Seras little snippet thread

Vortalcoy I
3012

I kicked a rock as I walked down the old dirt road.

It was old, and dirt, but that was honestly how all roads were on Vortalcoy.

The noise of an engine meant I walked off the road to watch it pass.

It was the mercs. We didn’t even have IC Engines here except for the richest. Technically we were Lyran.

Technically.

We were poor, on the edge of the periphery, and mostly forgotten. We didn’t even have a HPG anymore.

Just a tiny blip of a planet whose entire population was just a tiny percentage of what it had once been.

Mostly just famers. I watched as the big vehicles of the mercs drove by heading towards the town. The Panzer Mauer. That’s what the mercs were called. They were… Not nice, but actually not raiders. They dropped into our tiny little planet for R&R and helped the economy.

No one could ever know they were here, we were too far from everything and most of the Inner Sphere thought we were dead.

Honestly the planetary governor liked it that way.

I continued kicking my rock as I traveled down the old dirt road. The mercs had first arrived because of a rumor.

The old Mech factory. They’d first come because of the rumor. Not the first, and not the last, but found what everyone always found. An ancient broken Locust factory that didn’t work.

Well, that usually ended the explorers' hopes for Losttech.

I was walking along the road towards the factory right now. Vortalcoy had once been a Rim Worlds Republic world.

Yep. My ancestors had been Amaris workers in one of his stupid hidden factories.

I kicked the rock, came around the corner and saw the old factory. It had probably been hidden once, but the fields of wheat that had sprouted up had cut down the forests it had once hidden in. Now it was right there in the middle of wheat fields.

I walked up to the ancient rusted fence and looked in.

Rusted broken buildings, nothing fancy, nothing really remained, but the mercs used it as a landing site for their dropships. It was one of the few places that had solid ferrocrete on the whole planet.

I watched as the merc group buzzed around. Some of them were poking around the old factory buildings. They always did, but they wouldn’t find anything. No one ever did. That place had been picked clean over the centuries.

I watched for a while. And despite being little I got noticed, but other than pointing me out none of the mercs bothered me as I watched on.

Hmm. They had Centurion? I loved that mech. Looks like a pretty standard A.

It was actually moving around a bit, some kind of test? Ah probably checking on repairs. I could see the recent repairs even from across the entire factory grounds. The AC arm was mismatched a bit, the paint wasn’t right at parts.

I felt the weight of my satchel on my side as it pressed against me.

I wanted to be a Mechwarrior too, but that was unlikely. I was nothing. An orphan kid that had nothing here. What I did have though was the ability to really make something. I just needed more than what I had here.

I moved around the fence and started walking onto the factory grounds, which finally got me some attention.

A soldier walked over, a gruff looking old man, carrying a rifle, but it was his salt and pepper hair around his temples, and brutally textured face that made him someone to worry about.

“Get out of here girl. This area is secured.”

“I want to talk to your leader.” I told him instead and continued to approach, but obviously didn’t think much of me.

“Get lost kid.”

“I’m a mech tech.” I told him and he instantly decided not to believe me. The problem of being a kid I guess.

“This isn’t a place for games, kid.”

“I’m a mech tech, and you need one.” I offered back and that stalled the older man out. “I know I’m a kid, but I can fix anything. Including that Centurion you have driving around. Whoever fixed it didn’t do it right. That AC 10 is going to be impossible to aim after the first shot without some work.”

The old guard didn’t turn to look. Never took his eyes off me, when I pointed, but he was looking at me now, which was more than he was doing before.

“Listen girl, come talk to us when you’re older.”

“Can’t. I’ll be dead by then.” I reached into my satchel and pulled out my trump card. “I know where a mech is. That’s mostly functional.” I was holding an old Neurohelm. Thankfully not one of the really big ones, but one that fit inside my pack.

The old man looked from my face to the helm and reached up to his radio.

“This is Sarge, get me Mark. Colonel, might have something for you too.”

I nodded. Well then. I figured that would work.

—--

I was sitting in the back of an old ICE vehicle as the soldier watched over me, and my Neurohelm was looked over by a Mech Tech.

Well… An apprentice.

“It’s… Definitely a neurohelm. Works too I think.”

The words weren’t given to the guard but to the other man, the mechwarrior half naked, wearing shorts and a small tank top. He looked like someone right out of Top Gun to be honest. Same sort of style.

“Well girl, you have a neurohelm, and you say you have a mech.”

“A Locust. About 90% functional.” I cut in, and that again earned me that same look. The disbelief, fighting greed.

“So you say.”

“The factory was a Locust factory. There were a few still here when the SLDF attacked, but most of them ran once the sabotage of the factory happened. That’s something locals know about. I live here, spent years exploring all the forests. I found one, damaged and abandoned, but still a mech.”

“Okay obviously that’s interesting to us, but-”

“I-” I cut myself off even after cutting him off. I hesitated. I knew there was a line I wouldn’t get to cross here, but I had to do more than just stay here. There was no future for me here. Stuck with my feet in the dirt I’d only ever become a farm girl. “I’m not a mechwarrior. But I’m a very good mech tech. I fixed a broken Locust to almost full functionality by myself stuck in the woods with nothing but tools I found or made. You need mech techs.”

“We have mech techs.” Mark, the mech tech that had looked over my neurohelm mentioned and I looked at him, our eyes met.

