OBT Forum

Periphery Redemption

Chapter 4

Outbound from Shuen Wan
Duchy of Oriente
Free Worlds League
16 May 2994

   Joe sat on his bunk with his head in his hands.  Lost in his thoughts he hadn’t moved in over an hour.  Everything he had ever wanted in life was gone; his career, his mech, even his friends and family.  But at least he was still alive, for whatever that was worth.
   The court martial had been brief and to the point.  Acting against orders, acting without orders, dereliction of duty, loss of military equipment, and the ubiquitous conduct unbecoming were all charges Joe knew he was guilty of.  As the prosecution went over the events of the case Joe discovered that the medium lance that had attacked his unit had continued on as part of the main Capellan thrust.  Apparently a following armored infantry unit was supposed to pick up the downed Hussar and mercenary mechs as salvage but was cut off by a flight of aerospace fighters sent out by Force Commander Donaldson to track down Bravo Lance.  Once the Capellan unit had been driven off a Hussar airmobile infantry unit was dispatched to rescue survivors.  Both Joe and Nicky had been pulled unconscious from their mechs and medivaced to a field hospital.  Joe had suffered the usual bumps and bruises as well as a concussion and a 12cm laceration on his left calve.  Nicky wasn’t so lucky.  When her gyro went it sent a feedback loop through her neurohelmet doing severe damage to her nervous system.  The odds of her ever walking or talking again normally were slim.  The medical reports read by the prosecutor danced around the subject but they all but said that Nicky’s days as a mechwarrior were over.  The prosecutor then went on to tell how 2nd Battalion was almost blind sided by the Capellan push because of Joe’s actions.  For five days the Hussars had been locked in a life or death struggle with Warrior House Dai Da Chi that was only broken when their commander was satisfied that his unit had fulfilled the requirements for their raid.  Always short on mechs the Capellans had dropped onto Shuen Wan looking to increase their assets.  After felling nearly a dozen Hussar mechs the warrior house had withdrawn to their dropships, which had made a combat landing near to the location of the heaviest fighting.  The fighting withdrawal had also given them time to salvage Joe’s Phoenix Hawk, Nicky’s Hermes, and Gregory’s Firestarter before blasting off and leaving the system.  Once the prosecutor sat down the trial was basically over.  When the court rendered its guilty verdict Joe was not surprised.  The sentence they handed down was not as severe as it could have been, but it was severe enough.  He was stripped of his commission and would never again be allowed to serve in any military branch or service in the Free Worlds League.  On top of that any mechs or parts that he owned were forfeit to the Hussars and it was made abundantly clear that if he had the means it would be better if he left the FWL.  Joe couldn’t help but agree with them, especially since none of his messages to his father had been responded to.  The situation must have been causing him no end of embarrassment on Atreus.  Joe found himself without a family, a career, or a country.  He had entered the ranks of the Dispossessed.  As soon as he could he cleaned out his Comstar account and booked passage on the first jumpship heading out of the Free Worlds League.  Joe would have to find a new life for himself somewhere else in the universe.

