5 minutes...... oldwrench tries story telling

[oldwrench]

That's really nice Sakura, thanks. Just wish I were a better writer though.

Well, I'm back with chapter 41. The battle is over and things have settled down in the ship, for now. Things are building up with the crew again though.


Chapter 41

Before he entered the life pod, colonel Hellwind looked back at Georgianna, “You can
put your gun away, captain.” Then he followed the med techs into the pod.

John jumped up as soon as Georgianna was out of her mech. He brushed by Megumi as
he hurried to her mech and climbed the steps to the platform. Georgianna holstered her gun and
stood up, to fast. Already tired and shaky from the extreme stress of the day, and a night without
sleep, she stumbled and almost fainted. John caught her and wrapped his arms around her.

“Hmm, this feels nice, just like old times.” He quietly whispered in her ear.

Georgianna relaxed as she heard John’s familiar voice. Yes, just like old times, she felt
safe and comfortable in his strong arms.

John sighed, he knew well how stressful the last few days had been. He knew
Georgianna was like a flare, that burned brightly, but now she was burned out. “I think I should
take you to bed, sweetheart.”

Georgianna stiffened and pushed John away, “Not a chance, you damned lecher,” she
growled at him. “Go find one of your other girls.” She turned and hurried down the steps and ran
into Rose.

Rose held onto the captain as she tried to keep them both from falling over. “Are you
alright, Georgianna? You look about ready to drop.” She said quietly.

Georgianna got herself back under control. “I’m ok,” she replied, “I didn’t get much sleep
lately, and it’s been a bad day.”

“I’m with you there, captain,” Rose assured her. “That must have been really tough on
you. Maybe I should take you to bed, it doesn’t look like you’ll make it yourself.”

“Ya, thanks,” Georgianna replied, still feeling pretty shaky. “You’re probably right. A
little rest and I’ll be just fine.” She let Rose lead her out of the hangar, and on the way to her
room realized, “take you to bed,” she had misread John. She shook her head, she’d been wrong,
how much more was she wrong about?

Colonel Hellwind stood outside the door of the life pod. The med techs had
unceremoniously pushed him out. They needed the room to disconnect and remove the autodoc
with it’s occupant. He looked down at the girl who was the pilot-controller from the
Ticonderoga. He wondered what she had recorded of the incident. Controllers were linked to the
ships main computer and stored most of their data there, so she may not have a lot to offer.
Johana had to survive, so he could find out what had happened......... and for other reasons. Dan
watched anxiously as the auto doc was carefully maneuvered out of the life pod. The doctor
stopped by the colonel as a med tech pushed the capsule toward sick bay.

Ryoko spoke up first, “Colonel Hellwind, may I be allowed to accompany colonel
Kerlov?”

Dan smiled at the girl, he knew controllers appeared to be emotionless, but they were
actually very loyal to their commanders. “Yes, of course you can, Ryoko,” he told her, “but I’ll
want to talk to you later.” Dan looked at the doctor as the girl walked away. “How is she, doc?”

“Her injuries don’t appear to be life threatening,” the doctor replied, “but, I won’t sugar
coat it, she has a head injury and we won’t know the extent of the damage till she wakes up. We
can repair the hemorrhaging and pressure, but if there’s damage.............”

“I understand, just do your best.” Dan answered, feeling a bit helpless. He followed the
doctor down the hall. “How is lieutenant Harcourt doing?”

“Everything looks like it should heal up just fine, but he won’t be piloting a mech for
quite a while.” The doctor told him.


Chad wandered through the bare metal corridors of the ship. Several things were
bothering him, captain Torres said the mechs were all missing from the Ticonderoga. Where did
they go? And, what were those black mechs, and where did they get cloaking? Mostly, he
wondered where Arisa was. She wasn’t in the hangar, and Chad was sure she would have been
there, trying to get her mech repaired. He just didn’t think she’d be one to run off while there was
a fight going on.

Chad stopped in the doorway to the observation lounge. The viewing ports were still
closed by the battle shutters, but Arisa was sitting quietly there, her hands in her lap.”There
wasn’t much to see out there anyway,” Chad said quietly.

Arisa jumped, then turned around, wiping her eyes. “It’s over then, we weren’t destroyed,
like he said we would be.” She hung her head, “I should have been there, I failed. Keon’s never
let me down before.”

