. Draco shifted his mech to the right a little as he lined up another shot on a nearby FireMoth. The mech was limping from Rogue’s already devastating mauling, which it narrowly escaped. Draco pulled the trigger, and the lightning arced through the air, smacking into the cockpit. That’s when he heard it, another explosion, coming from behind him. He checked his rear camera, Rogue’s devastator was hit, in the knee actuator. The Devastator took a kneeling position, as it continued firing. Draco turned to engage the aggressor, firing his PPCs, into a Summoner, as it leveled its Guass Rifle at Spear.
“NO!”
The Lightning smacked into the mech, and it turned to face the new aggressor.
“You’ll pay for that freebir-“
It’s comms was cut short as Spear fired an Alpha Strike into the now presented side of the mech. The Summoner stumbled to the side a few steps, and then Draco finished it with his SRMs, the missiles found their targets, holes in the armor, the stronger armor. The mech explodes, but then Will’s Rifleman is hit, and Draco can hear Will over the comms.
“Come on you tank born son of a *****, THAT YOUR BEST!?”
Then Draco watches as the Dual PPCs from an Adder smack into Willl’s arm, and his last weapons, the ACs. Ammo began to cook off, and Will ejected. Draco looked at Spear, and then spoke evenly into his comms.
“Spear, get out of here,”
“WHAT?!”
“GET OUT NOW!”
“What the hell are you getting at Draco? I ain’t leaving anyone behind,”
Draco fired his PPCs into the offending Adder as he spoke.
“I know my place, your place is with your men, and Will, get them out of here, and to safety. If I leave, we all die,”
A Centurion fighter made a strafing run on the Adder, but was then hit by a PPC, causing it to slam into the Adder. Draco didn’t even wait for Rogue to answer, but, he knew that he had to attack, to keep them from getting to the Dropship. Draco set his throttle to full, and began to engage two Summoners. Their open comms echoed in his cockpit.
“Jeffer Roshak, deal with this filth, we will circle around and claim the dropship as our prize,”
Draco shouted his response into the mike, broadcasting it through his loudspeakers so they could hear.
“NO, I’LL KILL YOU ALL,”
He fired one of his PPCs into each Summoner, and then his SRM rack. The cockpit was now like an oven causing his sweat to evaporate. He finished with his medium lasers, firing into the one on the right.
“So be it freebirth,”
They turned and fired their PPCs, and Guass rifles at Draco. Draco felt the rounds impact, and fought the yoke, keeping control. He turned off the limitors on his PPCs, and fired them again, the static discharge causing a tingling on his skin. The heat was now like a furnace, his sweat flash boiled. His mind bent on killing them. But then, they faded away, and, he was in chains. The cell was empty, and then, his men came into the room, Jones, Connors, Johnson. Jones smiled and spoke clearly.
“Hit him,”
Connors smashed his fist with ungodly strength into his stomach. Then his face, and he kept pummeling Draco. He could hear Jones in the background.
“Why didn’t you save us, why didn’t you talk, all you had to do was talk. You failed, causing us to die,”
Then he saw his memories again, Jones, being set in front of him, on his knees, face to face, and then Damion Thastus speaking coldly.
“Say the words, ‘I am Jade Falcon’, or he dies,”
Draco then saw Jones’ face turn into what it did, the hard expression of defiance.
“Don’t you do it Draco, don’t give these ******** anything,”
Then the elemental hit him. Damion spoke again.
“SAY IT NOW,”
“no…”
“WHAT?”
“No,”
Damion Thastus got into Draco’s face and then said with malice.
“Say it, or he will die Draconis,”
Draco shouted back
“NO,”
The crack of the pistol, and then, Jones slumped to the ground. Then Connors was put in the same position, another crack, and Draco watched as his whole team was executed in this manner. Connors, Johnson, Shade, Phiro, and then, Dylan, his old mentor, was shot, right before his eyes. Then the whispers came.
You fool, you proud, stupid, fool. You got them killed; this was your fault, your failure.
But, I, I didn’t have a choice…
WRONG, this was your failure, your fault. If you would have been better, this never would have happened. If you would have told them.
But how could I have known-
You should have known, that’s your job, you must know. YOUR FAILURE, YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.
The last words echoed in his mind, until he finally awoke screaming.
