InaG Chpt 16

==It's not a Gundam - Chapter 16 -Second Coming- Book 2 -==
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===Matter of an inheritance===
Outside Matam, Panpour III
Panpour, Federated Suns
January 3027
Panpour III was a heavily industrialized world. First settled by man colonists from the Indian Sub-Continent during the First Exodus it wasn't a highly arable world at the start. As the Star League was founded and the Reunification Wars began the SLDF and AFFS would make it a logistics hub, investing millions to carefully nurturing the agriculture and industry to sustain a large population up to and including strict immigration measures and incentivizing smaller families over larger ones.
 
Since then Panpour was a center of FedSun industry, with it being far from the Capellans and Combine it produced much of the AFFS weapons and equipment with the majority either working in weapons manufacturing, or the farms to feed them.
 
A handful of Panpouris did something else and inevitable it was to cater to the employees working of those two industries. Among them was a repair shop that had been closed for quite sometime.
 
For the Comstar Agent, he didn't need anything fixed. He was here for something else.
 
He knocked on the door of the Keith-Boscht Repair Shop and was pleased to find who he was looking for there. Who opened was a young girl with long, fluffy curls. Boys her age would already be blabbering, flustered idiots if they ever saw her smile; if not for the melancholic stare she had. Or her wheelchair. And an orphan that was half bionics was a liability.
 
"Can I help you?" she asked.
 
"Ms. Keith." The bearded man straightened his glasses, "You ARE miss Nina Keith correct?"
 
"We are closed." She answered.
 
He nodded, "Understood, Ms. Keith, but we have important business to discuss."
 
"About what, Adept..."
 
"My friends in the order called me Jerry," Jerry answered, "and it is about your inheritance."
 
"The Life Insurance-"
 
"It has been paid to a trust fund in your name." He finished, "I would know because I made sure the money was transferred to you a year ago. Before your mother passed away she gifted you the store ... and also a Battlemech we've recovered."
 
"Battlemech?"
 
"A customized Light called Gundam she had been working on for Jalastar Aerospace." he explained, "May I come in?"
 
She bit her lip and rolled herself back, with an untold gesture inviting him inside.
 
"My apologies." He answered, "If this has opened old wounds..."
 
"She wasn't a Mechwarrior." She, gently, interrupted, "She was a Mechtech."
 
"I was told she considered herself a hobby archaeologist and historian."
 
Lori rubbed her arm, "She died like them. If it wasn't an accident it would be pirates or other prospectors who cared more about the money than history."
 
A stray glance by Jerry to a rack of complex prosthetics, all of them handmade, made the Comstar agent silent.
 
Her entire storefront was filled with her creations from drastically modified electronic toys. To computers cobbled together from disparate parts. Among them a ball-shaped robot with two large cartoonish eyes that Lori absentmindedly took and placed on her lap. He was hazard to guess it was one of those Haros that the Junkers produced, apparently this one was heavily modified by herself.
 
But what caught Jerry's eye was the drawings. There were dozens that hung on walls where posters and artwork would be and among them a blueprint.
 
It was definitely a mech. Squat and humanoid it was as only as large as a truck and sat on a rolling tripod unit, and the cabin was a reinforced box. Scribbled right above it was a name: Workloader.
"A Star League-era Industrialmech?"
 
"Just drawings I did." She mumbled.
 
"The design is mature."
 
"My mother said I had a talent for machines." She reminisced, "I helped her study whatever Lostech she managed to find. Why do you ask?"
 
"Admiration." Jerry admitted, "Those who fight to preserve technology and knowledge are the grandest crusaders of all."
 
"Mr. Jerry. I do not want a martyr. I want my mother."
 
The Comstar agent closed his eyes, "My apologies. But before you go I have to say something else."
 
"Say it. Then leave me alone. Please." she told him.
 
Nina rubbed her right arm, her metal arm.
 
"We can refer you to the Mercenary Review Board's list of rated Mech brokers," he explained, "and see who is willing to take it off your hands."
 
Jerry reached into his coat pocket and held out an envelope: the certificate of ownership and key to a warehouse near the spaceport.
 
"This is all I can do for you. But if I may say something: Just like every other of Gundam's Mechwarriors, I like to think that it chose you. It was always the inevitable outcome. Be it good or bad."
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===Mystery in the Warehouse===
The warehouse was just off the same road as the spaceport and used to store delicate items, not something like military equipment let alone Battlemechs. It was not the place for a paraplegic like her. There were few ramps, even fewer that weren't blocked by whatever busywork was spread across the complex.
 
