Chapter 8

Major Flowers drove me to the hangar and practically shoved me into the Calibration chamber.

“Leon, begin your breathing exercises,” she advised.

“I can’t,” I complained. I was too pissed and knew it. Calming the fuck down was the last thing on my mind.

“Leon, I am going to administer a sedative. Please try and relax.”

“Fine. Do what you want.”

She did and I was in no position to protest.

“Can we have a reasonable discussion now, Leon?”

“No.”

She gave me one of her long-suffering sighs.

“Do you want to tell me why you are so angry?”

“You mean other than the school set me up so that I had to face a Mech worth ten times as much as mine and two full tonnage classes higher than mine. A Mech which was equipped with experimental modules, like his stun field. PLUS, he was equipped with at least sixteen three hundred thousand credit missiles. Maybe more.

“Oh, and did I mention that my Mech is worth less than forty million credits. Which was blown to hell by those missiles?

“I don’t know, why else would I be upset, Major Flowers?” I sneered.

“Leon, have you forgotten that this is a Federation military school?”

“Of course not, how could I possibly forget, Major?”

“Well, like it or not, there isn’t anything fair about the military. The Mech Corps are even worse than the rest of those hide bound Jackanapes.

“Let me tell you what you are in for. Once you exit this hangar, there is not one person on this campus that is saying, woe is you. Not one,” she paused and let me come to grips with that remark.

“There are more cadets sympathizing with the defeated cadet than you. You only have a partially damaged thirty-five million credit Mech. And it’s not even a human built one at that. It is worth nothing to those cadets and instructors outside of these hangar doors.

“On the other hand, when you hit cadet Klein’s missile launcher when it was in in progress of deploying from his chest cavity, those missiles that you are bitching about detonated with a chain reaction. Do you want to know what my estimate is on the damage you did to cadet Klein’s Mech this morning?” she asked, her voice twisting. Regardless of what she said, I knew it was just to pile on my injuries.

“Sure. Why don’t you tell me,” I snapped back.

“Ninety-five to a hundred ten million credits,” she estimated. As much as I wanted to call her a liar, I knew she wasn’t. She was too professional to lie about Mech repairs.

“Okay, what of it? He’s rich. He’ll just cry to daddy and get a new one.”

“Are you sure about that, Leon?” She relaxed in the chair that she had permanently placed across from my Calibration chamber.

“What do you mean?”

“One: Cadet Klein most likely never received permission to take his Mech out of storage from his family. Two: He used an experimental module that wasn’t supposed to see the light of day. Three: That module and others are most likely destroyed or heavily damaged along with both arms, the right lower leg, and most of the internals.

“Four: Even if cadet Klein is firstborn, he still just cost his family over a hundred, possibly a hundred and fifty million credits. Do you think that is a small amount, even to the largest clans?”

“No.” I knew it was an astronomical sum.

“Five: He just lost a very public duel to a kid three years younger than he, who also is a commoner, and as icing on the cake, in a Mech worth a fifth of his.

“If you were his ‘all high and mighty’ father, grandfather, or uncle, how would you treat your scion?”

“I’d bring him home and kick his ass.” I knew from the few times I screwed up royally, dad did that to me.

“Do you think that you will ever see cadet Klein again?”

“Probably not,” I admitted.

“Now, consider all of those other scions outside my hangar doors. Do you think that any of them are dumb enough to challenge you to a duel in their own custom built 100 million credit Mechs?”

“Probably not.”

“Good. Now that that stupidity is out of the way, let’s deal with your other issue. You are in a military base. When any officer says jump, you jump until they say stop. You don’t back-talk, you don’t complain, you just follow orders. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When the ‘Fair-Minded’ superintendent of the school, General George White, decides that he wants your Mech ruined and you out of his school, what are your options?”

“Live with it or transfer, I guess.”

“There is a third option. You can drop out after your sixteenth birthday.”

“I can? Why didn’t anyone tell me that?” I’d quadruple-kill Colonel Lee next time I saw him. That was another lie he told me to get me here.

“Leon,” she sighed exasperatedly, she did that a lot with me. “You are a sixteen year old Ace. No one wants you anywhere other than in the Mech Corps.”

