Mech RP [Ch. 1] The Hand of the Empire

He takes the datapad and overlooks some of the information before hearing one of the men shouting.

"You will be briefed on the situation in due time, brother. For now, work on repairs and help your family!" He says quite loudly and firmly. This reels much of the crowd back, few still stay. He dislikes raising his voice to his own family, but it must be done when there are a few troublemakers in the bunch.

"In return, I ask that all former Imperial forces are treated as your own soldiers; and that your other forces are aware that any attacks on these men, will be dealt with as if they'd attacked one of your own." Juno placed her hands behind her back, not breaking eye contact with the Major. The defected Imperials needed to integrate into the main rebel force, and causing tensions between the two groups only made that more and more unlikely, she just hoped the Major saw it the same way.

After a while, Nathan tried the radio again. That was when, finally, he got an actual signal. It was on the Rebels frequency, and from a familiar name, calling for survivors to meet at an abandoned area for repairs. Repairs.....yeah, that's something I can do, he thought, and set off in that direction.

Irving nodded in approval, but didn't say anything, his face the same scowl he had from the beginning. "With your help we finally have an advantage. However, you and your men will have to prove yourself, and will be treated as fresh recruits until the others can agree on what to do with you. As a personal word of caution, many of the people here would be overjoyed to see you hang from your own Frames in the middle of the wastelands." He let much of his personal anger seep in with the last sentence, with luck letting her know exactly how he felt agreeing with her.

While on the move, Nathan tried sending a signal out on the same frequency, hoping to make some kind of advance contact. He wasn't sure if his message would get through or not, but all he said was "If this is who I think it is, my name is Nathan Carver, Frame mechanic from Opportunity. Do you copy, over?"

Juno scowled in displeasure at the Major. These men had already bled and killed for his cause, and he would just discard that. It was no wonder this rebellion was in such a state, with leaders like him. Soldiers were to be respected, regardless of the side they fought on.
"If that's the case, then any incidents that may arrise are on your head." Juno answered, "And I will not tell these men that they can't defend themselves from rogue elements of your force."

A pilot that had been working on his Frame had heard this message and responds.

"Ahoy, Carver. Reynauld Witten here from Opportunity."

Meanwhile, King notes the anger that had come out in the last bit of Irving's reply. At this, he places a hand on his shoulder and looks squarely at the Lieutenant.

"The years of war have not been kind and with this upset, maybe it can come to a closer end. We appreciate this and we will do everything in our power to try to integrate you, but you all must work hard to integrate yourselves. There are many blowhards who are in this group. Knock them around if you must if they attack first, but we hold the same right." At the end he gives a quick nod.

"Someone's still in Opportunity?" Carver responded, amazed to the point of disbelief. "I'm not exactly convinced, it was a bloodbath earlier." He was getting close, if his instruments were any good, to where the first signal came from.

The Frame Pilot pauses for a second, confused at what Carver had said.

"No, Carver. We ain't in Opportunity. If you're makin' your way to where Major Irving broadcasted, that's where we're at. Quatro Sienna, an abandoned settlement. Just look for the wreckers. I think I saw you goin around and workin on Frames. You a mechanic? If you are we need ya here ASAP"

Irving nodded and took a deep breath. "Agreed, we must all work hard to work past any possible unpleasantness. I...offer any spare parts we might have in the reparation of your Frames. It's not much, considering the advanced nature of your Frames, but it's...something. And yes, any incidents will be on my head. I can assure you of that."

"Yeah I'm a mechanic," Nathan responded, diverting power to the legs for increased mobility. The sooner he got there.....the better he'd feel. "I've also got my hands on a modified Frame, excavator turned Brawler. Pilot......I don't know what happened, but they didn't make it by the time the Imperials got to the garage."

Juno nodded, glad that there would at least be some amount of fairness if any incidents did happen, if the Major was a man of his word.
"Thank you, I'll have a report on the status of all of these Frames within the hour." She said, finally saluting the Major, carrying out the movements with machine-like precision.

Figuring he'd continue the conversation when he got to the refuge, Nathan ended the call and closed the channel, continuing onward. Soon, he spotted on the view-screen the first of the settlement buildings....and what looked like several Frames standing watch. Great....here's hoping they won't shoot on sight, he thought. Opening a channel, he sent....well, his ID, which wasn't much. He wasn't some Ace pilot or high ranking official, a war hero or even a diplomat. He was just......the mechanic, the grease monkey.

And probably one of the few who'd be more valuable than any of the things he wasn't.

