Debauchery Worlds 3 (Patreon)

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 3

-VB-

A-2

2980.05.12

"What kind of…?"

"Exactly my reaction," 1-A responded while sitting off to the side. The rest of us sat around in a circle surrounding all of the books and TriPads 1-A brought for us to read.

Sufficed to say, the history of this verse was even more fucked up than Worm.

At least in Worm, they didn't go out of their way to launch scorched earth wars. Or Cauldron did something after Scion blabbed all the nukes. However, that was a point in favor of Earth Bet; they had someone managing the fall. There was no one to manage the fall and everyone kind of all fell together in an orgy of violence and stagnation. Whatever the case, my personal opinion was that this place was not a good place.

That meant we had to build up very quickly to not be taken advantage of. Or worse, wiped out.

Worse was the recent history, especially within this Draconis Combine we fought against. It was the worst of Imperial Japan's cultural eradication efforts, Yugoslavia's ruthless focus on the military, the Great Leap Forward, and Russia's endemic secret police all wrapped up in one!

I'm kind of glad we fought them.

It's been a day since we fought and destroyed fifteen or so of these battlemechs. It wasn't hard, especially because our powered armor allowed us to move quickly. Even with our armors' dirty white paint, ambushing the mechs proved too easy because… no one expected us.

We moved faster than most of the mechs, for one, and two, our hits were one shot, one kill. With four of us ambushing conveniently a four-party "lance" of mechs at a time, each strike resulted in a near-instant victory. There just wasn’t what these people could do when we could identify their mech’s power source, blast a laser through it, We just repeated it four separate times.

Which, apparently, was absurd by the standards of the locals.

Which, you know, made sense because tinkertech was absurd. Our Anti-Scion laser guns were absurd. Our gears in general was absurd.

… but it felt good to use our tinkertech to fight against an oppressive regime. Was this what it felt like to be a 'Murican? Not an American but a 'Murican. There was nothing more ‘Murican than killing a horrible amalgamation of Soviet Union, Maoist China, Imperial Japan, and … Yugoslavia? Not sure about that last part but ‘MURICA~!

"You're having weird thoughts. They're leaking, A-2," the original grunted.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"... murica."

"America!"

"Fuck yeah!"

"Fucking children."

"Nyah nyah nyah!"

I rolled my eyes.

"So what now?" 1-A asked.

The original hummed. "We should use the disabled mechs we now own to build up. We obviously don't need mechs for our operations but giving the locals something flashy to look at wouldn't hurt. Maybe we can try to replicate some Code Geass bullshit?"

"Energy shields? I'm down for that."

"Landspinners, too. These mechs move too slowly."

"Also way too big."

"Of course, they're slow; they are big stompy mechs!"

"Geass knightmares would be considered ultralight by local standards, right? Can't tank much from local munition. See here? Battlemech autocannons are 30mm."

"Hmm. Even our armors would have trouble against that kind of caliber. We need to start production of energy shields as quickly as possible."

“Well, duh, that’s why we would be building energy shields like the ones we made from copying Uppercrust’s shit.”

“Even our copies of those shields are stationary. They won’t help us with building a mobile energy shield.”

Our discussion continued in that vein for hours before we agreed that the first thing we needed to do was contact this Federated Suns General, get a location scopes out on this world, and start tinkering.

-VB-

Captain Anderson

The invasion truly ended as quickly as the general had said it would.

The utter and near complete destruction of the defending mechs in under one day demoralized the rest of the defenders. Try as they might to show the Combine spirit and stubbornness, the shock of the brutal beat down blunted many of their assaults and led to repeated routing.

In the end, the Invasion of David II came to an end a mere week after they landed on the planet.

Now having been assigned as the liaison officer to the mercenary companies that made quick work of the Combine battlemechs, he found himself at the front entrance of the ten hectare brimming with the very mechs the mercenaries defeated.

"Oh, it's you!"