“Then why did you tell me that?” My mind wasn’t working well. She cheated with those sedatives.

She did that more than once to me since arriving here, I noticed

“Because I am not a pilot,” she stated. Which made even less sense.

“The Federation cannot conscript citizens who have a net worth over 100,000 credits. Those citizens are all considered to be a boon to the Federation and to its economy.”

“OOH!” That made sense. And I was rich. Maybe I would kill Colonel Lee one less time when I saw him next.

“Wait,” I started thinking again. “You said that all of the Pilots want me to join the Mech Corps, right?”

“I did,” she replied with a ghost of a smile.

“Then why is General White trying to chase me away?”

“You misunderstood. He only wants you out of his Academy. He will be very cooperative if you want to transfer to a different school. Any one is fine as long as it isn’t his.”

“Fuck him.”

I looked at my beat up Mech that was just arriving and asked, “Major, how long is Tisi going to be out of commission?”

“Depends on the internals and how long it takes me to rebuild your beam, two weeks, I’d guess.”

“Fuck,” I said with no heat. “Just take good care of her, would you?”

“Always. Take a deep breath and slowly let it go, I’m putting you to sleep on the count of 5... 4... 3... 2...”

What a bunch of assholes! Two hundred year old men are playing power games with a fifteen year old because they didn’t like the origin of his parents. Gods, some days I hate this career. Major Jessica Flowers thought to herself.

“Who do you think you are, Major Flowers? Locking me out of this hangar when it resides in my own Academy.” General White chastised his unwelcome visitor, a little too loudly for it to be as bland as the aged officer wanted.

“Command rescinded your access, General White,” Major Flowers responded. The two officers were standing outside of the hanger. He had tried his keycard three times, setting off an alarm summoning her to deal with the Superintendent of the Academy, who had treated this school as his personal property for the last thirty-odd years.

“Where is cadet Young?”

“In the Calibration chamber. You can see him when he gets out.”

“Tell him to go straight to my office,” he ordered.

“General White, other than giving Leon Young a demerit and chastising him, the rest of your plans are useless. An elder from our clan sent me a notice. Ace Pilot Leon Young is now a White Clan Asset.”

“Which elder?” George White lowered his animosity but raised his guard when he heard that an elder was involved.

“Planetary Governor Jonathan White. One of Joline’s brothers,” Jessica White-Flowers replied. While George White was cleared to know that she was a main branch White Clan member, her exact relationship to Joline was not disclosed.

“Why wasn’t I told this?” he fumed.

“Ask them,” she replied. ‘Them’ being the elders who sent the announcement.

“Does this have to do with cadet Adams?”

“I’m not a pilot. You would have to ask them. When cadet Young wakes, I’ll direct him to your office. But for now, I need to assess the damage that you did to my Mech with your petty show of superiority. If there is nothing else?”

Seeing no other unreasonable demand forthcoming, she returned to the hangar. Major Flowers did have a great deal of work ahead of her. And she still had not received the full set of blueprints from Command yet.

That was another missive that needed to be sent out.

Taking a glance at the readings from Leon Young, she relaxed a little. They, at least, were normal.

But before she could get to work, one more distraction was waiting for her.

...

“Is Leon alright?” Amy Adams vid came across her aunt’s private line.

“He’s fine, just resting. Your Uncle Jon came through. Leon is now a Clan Asset assigned to him, and you are to tasked to see to his care,” Jessica Flowers informed her niece.

“YES! Thank Uncle Jon for me next time you talk to him.” Amy did a little dance in her bedroom away from prying eyes, but still in view of the camera.

“Amy, I warn you, just because Jon claimed him on your behalf doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to keep him.”

“I’m not worried. Once he is mine, no one will take him away,” Amy responded to the threat with the utmost confidence.

Jessica knew that it would not be easy to retain possession of Leon, but she didn’t care enough to argue. In her opinion, Mech Pilots were all unstable.

The two spoke of the damage to Leon’s Mech and disconnected shortly after. Amy wasn’t supposed to be abusing her relationship while posted in the Academy.