“Don’t worry about it, mechs have problems sometimes.” Chad tried to sooth her. “It
wasn’t a fight for Lancers anyway, to much inside fighting. Lieutenant Harcourt’s Lancer got
wrecked. He got hurt pretty bad, I guess. And captain McFarlaine’s mech got messed up some,
but she’s ok. Everybody else is ok too.”

Arisa’s fists clenched, “I should have been out there, I should have been with the captain.
I needed to do this, I was so ready, and now I still don’t know if I can fight a real battle. At least
you got a chance to fight, to prove yourself.”

“I really didn’t do much,” Chad told her as he leaned against the wall. “I was just an OP,
((observation post)) I tried to keep up with where the enemy were. The rest of the guys did the
fighting.” Chad sighed, “There’ll be plenty of other opportunities to test yourself, Arisa. I have a
feeling this was just the beginning.” Chad was still a little confused, if she felt like that, why was
she here and not trying to get her mech running? He just felt there was something else. “That
isn’t why you’re in here, is it. Something else is bothering you.” Chad had seen her tears, and
found himself wanting to make her feel better. “What happened?”

Arisa folded her hands and looked down, “It isn’t important, it was just Kirk. He tried to
drag me off to a life pod.”

“Who’s Kirk?” Chad asked, “And why would he be trying to drag you to a life pod?”

“Kirk is the guy that you scared off the day we had that practice. He told me they were
going to destroy the ship.” She told him. She looked up at Chad. “He’s someone I knew from my
childhood. His family are minor rivals of our industries. Kirk thinks he can drag me off and force
me to marry him, that way he can get his hands on my family’s wealth and businesses.”

“I thought you said you had an older brother, wouldn’t he take over your family’s
holdings? That Kirk guy wouldn’t get that much then. Would he?” Chad questioned.

Arisa looked back down. “He...... he told me my brother was dead.” Arisa sobbed “I think
he put a contract out on my brother, so he could take me and inherit my family fortune.”

“Hey, that can’t be true. Your brother must be to smart for that.” Chad tried to cheer her
up. “Besides, if something happened to your brother they would have sent word to you.”

“My brother?” Arisa snorted. “He’s dumber than a box of rocks, but you’re right, I’d
have heard if something happened, my father probably discovered their plans.”

“Ya, that’s right,” Chad smiled, “and when I see Kirk, I’ll make sure he never bothers you
again.”

“No, Chad, he isn’t worth it. You’d just get in a lot of trouble.” She answered. “I don’t
think he’ll bother me anymore, I punched him in the nose, really hard.”

Chad looked at the small girl for a moment and laughed at the picture in his mind. “I hope
you broke his nose.”

Arisa laughed too, “Ya, I hope so.”

“How about we go to the cafeteria and I get you something to drink, like a soda or tea or
something?” Chad offered.

“I’d like that,” Arisa answered as she got up and started out of the room. “I wish you
could make that a beer though.”

Chad stopped and looked at the small girl, “huh?”

“What? Don’t you think I’m old enough?” She looked up at the tall young man.

“Ah.... no, it’s just....” Chad stammered.

Arisa laughed, “Germans aren’t the only ones who bottle feed their babies. I could drink
you under the table.”

Arisa laughed again as she lead Chad down the hall. Chad thought it was a nice sound.










.

[oldwrench]

I really am working on another chapter, just haven't had a lot of time lately.

[oldwrench]

Finally getting around to the next chapter. The battle is over, but the questions are just beginning. There's just to much that the colonel doesn't know, that might be what brings down his mission. Can colonel Hellwind come up with answers, can he keep his command together. And just who is he getting his orders from?

let's see where this is going.

Chapter 42


Colonel Hellwind sat next to Ryoko, it had been over two years since he had seen Johana,
now he could only pray she would be alright. “Ryoko, what was your mission here, and what
happened to your ship?” He asked the controller.

“I am unable to answer your inquiry as to the nature of our mission, sir,” she replied
calmly. “We did receive an order to break off our mission and move the ship to these co-
ordinates. At this position there was an explosion in the hangar, the hull was compromised and
anyone in the hangar deck was a casualty. Within minutes we were attacked, the attackers were
not detectable by the ships sensor system. They entered through the hull breach and broke in
through the bulkhead doors. It was useless to try to fight them. A few of the crew and pilots
launched life pods, colonel Kerlov joined me in the bridge. I destroyed the main computer
memory banks while the colonel held off the attackers. The colonel was injured in an explosion. I
transferred the colonel to a life pod but the system jammed and the pod was halted halfway out of
the port. I placed the colonel in the automated medical unit and waited ten hours before
attempting to free the pod. I shut the engine down after launch hoping to evade any detection.

