Debauchery Worlds 2 (Patreon)

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 2

-VB-

DD-5 (Alan)

Within an hour of the contract signing, we began to get data feed from the 41st Avalon Hussars. Combined with our long-range scanners, we basically had near perfect view of the battlefield and beyond.

What we saw was essentially a battalion of mechs, two battalions of supporting infantry, and one artillery company. The artilleries were all parked far from the center of the battlefield/city, most of the infantry was fighting in the city, and the mechs were spread all throughout. I wasn’t sure whether or not this was normal. Where was the armored division? Or did the mechs fall under that? I didn’t see any tanks. This was supposed to be the defending force, right?

… Well, it was their loss.

“Wait.”

We turned to the original.

“Making a new clone.”

There was a flash and an exact copy of the original, including his gear, stood next to him.

“You are now 1-A.”

“You’re just gonna flip the naming convention around?”

“Yes.”

“Boo.”

“Shut up, F-7.”

I rolled my eyes. As far as I was concerned, this was one more clone with the equipment capable of downing these mechs just like the rest of us. The more mechs we downed, the more we would have to tinker with later.

“1-A, your job is to find a library or the equivalent and read up on the locals.”

“Seriously? You just thought of that right now?”

“Yes.”

“I was born literal ten seconds ago and you didn’t even -. Man, you suck. I gotta go read while you and the rest of yall get to shoot up some giant mechs.”

“That’s how it is.”

“When I first got made, I had to do grocery runs.”

“Suck it up!”

I rolled my eyes while 1-A moved to find a library or something close enough. The original then thought to us.

'Let's move. Our target would be the one to our southwest.'

-VB-

Combine Mechwarrior A

Ashley Takamori warily looked around from the inside of her Thunderbolt.

Something killed three mechwarriors ere and none of the three managed to report back anything. Their deaths had been so quick and thorough that their mechs just went offline as far as everyone else was concerned.

This was why she, at the head of her lance, moves into this city block carefully. The samurai within her demanded that she quickly find the perpetrators and slay them where she stood but her more pragmatic brain demanded that she fulfilled her role as the leader of her lance to the best of her abilities.

"Abe, check that street to our left," she ordered, and Abe obeyed, taking his WSP-1k to do just that. He piloted his humanoid mech forward and -.

Zoom.

There was a streaking beam of laser, and Abe's Wasp fell over.

"Shit, ambush!" she hissed. "Take cover!"

Another streak of laser shot forth but missed her and her lance this time.

'Has to be a large laser!' she thought with a panic. 'Nothing else would core a Wasp like that!' Were they up against an assault mech? Was it a King Crab?

… but as she and her team waited, there was no rumbling of an approaching assault mech. Not even that of regular mechs.

Just silence.

And then there was a flash of light in the corner of her vision. Hason, their Blackjack, keeled over, and his gurgling gasp was all they heard from him. Not even a scream. Just a flash and a medium mech got cored in a single shot.

"What the fuck is going on?!" she shouted.

That's all it took for her last lance-mate to get cored. But this time, she saw where it came from. With a tear, she pushed her Thunderbolt forward, rounded the corner of the street in record time, and -!

Nothing.

Huh?

Nothing … but a single infantryman.

The soldier raised his rifle up, as if it could do anything. She still needed to find that mech th-.

Flash.

Her mech went offline completely, and she screamed as she felt it keel over backward. Her head banged against her seat when the mech crashed, and she laid there dazed.

What.

What? How?

Was she ambushed from the back? How did they hit her engine so perfectly?

And then she felt a bone-deep chill.

She lost. She lost without even seeing her opponent. The honor less Davion curs shot her in the back after tricking her!

The sheer dishonor of not having been able to even shoot her enemy. It stung her deeply.

Gritting her teeth, she pulled out her wakizashi from her daisho pair.

There was only one way to go, and she would not allow herself to be captured by invading dogs.

-VB-

F-7

If ants had guns, then all of humanity would be dead.

It was the thought that intrusively took over my mind as I stared at the mech I just killed, which had ignored me like a fool. Or were infantry just not a big deal in this verse? Whatever the case, I lived where I should have died - again - because I had actually reacted slower than the mech pilot had.

"I can see how these mechs are the mainstay of combat," I hummed. "If they react that quickly, move and turn that fast, and dish out a ton of damage, tanks wouldn't stand a chance."

I'm sure some sci-fi tanks would and there probably were that we just weren't seeing right now. For all we knew, the armored division was off fighting another armored division.

Whatever.

Whatever the case, we managed to ambush another squadron of these giant mechs that really did operate without any support! There was a small mech, two medium mechs,and one large mech. They all seemed to fulfill a specific role, which the smallest with its obviously light build was for scouting and large one for … tanking?

Yeah, not too sure about that. A mix of tankiness and damage? That sounded better and more plausible.

I mean… no one would build a mech solely for tanking, right?

'Moving to J5,' the original ordered through the hive mind rather than the comms.

I grinned.

More mechs to hunt down, more metal to strip later for our tinkertech.

-VB-

Combine Mechwarrior B

5 hours.

It’s been five hours since the Nichi Lance deep within Polis went dark. This also meant that their effort to contest the spaceport and the capital city of David II was a failure.

It meant that the invasion was turning in favor of the Davion dogs.

“{This is bullshit!}”

“{Keep quiet, Chui-i Mikhail,}” Sho-sa Momoichi grunted. “{Our orders are to ambush the enemy that is coming this way. If I miss the perfect chance because of your outburst, I am going to ri-}”

Chui-i Bernard Re tuned out his superior’s rant while he focused on the road ahead.

