WP3025 Chpt 25

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==Chapter 25 - Winged Praxis (Battletech 3015 CYOA)==
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===Cozy Snowbound Honeymoon===
Hotel Batavia
City of Jakarta, Fanardir
Fanardir System, Magistracy of Canopus
1st April, 3015
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Snow swirled outside the floor to ceiling windows of the penthouse suite at the top of Jakarta's premier hotel. Fanardir was a cold world, even here on the equator. Looking west, I could see Queen Anne and Siduri sitting on the ferrocrete tarmac of the spaceport. Despite the opulence that surrounded me, a part of me longed for the cramped little office cabin of the Leopard CV.
But, I thought, running my fingers across the inlaid Layla pearlwood of the side table, much as I felt at home on the Queen Anne, it would never have done for a honeymoon suite.
 
My ring clinked against the glass as I raised my whiskey in a toast. "Well eema, I can't say I ever saw this coming. Hope you approve when I see you again." Swallowing the whiskey to burn away the lump in my throat, I tried not to think about how wrong it had felt to rush to the provincial courthouse and blitz through the paperwork, surrounded by a ring of my people, armed and wary.
 
There had been no chuppa, no cups of wine, no blessings, no ceremony, no rabbi, and no family but for my unit. All there had been was rings as a symbol of safety and the papers to make it official. It didn't feel real.
 
But it was. I was a married man. I had a wife.
 
"Brooding?" asked Terri, reaching over the high back of the plush chair to massage my shoulders.
 
"Frequently," I said dryly. "I don't think I could have dreamed of ending up here if you gave me two lifetimes."
 
"On a Canopian honeymoon?"
 
I grunted as her strong fingers dug into knots from the previous night's exertions. "Sure, that too." I said, closing my eyes and thinking back to my childhood on the kibbutz. "Did I ever tell you that I planned on stealing Pogo and rescuing my father for eema?"
 
Her fingers stopped. "You didn't."
 
"Must have been thirteen, fourteen when I got that wild hair up my ass." I said. "Never did quite figure out how I was going to get passage."
 
She laughed. "You thought you were going to storm Canopus with an Explorermech?"
 
"Hey," I said, "He had a small laser and a Marco felt like a real battlemech after sitting a Patron. Especially with the jump jets." I smiled and let out a small sigh. "I don't know, I guess I just always thought of the Magistracy as a bunch of Periphery villains to kick over growing up and Pogo was just the thing to do it with." I snorted. "Besides, I was barely a teenager. What the hell did I know about Canopus?"
 
"Not much, would be my guess." Her fingers began their work on my shoulders again.
 
"And you'd be right," I said, looking out into the snow again. It was such a different world out behind those triple-paned windows from Cerillos. Snow had not been a feature of life on the kibbutz. Still, there was an echo of beautiful desolation in the swirling flakes that the sun and dust of home shared. The impersonal hostility of nature and our human drive to find a place in it anyway. "Really, I still don't. Though at least I know that now and I've heard tell that's the beginning of wisdom."
 
"I don't remember that being how it was written in the Bible."
 
"Just something I heard once that stuck with me. I think they might have been riffing on Mishlei. But yeah. I never would have expected to be a pilot, rich, in the Magistracy…" I reached up to squeeze one of her hands. "To have your love."
 
She planted a kiss on the crown of my head. "To be a mercenary colonel?"
 
I chuckled. "Mercenary, maybe. Colonel, hell no. It's surreal. It's only been half a year since we were cadets fighting for our lives, and now we're not even in the League as it keeps on tearing itself apart. I should just be in some cockpit somewhere, not lip deep in noble politicking."
 
"You fell in love with the wrong girl for that, Gid." she said sadly.
 
I shook my head. "No, no, I didn't." I took another sip of the whiskey, staring out into the snow again. Catching myself tumbling back into my thoughts, I looked back to Terri and patted my lap. "Come on."
 
She slid onto my lap, curling up against me in the voluminous chair. We both watched the play of white flakes against a leaden gray sky. "I hope I get to meet her," she said, breaking the silence. "Your mother, I mean."
 
"Me too," I said, again feeling the lump in my throat and chasing it away with a mouthful of whiskey.
 
"Do you think she'd approve of what we did?"
 
I took a moment to think. "I think she'd understand more than anyone back home."
 
"Hey," said a voice from the bedroom door, "what do you think you're doing with my husband, hussy?" We both turned to see Diane 'Vixen' Zalman standing in the doorframe in a silken robe, a mischievous grin on her lips. She crooked a finger at us. "Now come on. I think I've figured out the hot tub."
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===War Stories===
The hot tub might have been out on the balcony, but between the warmth of the water, and the company, the chill was the last thing on my mind. My desert-raised instincts would have never considered it, but this was a slice of heaven, sitting in a wet oasis of warmth in this unnatural cold.
 
"I wish I had one of these back home." said Vixen, luxuriating in the confluence of a pair of water jets.
 
"We could see about setting one up on the Queen Anne," I said. "Seems a bit impractical, though."
 
