Operation "Dust Bowl"  part 9

Operation Dust Bowl Part IX
In the meantime at the spaceport
Acc3000 watched the surface of devils domain coming closer rapidly over the visual screens."Unfortunately, we are too late for the battle", 1st. Lieutenant Acc3000 said disappointedly to Brig. Gen. Surn. "Nevertheless, the operation has been asuccess", Surn replied "Now, all dev forces are reunited and the Dev down there have suffered heavy losses and therefore need us even more." Acc3000 knew that Surn was right from a broader point of view. Brig. Gen. Surn just couldn't stand the idea of leaving the dev forces without support and left the allied forces, under command of FC_Hitman, and fought there way through several systems. They had been attacked twice and made their way out of the systems with skill and a lot of luck. But these attacks had destroyed some of the Clan attacking forces and had therefore softened the attack on Devils Domain slightly. Once their jump ship had entered the system through a  pirate jump point on the other side of the planet, they knew the battle on the planet was already over. Nevertheless, there had been the danger that the surviving Chk and CSD fighters would try to attack them. They had disembarked while the jump ship immediately jumped back into another system with its double Fuchi-Kearny aggregates, one of the still unsolved Lostech mysterious of the star bound times Davion scientists tried to reinvent at Arc Royal. Luckily, the enemy fighters lacked fuel and had to decide between a suicide attack on the dropship or flying back to their jump ships at the other side of the system. Unsurprisingly and fortunately, they decided to do the latter. Major Darkelf watched the dropship landing, the Dev reserves in the bowels of it, while he wondered if the noise of the impulse was able to cover the tremendously loud mixture of music and noises coming from the public festival behind him. "Well .... it can", Darkelf thought while he covered his long ears with his hands. After the dropship had shutdown it's engine and secured it's landing platforms, he saw the shadows of two men walking down the gangway, heading in his direction. The Major had not seen Acc3000 for such a long time and scrutinised his appearance. He saw a tall man, with deeply jet black hair. His muscles played under the uniform while he walked down the gangway. Darkelf knew, that Acc300 was in his mid thirties. Thus, he was surprised by Acc's soft and rosy, young looking features of his face. Darkelf remembered where Acc got the nickname from. ACC stood for Auto-Cannon-Child. The autocannon was the favourite weapon of Acc and most of his mechs configurations were solely based on it. "When Acc played in the mech bay as kid, he loved to climb even in them", Darkelf remembered grinning "and well, he still looks in some way so virgin to mech combat as a child". But one glance into the blue eyes dominating the noble face showed how dangerous this man could be ... and how many battles he had already waded through.
After the obligatory handshake, Surn laughed as he saw the disappointed statement on Darkelf's face and said "Ah, another one who is unhappy with missing the battle". "Hrmf... right", the Major grumbled. "It may have been better this way", Surn thought for himself. He was sure, that Dev command needed the well known tactical and strategical brilliance of Darkelf in the HQ even more than on the battlefield. Instead of making a comment about it which the Major would have rejected anyway, he said: "Where is the General?". After some seconds Darkelf replied "Uhmm, the General is.. aehm....busy with.... uhmm.... personnel management. So i am here to welcome you and thank you for the great work".
Surn and Acc3000 could imagine the 'personnel management' the General was doing. Was not Drivin2fast known as an old skirt chaser who exploited his rank for this without regrets? Acc3000 froze as the serious statements on his face were visible and replied for Surn: "I understand,Major. Personnel management is important. I hope the General has enough trainees to help him with it?". The officers artificially serious faces bursted in laughter.
The group left Darkelf's glider at the spaceport –there was no other way than walking to get through the crowded streets of the city. They headed over a flower carpet on the streets towards the bulky shape of the fortress-barracks in 2k distance. They came alongside a casino and as Acc3000 glanced through the open windows, he could see Colonel TorturedSol and Sergeant Syncrod. Both stood at a the roulette table, watching the little ball with the tensed face of passionate gamblers. 'Tort' moved his chips five times in a row on the red square while 'Sync' repeatedly put his chips on black, unknown as of yet why. It always came 'black' and it seemed that 'Tort' lost a month credits with his 'red-stratgy' while 'Snyc' just won it on the other side. Nevertheless, the Colonel seemed to be happy and in his element. Acc3000 heard him mumbling "Red, red, red... always red...my favourite colour" and so on. "He is kind of obsessed with this colour" Acc3000 thought smiling, not knowing that he was in a deeper sense right.
Their next stop was at the hospital where they followed a crowd of Dev uniforms on their way inside. They followed them to a luxurious room, looking more like a Lord's residence, than a hospital room. Unfortunately, one of the Dev lying in the bed couldn't enjoy this luxury at all. It was Captain Reaper whose whole body including the head was covered by white bandage, looking like an ancient mummy. The 3rd degree burns Reaper had got through Blodlusts 'rescue' made bio-skin-reactivation process necessary. Next to his bed stood Colonel Blodlust, holding a Lager beer in his right hand....or better to say, the Lager held his hand.
"Aehm hello, reaper. How do you feel?" acc3000 inquired sheepish. "I didn't like your face anyway 'Reap'" Darkelf fell in laughing. "Wait just three days and you will have to stand it again, Major" a deep voice came out of the ...thing. "It will be rosier than a babies behind and the woman will chase me again".