After some time she finally found the hanger and mech in question.
 
In front of her was instinctively a machine that would have been called a Frankenmech. The legs of a Locust. The arms of a Marauder, the torso of a Stinger, the Jump Jet array of a Spider.
It was painted in dull grey and stark white. Most of its armor was gone and the underlying parts could be clearly seen. On it's arms were two PPCs similar to the ones used by the Exarch's Aries from the news. Yet what stood out was that its box-shaped head was replaced with a sleek, bestial, armored helmet with a double V-shaped antenna over a set of glowing eye slits.
Written on the mech's collar in bold uncertain words was its name: Gundam.
 
....She didn't know what a Gundam was.
 
"Miss Kieth?"
 
"I am her." She answered, "and you are…"
 
"Alec." The bald man asked, "I have worked on my fair share of Mechs. You will find Gundam is one of a kind."
 
Nina wheeled herself forward and around the mech.
 
She could see the hybrid Endo-Steel/E-Carbon frame, panels that were clearly Ferro-Fibrous Armor as well as the wiry mesh of the Electromagnetic Armor and the Triple-Strength Myomers that the NAIS had been rushing to distribute since the Exarch appeared.
 
Worse still was the Fusion Engine. It ran on helium, not hydrogen like the standard. The safety labels clearly said Helium-3.
 
She could already picture it as an expensive boondoggle. It went against the grain of centuries of mech development. Somehow. Somewhere. Someone decided to combine four different Battlemechs together to make THIS and her mother decided to pick it up and tinker around with it.
 
The cost to make it an ACTUAL Stinger would cost more than buying one fresh from a factory. But her mother held it on for her. Why?
 
It wasn't like a regular Battlemech. It didn't look stiff, it felt like it was silently watching her. Judging her. It didn't sit well with the paraplegic. Her metal hand glided across the lostech metal. Whatever, wherever it came from she needed to figure it out.
 
Suddenly she felt a jolt. Nina pulled her hand back and her eyes darted up at the exposed inner workings. Gundam was still cold and dormant. It wasn't a mistake. She felt something course through her veins.
 
"...What are you?" She whispered.
 
"Whoever made this was either insane or brilliant." Alec spoke, "I would know. I have made mechs myself."
 
"My mother did."
 
"Ah." Alec grimaced, "My apologies. I am sure Ms. Mora was a wonderful women."
 
She was.
 
"Where did it come from?" Nina asked.
 
"Gundam has gone through many hands." he answered, "Most I believe were good men and the occasional good women."
 
Alec turned to a console whose cables were hooked up to the foreboding Light Mech. With a tap of a button the machine rumbled … and around the screen and lights flickered. Nina looked at her own electric wheelchair and noticed an error light flashing on the control panel. Her own personal noteputer was having issues.
 
"Chort." Alec cursed in Russian, "Let me set this to low settings…"
 
With another press of a button, the rumbling of the Fusion Engine turned into a low, ambient hum.
 
The reactor wasn't in any way like a standard Fusion Engine. Just running it on anything above low settings caused EM interference. It made sense why it was here. The warehouse was built to store sensitive electronics that stray electric currents and magnets would damage.
 
Whoever, whatever brand 'Minovsky' was had created a nuclear reactor that was bulky, relied on non-standard nuclear fuel, disrupted electronics and radios signals, and in a breach would more likely cause an explosion than die with a whimper. It was impractical, it was Star League money in place of sense overengineering, ... and it worked.
 
She rolled over to the console and read page after page of diagnostics and technical read outs. Many of them misspelled the mech's name. Rather than Gundam it was called Gunsmith.
 
It produced enough power for an entire lance.
 
The PPCs worked like any other PPC, except it didn't have a minimal range thanks to a compact version of a field inhibitor that had two extra settings: one was a 'beam saber' setting that was practically a particle blowtorch that would have drained even an Assault of all it's power to use; the second was a 'beam vulcan' that spat smaller particle bolts like a machine gun and would have overheated the battlemech if it wasn't for its double heat sinks.
 
The sheer amount of Electromagnetic Armor would have used so much power that it would be impractical to put on any Battlemech; except for the Gundam apparently.
 
It didn't have a MASC. It had a MASC II, whatever that meant; but if she read it right it nearly doubled the speed of this monster.
 