“I was wrong,” Marshal noted after reviewing the fight between his erstwhile friend and his opponent.

“I told you he had a chance. But still, I didn’t think that he would completely wreck Klein’s Mech. He’s still in the hospital ward, isn’t he?” Joshua Pentecost asked his cousin.

“No one has been told of Klein’s condition. I don’t think it will matter. Once his family learns of his crime, he will be recalled,” Marshal predicted.

“Crime? Maybe. I call it a colossal failure. Losing the Mech is bad enough, but when his Grandmother learns of him exposing their family secrets, she will probably kill him and then sue the Federation so that they don’t field-strip his Mech,” Josh predicted.

“That’s why I called it a crime. The Kleins were humiliated by that idiot’s actions.” Taking further assessment of the damage done, both physically and reputation wise, Marshal came to a conclusion. “The Kleins will have to act against Leon. But probably won’t until the furor dies down. Possibly at the end of the school year he will be dealt with by one of their dark squads and far enough in the future so that they can pretend innocence.”

“Leon will need stronger support from both Adams and us if he wants to make it through the hurdle. You may not think his future looks good. But I do,” Josh reiterated his position. Even though the cousins swore to work as a team throughout their four years at the Academy, they didn’t move in lockstep.

“Don’t come crying to me when you discover you’ve wasted your time,” Marshal prophesied.

I was still strapped in the Calibrator when I woke. Hungry and a bit annoyed, I depressed the buzzer to let the attendants know I was awake and wanted the hell out of here.

“Have a good nap, Leon?” Sergeant Bell asked me while opening the lid.

Climbing out of the Calibrator, I stretched before answering her. If Major Flowers wasn’t at hand, Sergeant Bell was the one who was responsible for my care. She was directly responsible for the interface, even if it was a non-human one. If it were up to her, I wouldn’t ever be allowed out of the Calibration chamber or the Mech itself.

Not that she had anything against me, she was just crazy about her work ... passionately crazy...

Inching away from the really crazy woman, “I feel better now. Can I get something to eat?” Hopefully, that would distract her.

“You can eat after I run some more tests.”

I groaned. I really was hungry...

...

“Freshman cadet Young here to see General White by his order, sir.” I stepped into General White’s offices and presented myself to his aide.

“Have a seat, cadet, the General is with someone right now.”

“Yes, sir.”

The lieutenant returned to whatever he was doing and left me in peace. I did get a good, but late dinner after Sergeant Bell was only half way through with me. Thankfully, or maybe not, since I had to come straight here, Major Flowers interrupted her tests to send me off for another round of chastisement.

Twenty minutes of zoning out was interrupted by two people exiting General White’s main office. One, a Captain in the Mech Mechanic corps, and the other, a woman in a well-tailored dark purple suit, entered the lobby. She stopped, the officer accompanying her didn’t until recognizing that she did.

“Would you be Leon Young?” the woman asked with an odd accent.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“I witnessed your fight today. Quite promising. Have you been gobbled up by a Clan yet?”

I was about to say no, but Lieutenant Jefferson interrupted us, “Excuse me, Lady Crimson, but the General wishes to see cadet Young.”

“As expected, White wants you for himself. Citizen Young, please accept this. When you are able to, please contact me at this address. I would like to speak with you regarding certain matters,” she said pleasantly, but I felt her intent was purely business. And the ‘certain matters’ was about my Ace-ness.

“I shall, Ma’am. If you’ll excuse me, I need to see the General so he can yell at me.” I wasn’t happy about that but needed to take my lumps if I wanted to stay at his school.

“Freshman cadet Young reporting, sir,” I announced after entering his office and hearing the door close behind me.

“Did you enjoy talking back to me, cadet?”

“No, sir.”

“It sounded like you did.”

“No excuses, sir.” I didn’t need Major Flowers to remind me of that line. Colonel Lee drilled it into my head enough times that I couldn’t forget it if I tried.

“Do you hold this Academy responsible for the damage to your Mech, cadet?”

“No, sir.”

“Is that the truth, cadet?”

“Yes, sir. I was the one who challenged cadet Klein. The fault lies with me.”

