Thanks, Crash and everyone on the comments on the fluff and naming. After (dear god) 33 years of gaming, I suppose I'm not capable of doing much straightforward any more, and I live for the people that I'm playing rather than simply the mechs (hence Bully coming out of nowhere darned near fully formed).
In that vein, exposing a little of Grandmother's motivations behind the scenes for the players if not the characters, here's the part of the fic I managed to get done for the scene immediately after the fight with all those little autocannon...
I prefer the Kage to the Kanizuchi battle armor. It’s faster, a little more flexible, and has better sensors, or at least MY Kage armor does. It’s in my opinion the best armor for bodyguarding Grandmother. What no amount of toggling between telescopic and mag res will do, however, is make up for leaking atmospheric seals.
The scent of burning human bodies is something I never wanted to smell again, and although the armor protected me from most of it, I wanted to lose my guts. Watching Grandmother helped me, though. Despite the hair crawling out from under her surgical cap, despite the sweat, her attention didn’t shift from the injured. Made it pretty much necessary, though, to give her a bodyguard. She’d never notice a sniper before it was too late.
Or I could be wrong. I think that she may have noticed Bisho coming before I did. He, at least, looked like I felt, stumbling slightly and white faced as a newborn baby, breathing shallowly to try and keep himself away from the smell. Despite that, and his designer jacket flapping in the breeze, he remembered to salute when he caught up with her, though he looked anywhere but at the poor trooper who resembled nothing so much as poorly cooked barbecue.
“Doctor, I report as ordered”. His voice was softer than I’m used to, ordinarily he makes an effort to sound like something OTHER than a bishounen trooping around in his father’s battlemech. This time he almost wheezed more than spoke.
She at least had the grace to nod at him before she spoke, which I personally wasn’t betting on. “Miyamoto, explain your actions. Why did you again identify yourself as Ronin two four, why did you let your brother identify himself as Ronin six nine, and WHY did you deploy our battle armor and battlemechs after the battle was already over?” Her tone didn’t raise in volume, but somehow I expected to see little bloody furrows open along his face as her tone scourged him.
He drew in a deep breath, which may have been a mistake as his face went from white towards green, but that could have been a reflection of the forest camouflage on my armor, and then let it out slowly. He bowed, more of a dip than a formal bow, and spoke. “Doctor. I would remind you that when thousands of citizens of Hilo were hurt and killed, you responded instinctively in an attempt to save as many lives as possible. When I heard the sound of many autocannon firing, and heard the great mass of encrypted communications, I knew that many more soldiers, and probably citizens of Nejiro, were dying. They refused me in the past when I offered assistance, but I knew that it was my duty to offer aid again.” His eyes flickered back and forth to the wrecked tanks and APCs, and the all too many bodies, around us. “These people, after all, are in the service of our Clan and our House.”
I realized then that I really haven’t seen Grandmother lose her temper before. I didn’t quite see it this time, either, but I became aware that she had one. “Really, Miyamoto-san, OUR Clan and OUR House? Explain.”
“Grandmother, I try not to be a fool.” He bowed to her. “Your Clan, your house. Meiyo Saganami is your blood, MY blood. Her retainers are ours, the citizens of her world pledged to a member of our family. Honor demands that I act to preserve her retainers, and her citizens, if possible. You have a warrior’s spirit, you trained us as warriors. Let us act in accordance with honor.”
Grandmother winced. This conversation was turning out to be full of things I’d never seen before. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until she nodded and then let it out softly so hopefully they’d both forget I was still here. “Miyamoto-san, honor has killed more of our family than anything else. Your father, your uncle, your grandfather, all of them dead because they chose to stand for honor without realizing that others have honor as well, and that sometimes those without it can be skilled. I do not question your honor or skill, but if honor demands that you expose the last of our branch of the House to its’ enemies here on Nejiro, then fight well, but remember that the fighting off the battlefield is sometimes deadlier than between Battlemechs.”