“Don't take this the wrong way, but that Centurion took some damage. The repairs are bad. The AC will lose accuracy after every shot.”

All three men were quiet, as the Colonel looked at the Mech Tech and he looked like he swallowed a plum.

“She’s got you there Mark.”

“Colonel, I can figure out what’s wrong.”

“It’s part of the actuator assembly. I can fix it. Twenty minutes.” I told all three men and then that earned me a lot of looks.

“Bullshit.” Mark offered, and I shrugged.

“Take me on, I’ll bring a Locust into your Lance, and I’ll let you test me by fixing your Centurion. I’m a mech tech, the best you’ll ever meet across the entire Sphere. There’s nothing I can’t fix.”

“Well she’s feisty.”

“She’s also eight.”

“Twelve.” I corrected, which really didn’t help I realized but I hadn’t been able to stop it. “But age has nothing to do with my ability. Test me. What’s there to lose? You already have to take apart the centurion’s arm again to fix it. Let me do it. He can watch, and I’ll have it done in twenty minutes.”

“You know what? I’ve seen crazier things. Alright girl. You fix the arm. And we’ll talk about all the rest of it.”

I nodded, and the Colonel slipped into the vehicle and we started driving over. The grumpy mech tech was glaring at me, but honestly. I looked him up and down.

Young. Very young. I’d heard a rumor that the merc company had lost their mechtech, and had actually been looking for another one. Which is why I had decided that I had to try this now.

I could wait for them to pass through again, or another merc group, but… That could take years. Who knows what would happen to me before then.

I was an orphan on a nearly dead world. No family to protect or care for me. I had to go. Sooner the better. Food was already getting hard to come by.

And I didn’t want to think about what it would take to get a family in the next few years. Marriage.

Yuck.

I couldn’t help but sit up and look out of the car as we drove up to and then into the Union the Mercs used. It was… Wonderful. A spaceship, an actual spaceship. I could already hear the quiet tones of it as we moved in. She needed some maintenance, but she was a good ship.

We came in, and I looked around. Centurion, and a Commando. Two mechs in their gantries, but that was it.

Not a good sign.

There were a lot of parts that once had been a mech, but I could tell at a glance what the problem was. Ammo explosion, the engine was cored out and that was that. Just a bunch of parts… Poor thing. An Assassin if my eyes weren’t deceiving me.

“Alright kid.”

“Yeah.” I confirmed and jumped out of the parked car and up the gantry. Then across to the Centurion. The arm was already lifted up ready to be inspected, and I didn’t hesitate in deftly starting to remove the armored panels. “Hey, don't just stand there.” I told Mark the apprentice tech if my estimation was right, and he hesitated looking at the colonel.

“What, you’re afraid to help out? Get to it man.” The man said firmly, and the tech helped me handle the large panels, as I opened up the elbow actuator. Yep.

I reached out and without a word snagged Mark's control tool from his belt, earning a surprised “Hey!” As I plugged it in, and slowly adjusted the arm into the correct position so I could access the part, then I started uninstalling.

“This is your issue.” I told the three men all watching me work. “This is part of the joint actuator. See it lets the elbow lock in place, but whoever installed this after the damage installed it backwards, this is the left arm part, so it’s not locking, and when you fire it’s throwing the elbow around.”

I pulled the part and showed it to the three of them.

“We don’t have a replacement for that.” Mark offered back and looked at the Colonel. “Like I said, it’s the best I can do for now.”

“But not the best I can do. I asked for twenty minutes, and if you get me to a welding rig, I can get this working within that time frame.”

Eighteen minutes. That’s how long it took before I stepped back after installing the part and replacing the panel for that. “If you can get the rest of the armored panels back on. It’s done.”

“Mark?”

“I have no idea Colonel.” The tech offered back. All I’d done was added a bracket onto the actuator that would lock it in place in the correct spot.

The only weird thing was that I’d done it completely free hand. No real measurements or anything like that. I’d just known where to weld on the bracket, that would get the actuator part to hold a lock while firing.

“Test it if you don’t believe me.” I told the three men. The Colonel met my eyes for a long moment before he smirked.

“Alright we will.” He walked to his Centurion, and I followed the other two as they backed to another area of the gantry.

—-

The Centurion fired once, then twice, and I could see the surprise on Mark the Mech Techs face as the arm held, and the rounds were on target. At least mostly.

Mech accuracy was iffy, but both rounds hit the little pile of trees the mech had shot at.

From there things sped up. The Colonel had agreed to hire me as a mech tech. I’d revealed the old Locust that I’d been tinkering with for years, and it actually walked right onto the ship. Something that had surprised everyone.

The faded Rim Worlds Republic colors had very quickly been painted over, and at my order.

Mark wasn’t the old mech tech they had, but he’d been the old Head Techs apprentice so he’d been in charge, but…

Before we’d even lifted off, I’d squirreled myself over every single mech fixing and going in on components that were having issues that Mark hadn’t even known existed.

There had been some hesitation when the Colonel had wanted to speak to my family, but telling him “Sister Theresa at the Church up the way.” Had rather firmly squashed any issues.