She pushed me. "Goof. No, I mean back on Les Halles. I probably would have killed to get a chance at living in an upscale Beauborg home for a week and they might not have had anything so nice."
 
"Your home was like this?" I asked. It had never come up in our previous conversations, and now that I had married Diane, it seemed like something I should know.
 
"Not like this, no," she said, making a gesture to the luxury about us. "I grew up in a hab warren for the fuel crackers. I don't think I saw the naked sky until I was five. But Les Halles is an iceball like this, yeah."
 
Terri and I looked at each other. "You worked as a fuel cracker? One more reason we wish we'd had you back on New Olympia." I said.
 
"Well, my parents did." explained Vixen. "Why, did you have to use one of those field crackers?"
 
Terri nodded with a haunted look. "After LMS fell to the Eighteenth Marik Militia, we dispersed into the mountains, setting up near lakes we had scouted beforehand. Since we were flying all energy birds, they figured we could keep up the resistance with refueling stations."
 
"Fat lot of good that did," I said. "We ran out of pre-cached bombs and rockets in a couple of days, and we didn't have enough armor to risk tangling with that damn Rifleman and its LRM buddies with only the beams."
 
"That sounds rough." said Vixen in a soft voice.
 
"There's a reason the media likes to talk about us only up to the point when we lost LMS," said Terri.
 
"There's a reason we like to only talk about that part," I snorted. "It's a lot more fun to talk about bagging heavy fighters than running from jump infantry."
 
"And that damn Vulcan." put in Terri.
 
"Yeah, him too." I swiped at my eyes, water hiding any trace of tears that might well up.
 
I felt a slender, calloused hand on my shoulder, the ring on its finger. "You can talk to me about it, if you want to." said Diane. I looked up to see the concern in her gray eyes, and her other hand on Terri's shoulder.
 
"You didn't sign up for that." I said.
 
"For better and worse, through sickness and health." she quoted.
 
"We didn't have vows." I said.
 
She shook her head, red tresses trailing behind in the water. "Doesn't matter. Besides, you two are my comrades, and I've seen things too." She smiled a sad smile. "One of these nights, I'm going to wake you up, screaming in my sleep."
 
I nodded, then looked over to Terri, who signaled assent. "There were five of us when we fled the field. We lost Sheep on our first sortie." I said.
 
"He was our instructor. Rifleman tagged him with AC fire on ingress, then lit his fuel tank up with the big beams as he tried to regain control," said Terri, miming an explosion with her hands. "Poof."
"Terri took over then," I said, picking up the thread of our story. "She was being groomed for command, and was flying the heaviest fighter. We supported a couple of knots of AMI resistance, and tangled with the Ducal Guards fighters that they shifted over to cover for the birds the AMI raid put out of action."
 
"You picked up your fourth kill there." said Terri.
 
"Yeah, the Transit and you got his flight lead."
 
"I just got the -11. You had a fight with the -10."
 
"Killing the recon bird counts. He still had the big gun." I looked back to Vixen. "Anyway, we figured that with them flying the two-seater Transit with all the extra sensors, they were fed up with us and trying to hunt us down."
 
"So, I made the decision to gas up and change locations," said Terri. "But the water cracker crapped out on us. We had enough fuel to make it close to another lake we'd set up. Landed in a high meadow, and hiked our way down, intending to bring the fuel or maybe the cracker back to the birds."
 
Diane nodded. "They'd already found the lake, hadn't they?"
 
I sighed. "They set up alarms. We got jumped by a fireteam of bouncies when we were trying to figure out how to transport the fuel. Itchy took a burst, but Cleaner was on the ball. I've never seen anyone shoot like that. Killed two of them with a damn pistol. They backed off, and we grabbed Itchy and ran."
 
"They brought in a platoon and a Vulcan to run us down," said Terri. "We did what we could for Itchy, but he didn't make it. None of us had the medical training to save him."
 
"And when his boyfriend died, Cleaner lost it. We did too, kinda."
Terri looked over to me. "They were together?"
 
I hadn't realized at the time, but looking back...I nodded to her. "Pretty sure, yeah." I turned my attention back to my wife. "Anyway, one of the hunters was close enough to hear our breakdown…Vulcan pilot turned Cleaner into a torch."
 
"Damn near got us with the MG," agreed Terri. "I think the autocannon collapsed the ridge under us. Pure luck."
 
"The storm too. Probably wouldn't have broke contact if it wasn't for that." I thought back. "Anyway, we ended up spending the rest of the battle hiding out in a cave."
 
"With the League's smelliest throw rug." joked Terri, words catching in her throat.
 
Diane rubbed Terri's back, giving me a questioning look. "Throw rug?"
 
"Big cat," I explained. "Didn't like us taking his spot. Had to shoot em." I paused. "But yeah, if we had someone there who knew how to fix that damn cracker, we never would have run into that damn Vulcan."
 
Vixen let her fingers trail along a set of closely spaced scars on my flank. "Is that where these are from?"
 