The curiosity gnawed at her. Who made this? Where did it come from? How did it end up on Panpour?
 
Her hand reach for the keyboard … and then it stopped right before the keys.
 
"How long is the warehouse lease?"
 
"One month." Alec explained, "But a partial refund if you withdrew it early."
 
"What about you?"
 
"I am only here because of the Gundam." He explained, "Once it is gone then so am I."
 
A month was more than enough time to get rid of it.
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===Fretting over a decision===
"Did I do the right thing, Haro?"
 
The round little pet robot beeped. It was one of the last things her mother had given to her and one of the first batches made by the Junkers. For her daughter Mora Keith nee Boscht spared no expsense. Haro beeped and buzzed. It rolled further into her lap, maybe to give her a measure of comfort. She petted the machine, which silently hummed like a cat would purr.
 
"...But what do I do with a Battlemech?"
 
But sometimes a toy was just a toy. Her hand stopped mid-stroke. She gently placed Haro onto the table and turned to a disordered shelf filled with books.
 
Gundam. Minovsky. Beam Saber. She sifted through book after book looking for anything and everything that even hinted at any of those three words. This was the library that her mother had assembled. That Nina had helped with. Some were old enough to have been published during the Star League still pristine because the very paper itself was made of a lostech pulp mixture that prevented books from wearing or decaying.
 
…but she still found nothing. Hours after hours of research prying through a library that beat both what stood for a library in Matam and the neighboring Ouback system and there was no mention of any of the four. As the night sky finally covered Panpour III she slammed shut the last of her books.
 
"She left it for me for a reason. Why?"
 
Her eyes traced to the framed smiling face of Mr. and Mrs. Keith and a little Lori holding the first computer she ever fixed by herself. Her mom was hobby a prospector. An Archaeologist. She left behind a mystery, and she wanted her to solve it.
 
Nina sighed, "You can't make things easy, Mom…"
 
In the morning she would go back to the HPG Station and hopefully cancel the message in time.
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Unfortunately, it wasn't the alarm clock that rouse her from her sleep; it was an air raid siren.
Panpour had no fear of Cappies or Snakes. Pirates were a different story. Close to Taurian border, Pirates along the periphery haunted Calderon and Davion worlds. With the Junker Guild enforcing the peace the reavers that once prowled the southwest Periphery turned to worlds like these.
 
Civilians ran to safety. Some to the hills, some to the safety of the AFFS defenses, some even fled to the HPG compound hoping that the might of Comstar would keep the pirates away. Many ran around like headless chickens or jammed the roads with cars filling the air with horn noises.
 
The majority of the 1st Ceti Hussars weren't here. They had been called to defend neighboring worlds being beset by some of said pirates. In the search for greener pastures the pirates had also brought Guild technology with them. Plenty of them now had lances of OZ-mechs, harassing worlds still struggling to get defense up-to-date with the changing times. Panpour's own Leo Factory was still under construction, and what Leos, Aries, and Tragos they had on hand were basic security and construction models.
 
It was horrible timing. All the best equipment like EM Armor and TSMs was given to forces along the Capellan and Combine borders, and their best defenders were scattered elsewhere and left little but militia and second-line reserve troops.
 
Many people were going to die, she realized. While the Panpour Garrison spokesperson was downplaying things the news reporters didn't practice self-censorship. A full reinforced battalion was coming down on Matam and Panpour's defenders were either missing or scattered across the planet.
 
She rolled through a sea of panicking adults and crying children while Militia men and women ran through the streets. More than one was wearing just the clothes on their backs and a hand-me-down laser rifle to their name.
 
Even so, the militia scrambled to face the invaders. They would stop them. Or die trying. Enough of them were embracing their families before they left. Likely for the last time.
 
Nina clenched her fist; not if she could help it.
 
She wasn't a Mechwarrior. But something, somewhere inside her told her that Gundam was needed; and it needed her.
 
While one side ran to safety and the other to a lethal battle, she took a tangent and rushed straight to the warehouses. By now all the workers were gone and the once busy area was a ghost town of unsorted pallets and scattered crates.
 
Except for one warehouse: Gundam's.
 
She stepped inside and saw Gundam in his splendor. He was now fully armored and painted in Davion white, red, and blue.
 
"A 'Mech as powerful as possible," Alec mused, arms still deep into the internals of the Frankenmech, "as impenetrable as possible, and as ugly and foreboding as conceivable so that fear itself will be our ally. In another time Gundam was called the White Devil for a reason."
 