So a week later when the R&R of the Panzer Mauer Mercs was up and the Union was blasting off of my homeworld, I was on board hands half into a Locusts fire controls because the one thing I hadn’t really managed to fix was some of the circuitry, but now I had an entire merc companies salvage storage, the Locust that was my baby would be up and running in time for the next job.

—--
Aberystwyth
3013

“Brat! The fuck is wrong with my Locust?”

“My Locust! And it’s that hit you took a month ago.”

“I thought it would be fixed! You said you could!”

“And I can!” I growled, pulling my head fully out of the Centurions Ammo feed which I had been forced to crawl entirely inside.

Thank god I was small.

“But if you haven’t noticed, I’m fixing the Colonel's bad piloting!”

“Hey!” I of course yelled it loud enough that the Colonel could hear.

“Well fuck.” Marie, our Locust pilot, cursed as she wandered over. “Any idea how long?”

“About a day after I finish the Centurion refit.” I told her, and she looked at me with puppy eyes.

“So a few days?”

“A couple days. I don’t like not having everything functional, especially after that scrap.” I told her, and then ducked my head back into the mech. Fucking ammo feeds. The Centurion had a bad feed to the AC, especially if it’s been fucked a few times, and so since the Colonel had lost the entire arm in the fracas with the pirates a few days ago, I was trying to really fix it.

I hummed, the sound bouncing off the internals, and feeding back to me, and… There. I reached out and started taking some measurements. Yeah, something about this section was off. “Mark! I need the- Oh good job.” I called out as my hand was filled with the tool I needed.

“I knew you’d call for it soon. Figure it out?”

“Yeah I think so. Go ahead and get an update log. I think I figured out the issue with the Centurion ammo feed.”

Then I went to work. Falling in the quiet peace of fixing something without thinking about it.

Hours later I wiggled myself free and took a drink that Mark offered.

“Yeah she’s good. Let the others know they need to put her back together, except for the back bicep armor I’m going to need to make some adjustments to fix the alteration.”

“You got it boss.” The older man said and did just that, writing it down in our log system.

“So it’s fixed?”

“It’s fixed. You won’t have that feed loading issue anymore.” I said looking up at the Colonel who to my surprise was still up here.

“Good job Kat.”

“Katherine. Stop calling me Kat.” I grumbled at the man and he just smirked.

He might be my boss, but he didn’t get the right to call me Kat.

“Good job anyways. Any issues?”

“Ugh. The Locust is going to need some time still, but I fixed up the Griffin the PPC will shoot straight now I promise.”

“Good.” He offered back. We’d bought the thing cheap because the electronics in it had been so badly fried they couldn’t get it to actually shoot straight. We’d traded salvage for it, but with the Locust, Commando, and Centurion, we had a full Lance again and so the Panzers were doing better.

A red light and klaxon suddenly rang out just once.

“Colonel! We got a problem! The pirates had friends.” He looked at me, and I nodded. I’d been rushing to get my Locust up and out then.

We each raced off.

Always more work.

—---

“No! Not that one! Leave it!”

“It’s a Hunchback!”

“It’s scrap! Leave it!” I ordered glaring down at someone for once as I stood out the window of our flatbed. I still got a lot of flack from the other techs for my age, and sometimes they pushed me on things that a normal mech tech they’d just shut up and get to it.

The Hunchback was blown to shit. I’d have to remake it from the ground up to use it. No, it was gone. The other three mechs were better salvage. Especially since we were so pressed for time.

The Governor had been pushing to claim all the salvage before the battle was even over, we needed to grab what we could and secure it and use our MRB contract to protect us. Possession was nine tenth of the law so to speak.

If we let the Governor nab everything we’d never see anything.

“Grab the BlackJack.”

“Fuck that!” I got back in return, and I instantly flipped off the older man.

“Fuck you! Do as I say! Now!” I roared back and my ferocity unfortunately didn’t do shit.

Fuck it. I grabbed a Radio.

“Colonel! I’m having some issues here.”

“Not a good time Tech.” He responded back sounding pressed.

Yeah I know, you were trying to fend off the Governor.

“I’m being ignored here. They’re trying to grab the Hunchback.”

“What? Hunches are good.”

“This one is worse than scrap. Forget it. You blew it to hell. The Black Jack is-”

“What? Why would we grab one of those!?”

“They’re good mechs with bad rep. As your mech tech I’m telling you that’s our target.”

The line was quiet, and I realized the Colonel had switched to another channel.

“Hey! Stop fucking with the Hunchback! Grab the Black Jack!” I yelled out and that caused more hesitation than actual action. Fuck. Fuckity fuck.

“Hey! The fuck is going on!” Mark roared out as he pulled up in another of the vehicles. And I relaxed.

“Mark! Ignore the Hunchback! Get the Black Jack! Go!” I called out over the radio to him, and a moment later he nodded and actually listened.

Thank God.

—--

“So we have a Blackjack now…” Colonel Thomas Eddard asked me as he looked over the mech in the gantry. It was banged up, but she was easily fixable.

“Yep. It even got the Governor off our backs right?”

“Yeah he was fighting for the Hunchback…”

“Good. He’s wasting his time then. That Hunchback-”

“Is blown to hell you told me. You sure? A Hunchback would have been… Great.”

“I’m sure. Besides, the Black Jack is great.”

The look he gave me told me he didn’t believe me.