“You did well Ryoko,” he told the girl. “So, there are no records of your mission? Do you
remember any of it?”

“No sir, all the records gathered were contained in the main memory banks, and I
destroyed the memories as per regulations.” She answered quietly. “Any hope of recovering the
data lies with the colonels memory.”



Chad leaned over Arisa, looking over the selections on the automated dispensers while
she waited for her order to be completed. He wondered if he should order something healthy
again, or should he.......... Chad leaned forward to push his selections. WHAP!, Chad almost fell
head first into the machines. He caught himself and wrapped an arm around Arisa to keep from
bumping her into the machine.

“It’s the Ghost! Hero of the day.” boomed Ben’s loud voice.

Arisa pushed free of Chad’s arm and stuck her head out around him to look up at Ben.
“Hero??” She asked him, a bit surprised.

“Hey, didn’t see you there little lady,” He smiled at her, “yup, if it hadn’t been for eagle
eyes here, we’d all be toast by now.”

Arisa stepped back and looked up at Chad, “you told me you didn’t do much.”

“I didn’t, Really.” He protested. “I just kept a lookout.”

Megumi came around from behind Ben. “Oh, he is,” she told Arisa, “the enemy mechs
had cloaking, not even the ship could see them, but his Ghost could. If he hadn’t kept us
informed where the enemy were, we wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“The others did the fighting,” Chad protested, “I just sat there and watched. It really
wasn’t that much.”

“Well, we were just lucky you and that ghost were assigned to this command,” Captain
Torres said as he and Rose came into the room. They were followed by most of the others. This
would have been a tough fight even if they hadn’t had the cloaking, but we’d have been lost if
you hadn’t been able to see where they were.”

Everyone sat in a group after they picked up their selections from the food dispensers.
Captain Pryde came in and sat down at the outer edge of the group. He, and most of the others
didn’t notice John come in and sit a bit apart from the group. John was feeling a bit down. It had
been a tough fight, something just wasn’t right with Epyon. And then, Georgianna’s outburst,
what was that about? Darn, just when he thought he had a chance again. This wasn’t going to be
a very good mission for him after all.

Chad was once again amazed, not so much by what Ben had piled on his plate, but by the
amount little Megumi brought to the table. Pound for pound, she was out eating the big guy.
Chad dug into his own plate of pancakes and sausages. Maybe it wasn’t healthy food, but it was
good stuff.

Ben looked at Dominic, “Cap, for a while there, I was going to suggest we rename Chad,
Hawkeye. But when he took out that mech that was attacking me I changed my mind, that was
the spookiest thing I ever saw. The mech appeared to my right and I didn’t have a chance to get
my shield around. I figured I’d had it, then his arm just came off. The guy started flailing around,
and he just started coming apart at the joints, then blew up. It looked so weird till I figured it had
to be the Ghost doing it. Then I saw the shadow of his power knife. He took the thing out with
just his knife. ”

“You didn’t say you got a kill,” Arisa accused Chad.

“It was just the one, I didn’t think about it,” Chad told her. “I was watching the others and
not paying attention to what was around us. When it popped up between Ben and I, I had to take
it out............... Ben got two of them, one by captain McFarlaine and one by Megumi.”

“I knew that was a rail gun,” Megumi said looking up at Ben, “I was sure it had to be you.
Thanks, I thought I ‘d had it.”

“No problem, Megumi. I had ya covered.” Ben smiled at the girl.

“No problem?” Chad asked incredulous. “That shot was impossible, he didn’t have time
to target that guy, he didn’t even stop spinning!”
Colonel Hellwind stood in the doorway listening as Chad told the story of Ben’s shot, The
group then began to exchange stories of their battles, and their victories. The colonel counted
them up, Chad: one, Ben: two, Dominic: two, Rose: two, Louis: one, Kaze: one, Megumi: one,
Aiden: three. That was thirteen out of, what Chad had reported as, twenty four enemy. Plus they
took out that asteroid rail gun, and they had only lost one mech, not a bad day.

“So everybody got a kill except captain McFarlaine?” Arisa asked.