Irving saluted back and started making his way towards the perimeter, letting King take charge of the men. He took a call, the ID reading as a mechanic. "This is Major Irving Sulson, mechanic. Which side of the fence do you stand on." He looked around, trying to find where this new person was coming from.

With a crisp salute he leaves the defector's to their business as he begins taking note of everyone else's situations and briefing them on the current happenings.

"For those of you here, you will relay this message through to your brothers and sisters currently in this settlement. We will be camping out here for the time being. You will be gracious for the defector's decisions and you will treat them as your own. If you cannot, you will take it up with me personally. With that business out of the way, I want a few mechanics helping me in getting my Queen looking even more beautiful for our return. I also want the status of everyone here. Understood?"

He gets a few responses here and there and a couple mechanics break from the crowd that slowly grows smaller as they all go back to their respective businesses and he and the mechanics get to work.

"Irving Sulson? This is Nathan Carver, and I stand with the rebels. I'm getting close to the settlement and have already sent over my.....what amounts, as my credentials. They didn't really give us mechanics much to work with."

"I'm afraid I'll have to check them in person. I'm dismounted for the time being, but we can use a mechanic, not sure if you were there but we got our asses handed to us. Which direction are headed in from?"

"Same direction as everyone else, I think," Nathan said. "I was in Opportunity during the siege; got out with a frame when the fighting hit the hangars." Still advancing, now withing shooting distance of their frames.

Irving started towards that side of their encampment, waving a few soldiers over to help him. "Good to know." He replied, and as he passed the outer line of Frames he saw the newcomer approaching. He didn't wave, but hoisted his gun up to his chest, keeping it pointed down. "We see you. keep on coming."

"Was sorta planning on it," Nathan said, glad that he'd be getting out of the frame soon. Marching the massive machine into the camp, he swiveled around before asked "Okay....where too now?"

Staying true to her word, Juno immediately set the Imperial defectors to work, having them check their Frames and prepare a report for her. None of them spoke up about her assuming leadership and carried out their orders quickly and efficiently. Imperial Military training isn't something you forgot easily.
She returned to her own Frame, carrying out visual checks on the fuel lines, hydraulics and weapons systems in turn.

"Drop her anywhere there's room. Just get to work and fix up what you can. We'll be heading out before nightfall anyway. If you finish up try to help others, or you can help on perimeter patrol." Irving responded, keeping an eye on how it moved and where he went.

"Won't be much use as a guard," Nathan said, moving away from Irving. "I''m just a grease-monkey." He moved away to where most of the other frames were kept, stationary and empty. Parking his own, he took the chance to run a quick sweep for damages. And found plenty, some that were from before the siege. After all, it had been in the garage for a reason. The main machine gun was jammed and in need of a replacement piece. Missile tubes were out of missiles, and the auto-cannon's aiming servo needed fine adjustment, the kind that required tools and actual hands on work. If this had been a military standard, then repairs would be easier.....but this was an excavator class Frame, with weapons bolted onto it and software uploaded to run them.

Deciding to get to work, he popped open the cockpit and jumped out, a heavy jangle sounding as he landed. He had been busy at work when the siege happened, so he had been wearing his tool belt at the time. Nothing much, small things like wrenches and mini-plasma welders. Climbing onto the back of the frame, he popped open a panel and examined the newly exposed circuits. Damn, more than just a servo needing adjustment.....round knocked the firing wires out of place.....and of course there's never a redundancy. He calmed down, glad to be doing something he was used to.

"Well, then I'm sure you'll be a valuable asset back at Sojourner. We need all the mechanics we can get, along with the parts." Irving replied, closing the link and heading to patrol. Though he was high-ranking, he preferred doing the field work, the dangerous combat jobs. He was a firm believer in the phrase "if you want it done right, do it yourself," and while he had confidence in the men under him, he liked being there in case things went wrong. He walked along the outer edge of the Imperial traitor's encampment, not just do keep an eye on the horizon, but also to keep an eye on the new arrivals, for both side's protection. As much as he wanted to shoot them all, King was right, in that the rebels needed their help. Though just because that was true didn't mean he couldn't hang them for war crimes after the war was done with.

Naturally, the repairs aren't going to be on the large scale. It'll be just enough to allow Queen to be somewhat more efficient. Just enough to prevent her going critical on the way to Sojourner. The major things King and the mechanics are doing now, are trying to replace as many fuel cells as possible and to reroute them all. Looting this settlement is the only way to do this. He leaves the mechanics to do work and begins to enter the buildings in search for parts, he starts by searching the closest building. He comes up to the door and knocks lightly with one hand, the other at his pistol's holster. It may be abandoned as far as they know, but there is always the chance of squatters. He opens the door slightly and peeks in to see a very dusty living room. He calls in.