“Listen all that shit about it falling over? The armor being brittle or whatever. The stuff that ruined its rep? It’s all dogshit. Corporate propoganda. The BJ-1 is a good mech.”

“Tell that to Maria.”

“Huh? Oh you’re switching out the Locust?”

“I am. It’ll be a good backup mech. But the Commando already has the scout role.”

“Once I got the Black Jack running then… You mind if I tinker with the Locust?” I asked him and he looked at me confused.

“Tinker?”

“I want to turn her into a Frankenmech.” My words would be absurd. They were absurd. Frankenmechs were a hodgepodge of broken mechs to make something workable, and they were almost always garbage.

“You’re joking?”

“Nope. If you’re taking it off the main Lance, then I’m requesting some time with my mech to upgrade her.”

The Colonel snorted. It was a bit of a running joke that I was technically the owner of the Locust, but I didn’t pilot.

Of course over the last nine months I’d proven my ability to fix the mechs so no one made fun of me anymore for not being a Mechwarrior.

“What are you going to do?”

I looked at the Locust. My baby. “I’m going to make a baby Wolf.” I told him, knowing he wouldn’t understand.

Heh. Fuck the Clanners.

—-
Aberystwyth Jump Point
3013

We left Aberystwyth, which was a mouthful. I never did manage to pronounce the name right. Even after spending a year there. Garrison contract was easy work, and the Panzer’s were basically restoring themselves after a bad contract caused the company to fall on hard times.

Me fixing things was making a big shift for the company. The Locust let them sell themselves as a Lance for Garrison duty, and my work repairing their mechs meant they stopped a constant decline.

Things were going well actually. Especially for me.

I floated down the hallway delighting in the zero gravity. And hit the mech bay. Work continued even as we waited for our Jumpship.

Using an ankle I anchored myself to the railing around the gantry and then kicked off, having changed my direction towards my Locust.

My idea to turn her into a frankenmech was still on the table, but if I was going to do this, I was going full out.

I’d spent the last three months fixing the mechs after the second surprise pirate attack. Then I’d been fixing up some old damage on the Edelweiss our Union dropship.

But I’d been tinkering in the background the whole time.

The biggest issue with the Locust was that it was only twenty tons. Twenty tons might as well be nothing after adding in the engine.

So I had known from the start I was going to need to do something… Drastic.

I also had kept it really fucking quiet.

There were a few technologies in the Inner Sphere that changed everything. Probably the most important of course, was the Double Heat Sink.

It hadn’t really been hard to build one. I’d simply closed my eyes and listened to the music, and started working.

I of course had made a complete design document. And then hidden it away because I didn’t want to get assassinated right now.

But my Frankenmech would have Freezers. That was step one. Removing the old Single heat sinks, and installing the Double heat sinks into the engine had given me a drastic increase in cooling.

I groaned as I realized it wouldn’t be enough. Not really. Not with what I had in mind.

I’d managed to basically put the Freezers together artisanally. Just hand making the thing from scratch, but if I wanted the mech that I had in mind I’d need something not so easy. I’d have to speak to the Colonel about clearing some workshop space semi permanently.

I’d also have to lie about what I was doing.

I sighed.

—--

“Happy Birthday Kat.”

“It’s Katherine!” I grumbled glaring at my boss but I slumped and nodded at his words as he smirked.

Fourteen.

I was almost surprised I’d made it this far. There had been some close calls, life in a merc company wasn't easy but…

I smiled as everyone pulled out the cake, and I blew the candles out.

This was my family. My idiotic annoying family that were all older than me, but mine all the same.

“So kid.”

“I don’t want it.” I instantly replied, turning to look at Marie who was smirking down at me.

“You sure.”

“Definitely.” I said, without knowing what she was thinking, but she just smirked bigger.

“Well, I was going to give you some lessons on that Locust of yours.”

“...Okay I forgive you for some of the shit you’ve pulled.”

“Language.” Sarge, called out from his seat, the gruff older man had opinions about young girls cursing.

“Yeah Language Kitty Kat.”

“I’ll shank you Marie.”

The woman just laughed and threw an arm over my shoulder. “Okay so let’s get you into the cockpit. I want to see what you can do.”

“Okay.”

—--

Learning to pilot had been… Exhilarating. I wasn’t any good at it, but becoming a giant stompy mech even the smallest of the stompy boys had been a delight.

Of course it had given me ideas and made me realize I was looking at the Frankenmech in the wrong way.

So instead of trying to do a complete rebuild from the start, something that was going to take a whole lot of time, I decided to start developing other systems that I knew I would want. First thing first I started messing with the Myomer, the muscles of the Locust.

Triple Strength Myomer was a massive upgrade if you wanted speed or strength, but it did have some limitations. Mostly that you needed to warm up the Myomer to get the results…

Except that wasn’t entirely true. I remember enjoying the story about how the Feddies had fed false data to the Capellans about how to make a form of Triple Strength Myomer that had some benefits and limitations.

It was always active regardless of heat, but didn’t give the speed boost, instead only really enhancing a mechs brutal strikes… It was also a trap breaking down when a formula was introduced causing the mechs to literally slump over.

But…

Why had the Feddies not pushed that further? TSM that didn’t need heat could be a massive benefit, and it wasn’t like anyone else knew about the chemical weakness at the start, or if that couldn’t be fixed.