“No,” Aiden said, “Jeff was taken out before he could get any, and John didn’t get a kill
either. He didn’t do nearly as well as his story would have you believe.” He was looking at
Megumi. “He left his post without orders and got himself into trouble. Got his mech torn up
when he should have been defending the ship.” Aiden was still feeling angry about Jeff being
injured. He knew it was his fault, but his human nature was looking for someone else to place at
least part of the blame on. even though John would have been on the opposite side of the ship. He
didn’t see John sitting at another table, a bit behind him.

John gripped his cup tighter, sure, blame it on Johnny boy, he thought, they always do.

Chad was surprised at the venom in captain Pryde’s words. He didn’t Think John
deserved that. “That isn’t quite right, sir.” Chad told Aiden. “Liutenant Crichton tried to call you
for permission to aid captain McFarlaine. I heard him call three times. You must have been
having com difficulties. With no communication from you, John took the initiative to aid Captain
McFarlaine. The other two mechs from Red Phoenix wouldn’t be able to help her, but they would
be back at the Krikav in a short time. If John hadn’t gotten to captain McFarlaine when he did, I
don’t think she would have survived. John attacked three of the enemy mechs, and would have
tried to hold them off by himself if Ben hadn’t been able to take out one of them. It must have
been one heck of a fight, a Firefly against two of those mechs, I know I wouldn’t want to try it.”

Aiden knew Chad was right, he felt ashamed and was about to speak up when the colonel
walked into the room. “Yes, I’d say it was a pretty tough fight,” Dan said as he came in. “I was
about to call you all in for a debriefing, but it seems you’ve got it pretty well covered. The only
one missing is Captain McFarlaine.”

“She’s resting up a bit, sir,” Rose told him.

“That’s understandable,” Dan said, “it’s been a tough few days for all of us.”

“Colonel, what’s Jeff’s status?” Louis asked

“He’ll be alright, they told me, but it’s going to take some time.” Dan answered

“It wasn’t a good fight for a Lancer,” Ben told them, “those black mechs were about like
a Thunderbird, not a good match in a close fight for a Lancer. Jeff should have moved off and
waited for targets.”

“Jeff had lots of experience at close fighting,” Louis told Ben. “He shouldn’t have been
that easy to take down.”

“He wouldn’t have been,” Chad told them, “but his shield broke. I was looking at them
when he moved to block the mech’s shot, but his shield came off. There must have been
something wrong with the mounts.”

He knows, Aiden thought, he knows I was a sitting duck, that I wasn’t doing my job.
Damn it, soon they’ll all know........ I’m useless, worse, I’m a danger to the mission.

“Black mechs, about Thunderbird size............ Hmmmm,” Arisa mused. “What did they
look like?”

They all offered their descriptions, Rose gave the most detail. Arisa got a good picture of
what the enemy were using. “They definitely weren’t anything the EDF uses,” Rose told Arisa.

Arisa shook her head, “Nightmares.” she mumbled.

“I’ll say they were,” Louis added, “those things were tough to bring down.”

“No,” Arisa continued, “the Nightmare was a design by BAE-MIG, it was in competition
with our Thunderbird design for the EDF contract. Like most Russian designs, the Nightmare
was more heavily armored, but was a bit slower, and less versatile than our design, and lost out in
the end.. But what are they doing out here, and where did they get cloaking? I know the Russians
were working on cloaking, but they weren’t anywhere near ready to deploy it.”

“Those are good questions,” Colonel Hellwind cut in. “And ones we need to find
answers for.”

Arisa frowned, she knew the Ashford’s were heavily invested in BAE-MIG. Did that
have something to do with Kirk being here. He told her that “they” were going to destroy the
Krikav. Did he know something about the attack? What was the Ashford involvement with this?
She would have to get word to her father and see if he knew anything.

[Zeratul2k]

Another chapter, excellent! I see it keeps getting away from the original 5 Minutes RP, but I like where it's going. Keep it up!

[oldwrench]

Thanks for the encouragement, I need it. Time to work on the next chapter.

[Sakura]

I seem to have lost chapters 40+ from my inbox

[oldwrench]

They maybe haven't left my outbox yet. :) I was collecting a few before I send them.

[Sakura]

Mreoww I'm bored, just send them so I can update the pdf?

[oldwrench]

I sent them yesterday. If you're bored, Zera said he was making corrections to the original files. Don't know if you want that or not.

[Sakura]

This story needs more cats.

Or you might just dress up Arisa in a cat costume?

I know, Arisa is a normal purrson, Hume and Red Mage.