He turned around and saw one of the mercs from before. They wore the same outfit as before, some kind of plated armor meant for heavy duty combat. The white paint contrasted sharply with the black smudges of grease and oil splattered all over it but concentrated mostly on their gauntlets.

"Hello again," he greeted. "I'm sorry, but I never got your name last time."

Especially considering that they all wore the same armor without any insignia or make to differentiate them and because only the merc company owner ever released his name.

"Call me F-7. That's my designation."

"Right. F-7. I'm here to pick up the Combine mechwarriors you are supposedly holding."

F-7 saluted before marching away to the only erected building on this once pristine grass plains that sat right outside David II's capital city, Polis. It was where he had contacted the mercs.

As for the land here…

In the two days since the Marris Mercenaries were hired and put to work and who in turn ended the invasion on the same day that they got hired, they managed to erect a very rudimentary building made out of sheet metal. Surrounding that two story building were the mechs of all designs that they downed.

Michael Anderson felt a sting of envy. He'd served the Federated Suns for twenty years as a mechwarrior, yet here were the mercs getting richer than ten of his peers combined for a literal day's work. On top of that, they managed to earn themselves Federated Suns citizenship and land.

Then he remembered that he didn't come here by himself. He looked over his shoulder and saw the armored transport and Lieutenant Hasting-Kim waiting for him.

"Come with me, lieutenant. The rest of you hold position."

The short lieutenant hastily walked over to his side and slightly behind as he made his way to the sheet metal building in question. He got close to it when he noticed something. He saw a pair of the mercs on top of a ruined mech. They were cutting something with a blowtorch.

"Ah, Captain… Anderson."

He turned back around and saw a young man approaching him. He was tall but not so tall, lean but not thin, bristle like short black hair that had a bounce to them, and barrow eyes that seemed to analyze every inch of his body.

"You must be Alan Marris," he said as he extended a hand for a shake, which the merc captain shook firmly. 'Strong.'

Michael glanced to the captain's side at a woman in cuffs.

"And this must be the Combine mechwarrior?"

"Yes. Here is the key to the cuff," Marris hummed as he handed him an aluminum key. Michael took and gestured for the lieutenant to take her away.

"Before we talk, I must let you know that I have been assigned as the AFFS's liaison officer to your mercenary company."

Marris looked surprised. "Oh. I didn't know mercs got liaison officers. Is that normal?"

"No." 'Because everyone is confused about where you came from and what lostech you have.' "But the general felt it prudent with how exemplary your people were in aiding our forces."

"Sure."

… just like that?

"So what have you been doing here? It seems you managed to get all of your prizes to your land. Are you thinking of bringing them online?"

"A few, yes. I think I might sell a few parts."

"The AFFS will be very interested in buying."

Marris grinned. "Excellent! I have a couple of mechs that only need a few parts exchanged to be operable. How do you feel about a Thunderbolt, two Locusts, and a Hunchback as a starter?"

-VB-

MI2 Agent Lywdottors

2980.05.28

Maria Lywdottors sat in front of a computer. On the computer screen, a video, no longer than five seconds, looped over and over again.

This was the only footage the AFFS managed to catch of the lostech “laser” the unknown mercenaries used against the DCMS on the Federated Suns’ invasion of David II.

As not only the foremost expert on laser physics within the ranks of the DMI and MI2 but also New Avalon's foremost universities, she was the most qualified individual to pluck out what could be ascertained from a five-second footage.

And her conclusion?

“These are lasers,” she gestured to the “lasers” as they pierced through a Combine Thunderbolt. “This thing that they used is closer to a particle beam than a beam of photon.”

“You can tell that from a five-second clip?” the Master-course student working as her assistant asked.

She looked over her shoulder. “Think of it this way. When you want to find counterfeit, you don’t look for counterfeits.”

“Huh?”

She rolled her eyes.

“You can tell what a real mech myomer looks like, right?”

“Of course. We work with it all the time.”