In the end, I’d needed Myomer, which I’d had to develop a gadget to basically unravel, and then re-wrap together. Then a control function that would cause the enhanced Myomer to power up and a lot of time replacing Myomer on a Locust.

My version of TSM came with some strengths and weaknesses, but I liked it more. No more was heat the activation method, instead a device I’d attached to the Fusion Engine would cause the activation process instantly, but sort of like MASC, there was a limit. The Locust couldn’t handle the enhanced strength and speed for very long.

Short bursts of extra speed, and power though? That was useful. I added the design document to my personal hidden stash and continued with my work.

—--

Ayacucho
3014

I wiped my forehead. The heat of the planet was rough. “Check it now!” I called out and Mark waved from the cockpit of the Centurion.

It rumbled to life in maintenance mode and the arm I’d been working on raised up.

Yep, that was pretty good.

“Alright shut her down!” I pulled away from the mech, the work I’d done on the mechs left arm was finished. After breaking every hand actuator in the mech’s fist on a very annoying pirate Commando I’d decided to do a little upgrade for the Colonel.

The small arm shield on the Centurion was as light as I could make it, but gave the Centurion an interesting profile, and more importantly, gave his dead arm a bit more armor to work with.

“I still don’t think much of it.” Mark offered. The Mech Tech had honestly improved a lot. I’d call him an acceptable if not exceptional tech at this point.

But he still chaffed a bit working under my orders at times.

“Shields are useful. It’s just extra armor. Easily replaced mid combat to give a bit of survivability. Besides. The Centurion had a bit of dead weight after the work we’ve done over the years.”

“More armor in general would have been better.”

“The only place to add more armor to the thing would be its back, and frankly that’s already well armored. No more forward facing armor is for the best. Besides, the Colonel liked the idea.”

“So he did.” Mark grumbled, but nodded as he passed me by. I wasn’t the guy's favorite person, but there was still respect. I’d done some crazy fixes over the years and it kept things going even through the lean times.

I looked at the mech. I knew shields and melee weapons did eventually become more standard, but shields I had no idea how it took so long. The entire shield was just a chunk of armor that was easily detachable, and I could hot swap the entire thing in about two minutes if the Centurion had a pilot to help maneuver things. I looked over at the spare shield as well, so that was already made.

It was free armor that could be replaced faster than any of the mechs normal armor.

Inner Sphere people were weird.

—--
Ayacucho
3015

“Well the chassis is scrapped. Conner crushed it good, I literally can’t fix it without cutting chunks of bent superstructure out, but the internals are still okay if you ignore the gore.” I told the Colonel as I popped my head out of the broken Saladin. The tank had been stomped on to get it to stop.

“So we can scrap it?”

“I can tear out the electronics, and the cannon. But if you want one? Forget it.” I told the Colonel, pulling off the face mask that kept me from breathing in people salsa. “Someone get me a hose!” I called out and one of the techs ran to get me something to wash up with.

“Thanks kid. Sorry about the mess.”

“Well they were trying to kill us.” I offered back with a shrug. Planetary ‘militia’ that were trying to steal from us were just pirates pretending to be official. As far as I’m concerned they deserved their fate.

“Alright, grab what you can out of it, maybe we can sell it off at the next stop.”

“Probably. The AC/20 isn’t useful to us, we don’t have anything that needs one, but It’ll sell.”

“Good.”

I looked back at the hover tank. Too bad it was so broken, a faster mover with a big gun was a useful vehicle, but this one was scrap.

Oh well. As a mechtech the work almost never ended. Once I was done figuring out what we were going to salvage I’d have to start repairs on our mechs.

Work work.

—--

Son Hoa
3016

I shuddered as I heard more strikes and explosions.

Son Hoa was right on the border with Marik, and we were here to help defend it. Of course our quiet garrison time had shifted to something more dangerous when a ‘pirate raid’ had jumped in.

Pirate raid my ass, this was a Marik raid for sure. The mechs were nasty, and we were suffering. The militia had taken a pounding from the start, and the Starcorp factory that we were defending was…

The fucking Urban Mechs they had for defense weren’t doing much.

The tech team were just waiting, it was all we could do. Then I heard it, stomping of a mech, and only when I saw the silhouette of the Centurion did I relax.

The Colonel's voice came over the radio, sounding rushed. “Need a shield replacement.”

“Alright get that lifted! Let’s go go go!” I roared out and the techs moved. I took a moment to look over the Centurion. It was in rough shape. No wonder he’d come back for what little armor he could get between him and the enemy PPC’s.

The ‘pirates’ had landed with a Warhammer, and we were suffering from it.

The swap out was quick, we’d done some drills for it, and the Centurion was able to shift and adjust to make it easier, the old shield what was left of it with the massive melted section of it landed on the deck.

That was going to take some undenting, but that was a future issue. We re-attached the shield and the Centurion lifted away shaking the arm to check it was attached and then he was back outside.

While we’d replaced the shield I’d had his ammo stores replaced as fast as I could.

But it was all on him now.

—--
Son Hoa
3016

“I still don’t get why.”

“Because arms are better.” I decided as I looked over at the parts I’d finished. Two arms, left and right, thin little things, but I’d reinforced all the join points, and it had claws because hands were useful, and I don’t care if you’re a mechwarrior get out there and grab salvage.