“Good to hear. That slip of the tongue on your part will cost you five Merits. See that it doesn’t happen again.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is there anything you wish to say to me, cadet Young?”

“No, sir.”

“Then you are dismissed.”

I turned and left his office silently.

I didn’t care about the five Merits. I still had more than everyone else at the Academy. Although I figured out why the students call it hate. It was because they all, facility included, hated commoners.

Like me.

I didn’t look at the paper-thin five-by-nine cm object in my pocket until outside of the Admin building. It was a card of some sort, black with silver holographic lettering, containing a galactic mail address. No name or anything else other than an address, which I found odd, but all nobles were odd.

I had never heard of someone using a card for passing out Galactic mail addresses. Since we all carried persecomps, logging the address of someone you just met was routine and could be done in a single second.

I set the card aside when I returned to my room. I had missed another day of homework and needed to crack down even harder. Missing the next two Sundays of battles would suck, but the extra time would hopefully be spent on classwork.

At 21:30, Amy stopped by. She was unusually solemn.

“Hi, how are you doing?”

“Fine for someone whose Mech just got blown to pieces.”

“Do you need help fixing it?”

“Thanks, but the Federation is paying for everything as long as I am here.” Since she arrived, I had paid more attention to my homework than her. I needed to get this math assignment done tonight before bed.

“Do you want my help with that?” she asked diffidently.

“Nah, I need to learn how to do this stuff myself.”

She pulled up a chair beside me, forcing me to scoot over a foot. “I have some reading to do, if you get stuck, just ask,” she said, unwilling to leave me be.

“Okay.”

I felt her presence and eyes on me while I tried to concentrate. When I made the second division mistake in as many minutes, she couldn’t take it anymore. With a patient voice, she showed me where my work deviated from what was expected.

As much as calculus sucked, it was integral to all of the higher sciences. That was where she focused most of her attention during our nightly sessions. I wouldn’t need it just this year, but all through my schooling here.

“I was worried about you today,” she said out of the blue after I completed a difficult assignment on my own.

“Thanks.” It was nice to hear that someone was.

“When you caused that chain reaction in Klein’s Mech, we cheered.”

“We?”

“Yes. Lorraine and Lea were in the stands with me. I think I was the only one in the school that gave you a chance to win, once we heard what Mech Klein was bringing to the duel,” she admitted, which meant that her friends didn’t believe in me either.

She was wrong though, there was one person. Major Ingersol and I spent hours planning for the various configurations that Asshole could mount on his Mech. Unfortunately, neither of us planned for a Mech with portable Stun Field which had to weigh at least ten tons and take up a great deal of internal space.

His mantra of ‘Men win battles, Mechs are just the means to do so’, had sunk into my thick skull. I think that maybe others here might adopt that mantra if I keep this up. Even if I was a commoner.

“How much damage did you take?” my Mech, she meant.

“Two weeks of repairs. Major Flowers didn’t give me the full breakdown. She’ll be up all night crawling inside of Tisi.”

“I found out about Klein, he has six broken ribs and a broken left arm. They didn’t say but I think it was from the force behind the ejection.”

“Good.” I replied.

“Good? I thought you wanted him dead after your tirade at the end of the battle.”

“No. If he is dead, everyone blames me. If he is wounded and can talk, then he will get the blame for his Mech getting crippled.” I had figured that out, even without Major Ingersol’s advice.

He had said that under no circumstances was I to kill my opponent and why.

...

Three days later, I had my first round of tests in each class.

Physics, 83%, stellar history, 86%, math, 78%, small unit tactics, 84%, planetary science, 88%, introduction to aliens, 93%, Human-Mech interfaces, 91% and PT, 100%.

The calculus test was a great deal harder than I thought it should have been. Even Josh, who shared half of my classes with me, complained that he didn’t do great either, coming out with an 89%. Judging by the frowns from the whole class, none of us did as well as we hoped. Captain Riggs passed out the correct answers along with our test sheets at the end of class, leaving the classroom he offered advice to all of us, “If you don’t do better, then many of you will not be here the following trimester.”