"Well, at least you have nice guests", Surn said with a glance to the two other beds filled with two sleeping Dev. In the first bed laid a man with open mouth and open eyes, snarling and looking stupid. It was Captain Eldreth who landed here after being so drunk that a medtech had to be called in to 'deal' with him. In the other bed laid Captain Gnostferatu, obviously as drunk as Eldreth but even worse for he was saying, while dreaming, confusing things about white tops and shorts. Obviously, he was still impressed by Saint George’s ‘entrance‘ after the battle.
"We thought we let you participate in the victory by making you drunk over the vapours of their smell." Surn joked. Ten minutes later, they left Reaper in the best mood. A little mean, as Acc3000 normally was, he had made some obscene gestures to the totally drunk Dev – very much to the amusement of the others.
The group came along the bar 'To the drunken DEV' on their last 400 metres to the barracks. As they past they hear a loud noise then suddenly the large window of the bar bursted into pieces and a body fell right before their feet. It was 2nd Lieutenant Cwolf. He was an excellent laser specialist and the leader of the scout lance of the stormtroopers. He had left a high position in DL to join Dev, even at the cost of a far lower rank. "What are you doing there 2nd Lieutenant Cwolf?" Surn asked in his firmest 'commanding officer voice' while he held back the laughter. The other two of the group nevertheless laughed at the comical picture of Cwolf with a bra on his head sitting on the ground surrounded by pieces of broken glass. "Brig.Gen. Surn, Sir, I am acting on a direct order of General Drivin2Fast. He ordered me to perform a cultural dance on the bar I learned by the natives of Xavia III", Cwolf answered quick-witted. "I see, Lieutenant. I guess, this so called 'dance' makes it unavoidable that you wear a bra on your head and jump through windows, hmm? So carry on....when you find another window.", Surn went on in his commanding officer voice. "Yes Siiiiir,... but... Sir.... I dont have to...The jump was the final part of the dance" Cwolf replied while his faced turned bright crimson like a 'bomb'. "In this case, report the General my best wishes and tell him that I am curious to see the....personnel....decisions he made", Surn said smiling.
"Yes, Sir", Cwolf said puzzled, still wearing the bra on his head. While the group walked on, Acc3000 saw out of the side of his eyes that a busty Blonde –the probable owner of the bra- came out of the bar and helped cwolf on his feet and then walked hand in hand with him inside. Smiling to himself he wasn't sure how Cwolf did it.
Finally, the group arrived at the barracks. For obvious reasons, there was less activity than in the city itself. It was though, without a doute, busy there too. Acc3000 spotted Rot5 close the mechbay. He ran like a lunatic around the rests of a mech –two arms, two legs, a cockpit and lots of other melted metal- and shouted confuse sentences to the wrecked mech like: "Don't  worry, Lucy, sweets. I will rebuild you. I have saved your heart. You will get a new dress, a complete new dress. I buy you a pink skirt, yes I will, don't worry Lucy, don't worry." After some time, he calmed down and started sobbing while he went to his reserve mech "Shannon".
"He loved his mech very much" Darkelf stated to explain Rots behaviour. "The General has ordered the techs to repair his mech with highest priority. He is a little bit whacked but we all are, aren't we?". Surn and Acc3000 nodded immediately, both knowing that most mechwarriors were, carefully spoken, a little bit eccentric about their mechs. Especially Acc3000 knew how it felt like to lose your mech. He had once had this wonderful sunder with twin ac, he started to remember. But his thoughts were distracted by a group of prisoners, lowly guarded by Dev infantry. A young woman, amazing gifted with looks, talked to some of the clanners and gave them water. He read at her name sign "Staff Corporal St.George".
He turned around asked Darkelf why she cared to help clanners. "Well, her parents died in the clan invasion and as a kid she was in many different Comstar prisoner and homeless camps. She just has a good heart in general...... Lets go inside Acc" Darkelf replied. "Uhmm, you and the Brig.Gen. go ahead, Major. I will follow soon." Darkelf and Surn chuckled and walked inside the lounge of the barracks.
Just when Acc3000, moved towards the tall redhead, eager to start a conversation, suddenly events accelerated. One of the prisoners Saint George was talking to -CSD_Werewolf- jumped up, and snatched her laser pistol and screamed "I will kill you, damn freebirth scum. Now I will finish what I failed to do on the battlefield... you are mine!".
Saint George was totally surprised by how her kindness was paid back. As the laser pistol came up, she could not move, she was paralysed in shock and fear. Acc3000 immediately jumped on Saint George and fell with her on the ground, making the laser flash avoid both of
them.  When Acc looked up he saw Werewolf pointing with the laser pistol down on them. Then, just when he laser batteries had reloaded, his whole body exploded in thousands little bloody pieces followed on by the devastating sound of a fired ppc. He watched up and saw Rot5 sitting in the open cockpit of his reserve mech. "Shannon was eager to avenge Lucy", he smiled.
"That was very nice of you, and I thank you very much Lieutenant" Saint George said in her velvety voice "But please could you get up from me?" Now, Acc realised that he laid on Saint George and that their faces were just centimetres away from each other. Slowly he got up, unable to say a word to the female personification of his wildest dreams... and headed without any word immediately towards the lounge.
"So many good-looking soldiers in this unit", Saint George thought confused, her emotions still in turmoil, "what is their problem?".

  ..............to be continued

                                                                                                ~author Buffoutboy