“Yeah but… It’s a Locust.”

“Not anymore.” I decided, looking from the arms to the Locus that I had spent years working on for this upgrade.

I looked over at the Colonel and smiled. “Trust me.”

“I do. Somehow.” He offered and I scoffed at him. At sixteen, I was coming into myself. Taller, and bigger, and I’d put on muscle from working on stuff all day every day. I was actually looking the Colonel in the eyes.

I was no longer the little girl running around ordering people, but the Panzers head tech, and with a bit more age, I’d actually earned some real respect.

Which is why I’d decided to finally push for the more physical upgrades for my Locust.

“Still… Arms?”

“Yep. A Medium, and Small laser in each arm as well.”

“It’s a Locust.”

“It has more armor, and is just as fast.” Well actually it was faster, but I wasn’t going to say that.

“Just as fast? How did you figure that out?”

“Trade secret. I’d tell you but then I’d have to kill you.” I offered with a wink and he just scoffed. “But truthfully. It’s closer to a twenty five ton mech now, rather than twenty.”

“Can the frame handle that?”

“It can. That was honestly what took the longest. The Frame.” I confirmed. Not wanting to explain how I’d managed to turn a normal mech frame into a pseudo Endosteel.

Nanomachines… Figuring out how to design nanomachines had not been fun.

I still didn’t want to think about it. But I’d managed to basically use the nanomachines, and some zero gravity time while waiting for jumpships to remake the entire frame of the mech.

This Locust, if that was what it still was, is one of the most advanced mechs in the Inner Sphere, and I did my best not to tell anyone.

Not yet.

“Alright. You’re the boss.” He offered and I flashed him a smile. Damn right I was.

“Okay let me finish this, I’m excited to finally have these arms done, it took forever. Now out!”

“Yeah yeah.”

—--
Son Hoa
3017

Things were not going well.

“Dammit. He’s getting away!” The flat bed pulled up next to the Commando and I looked it over.

Well fuck. That leg was a mess. It was going to take a week to fix, minimum. I’d likely need to cheat even to get the frame fixed. Conner had twisted the knee entirely around. Not good.

Our scout was out of operation, the enemy that we’d been hired to hunt down had been smart. He’d had his little team of hovercraft go straight for the light mech.

Poor bastards, I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea they were all dead now, but it had worked.

The Firestarter was getting away, and we didn’t have anything fast enough to catch him…

Technically.

“Fuck.” I whispered realizing how bad this was. We weren’t exactly running on fumes, but we weren’t doing great right now.

We’d been stuck on Son Hoa for a while after the Marik raid. Even with all the assistance from both Starcorp and the Governor our client hadn’t entirely covered the damage the Mariks had done to us.

We hadn’t even managed to take that Warhammer. The pieces of it that had been blown off…

That fucking Urbanmech pilot asshole. I don’t care if his AC/20 was the final shot that salvage was fucking ours!

The Marik raid had retreated and we ended up with some C-bills, but not much in salvage, and less after the Centurion repairs.

Although no one argued that the Black Jack was a good mech anymore at least. Scrapping three light mechs on it’s own with no backup had made everyone sit up in shock.

Iji was a hell of a shot, and the rapid fire AC/2’s had torn the light mech pack apart.

But… We needed this contract.

“Fuck.” I hissed, grabbing my radio. “Colonel. The Locust is the only thing we have that can catch that Firestarter.”

The line was quiet. “Is it functional?”

“Yes.” It wasn’t really complete, but it was functional.

“Alright Marie, you’re the best with Locusts, go switch over.”

“Ah fuck, really Colonel? That Firestarter is going to tear me apart in a locust!”

I focused on my job and didn’t actually speak into the radio, but there was no way that Firestarter would beat my Locust.

Three minutes later, Marie was stepping off the Edelweiss with cautious steps.

I switched back to the pilot frequency on my radio just in time to catch it.

“-Is wrong with this fucking thing!”

“Nothing, it’s perfection made manifest, and you’ll love it in about one minute.” I responded back, cutting off any other response. “Now listen up, You see the green button on the left control stick, the one with the cover?”

“Yeah? I see it.” She grumbled, even as the Locust slowly started picking up speed as she had a job to do.

“Whenever it’s lit up green it’s good to activate, you have about thirty seconds of active time, and then about a minute of downtime.”

“Okay, what does it do?”

“It’s the go fast button. Don’t fall on your face if you scratch the paint I’m making you repaint it.”

“A go fast button? What the fuck is-EEEEEEEEEeeee!” She shrieked into the radio. I could just see my baby down the road she was running to chase our target down, she’d easily been hitting a solid hundred K/PH. Quick for a normal Locust without a lot of upgrades.

Then she pushed the button, and I could visibly see the Locust speed up.

Heh. It wasn’t a MASC. It wasn’t a supercharger. It wasn’t Triple Strength Myomer. It was a combination of all three… Sort of.

Like I said, the go fast button.

“When you catch up to the Firestarter, don’t hesitate to hit him while the go fast button is pressed, those arms aren’t for show.” I told her and soon enough I heard her laughing sinisterly as my baby easily started closing the distance to our target.

“Alright! Get the flatbed! We need to catch up and see if we can salvage our target, or recover the Locust if Marie fucks up! Let’s go!”