"My name is Dudley King, I am looking for parts. If there is anyone in this building, come out now."

Still working on his own frame, Nathan sorta tuned the world out......until he stopped, realizing how he just viewed things. My frame? It's not mine, I stole it. Not even a pilot.....so it can't be mine, right? he thought. As he returned to his work, tuning up the aiming servos and fixing the faulty wiring, he dwelt on what to do next. The obvious choice was to stay as a mechanic, keep fixing up the broken frames as they came in. But the Empire bloodied them good, if the siege was any indicator, so pilots......soldiers, would be in just as high demand as a mechanic.

With no response, King enters. He only barely got a look at the inner workings of the living room, but now everything is fully displayed. A regular looking living room complete with a sofa, chairs and a table. He comes closer in and places his hand on the chair. As he does so a puff of dust is created and floats into the air. A short cough comes from King and is the only sound that resonates through the building.

"This whole town has seen better days. Hopefully there are some things we can take for the trip. Unless the Imperials have already bled this place dry."

He sets to work looking through the house for supplies and any replacement units. It is a rough shot, but maybe his luck will win out.

A pilot comes over to Nathan's frame and knocks on the leg. "Hey buddy, you dont happen to know how to fix a fried turbine do you? I've never worked on one before, and well, I dont think a pharmacist like me should be tampering with that stuff without a little know how." He tries to add a jovial tone to his request, but it comes out a little tired, almost forced, as if he had been trying to sound happy for a long time.

Around the same time Irving climbs up the size of a half buried home, the sand having broken down a wall and flooded out to the other side. He tried to not think about who had lived here and how they might've gone away. It was very likely their bodies were buried under the sand, killed in some long ago fight or simply from a bad sandstorm.

King exhausts his options in the kitchen, any food that might be in the home had long expired and he still couldn't find anything to help with Queen. He moves past a door that had been closed since his arrival, and before passing it completely, he moves back to it. The knob on this door is broken and isn't latched at all, in fact, when he opens the door, it swings open very freely. This door leads to a staircase the goes down into what he assumes to be a basement. He takes a pause before making his way down. As he goes, a very strong odor begins to settle in his nose. It intensifies the further down he goes and he is forced to cover his mouth and nose with his hand.
He soon finds himself at the landing and fights the urge to expel the contents of his stomach. He looks around to see dried blood smeared on the walls and decayed corpses laying around the floor. "These poor souls." The basement is structured near the same as the upper floor, replete with all of the amenities of said floor , he notes as he takes a second tour. Almost like a smaller home within. Almost like these corpses had anticipated themselves needing to be down here.

"Casualties of war. No doubt it was the Imperials who did this."

"A fried turbine?" Nathan said without turning to look at the speaker. "I can give it a look. Best you can hope for is that the wires were fried and need replacing; can strip replacements off of any spare electronics in the area. If the motor's your issue.....then you're gonna need a new motor for the fan."

"Well I hope it's just wires then, haha. The screen was flickering for a while and every now and then she'd just shut down on the way here. Was half expecting to just have to abandon her and trek it on foot." The man replied, leaning against the leg of Nathan's Frame.

"I'd check her power cells then," Nathan said. "If there was issue with the screen flickering so often, could be a sign she's running low on juice. Could also be her power lines, the.....veins, in simple terms, feeding energy to the frame from the power cells."

True to her word, Juno had a report ready within the hour; thirty-six minutes, in fact. The efficiency that the defectors worked with surprised her a little, though she was glad about it.

Damage Report for Imperial Defectors:

"Vanessa, please send this report to Major Irving." Juno ordered, as she continued to clean some of the dirt away from her frame. Her own hadn't taken much damage, the armour had been burned and warped in places, but it was still completely functional.

King checks the deceased bodies over a few times, searching for any signs of the Empire's hand being involved in such a mess. Unfortunately, he can't find anything pointing to why these bodies were like this. He looks around and notices that the rooms, much like the upper floor, are all finely set. One would think after finding a broken lock on a door, dead bodies lying about and dried blood all around those bodies, that the furniture would be relocated.

"How strange."

Without a clue to go on, these would be the last words he would mutter before abandoning the home to check the next one that he could get inside. Maybe this next home would be a more fruitful endeavor for him and his brothers and sisters.

