Chapter 2

It was about ten days after the run in with Jackson when I got to thinking. We had moved forward to a more central location and from here were running supplies on a regular basis. Not a panic like before but on a planned schedule. We were setting up some forward supply points.

Casey and I were again checking over #14. I had just wiped off our kill flags, now a half of a Mech and two hover tanks when I asked Casey, "How much do you know about Mechs? You know, repairing them and such."

He gave me a funny look and replied, "More than the average person, why do you ask?"

"Sean, you have your gun so now you are happy. I want a Mech. I can't tell you why but I got to have one. I figured maybe we could get one the same way you got your gun."

"Leofa, you have lost your feeble mind. Nobody steals a Mech. Where would you hid it?"

"Sean, Sean I don't want to steal one. I want to build one. A piece at the time until we have a complete Mech. So how much do you know?"

"Not that much. Where you going to find one? One that isn't shot to ribbons, recovered or stripped to a bare frame?' he asked a little more settled than before.

"I've found not one but two. I think we could take parts from one and repair the other. I've been checking on them from time to time and they're still there and I don't think anyone even remembers them."

"What are they, where are they. How come I haven't seen them?" Questions coming in rapid fire order.

"I found them a week ago. The day you had the appointment over at Head Quarters. I went back and marked the trail so I could tell if something large had gone in. Like a BattleMech or maybe a Mech retriever. They're still there. We drive past them a couple of times a day and they're there," I answered smugly.

"That small arroyo off the east side of the canyon three klicks from here. So that's what's up there. I've noticed all the attention you've been giving it, kid. I just didn't know why," he said with a laugh. "So what do you have stashed up there?"

"Two Jenners."

"Jenners? Those are lights. I thought you would at least go for a medium. Not bad Mechs though. Fast, not bad on armor for a light and well armed. But I don't know enough for that. You need a well equipped Mech bay for what you're wanting, depending on how badly they are shot up."

"Sean, how hard is it to learn? Damn it, I got to have one."

Looking at the quiet, sandy haired young man Casey replied, "Son, if it's really that important then we can do something. Come on."

Sean was a good bit older than me but he had never called me 'Son' before. Made me start to wonder.

We walked away from the vehicle section and nearly across the base until we entered a large hanger that was being used to repair Mechs. Cranes, derricks and gantries of all kinds were in use and the noise was deafening. Sean handed me a strange headset with forward pointing horns. As soon as I put it on the noise disappeared. Touching my arm to get my attention he said in a normal voice, "The only problem with these is you have to look at the person you're talking to. The audio pick-ups in the 'horns' are directional. They also have a very narrow band. You shout and it won't be picked up. Just speak normally."

He looked around then asked someone for directions. We headed towards the offices which over looked the repair bays. We entered and he approached an older man that looked like he might be in charge. As he did he removed the headset so I followed and removed mine as well.

"Peachy, wake up! You goofing off like normal?" he asked.

"Casey, you sorry old bastard, what are you doing over here with working men?" he came back, extending his hand.

"The kid thinks he wants to get dirty," he said pointing to me. "You seem to know a nut from a bolt so I thought you might teach him a little. He's trainable, not as dumb as he looks and will give you something to do besides pick your nose."

"Who is he Sean?" Peachy asked seriously.

"Tate, he's my driver. We been together about three months and he'll do. You know about our transporter? Well he helped me do the modification. When they came down on us for it he held his mud. Stood up to Billy Jackson and told him 'No, we aren't taking that stuff off'. He wants to learn so I brought him to you," Casey answered in the same tone.

"OK, get out of here and don't steal nothing as you leave. I don't think a PPC will fit on your little bitsy transporter."

"Kid," Casey said, "this is Warrant Officer Tate Campbell. Listen to him and you'll learn what you want to know." With a wave to Campbell he replaced the headset and left.

"Boy," Campbell said to me, "I don't know what you did but that man likes you. And any person Sean Casey likes is worth a little extra trouble." With that he put me to work.

What I was interested in was mainly the electrical/electronics systems. How to run down leads to make sure they were connected to the correct points and that kind of stuff. W.O. Campbell put me with one of his leading workers. Not the sergeant who supervised and oversaw the work but a man who did the work.

Each morning I would report in to Sgt. Mackey. We were in the midst of a lull so if there was nothing for me I would go to the repair hanger. Sgt. Mackey was aware of where I was in case the balloon went up and I was needed.

A little over a month after I started training Mackey showed up in the repair bay where I was working.