—--

Of course my baby wasn’t going to be ignored. I was in an office room on board the Edelweiss, and all the command staff of the group were around me.

Including a particularly bouncy Marie.

“Okay mind explaining a bit more in detail what we just saw.”

“I made the Locust better.” I told them and got irritated looks in turn.

“You know what I mean Katherine.” Colonel Eddard said pointedly and I just nodded.

“It’s a Frankenmech. I’ve been working on it for years. You know it’s not stock.”

“I’ve seen frankenmechs before. I’ve fought on Solaris. I know what crazy stuff can be done to a mech, but that is that, and this is this.” He argued instantly and I couldn’t help but nod.

Yeah.

“I’ve come up with some mech upgrades, the Locust is my test bed to see how effective they are. Some of the stuff… Well it’s not really feasible. The Myomer alone took me like six months to get right. If the mech takes internal damage, that’s another six months to replace it.” I explained and that earned sour looks all around.

“So the reason it was so fast and strong, was the myomer?” Marie asked, and I waffled.

“Partly. A good part of it, but not just that.”

“Can you make the rest of the mechs move faster?” Eddard asked, and I nodded.

“Partially, not as fast of course, but it’s doable. Weight is an issue, and it could cause damage to the actuators.”

“Could?”

“Short bursts would be fine, but honestly… Okay, I’m coming clean. If I’m being honest. The Freezers I made are probably more interesting if you want an upgrade.” I told the command staff and winced as the entire room exploded.

—--

“You’re joking.” The Lyran General said as he patted out a stogie and glared at me and Colonel Eddard.

“I’m not.” The Colonel responded without hesitation. “We have design documents for a functional Freezer.”

The Governor took one look at us, and then hit a button on his intercom. “Sarah, clear my schedule, and call the number listed under Ian Franzberg.” He leaned back and nodded. “Well then I’m very interested in hearing you prove it.”

—--

Son Hoa
3018

I looked at the Colonel. A man that had basically… Well he’d been a pseudo father figure to me. Or at least an annoying uncle.

“I’ll see you around Kat.” He told me, but we both knew that wasn’t true.

“Colonel… Thank you.” I gave him a Salute, something I’d never done, I barely even acknowledged that he carried a rank of any sort. “You saved my life.”

“Heh. You’ve saved mine, and my entire company more than once. It’ll be impossible to replace you.”

“Mark has the basics down.” I demurred, and the Colonel smirked but nodded.

Things had gone very very fast once someone in the Lyran Military understood that I had basically figured out Double Heat Sinks, and now I was being very quietly shipped off Son Hoa. I’d been very cautious throughout, telling every LIC spook I met that if anyone spoke about freezers over an HPG I’d likely be killed before arriving…

I wasn’t sure if they believed me, but the secrecy of the whole thing had been… Stifling.

But my Locust was loaded up and it was time to go. Where was I going?

No idea.

Really. I had no idea.

“Goodbye Colonel.” I decided and before he could say anything else, I rushed in and gave him a bearhug. Rushing away I wiped my eyes. Six years with these people as my family. I’d miss them.

—--

“Go fish.” I responded, and the LIC spook that had been my ‘bodyguard’ on the trip, more likely to keep me from escaping or something, looked like he was going to have an aneurysm.

Poker had survived from old earth, as had many old card games, but the fact was? I hated Poker.

It was a stupid game, and people were stupid for playing it. So I refused wholesale to ever ‘learn’ it and instead always countered offers of card games with stupid card games that no one wanted to play.

Big shot tough secret spies forced to play Go Fish? Hilarious.

“I hate this game.” He muttered, but since we were stuck in a small room together with nothing else to do?

Well, I refused to play Poker, and he had tried to refuse to play Go Fish. He’d broken first.

“Cheer up Ian. Could be worse.”

“How?”

“I could have accepted your offer to put some Kroner on the line, and you’d be broke by now too!”

—--
Tharkad
3018

“This is Tharkad.” I realized with growing dread as I was handed some very warm clothes.”

“That’s right.”

“Why am I at Tharkad?” I whispered, already dreading and knowing the answer.

“The Archon wishes to speak to you.” Was my only answer. Okay maybe I shouldn’t have trolled the spy for so long because holy shit I was not prepared for this!

—--

I actually did not have to speak to the Archon, at least not at first.

First I was brought into a comfortable room and left with just a new guard keeping watch on me.

The first few weeks were like that, no updates, no information, but I was comfortable, even if I really wanted to get back to work on my Locust or something.

So I spent most of the time designing shit that I wanted to add to my Baby Wolf.

Maybe I should call it a Baby Cat? LoCat? Heh. LoCat. That’s funny.

But time flew by before I was finally confronted. First it was a mech tech and scientist, asking me questions about my design document.

They grilled me for a long while and then when they left things got quiet again.

I was back to designing, and I’m fairly certain I could make room for a jump jet in the LoCat. Probably not a great idea, the frame wasn’t the most balanced for it, but… jump jets were awesome, if stupid dangerous.

Probably best to just stick to moving faster than any other land mech in existence though.