While the Nichi Lance went down without a word, the next lance to fall, the Sandachi Lance, managed to get the message out.

‘Lostech power armor infantry.’

Those four words in a single phrase was all Sandachi Lance managed to send before they were annihilated. A Thunderbolt, two Orions, and a Hoplite fell in under a minute of engagement.

The problem was that no one knew how they were taken out.

This was why they were waiting as quietly as they could among trees.

And something blinding lanced through her Sho-sa.

Her eyes widened.

Ambush.

And then through Bernard.

Before she could turn to react, she herself saw a flash of light.

-VB-

Captain Anderson

With the night setting in- the tempo of the invasion died down, and was now time for debriefings and consolidation.

In his case, it was to face the music. He stood at attention in front of the general while she worked on a report on her TriPad.

She gestured for him to speak.

"General-," he began but the dark-skinned, one-eye-patched woman merely gave him a stare to shut him up.

"I don't care about your excuses. You lost your mech but it is salvageable and open to salvage for us. This is good enough. Your role as a mechwarrior is over for this battle, if not the whole invasion. Instead, you will serve as advisor and liaison to the mercenaries you got us in contact with."

"Yes, ma'am," he saluted.

She nodded. "Speaking of whom… you got lucky."

"... ma'am?"

"It's been ten hours since they became active, captain," she replied. "In that time, they downed fifteen mechs."

He nearly did a spit-take.

"Four men without mechs of their own took down fifteen mechs," she repeated slowly as she set a pad down. "I hope you understand what it probably means."

"Lostech."

"Most likely," she confirmed. "And should they have been hired by the Combine, we would have seen fifteen mechs and their mechwarriors dead on our side."

That would be half for their invasion force gone. Just like that.

"It is thanks to you that we dodged a bullet, so take a break and work as a liaison during and after the invasion."

"... after, ma'am?"

"The mercenaries wanted land and all of the mech salvage. It is obvious what they want to do."

"A landhold holding mercenary company operating out of David itself?"

"If they can do half as good elsewhere as they are doing right now, then they will be very successful," she hummed before looking back down. "What I am surprised about is how they are still operating."

He blinked. "But it's past midnight."

"Yes. And they have the last Combine lance in such a panic that the invasion may end before dawn."

-VB-

1-A

"What kind of shithole universe is this?" I asked myself quietly.

I found a library, if it could be called that, with only a hundred books or so. I thought it was an office or tutoring academy but, nope, the front of the building said library.

And when I looked through its books.

Ho boy.

The History of Inner Sphere told me a story of a human civilization slowly stagnating and losing progress. The Draconis Combine and You was a propaganda book. The Five Pillars read like the Little Red Book. Everything else was of no importance.

Essentially, I was on a world owned by the Draconis Combine, a "successor" state that lays claim to the seat of the "First Lord" of the "Star League." Their four competitors also did the same. This put them at war with … basically everyone else for the past two hundred years plus. A five way war that never truly ended.

Nuke-ridden, total war of the First Succession War.

Less nuke-ridden but no less total war of the Second Succession War.

No nuke, no total war, but a lot of raiding and minor border changes of the Third Succession War, which was still happening.

Jesus, these people made everyone else from back home look reasonable! Even Putin wouldn't repeatedly nuke someone when they also have nukes! He certainly hadn't up to the time the original got yoinked.

I couldn't tell if the history book was a propaganda piece.

'1-A, report back to the group. We need more hands with tinkering.'

After a moment, I sent my acknowledgement with a note that I was going to be slow. Leaving the library, I looked around the ruined street and saw a car that looked mostly untouched. Sure, the window was shattered and one of front lights was also gone but other than that…

Also, why did it look like a Hyundai Porter? How did they survive for so long?

… whatever, it's not important. What was important was the fact that the key was still in!

Getting into the car (easy since its driver side door had been ripped off), I turned the key and… Brrrrr te te te te te….

It was working!

I hurriedly loaded up all of the books into the back of the car and drove off toward where the original and the rest of us were staying at the moment.

‘Oh shit, we have a live one.’

“Huh?”

‘One of the Combine mech pilots tried to suicide.’

“Call them mechwarriors. That’s the local term.”

‘Mechwarrior?’ F-7 uttered. ‘What kind of cyber-dystopian name is that?’

“Once you read the books I’m bringing, you’ll know.”

‘What could be in those books that you’re taking your sweet ass time and not helping ourselves?’

“Dumb fucking history of this dystopian feudal galaxy.”

‘What?’

‘What?’

‘Oh, hey, she’s not gonna die immediately.’

‘Then keep her stable!’

‘Oh shit, she’s actually going to live?’

‘Yes, so come here and fucking help! She’s awake and trying to kill herself and us!’

‘Coming.’

‘That’s a wakizashi. Are we in feudal Japan?’

“Close enough,” I grunted as I made a slow turn. “Draconis Combine is the future version of Japanese Shogunate.”

‘... Seriously?’

‘Wait, doesn’t that mean we finally get a chance to tell stuffy hidebound asshole to stuff their honor bullshit?’

‘Oh yeah, that’s one more thing off the bucket list.’

‘All of you -. All of me’s have ADHD. We never got diagnosed but we have to have it. Keep breaking those mechs apart! 1-A, get over here already!’

“Road is bumpy as fuck! Stow yo shit! You will definitely be thanking me for this!”