*End Flashback*
Draco sat up in his bunk, and pressed his back to the wall. Sweat was pouring from his temples, and found that his mouth was bleeding; he had bit the inside of his cheek. He sat there and thanked whatever god existed that these walls were sound proof. He held his dogtags out before him. Draconis Wolf, they said, 1st Hell Jumpers they said. Would a Hell Jumper awake in his bunk screaming, begging for it to stop?
The Dragoons had discharged him, but, had let him keep Fang, more probably because of the fact that the other pilots said that the damn thing was cursed. Section 8 discharge, medically insane, what did they expect? Draco to come back with the whole Clan Invasion force surrendering, he certainly knew that wasn’t as much. They figured he would die, that he, and his Hell Jumpers would die there on Barcelona, and never be heard from again.
Will, he was sure, certainly wished it; Spear probably wasn’t ever going to trust Draco again. He was sure that they hated him by now, so, he had to go on, away from them. Every time he seemed to get involved into a situation, bad things happened. People died, due to his mistakes, his horrible, obvious mistakes. That was why he decided to do the only thing that he figured could work.
He would seek out Clan Wolf, in their occupation zone. From there, he would do what came naturally now. He would kill, until he won a position in their ranks, and if not, get transport to the Clan Jade Falcon Occupation zone, and from there, kill all the Falcons he came across. He would die, but now, death was a better fate. His son, Damarus, was now with the Dragoons, and his beautiful wife, Shara. He could never keep them though, and Phiro promised to look after him. His insanity would be their undoing, and Draco just had to hope, that his son wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of his father. Not completely anyway. Draco heard the alarm on the Jumpship, boarders, it was Wolf. Most of the contraband going in and out between the states, went this way. Draco got up, and dressed himself. His leather Dragoon jacket, Dylan’s old pistol, and walked down to the main hangar, where the exchange was usually made. The men were already debating on what to do with the mech when Draco showed up. One of them looked at him with a small smile.
“That yours?”
“Yes, and I want transport to the planet below,”
“In exchange?”
Draco immediately drew his pistol, causing the three’s looks to change to surprised, and one of them drew one as well in return. Draco leveled his pistol at him. Draco had nothing to lose at this point, so if he died here, then mission accomplished.
“I won’t shoot, and I’ll pay for your services,”
The men paused, and then, one of them looked at the one in the middle, he seemed to be the leader. He paused, and then looked at Draco. Either the look of madness in Draco’s eyes, or the fact that he had a pistol pointed at one of his mates, must have made him listen to the proposal.
“Alright, we’ll take you down, but no funny business you hear? Just you and your mech,”
“Captain, these supplies will be paid in full by me personally,”
The men looked in surprise at Draco. Almost as if they were expecting a little less. Then Draco finished his sentence.
“When I inform you that I am indeed on the ground, and safe at the moment, the funds will be transferred. If you get no message, feel free to take your anger out on them,”
The leader looked at Draco with the look of understanding, Draco was no fool, and he wasn’t about to claimed as anyone’s bondsmen. The one to on the right nodded approval, his eyes saying well played. Draco made a signal to a nearby tech so that the loading could begin. The mech was loaded into an empty gantry, as Draco helped them move the supplies into the others. It was an older Union class Dropship, so there was plenty of space. When the last of the supplies was loaded, Draco then sat down on the foot of Fang. His last request granted before he was discharged, was that he’d get Fang back to %100, and command saw fit that, it was the least they could do. Draco had then arranged to be on the next flight to the Occupation zone, and he was "helping" these smugglers make a profit by staying on board for protection. Here he would be granted his last wish, not to die old, in some crazy home. He wanted to die like he should have, on Barcelona. Command wanted the Hell Jumpers gone, wanted Draco gone, but, it hadn't got its wish, not completely. Instead, they got to write Draco off as a casualty of war, not KIA, but close enough. Phiro was in command of the Hell Jumpers, and Hell Divers Squadron was certainly at its best with all the new equipment they had. Draco saw the shadow approach, and heard its icy voice.
Kill, kill them now
No, not yet, wait for Falcons
Then we kill
Yes, then we kill
Draco climbed up into Wolf Fang, into the cockpit, and went to sleep. He prayed that the nightmares would stay away this time. He wouldn't count on it.
EDIT: Missed some grammar
Edited by guardian wolf, 26 September 2012 - 07:58 AM.