“So if someone brings you a fake myomer…”

“... ooohhh, I get it. Because you worked with the real thing for so long, if something looks off even a little…”

“You notice it immediately.” She then tapped the thick computer glass. “And that does not look like a laser. It looks like how particle projector cannon, but no PPC one-shots a Marauder.”

The assistant, James something, squinted. “Can’t tell that myself.”

“Well, you don’t have years of experience with lasers.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And I guess you pretty much have your arms stuck inside them every day doing repairs, huh?”

For a second, Maria saw her past battles flash by her eyes.

“Lieutenant, ambush at our rear!”

“Fucking Capellans!” someone screamed as Marauder’s double PPC pounded against their Firestarter before a final blast from the medium laser brought the light mech down.

“Lyws, I need that support fire right now!”

wwwhhhheeeEEEEE-!

“LRM! Duck and cover!”

“That’s a fucking Archer!”

“FUCK, Lyws, du-!”

Maria turned around just in time for her cameras to get a sight of the same Marauder that downed her squadmate aim its PPC at her and her cockpit.

‘Oh sh-’

Explosion. Pain. Heat on her face. Molten glass on her hands, aersolized glass in her mouth and lungs-. Pain.

Darkness.

“Yeah, repairs.” She paused. “Speaking of, can you get me the schedule for them?”

“Ah, sure, professor.”

After James walked out of the room, Maria turned back to look at the still-looping footage.

What she told the assistant was not false. It was not, however, the complete picture. It really was a particle weapon of some kind. However, the size of the “beam,” the damage it left on heat-resistant aligned-crystal steel armors, and the reported size of the drilled holes should have come from a naval PPC. Nothing else could take down a battlemech, especially a heavy battlemech like Marauder, in one, clean hit.

But the reports from David II mentioned no naval PPC, only handheld if bulky “laser” rifles held by power armored mercenaries.

Something fishy was going on here.

With that in mind, she wrote her report and her professional thoughts on it.

-VB-

Andrew Davion

2980.06.03

“Bullshit, huh?” Ian muttered while looking down at the paper in his hand.

The Counter-Invasion of David II was a success. So much of a success, in fact, that the 41st Avalon Hussars were being hailed by all of the Federated Suns, and especially the Draconis March, as heroes.

But for those with access to information, details, and footage, the situation was much more complicated than a simple veni, vidi, vici.

Ian would have been fine with a veni, I fucked up, and vici, because this dilemma caused by a lostech infantry company of all things caused him more headaches.

And, according to the Federated Suns’s foremost expert on laser and particle beam technology, the lostech was either a bullshit coverup by the AFFS or magic. And magic was probably more likely, considering that actual battlemechs fell to the lostech multiple times over the short counter-invasion.

However, there was no such thing as magic, hence why this was a lostech that was important to consider. Something like that, if he could get his hands on it, can be used to keep the other houses at the border while he dealt with the problems at home.

Cabals were acting up again, and he was sick and tired of it.

‘… Using those infantry as a distraction for Draconis Combine might be a good idea,’ he thought with a hum as he set his report down. ‘Those braindead samurais would be roaring at the “dishonor” of facing infantry… and that “dishonor” will be harsh when those mercenaries cull the Kuritan mechwarriors.’

“Jennifer.”

The door to his office opened and his secretary walked in.

“Yes, sir?” the pretty ginger woman with nice long legs and a tight body asked with a smile.

He smiled back fondly. “Can you get me a mercenary contract form?”

She blinked in surprise before bowing and walking out of the room.

As he waited for her to bring him the contract, he hummed in thought.

‘Yes, the Draconis Combine will be mighty focused on David II for the foreseeable future once I leak information about how their mechwarriors lost there and I tie up the infantry mercs with a defense contract.’

“... I also need someone to keep an eye on them. Dig into their little company and see where they found that and who they are. Can you do that?” he asked to “no one.”

“Yes, My Prince,” “no one” responded.

“Good. Report back when you feel that you have substantial information.”

Silence.

And then Jennifer opened the door with the paperwork.

He smiled.

Jennifer really had some awesome curves…