He asked, "Thompson, is he learning anything? Is he worth the time and effort he's costing you?"

Before he could answer I cut in, "Maybe not but I'm the best tool-passer he ever had."

Thompson laughed, "He's not slow. He's picking this up real well. Surprising, you'd think he had done some of this before."

Looking at Mackey I replied, "No, Sergeant, I've never worked on Mechs before."

"Well as long as things are quiet and Thompson will put up with you keep it up. We can always use someone who knows a little about repairing these monsters." With that he turned away and left. Thompson had already turned back to the repair we were working on and didn't hear him.

Casey and a load handler had been making a couple of runs a week during this time. They were simply stockpiling a few tons of ordinance in a couple of locations in case another push came. We were expecting something but as yet the Snakes were content to lick their wounds and hold what they had. Right now we were content to do the same. There was a good bit of fighting north of us so we were holding and waiting.

Two weeks after Mackey had showed up Casey and I took #14 for a test drive. We headed for my arroyo. Casey had never seen the two Mechs that I had stumbled across so they came as a surprise.

"Kid, you can't be thinking of fixing these two up?" he asked.

"Case, they are not as bad as they look at first glance," I replied.

They weren't. One had it's chest blown away. While the fusion engine was a wreck the pilot had been able to throw on all the safeties and damp the pile. It had not blown up. One leg was trashed and there was a lot of armor scrubbed off but the head was all right. The other was minus its head and a ton or two of armor, but as far as I had been able to tell from looking no internals had been suffered. Replace the head and armor and it would be good as new. After I pointed out a few basics Casey saw what I had seen. A real treasure trove. There was enough to make one complete Mech with extra parts.

We removed a few of the shattered armor plates from the headless Jenner. We worked on removing the remains of the head. With the plates out of the way I could get to the control connectors. There wasn't much above the connectors but it all had to be removed so the new controls could be put in place.

We worked steady for several hours. We didn't do anything major but we had the neck area of the one nearly ready to receive the head from the other. We had the head nearly ready to shift. One more day to shift the head, a day to attach it in place and then a day to see if I could remember what I had learned. Three days and we would then be able to see what else was in need of repair.

It took a nearly a week! It took longer to remove and shift the other shattered armor plates than I thought. Still using the derrick on #14 we shifted the head. We had removed several of the armor plates so the weight was less than normal. Lifting shell canisters and placing them into ammo hoppers had given me a fine touch with the derrick. Casey gave me the directions and I inched the head in place. We placed some temporary retaining bolts in place and buttoned up for the evening.

Next day we secured the head and I made a few major connections. By evening of the fifth day I climbed aboard, turned the action board to maintenance and started to activate the Mech. Power was in the green, nothing wrong with the engine. We did have several red indicator lights and a few that fluttered green and yellow. Either the connector had been improperly made or a system was malfunctioning.

I fastened the restraint straps, placed my feet on the pedals and gripped the controls. Using the derrick to retain balance I slowly regained my feet from the sitting position it had been in since I found her. Yes HER! She was already alive and responding to my commands. I walked her around, bent, leaned and twisted. No other lights came on. I called up targets, calibrated them, magnified them and did everything but fire them. In the maintenance mode I couldn't do that.

After about twenty minutes of moving her about I returned her near the old location and 'parked' her out of sight between two large boulders. When I shut her down and opened the hatch I don't know who was wearing the biggest grin, me or Casey. We had done it! Well nearly done it.

"Casey," I said after I rejoined him on the ground. "We need some place closer to base to hide her while we make the final repairs. Do you have any ideas?"

"Of course. What do you think I've been doing while you were learning how to be an assistant tech? I have a place all picked out, a route into it where we shouldn't be seen and some tools to work with. There are even some lights rigged up," he stated smugly.

"Day or night approach?"

"Day. You slip around at night and someone will know you are up to something. We go in broad daylight brazen as hell, like we own the place and no one will think anything about it. With the fighting still going on up north they will think that the wounded Mech has simply been shifted here for repairs as we aren't as busy as they are up there." The smug expression still present.

The seventh day just about lunch time we moved her to Casey's hide out. By the time I got there I had started to figure out the lights. Jenners have a SRM-4 pack aboard. Ours wasn't working. When this Mech lost its head either the blast kept going or some of the armor from the head had been blown into the SRM launcher. Something was wrong with the jump jets and two of the heat sinks on the right leg were not working properly. With so much armor removed the damage lights were glowing to let us know we were 'injured' in these areas.