Honestly, I thought I did great. Especially in Interface class. While I liked my small unit tactics class, I believed that the instructor was too rigid, in that only certain responses to his scenarios were correct, the rest were marked wrong. There was no middle ground. His way or a zero, which led to memorization over understanding.

I was still adapting to his philosophy of teaching even if I disliked it.

My math score was a bit troubling. Even Amy’s dour expression agreed with me when reading over my answers and the instructor’s correct way of solving them.

Oddly, even Major Flowers asked to see my math exam. She just nodded and asked me not to give up.

While Amy spent most every evening studying with me, and I did feel that my understanding of calculus grew, my scores didn’t reflect that. The fact that the whole class wasn’t doing as well as they liked didn’t help at all.

Three weeks later, I was cleared to use my Mech again in another of the stupid ‘kill Leon’ scenarios, which happened to be in a mountainous region with sparse forests. I felt that I had my Mech damaged enough for no good reason and said so to Major Flowers.

Fifty Mechs rushing to corner and surround me, with little or in some instances no cover, was asinine.

But there was little that either of us could do about it. General White specifically ordered me to go out and let the older cadets know what it was like to face an advanced Gray Mech.

I was in a foul mood the whole next week because of it. Regardless of how hard I studied, my math skills still weren’t good enough to improve my grade. When I questioned Josh about his scores, he admitted that his were falling too, yet he was still in the safe zone.

As much as I felt that I was being targeted, most of the rest of the class was still in the mid 80%s. It was just me and four other cadets who were below the cutoff line of 80.0%.

The following Sunday, I met the instructor of the seniors for the time, Major Balmont. Who, if I remembered correctly, was not one of the officers who remained standing during General White’s orientation when it came to people in attendance with over twenty kills.

“Cadet Young,” he addressed me over the vid, “go play tag or whatever with my cadets. Try and stay alive and not get caught,” he continued, all too gleefully.

“Yes, sir. I will play tag with them,” I repeated.

I felt a setup somewhere, and after he sent me off with a fifteen-minute head start, I understood. Field Gamma was laden with large boulders, craters from airborne ordinance, and the shore of a large lake which was at the edge of the northwest boundary.

And two full squads of fifty cadets all hunting my ass.

Very few trees or anything else, besides the boulders, for me to hide behind.

I reviewed his sloppy orders internally a few times and made my plans.

I headed east and waited for the hunters to catch up to my position. This was my first time facing off against this senior group and yet, I didn’t actually care what they thought. I’d follow the rules given and only the rules given.

My Type II sensors were better than their Type IIIs that this school limited the cadet’s Mechs to, so I discovered the first line of scouts before they found me.

I Stealthed, and hunted the nearest cadet. A dual-fisted, dual-laser skirmisher, who could only shoot lots of weak short ranged attacks. Nothing I had to worry about unless getting caught in the open or cornered.

Instead of doing damage to my target, I punched the back of the Mech with my fist, calling out “TAG!” over my loudspeakers, and then began running north as fast as I could. He did get a couple shots in at me, but I had already begun evasive maneuvers.

Stealthing as soon as I rounded one of the boulders, I headed to the lake in the north west. Lake Mendothol, or something like that.

Fifteen minutes later, I waded six meters into the lake, squatted so that my head was below the surface, and powered everything off except the sensors and my engines. My engine was in the lowest idle setting and the heat in the sinks dropped to minimum. The cool water helped a great deal with what little heat I generated, further masking my presence.

Calming down and preparing for the worst, I activated my persecomp and began reviewing for my math test tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the one hundred cadets spread out and searched. Fruitlessly.

“Cadet Young, where are you?” Major Balmont demanded over my comm.

“Northeast quadrant, sir.”

“Why are you not engaging my cadets, cadet Young?”

“I am following your orders, sir.” I began putting away my homework. I knew that my orders were about to change, and not in a way that I would like.

“And which orders were those? I told you to engage those cadets, not sit on your ass,” he either lied or falsely remembered.

“Sir, at 10:00, you specifically ordered me to, ‘go play tag or whatever with my cadets. Try and stay alive and not get caught’. Since I had already tagged one of the cadet’s Mechs, I am now hiding as per your orders.” I explained, probably way too reasonably for him.