Irving gets the report a second later, having it translated into audio due to his emergency commset. The escape gear was basic, anciently so, and to get anything new he would have to wait until he got to Sojourner and tracked down some Infantry Officer's gear. After listening to it, he sent a reply, a verbal one. "Order received. Ask around and see if anyone is willing to lend a hand. Anything you don't get now we'll work on getting at Sojourner. Note: Ripper chains will be hard to find. Understand you may get a lower quality than you are used to." He sent the message and looked back at where the fight happened. A few explosions dotted the horizon, possibly salvage teams or even simply cooked off ammunition. The next sandstorm that blew through would probably bury it all, hiding any evidence of the disaster that took place.

The man sounded a little confused. "Oh? I could've sworn it would be the turbine. Either way, probably best if I don't touch it, haha. You a mechanic, friend?"

"Yup," Nathan replied plainly. When he was ready to test out his repairs on the Frame, he closed the panel. "Stand back," he said to the man, before jumping into the cockpit. Flipping a few switches, he got the Frame up and moving, at least in terms of a few small steps in place. He checked on the auto-cannon's aiming, swiveling the weapon around and taking aim. He was no expert pilot, but his hands had learned to be careful when holding tools. It wasn't the same thing, but it was a start. "Alright," he said casually, the cockpit still open, "weapon targeting is good. Radio's functioning properly......need to get the machine gun fixed, but that's gonna be child's play."

The man stepped back, admiring Nathan's handiwork. "Not bad, you work quick. Here's hoping there's spare parts for the gun, yeah?"

"Well the gun's jammed," Nathan said as he turned the frame off, letting it settle back down into its parked mode before jumping out. "Just a simple fix.......now, about that fan," he said, looking around. "Where's the patient?" Nathan asked, using his usual nickname for any mechanical jobs that needed to be done.

The man started walking, beckoning Nathan on. "Over here, unfortunately near where the Imperials parked, but there's nothing I can do about that now." He said, taking off to a light jog.

Suddenly stopping in his tracks, Nathan said with wide eyes "Imperials? There's fucking Imperials here?" A mix of fear and anger welled up inside as he snarled "Why the hell aren't they riddled with bullets?"

The guy stopped and looked back at Nathan. "because they defected, saved a bunch of us and as much as we all want to kill those assholes, Major Irving said we can't, and believe me when I say he is the LEAST likely to accept any Imperial help. Just...try to stay out of their way. Come on. I want to get this done before we have to move out again."

"Oh I'm staying out of their way, no issue there," Nathan muttered. "Stay right of their way to the point I'm not doing shit for them....." Following the guy, he kept walking in the red sand, his boots already getting caked in it. "So, Brawler, Scout, or Hunter?" he asked.

"Scout. It was uhm...Corvas Mark One. You know, those old ones with the four machine guns and huge legs? One of those. Took some shrapnel and it got it's ass handed to it." The guy weaved a path through all of the parked Frames, being semi-forced to go along the edge of the Imperial camp, his pace quickening slightly.

Juno glanced up from the leg of her frame, having discovered some slight damage to the joint. She could repair with what she had on hand, but it was still going to take some time. A pair of rebels walked along the edge of the defector camp, and a couple of the Imperial pilots were watching them like hawks. Something about it gave her a bad feeling, and she made sure her pistol was securely attached to her waist.

"Military grade or did they retrofit it?" Nathan asked. He wasn't aware of anyone watching, though he was nervous all the same walking so close to the Imp's.

"Military. One of the first designs." the man replied, glancing over at the Imperials nervously. He was visibly starting to get nervous, a bit of sweat forming on his brow. "Yours?"

"Not mine," Nathan said quickly. "Retrofit though......old excavator class used for mining, before they removed the original arms and bolted on guns." Checking his belt to make sure he didn't forget any tools, more out of habit than anything else, he said "Well, military made will be easier......at least it means the damned thing wasn't cobbled together."

One of the defectors still working on his Frame near the edge of the camp swore loudly as something on his Frame sparked, making him flinch. Something flew out of place, landing a few inches away from the two rebels walking by. The Imperial didn't speak straight away, though all of the other Imperials were now paying attention, as well as some of the nearby rebels.
"Would you mind passing that back?" He said, staring at the two of them.

Now, Nathan being as high strung as he was about being near the Imps, it wasn't surprising for him to react like someone had thrown a live grenade at him. All he knew was something went flying through the air from their side of the camp and landed all but at his feet. So he dove for cover, dragging the other guy with him while screaming "GRENADE!"

Juno, as well as the other defectors, reacted immediately. Taking cover and drawing weapons, none of them fired, yet, but it was only a matter of time. Juno herself had taken aim at the mechanic who had called out, unsure whether he'd thrown one or not.