"Yeah. I got them extreme rug shopping. That was the joke back at LMS. Anyway, that's the summary. If I wake up screaming, that's probably why."
 
Diane kissed me tenderly. "Thank you for sharing. Both of you. I promise I'll do the same soon."
 
I nodded, unable to find a response.
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===Handling new recruits and the bad news===
"You know," I said, as I picked at the crumbs of a fruit tart, city having lit up outside the window to attempt to hold back the dark. "You can find someone else, Diane."
 
"Trying to get rid of me already?" She smiled. "You're sweet, Gideon, but no I can't." She shook her head. "We did this for a reason."
 
"I'm not talking about dropping the marriage, Mrs. Zalman," I said. "But this is Canopus. It's normal here."
 
She nodded. "Oh, I know." She pointed the fork at me. "But that's not why. How many Southwesterners are we going to have?" she asked.
I saw what she was getting at. "Oh."
 
"Yeah. How many of them are going to respect el coronel if his wife is fucking around behind his back?"
 
"Not many," I admitted.
 
"Besides, if I'm a devoted wife to you and you alone, that'll play better with defusing any hints of mutiny from Canopians. I'll look more Leaguer, and less of a threat to you." She smiled. "Win-win."
 
I pursed my lips. "It's not fair for you."
 
"I appreciate that you're arguing for my freedoms, Duster, but none of this is fair." She shrugged. "It's not like I didn't know going into this that you were always going to have eyes for Terri first. I figured that out back when we were drinking on the recharge station in Aitutaki, for pity's sake." She leaned back in her seat with the contented smile of a well-fed predator. "Besides, I've been satisfied lately. So long as we keep that up, I'm not complaining."
 
 I managed a cocky grin. "I'll see what I can do, Diane."
 
"Like I said, you're a good stick." she teased. "I promise that if this isn't working anymore, I'll talk with you, alright? Aviate, communicate, navigate?"
 
"Swap one for two, and we've got a deal, wife of mine." We sealed it with a kiss.
 
"Speaking of aviating," she said, drawing her fingers along my jawline, "I've got an idea to prop up your authority with the Canopian recruits."
 
I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
 
Vixen opened her mouth to share the idea, but was cut of by a blistering tirade of curse from the other room. The one that had the video set in it. "Gid, Vixen!" yelled Terri, practically snarling. "Get in here, you need to see this."
 
We abandoned the last of our dessert and bounded over like someone had set off the scramble siren. "What is it…" I started, before trailing off as I recognized the faces and backdrop. On the screen, Anton Marik stood side by side with Jamie Wolf. Anton looked as grave as he had since his announcement of his brother's attack on the Dragoons barracks. Wolf…
 
Wolf looked furious. The famously prepossessed mercenary was tense with energy just waiting to be let off the leash. I had no doubt that if Janos Marik was in front of him, he would kill the Successor Lord with his bare hands. I wouldn't have been surprised if he tried to tear out the old man's throat with his teeth.
 
<<"…in my efforts to redeem the name of House Marik,">> said Anton, <<"I have pledged the lion's share of my Ducal Guards to the support of the Dragoons as they prosecute their just vengeance upon my brother. It was for my cause that they were so harmed, so it shall be my troops that support them as things are made right. I can only hope that my Ducal Guards and their commanders learn the skills and righteousness that have made the Dragoons such a force on the battlefield. Colonel Wolf?">>
Wolf favored Anton with a sharp nod and a handshake. <<"Thank you, Captain-General. Your support for a humble mercenary unit like us is commendable, and we will cherish and honor the troops you have placed in our hands. Rest assured, they will be honed and forged into the blades that will help you keep House Marik and the Free Worlds League as a beacon of righteousness across the Inner Sphere. They will not be treated as expendable chaff, but as honored comrades. So say we until all shall go down into darkness." He turned back towards the cameras, dark eyes staring directly into the lens. His violent energy seemed to pool in those same eyes. "To the warriors who still stand with Janos Marik, house and mercenary alike. Our vengeance is for those who struck at us with a coward's tools. I give you this one warning. If you stand against us, you will be destroyed, shattered and cast about. To stand in our way is to throw in with a man worthy of nothing but annihilation. In the memory of my brother, my wife, and my daughter, I so swear this to you. Janos Marik will die, and so will those who stand with him.">>
 
The speech switched off for a photogenic Canopian anchor sharing the network's analysis of what had just been announced. I didn't listen. I just looked at Terri and Diane, and saw the same lost look in their eyes as I knew was in my own.
 
Our home was dying. And there was nothing we could do about it.
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*; Words from the Author : Yep. That just happened. Anyway.As promised, a resolution to the marriage question. There were hints towards this potential solution for a while. And much of this happened off-screen, because Gideon wasn't there to see Terri and Diane conspiring, nor does he remember the drinking back on Aitutaki very well. Things are by no means perfect, comfortable, or equitable, but they're going to try and muddle their way through.In other news, things are happening back in the Marik Civil War.
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