Big Jim’s Repair, Raldamax
Outworlds Alliance
12 June 3001

   Joe was sitting on the remains of a combine’s transmission in Bay 1 finishing off his lunch. A light breeze announced the approach of a late fall thunderstorm that was brewing off to the west.  That was fine with Joe, business was light anyway.  The harvest season that had just ended however had lived up to its billing. 
            For three months Joe, Big Jim, Little Jim, and Billy had been slammed trying to keep the equipment of all the surrounding farms up and running.  Every form of agricultural technology known to man, except modern agromechs, seemed to pass through Big Jim’s needing some type of repair or modification work.  The days had been long and the work hard, but Joe actually found himself enjoying his situation.
   Within a few days of getting hired by Big Jim, Joe had found a little place to rent on the east side of Calverton.  With some help from Billy he had then found a second hand Penrose SB499-I2I Kestrel motorcycle so that he could get to work on his own.  His days then began to fall into a routine:  wake up, go to work, come home, spend the evening working on his twenty plus year old bike or watching the trivid, and then go to sleep.  Every once and a while he would head into Calverton to pick up the things he couldn’t find in the shops around his place and to just be around people other then Big Jim, Little Jim, and Billy. 
            Billy, it turned out, was a good kid.  He knew his way around tools, was good with his hands, and had a good head on his shoulders.  His only problem was that he had had the misfortune of being born second.  Little Jim, on the other hand, was as bright as a burnt out secondary display.  The poor boy just didn’t know how to get out of his own way.  The one thing he was good at was getting Big Jim hopping mad.  But even with his lack of intelligence and ineptitude he was going to be the one to inherit the family business.  Why?  Because Big Jim had promised his wife on her death bed that her Little Jimmy would be the inheritor of their estate; and he had regretted making that promise ever since.  As for Big Jim he was bearable as long as you kept him away from Little Jim.  But when they were together it usually didn’t take Little Jim long to do something that would put his father into a blind, saliva spitting rage.  And that was usually when Joe would begin to plan a trip to Calverton.
            Lightning began to pop and dance across the western sky.  Thunder could be heard in the distance and Joe watched as the rain pushed its way across the plains towards Big Jim’s.  Just as the rain began to fall around the shop a rig pulled up out front.  Joe got up and knocked on the window of Big Jim’s office that looked out into Bay 1 to let him know that Tony had arrived.  Big Jim got up and waddled out into the repair bay.
            “I’ll be danged.  Tony’s actually early for once,” grumbled Big Jim.  “Of course he would have to show up when it’s raining.”
            Tony hopped down out of the cab and ran toward the open bay doors.  It started to really come down when he was about half way to the shop.
            “Man, it is really coming down out there?” huffed Tony as he jogged to a stop.
            “I’ve never seen it go up,” snapped Big Jim.  Tony shrugged his shoulders at the comment.  Big Jim then reached into his pocket, pulled out an envelope, and handed it to Tony.  “I didn’t know there was a bonus for getting the shipment here early?”
            “There isn’t.”
            “Oh, I was just thinking that that would be the only thing that could possibly get you to show up five hours early.  My mistake,” Big Jim turned around to Joe.  “What are you doing standing around?  There’re crates to be unloaded.”
            Joe grabbed a raincoat and trotted off toward Old Bess, the shop’s gigantic and ancient forklift.  He climbed up to the driver’s chair, cranked up the old metal beast, and began wishing for a fully enclosed cab.  As he pulled up to Tony’s rig he noticed that, unlike the first shipment he had unloaded months before, there was only one large container in this load.  The four other containers were smaller and made of a heavy duty plastic, which kind of reminded Joe of ammo cases.  “Ammo cases, on Raldamax, in the middle of nowhere.  Yeah, right,” he thought to himself.
            Big Jim stood and watched as Joe moved the containers from the rig to the flatbed.  Tony continued to shake water off his coat.  Neither one was willing to start a conversation.  As Joe unloaded the last container Big Jim began to wonder where Little Jim had runoff to. 
            “You going to need any fuel?” Big Jim asked Tony. 
            “No.  I’ve got plenty to get me back to Calverton,” said Tony as Joe shutdown Old Bess.  “You mind if I have a word with Joe?  You know, catch up on news.” 
            “Fine by me, just don’t take all afternoon.  Some of us still got things to do, ya know,” snorted Big Jim as Joe came trotting up out of the rain.  “You seen Little Jim?”
            “Not lately.  The last time I saw him he was down in Bay 3,” answered Joe as he pulled off his raincoat.
            “Humpf.  Well, you two catch up on old times,” quipped Big Jim as he headed off towards Bay 3.  As he walked across Bay 2 he could see the Ferguson’s tractor through the doorway in the wall that separated the repair bays.
