Fort Jaime
Outskirts of Binsburg, Carver V
Tikonov Commonality, Capellan Confederation
December 27, 3013
The Archer crouched, cold and still, in its bay. Gantries and scaffolding surrounded it, and astechs swarmed all over the metal goliath's surface ducking in and out of access hatches, attaching and detaching power cables and diagnostic leads, inspecting actuators, and performing the rest of the thousand-and-one routine checks that came with operating such a war machine. Massive coolant lines and fuel hoses, misty with condensation and lined with flash-frost connected the monster's arms, legs, and body to various tanks and vats lining the bay. Yellow-chevroned conveyor belts ran from storage lockers to the 'mech's ammunition bins. The 'mech's torso was split open - the Archer's unique, hunch-shouldered design left the cockpit buried below the thick belt of armor coating the machine's upper torso and weapons racks - lending the whole display the air of some alien surgery.
Yet even in this state, there was a deadly beauty about the scene. The techs moved with purpose and alacrity, no dents or battle damage marred the 'mech's armor or structure. And through the harsh flourescent light coated everything in a washed-out haze of dull yellow, it was easy to tell that the 'mech's coat of blue and gold paint was spotless.
On one of the gantries, adjacent to the splayed-open cockpit, two men bent over a noteputer screen. One, a short, bearded man, was clearly a 'mechwarrior. He was dressed only in shorts, with a bulky cooling vest slung around his shoulders and neurohelmet under his arm. The other wore the Dragoons' plain duty uniform. The 'warrior said something indistinct, and clapped the other on the shoulder, then turned and began clambering from the gantry into the 'mech's cockpit with the air of someone who had performed this exact series of motions a thousand times.
He settled in the command chair.
He put the neurohelmet on his head, the mirrored faceplate slipping down to and past his chin.
He attached various clips and leads running from the command chair to sockets in his cooling vest, and wrapped a net of sensors protruding from the cockpit wall above and behind him across his arms.
He reached out and punched a button, and the cockpit of the 'mech began retracting into the machine's armored body with a hiss of pressurized gases and the grinding whine of hydraulics.
A siren sounded in the bay, and a strobe light began to flash.
Hoses and lines detached and wound away back onto their reels. Conveyor belts were pushed away by motorized tugs.
A light flashed behind the 'mech's cockpit glass. The first sign that the monster was about to awaken.
One of the Archer's fingers flexed.
The lower half of the mech twitched.
A light flashed, blooming from the sides of the Archer’s torso. Limning it with fire.
Whiteness. Bright as the sun.
An unimaginably loud roaring.
Darkness.
***
The room was dead silent and nearly pitch black, with only the dim glow of the red “End_Data_File: Replay [Y] [N]?” displayed on the holoprojector illuminating the somber faces of the Dragoon command staff splayed in chairs and on couches around the office.
“Do we have any idea what happened?” Colonel Korsht was the first to break the silence.
Stanford Blake, one of the Dragoon’s intelligence chiefs, shook his head. “Not fully. The ‘mech’s reactor shielding breached in the explosion. The thermal shock obliterated a good chunk of the hangar. Search and Rescue is still sorting through the rubble. Major Wofford thinks they probably will be for a few days.”
“I already told you, Stan, the ammo blew.” Hansen Brubaker’s face was a closed-off mask. “We’ve all seen it before, we know what it looks like when a bin goes up. What we should be asking is who did this. Anyone here think that Colonel Wolf’s personal techs were that incompetent? And as to an accident…I really want to play cards with the person who thinks there’s anything resembling the remotest chance that five tons of missiles just spontaneously explodes all at the same time, let alone before a pilot goes ‘weps hot’.”
Blake’s lip curled into a half-snarl. “That’s all easy to say, Brubaker, but as you damn well know it’s more complicated than that - ”
“I’m sure we’ll be getting updates from Colonel Blake and the rest of the ‘net as we learn more.” Colonel Jones cut in, hands raised placatingly.
“Oh come on, Harold, everyone in this room knows that this was sabotage of some sort or another. Even Stanford knows it, though he won’t say it yet. Are we going to sit around and do nothing while we know that someone is gunning for us? Someone willing to assassinate Jamie? I call that cowardice.” Colonel Sarah Weisz was a small woman, but her voice was loud and full of fury.
The room exploded with a babble of outraged crosstalk.
“Say that to my face, Ghost!”
“And what exactly do you propose to do about it?”
“Even if it was sabotage, we still don’t know who it was!”
“I’d start with that Liao Princess who flounced off in a huff.”
“Yeah, you’re going to take your Zetas and burn for Sian, is that right?”
“I heard that she tried to seduce Jaime, tried to get him to turn us into her household retainers.”
“You know as well as I do that Jaime would have stormed hell for any of us! I don’t know how any of you can sit here when those assassins are out there. Unpunished.”
“Well she certainly seduced Harold, and isn’t it convenient he’s urging caution now? What happened to that famous battlefield aggressiveness, Hal?”
“Sure, go off half cocked. One battalion against the whole CCAF. See where it gets you.”
“That’s right, I said it, you lot are corwards. If Brubaker’s going hunting, he’s not going alone!”
“Aye, now it’s a regiment and a battalion; Max Liao is quaking in his boots. And who put you in charge anyway? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s this thing called the chain of command!“
“There's Colonel's pips on your shoulders same as mine, and I’m for damned sure not taking orders from the likes of you!”
"Get your bloody mitts off me, Brubaker!"
"Easy, easy!"
In all the commotion, no-one noticed when Joshua Wolf, who had been silent the whole time, stood up from his chair and slowly left the room.