"Gundam." she panted, "Does it work?"
 
"It works." He explained, "Mostly. But if you think you can use it then-"
 
"I need it." she answered, "We need it. Matam-PANPOUR needs it!"
 
"You aren't ready." He warned, "Gundam is no toy."
 
"I can try," she said with steel hard as any Endo-Steel frame.
 
Alec stared and nodded, "Good. It will come naturally. Speak to Gundam and Gundam will answer."
 
Nina didn't understand what he meant but she climbed up the gantry and into the battlemech.
 
For the first time since receiving her inheritance, she stepped into the cockpit. Multiple curved panoramic displays fed from dozens of different cameras and sensors not just from the eyes gave her the ability to see all around her unobstructed; her seat was on a gimbaled arm which were meant to keep the pilot seat steady and balanced even when Gundam was running or being hit.
 
The moment she powered it on the front display blared six words as the mech's operation system came online:
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===Powering Up===
General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver System
 
…Gundam was an abbreviation.
 
The Battlemech OS was standard beyond that. Nothing was out of the ordinary beyond the software meant to run the strange equipment the mech had been upgraded with. If it WAS even an actual Battlemech at this point.
 
Suddenly the mech shifted and the hatch closed behind her.
 
It sealed shut as the rest of the mech powered on. The mech lurched forward but froze, still stuck on the gantry.
 
Over the radio she heard the noise of war. Militia scrambled to fight the pirates while what stood for the first responders rushed to get panicking people to safety.
 
<<"This is Precentor Roswell to Pirate Forces: Hold your fire! I repeat: Hold your Fire! In the name of Blake, we have civilians-">>
 
Static followed as smoke began to rise from the direction of the HPG station. Apparently, even Comstar didn't scare the pirates.
 
A shaky soft hand and a metal one gripped the controls.
 
"I don't know if you can hear me." She whispered, "I don't know if you can understand me. But I need you. WE need you. You're the only one who can stop them! I need your help Gundam! It's now or never!"
 
...His answer was now.
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===Rise of the Gundam===
The machine grumbled and hissed, finally stirred awake from it's lethargy. The blank black screen gave way to a panoramic view of the outside world as a HUD blinked into existence.
 
"...Gundam..." she whispered, "thank you..."
 
<{REACTOR ONLINE.}>
 
<{SENSORS ONLINE.}>
 
<{WEAPONS ONLINE.}>
 
<{ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL.}>
 
Gundam stepped out from his berth, pushing aside the gantry.
 
Alec stood the side and watched as the doors opened. In the distance, more and more pillars of smoke rose up from the city outskirts alongside the hollow pops of distant explosions. Just looking from her point of view she could see that most of the Leos were pirate models and they were overwhelming the Matam Police and Militia.
 
She knew where to go first.
 
Gundam stepped onto the road, then walked, then ran, and then sprinted.
 
30 km/h.. 60… 90… 110… 140…
 
It ran faster and faster, breaking into the triple digits as the warehouse shrank in the distance behind her. She stopped counting as it reached 200 kph.
 
As she did she ran past the aftermath of combat. Here and there were burnt or crushed vehicles and bodies. Or parts of them.
 
That day kept flashing in her mind.
 
Under her breath she made her decision: "Never again…"
 
She ran and kept running block after and soon past a band of Militia that jumped in shock as her mech moved like greased lightning.
 
Gundam crossed no man's land just as a Pirate Stinger had turned from lighting an apartment complex ablaze.
 
<("What the-")>
Nina screamed as Gundam barreled into his Pirate counterpart. Instinctively she raised her arm just as her mech rammed into the Stinger.
 
The Pirate flew across and down the street before landing ungracefully in a bent and twisted heap.. Gundam kept moving. With their momentum they bled little speed. She and her Frankenmech continued to charge forward like a raging bull.
 
<("The fuck is that thing!?")>
 
>>"Don't care! Just shoot it!<<
 
Finally noticing the mech the pirates began to fire. Guns physical and energy-based slammed into her armor … and didn't even scratch the paint. Both the Jenner and Locust jumped out of the way, but the latter did too late. The bird-legged mech met shield and both light mechs slammed into the side of the building.
 
Nina stepped back, shaken but she and her mech was still in one piece. The Locust wasn't. It and its MechWarrior were buried into a wall.
 