Entering the base the way Casey had informed me I walked the Jenner right to the old barn. It was off to one side between the repair hanger and the runway. Why no one had knocked it down I don't know but it was just what we needed.

We rigged up a block and tackle and that evening removed the Thunderstroke missile launcher, automatic feeders and about two thirds of a ton of missiles. These we had to be very careful with. We loaded them aboard #14 and lashed them down securely. Casey then returned them to an ordinance bunker.

I don't like missiles. Not since... well I just don't like them. Without the missiles and the launcher I now had three tons to play around with. I could put on more armor, say a ton. What to do with the other available tonnage? More guns? More heat sinks? More speed? What? I thought about this as I worked to remove a jump jet. We couldn't repair it here, it would need replacing as would one other jet.

When Casey returned we removed the second jump jet and an inoperative heat sink. Finally we stopped for the night with plans for the next day.

It was three days before we got back to the Jenner. The Snakes landed more troops, supplies and Mechs. Some of the forces came against us and we were humping ordinance as fast as we could move. With pilots firing the smaller auto cannons like heavy machine guns they went through the stock pile of ammo in no time. We were kept busy keeping them supplied so they could stomp Snakes. One thing about a Kurita commander, when he gets an idea in his head and that's it. Talk about stubborn, he could give lessons to a mule! He was going to attack this wing, crumple it and turn the flank. He will keep this idea until he has no more forces left to carry out his plan or until he is killed - which ever comes first.

In this case on the third morning he was killed and we spent the rest of the day rebuilding the stock pile while they withdrew. We paid a price for stopping them but no where near the price they paid for trying. Our Mech retrievers were taking Mechs back to be repaired and also picking up several of their Mechs that could be used by our forces when they had been repaired and/or reconditioned or as spare parts if they couldn't be repaired.

Casey and I took a leg off of a Mech and dropped it off enroute to an ammo bunker. We could remove the heat sinks and jump jets and use them as replacements.

Our forces also moved forward several klicks as they had run off the Snakes. We would drop down into the battle zone and take a part or two during each return trip. We soon had a couple of legs (heat sinks and jump jets as well as armor), a couple of arms (armor, relays and weapons), several pieces of armor, three different types of neuro-helmets, targeting computers and other odds and ends. Looked like we wanted to build a second Mech.

I took the helmets and targeting computers to Thompson to go through and check out. He had much more experience with them than I did plus he had a test bench which I didn't. I led him to believe we were going to improve the sights in #14.

While he was doing that I was really getting dirty. One at the time we removed the heat sinks. With all of them out and lined up we were going to clean them. When you cook coolant it turns to gunk! High pressure steaming is about the only way to get the stuff out. I took over a cleaning bay and Casey fed them to me one at the time. When I finished one and was waiting for another someone else would back in a sink to be steamed. To clean our fourteen and not look conspicuous I cleaned twenty-three heat sinks. It is a hot, dirty, smelly job to clean one - but twenty-three! It was worth it. When they were replaced, filled with clean coolant and pressurized more red lights would turn green.

We ran leads down the interior frame for our modifications. We replaced armor (green lights), installed the new jump jets (green lights) and replaced the damaged heat sinks (more green lights). Using the targeting computers and sights from a Rifleman we were ready. No more red lights. The only thing I needed was a neuro-helmet and to change the activation code to my own after inputting a new brain scan modulation match.

When Thompson finished the helmets I picked one popular in Liao and told him to keep the other two. Hanging the helmet from the suspension straps inside the Mech I slowly started making the connections between the Mech and the helmet. The helmet feeds as well as receives information directly into/from the brain. When I had first started working in the repair shed I had cut my hair as short as most pilots wear theirs. The reasoning I gave then was that it wouldn't get in my way and the reception would be better as we tested some of our repairs. Now everyone was used to seeing me with very short hair and the helmet sensors should fit close as they were supposed to. When the last helmet feed was in place I sat down in the saddle, strapped myself in and started her up. Pulling the neuro-helmet down I threw the final switch. I turned her off 'maintenance' to 'activate'. I was instantly dizzy as the helmet tried to match my brain waves to those being fed through it. I slowly changed the modulation until the brain scans matched. I replaced the old code with a new activation code and moved her around. I did everything except fire her weapons. I heated them up. I aimed, moved, ran in place. Nothing fell off, she responded as she was designed and no red lights came on.