“Get off your ass and out of that water and engage those cadets. If I don’t hear a sound of combat in fifteen minutes, I will deduct one Merit per minute. Is that clear, cadet Young?”

“Yes, sir. I am to engage the cadets within fifteen minutes. Powering up now, sir. Cadet Young, out.”

He wanted me to fight those cadets head on. Well, fine, I knew how to do that too.

Ten minutes later, I discovered the first group of six Mechs. Stealthing, I snuck up behind them and attacked.

Activating my supercharger, I plunged both daggers through a marksman’s back and out the front of his chest armor. The skirmisher to his left went down less than three seconds later. Then the great-swordsman. The remaining swordsman tried to flee. In the wrong direction. The snipers were too close to stand a chance so I left them for last.

And my hunt began.

“Sir, cadet Young has engaged the cadets, a half squad was taken out.”

“Good. Let’s see how he does against my cadets in the open.”

“Sir, two more down.”

“Only two? That means he was seen. His stealth can only last so long. He has not been awakened long enough to develop it, nor has he spent time with any trainers,” Major Balmont noted.

“Let me know when he is flushed out.”

“Yes, sir,” responded the field monitor. He wasn’t sure why, but he had a bad feeling about the suddenness of cadet Young’s attacks. And the finality of them.

“Sir,” the monitor called out, his bad feeling was proven correct.

“What?”

“Cadet Little reported that she found six destroyed Mechs. The cadets are all healthy and still inside their escape pods.”

“What of it?”

“Seventeen. Eighteen,” called out a second monitor.

“All four Mechs were completely destroyed. Cadet Little transmitted her recording, it’s up on the main screen.”

The replay showed six Mechs face down in a small area, each with large holes in their torsos.

“And that’s not all, sir. Others are reporting similar findings.”

“Twenty Mechs now, sir,” the second monitor spoke up.

“Twenty what, soldier?”

“Twenty Mechs are now out of commission, sir,” the secondary soldier overseeing the monitors elaborated.

“Cadet YOUNG! What the hell do you think you are doing?!” Major Balmont screamed into the microphone.

“Is this Major Balmont?” Thankfully, my vid automatically balanced the volume of the incoming transmissions or I would have been deafened by his shout.

“You know damn well it is. What do you think you are doing? You were supposed to engage those cadets, not destroy their Mechs!”

“Sir, I am following your orders. There is no way that I can defeat one hundred Mechs in an open area, so I am doing what I can to stay alive while still engaging the enemy. As per your orders, sir.” I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible but probably failed.

“Stand down and get your ass back here. If I find out that you harmed any of those cadets, I will personally see you court martialed and executed.”

“I did not attack any of their heads or cockpits, sir. All twenty of them ejected cleanly.”

“You butchered twenty Mechs!”

“No, sir, I just put them out of commission.”

“Get your ass back here and out of that Mech,” he fumed.

“I may not, sir.”

“Are you disobeying a direct order, cadet Young?”

“No, sir. I am following an order from Command. When I finish any exercise while still in my Mech, I am to directly report to the hangar before anything else. Major Flowers needs to take my readings. Sir.”

“Bullshit. Get your ass here now.”

“Yes, sir.”

I switched channels. “Major Flowers, I have a problem...”

Thankfully, her orders came from a higher authority than that ass’s. I reported back to Major Flower’s hangar and, under her annoyed stare, quietly entered the Calibration chamber.

“Leon. Would you care to explain what is going through that mind of yours?”

“I was following orders, Major Flowers,” I stated for the record.

“Tell me everything so I don’t have to pull the cockpit recordings,” she demanded. Even if we both knew that she would pull them anyway, I told her everything.

Well almost.

“So, because you didn’t feel like facing one hundred Mechs, on what would be considered an open field of play, you decided to take out your opponents in the most violent way possible. All twenty-three of them.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did it ever occur to you that you might get kicked out of school for this?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I replied. And it didn’t.

She came to an abrupt halt in her questioning.

“Leon, why will it not matter if you get kicked out of school?”

I didn’t want to answer.