She didn't have time to ruminate over her ideas as laser cut into her back. The Jenner was moving, weaving out and away from Gundam.
 
The PPC fired. A sharp spear of blue light skewered the Jenner and ignited its back-mounted SRM battery. The light mech buckled and keeled over as the whole top half was covered in flames. By then Nina was already moving toward the HPG station.
 
She ran past raging fires and through the rubble-filled streets and saw carnage all along the way.
 
The first Leos she encountered didn't have the Davion Sun. They stood over the broken body of an MPD Aries. Their autocannons barked, doing nothing against the best defense the NAIS had to offer. A stream of blue light fired from Gundam, ripping the OZ mechs apart as she continued to hurl herself forward. At speeds no mech could run at she carved a whole through the Pirate force.
 
Tanks crushed or kicked aside, Leos sent flying, Aries sent crashing to ground. Blinded against an enemy as fast and durable as the Gundam the raiders were nothing. The militia rallied, no longer did they need to sell their lives for the rest of Panpour's defenders to finish scrambling. Now they had a chance to stop the pirates here and now. All of that flew over Nina's head. Her focus was entirely on what was in front of her as if Gundam itself was whispering into her ear how to fight and dance like a true Mechwarrior Ace.
 
The tall walls that protected Comstar were breached and what was left of the Com Guard lied scattered, broken, and motionless. In the ruins of the HPG Station was an Awesome and an Panther looming over the burning remains of the station; as well as a single bunker hidden in the rubble.
 
Nothing stood between the bunker and pirates. Nothing except her.
 
<("A mech!? I thought the locals only had OZ shit!?")>
 
>>"Doesn't matter! Kill it!"<<
 
<("R-right boss!")>
 
Instead of a single beam it was a dozen bolts. A stream of glowing blue darts spat put from the PPC; so many and so erratic that the pirate couldn't dodge it. The Panther was riddled with energy bolts and fell to the ground smoking from dozens of holes across it's chassis.
 
Nina could not savor her victory for long as she raised her arm just in time to block a full PPC alpha strike.
 
"Neat gun!" The pirate boss sneered, "but I got three!"
 
It became a deadly dance. PPCs blazed back and forth. A Stinger's speed kept it alive, an Awesome's armor let it refuse to die.
"Hold still!"
 
Nina ignored him. She and Gundam were in accord. Every dodge, every block was one she willed like the mech was an extension of her very body.
 
As PPC bolts whizzed all around her she fired her Jump Jets, immediately throwing Gundam up into the sky, above even the high rises that dwarfed the Awesome.
 
Then she dropped like an anvil.
 
If she was in a regular mech then a DFA maneuver was a failure. She was too high, her landing was overshot.
 
But Gundam was a different beast. Nina boosted forward with the gun arm raised. Just as she would collide with the pirate her PPC ignited, and a sword of pure light roared into existence.
 
>>"HOLY-"<<
 
Whatever the enemy Mechwarrior was about to say was silenced the moment the Beam Saber connected, slicing the Awesome from shoulder-to-hip and through the cockpit.
 
Gundam landed on two crouched feet but it was a solid landing all the same.
 
The Awesome's reactor failed and rage of little sun spilled from it's cracks. The Assault exploded in a blast that rippled across Matam itself.
With the last of the Pirate mechs downed a dropship in the distance fired it's boosters, fleeing to whatever foul corner the raiders came from.
 
The militia was the first to arrive staring at the mech that saved their home, soon joined by the rest of Matam peaking out from whatever shelter they hid themselves in.
 
She wasn't sure what came over, but she raised her gun arm, fist clenched, and for once the beam saber glowed a brilliant gold ... just like the sword and sun of their people.
One miltiamen raised his gun and shouted, soon joined by the rest of Matam itself roaring in victory and celebration.
 
It was over.
"She did it."
 
"I had faith in her my friend. You should have some also."
 
"...I should have stayed. Shouldn't I?"
 
"Maybe. We'll never know if it would have been better if you did. But... what is done is done."
 
"At this point and time Matam would have been sacked before the relief force could have arrived. Now? The future isn't set in stone."
 
"It never has and it never will, General."
 
"...but I have faith that whatever happens, it will be better. I know it."
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==Chapter Notes==
*; Author's Chapter Note: The Amuro to the Exarch's Char ... and hero of another story. Adapted from a snippet.
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Chapter 16