Oh right, weapons… Hmm, I’d considered something like LRM 5’s or Maybe some SRM’s on the shoulders. To finish mimicking the Madcat, but even with everything I’d done weight was a serious issue, plus ammo in a very light mech was just stupid… But, I bet I could do Rocket Launchers. Sure most of the Inner Sphere considered them backwards, but they were idiots, and giving a 25 ton mech a massive punch with Rockets was definitely possible.

I started messing with the design as I waited, and it was… Possible. Not super great. Rocket Launcher 20’s were a ton and a half, but holy shit would two of those on the shoulder give my LoCat a surprise punch.

Okay putting that to the side, maybe focus on the laser weapons? I had lots of cooling thanks to the freezers. The LoCat was heat neutral even if I fired all four lasers constantly thanks to the Freezers…

So maybe work on Pulse Lasers? Or ER? Hmm. I bet I could make something better than the stupid clanners.

I looked up from my work pad and realized I’d gotten lost in my head for hours again. Time to get some food and hope something happens soon.

—--

Tharkad
3019

I sat stiffly in clothes that were fancier than anything I owned as the Archon herself sat across from me.

Katrina Steiner had a presence to her. Her eyes were… Sharp.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Katherine.”

“Ah-Archon.” I responded back stuttering a bit and that earned me a quirk of the woman's lips.

“Please relax, you have nothing to fear from me. I’ve been assured that Double Heat Sinks are in fact back. That your design documents tells us everything we need to make them… The Commonwealth, and House Steiner owes you.”

“That’s… Too much.” I tried to argue, shifting a bit as she smiled.

“Not at all. A mind such as yours? I’m told that your mech, the Frankenmech, has some interesting additions as well?”

“I think I’m going to call it the LoCat. Like a Locust Catapult… I wanted to add some LRM’s or SRM’s too the shoulders. It’ll look like a Marauder and a Catapult had a baby… It’ll be cute.”

Ah I was rambling.

Katrina Steiner was holding back laughter at me. Oh no.

“Indeed. That would be a cute mech. The upgrades?”

“Oh yes. I’ve done some work to make Myomer better, and I figured out how to make MASC and a few other things. I wanted it to be fast.”

“Are you thinking of producing these?”

“Oh? I never really thought about it. The LoCat was just a test bed really.”

“Indeed? With your knowledge you could design mechs for any corporation in the Commonwealth. Or make your own.”

“I don’t have the Kroner for something like that. I’ve thought about starting a factory of course. Double Heat Sinks made by hand are a pain, you’d need some very specific machines to produce them at a more rapid pace, doable, but difficult, but… I’m rambling.”

“Oh no. Please go on. While the knowledge of the Double Heat Sinks are very useful, the current issue is the method to produce them in any great amount. I’m very interested to hear if you already have some ideas.”

I swallowed hands wringing together.

Ideas?

Yeah I had those.

—--
Tharkad Jump Point
3019

“You okay?” I was asked, but couldn’t respond. I was currently pressing my head into my knees and trying to breathe instead of having a panic attack.

The Archon. Katrina Steiner herself had basically invested in the creation of my company.

My company.

Lo-Cat Industries.

It was a stupid name. But I’d panicked!

It’s fine. It’s fine. The name was dumb, but everyone wanted Double Heat Sinks, and that was the first thing I’d be producing once I got started.

Oh god, ComStar was going to murder me!

No it’s okay. I wasn’t the only company making Double Heat Sinks, and it would take at least a year or so to get the factory going and all the kinks worked out. They’d try to kill everyone else first… Right?

Fuck fuckity fuck fuck.

Okay it’s fine. Just… Live up to the belief in the most powerful woman in the Commonwealth and don’t fuck up the creation of my company, and I could just… Do whatever I want or something. Sure assassins would be everywhere. ComStar would try to destroy everything, and the Clans would be here in like thirty years, but whatever, Sure. Whatever!

“Are you okay?”

“Fine!” I said definitely not panicking. I wasn’t even good with people! How was I supposed to run a company!?

—--
Donegal
3019

It did not in fact take a year to get the factory going.

Honestly. While the main factory area was still under construction. I’d started building up the manufacturing machines I’d needed in order to produce a Freezer from start to finish… Aaand I cheated a bit with the Nanomachines I’d developed and kept in a jar that hadn’t disappeared while traveling to Tharkad, and now I had a factory line in an old warehouse building that had just been meant for temporary work.

I was outputting Double Heat Sinks…

Fuck.

It’s fine. I’d just… Pack this first shipment, of over a hundred Heat Sinks for delivery to the Archon and no one would know. It would take a while surely before the information leaked.

—--

I now had an office.

The building was brand new, built up practically overnight by a very overzealous crew.

Katrina had been… Very pleased.

Apparently, I’d shipped Freezers before any of the other companies had even managed to start producing prototypes…

I fucked up.

“Miss. Tea?” I looked up. Arnold was… Someone Katrina had recommended to me. He was incredibly competent, knew business inside and out, and basically helped hire and bring on the team of accountants and things that a company making Kroner out their ears needed.

“Suuuure.” I whispered. Taking the leaf juice and taking a sip.

Gross, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t like it.

What was I going to do? I shook it off. Fuck it. This CEO junk was awful. I rose up. “I’m going down to Factory 2.” I told him and headed out of the stuffy office. I could spend an afternoon working on the second Freezer line and all of my problems would definitely be gone when I was done.

Definitely.

—--