            “Little Jim!  I thought I told you to get the Ferguson’s tractor back to them before lunch!” bellowed Big Jim as he entered the bay.  There was no response.  He stopped for a second and looked around.  Just over the drumming of the rain on the roof he could hear something.  A soft, slow snoring was coming from the other side of the tractor.  Big Jim marched around the farm machine and found two legs sticking out from under its chassis.  “Why you lazy son of a…” said Big Jim as he swung a kick aimed for Little Jim’s hindquarters.  The kick landed hard, but not where it was meant to.  Instead of crashing into his son’s rear end the kick crashed into the shop creeper Little Jim was lying on.  Also bad for Big Jim was the fact that he was not wearing his normal steel toed shop boots.  Instead he was wearing his much more comfortable, yet much less protecting, office shoes.  A loud pop came from his foot as soon as it made contact with the creeper and a painful howl roared from his mouth.  Little Jim, startled by the kick and the yelling, shot bolt upright; smacking his head into the frame of the Ferguson’s tractor and knocking himself even sillier then normal.  Big Jim was hopping around cursing Little Jim and Little Jim was groggily getting to his feet as Joe and Tony entered the repair bay.
            “What happened?” asked Joe as he grabbed Little Jim who was having a hard time standing up.
            “My foot… I think I broke it,” whimpered Big Jim.  Little Jim was too out of it to respond.
            “We’ve got to get you to the hospital,” said Tony as he helped Big Jim sit down.
            “Of course I’ve got to get to the hospital!” roared Big Jim.  “But Billy’s got the truck in Calverton.”
            “We’ll just have to take the flatbed,” answered Joe.
            “Oh, no.  The flatbed’s got to deliver the shipment.”
            “Well then how are we going to get you into town?” asked Joe.  The same idea hit them both at the same time.  They then turned to look at Tony.
            “Why are you looking at me?”
            “You’ve got to go back through Calverton don’t you?  The hospital’s right off the highway; you can just drop them off,” said Joe in his best salesman’s voice.
            “But what’s in it for me?” asked Tony with a sly grin.
            “I won’t break my foot off in your…!” yelled Big Jim as he tried to jump up and charge Tony.  His broken foot however prevented him from delivering on his threat.
            “Whoa, I was just kidding.”
            “I’ll show you just kidding,” grumbled Big Jim as he sat down heavily on the toolbox he was using for a seat.
            “Okay then.  I’ll take Little Jim if you take Big Jim and we’ll load them up in your rig.”
            “No, Tony’ll take Little Jim.  I need to talk to you about the shipment,” ordered Big Jim.
            “Alright.  Tony?” Joe handed off the dazed Little Jim and then helped Big Jim to get to his feet.
            “Hold up a second,” whispered Joe’s boss as Tony and Little Jim started off through the repair bays.  “I need to tell you where to deliver the containers and what to do when you get there.”
            “Okay, shoot.”
            “Once you’ve secured the load on the flatbed just head down the road until it ends, there’s a signpost that says ‘Weber’ there.  That should take you about thirty minutes.  Then go up the driveway until you get to the house, it’s a pretty big place.  Keep following the driveway around back to the barn.  You’ll see a deadhead crane back there.  Pull underneath it and use it to unload the containers.  You’ll find an envelope taped to the controls.  Take it and head back to the shop.  And if you open it I’ll can your sorry butt, got me?”  Joe nodded.  “Now listen to me, Joe.  These delivers are somewhat on the quiet side, if you follow me.  I don’t know what’s in those containers or who I’m delivering them to and I don’t really care to find out.  Whoever it is runs these deliveries on a schedule and if I don’t get those containers out there today then I’m out… well, let’s just say it would adversely affect my financial situation.  And I’m supposed to be the only one that goes out there, but that ain’t happening today.  So just do exactly what I told you to do and hopefully everything will work out.  Now get me to Tony’s rig, my foot is killing me.”
            Joe helped his boss out to the rig.  Luckily the rain had let up and Tony had already gotten Little Jim into the cab.  It took some work but Joe and Tony were able to get Big Jim into the rig without having to fire up Old Bess.
            “Now get that shipment delivered,” ordered Big Jim as he slammed the rig’s door shut.  Joe followed Tony around to the driver’s side.
            “So you’re the next leg of the trip now?” Tony jokingly asked.
            “Yeah, I guess.  Sounds like a lot of trouble for a few crates of agro equipment.”
            “Yeah, if it really is agro equipment.”
            “What else would it be?” asked Joe.
            “You never know.  It might be stolen works of art.  Or maybe its equipment for a mad scientist.  Oww, maybe its parts for a mech,” Tony’s theories were getting pretty far fetched.
            “Yeah and maybe I’ll sprout wings and fly,” Joe retorted.
            “Would you two shut up and get me to the hospital!” shouted Big Jim from inside the cab.
            “Okay, Birdman it looks like the patient is getting restless.  I’ll see you on the next trip.”
            “Thanks, Tony,” Joe held out his hand.
            “No problem.”
            They shock hands and then Tony climbed into the rig’s cab.  Joe walked out to the highway and watched the rig disappear over the horizon.  The sun was coming out from behind the clouds and the smell of fresh rain filled the air.  Joe turned around and looked the other direction down the highway.  For some reason he had never thought about what was further down the road.  As far as he was concerned Big Jim’s was the end of the world and now it turned out something else, something unknown was out there.
            “Well, what am I waiting for?” Joe asked the air.