Dropship Blood Castle

Anywhere System
Tamar March
Federated Commonwealth
29 March, 3050

     They made their way quickly back to one of the mech bays, though a different one from the one where she had earlier fought her ill advised match with Mechwarrior Abigail. As they entered, Abigail gestured wide with her arms. " I never tire of seeing these great monsters resting in their berths. There is something peaceful about seeing such a great piece of technology resting and undisturbed by the chaos of war. You have never seen OmniMechs such as these in their slumber, have you, surat?"

     "Not except in passing, no." She glanced around the bay, which held something on the order of 15 mechs. There were techs moving all about, and a few scattered warriors inspecting their machines. "Why do you call them OmniMechs?"

     "These beasts are the finest Battlemechs ever produced by humanity. We call them OmniMechs because of their modular construction. Unlike the primitive rust traps you no doubt have had to field in the Inner Sphere, these Mechs can be customized  by adding and removing modular weapon pods to suit the situation."

     Fiona noticed one of the squat mechs that she had faced in combat twice. "There, what is that one? I fought two duels against Falcon warriors, each was in one of those."

     Abigail turned and looked up. "That is a Kit Fox. It is a light, multipurpose mech. It has respectable armor and weapons, and reasonable speed. It is something of a compromise at thirty tons, able to do much, much standing out at little. I suppose we should find out who it was that you fought and retrieve their battleroms. I am interested to see how you defeated Trueborn warriors with inferior Inner Sphere technology."

     Fiona smiled slightly. "Some of it had to do with me fighting from a Wyvern, having a fifteen ton advantage on them helped. The rest, call it skill."

     Abigail led her further down the mechbay. "Do not get too full of yourself, surat. Luck played a large part, no doubt." She stopped at a large, hunched over chassis with blocky arms and boxy shoulders reminiscent of a Catapult. "This is my mech. I would have burned you to ash had we met in combat. Come, let me show you inside."

      The two climbed the ladder up to the upper level gantry, and swung out the boom gondola to the entrance hatch of the mech. Abigail climbed in first, and Fiona followed, squeezing herself in behind the command couch. "This is a Timber Wolf. It is not traditionally a Falcon mech, but I claimed it as Isorla in a pre-invasion trial against the likes of Clan Wolf. I was then granted the honor of piloting her into battle against the pitiful resistance we have seen thusfar in the Inner Sphere. She is marvelous, is she not?"

     Fiona looked over the controls and displays, which Abigail had brought up in low power mode. "It is incredible. How are so many weapons packed onto one chassis? It's like a Marauder and a Catapult had a love child. And it's not even an assault mech?"

     Abigail nodded. "Watch your language, surat. I will overlook it on account of your amazement with our superior technology."

     The two sat for hours going over the cockpit, discussing the advances in technology that made the mech possible, recounting battle stories, and so on. Finally, they disembarked the OmniMech and made their way back down to the deck of the Mechbay. Abigail surprised Fiona by inviting her to join her for an evening meal, which she readily accepted, devouring the galley food in place of rations. 

     Abigail surprised her further by inviting her to her quarters after the meal. They stepped through the bulkhead and closed it on the small room, which was little more than a bunk, a small table and a small adjoining bathroom.  It was decorated, but sparsely, and Fiona definitely got the all business feel that Abigail projected from her quarters as well. Abigail produced a bottle from a drawer with an oddly colored liquid, and handed a small glass to Fiona. She poured a small amount of the liquid, which immediately gave off a strong odor of alcohol, into the glass.

    "I do not suppose they probably drink this in the Inner Sphere, we call it a fusionaire. It is foul, but functional. This is the pre-mixed version. They are somewhat more palatable when made from scratch." She took a swig from the bottle as Fiona downed her glass and came up coughing. "You were impressed by our mechs, What weight class would you target if you were to become a warrior again?"

     Fiona fought off the aftereffects of the fusionaire before responding. "So it is an 'if' now? Are you starting to believe in me, Mechwarrior Abigail?"

     The clanner smiled dismissively. "You have spirit, surat. I will say this, I would have cast you aside and broken you if I did not think you had some small chance at succeeding, you being Lovvins plaything notwithstanding. But you have impressed and surprised me at every turn. That I could not have predicted." She poured another shot of fusionaire for Fiona, and took another swig herself.

     Fiona steadied herself as the fusionaire burned it's way down her throat. "I'll take that as a yes."

     Abigail stood up, steadying herself by holding the bar above the bed. She looked down at Fiona and seemed to laugh inwardly. "You have no idea, surat, the challenges you face. And yet you still come at them every day."

     Fiona felt the warmth of the alcohol flooding through her body. "It's not like I have a choice. It's who I am. I sink or swim. Or...I guess in this case, fly or fall out of the nest and get run over."

     The awkward joke elicited a slight smile from the clan woman. She pressed her hand to the side of Fiona's face. "Couple with me tonight, surat?"

      Fiona leaned back in surprise, unsure of how to react or what she had just heard. Was it phrased as a question or a command? She stammered slightly. "Wha- what?"

     Abigail pulled back her and and looked down and away. "It was not a command. You can refuse, of course, I simply wished to-" Fiona stood and pressed a finger to the other woman's lips, and they stared into each others eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Fiona broke the stare down and unzipped the top of her jumpsuit. 

     It was all the signal the two needed. The coupling went on for hours, though it was not what Fiona expected. All of their interactions had been tense and terse, but their coupling was far from it. They explored each other for hours, neither one settling completely into any kind of submissiveness toward the other, but neither becoming too aggressive that it would shatter their detente.

     Finally, a few hours later, they lay beside each other. Fiona broke the silence. "I assume you did not wake up this morning and expect your evening to end this way?"

     Abigail laughed softly. "Do you always deflect with humor, surat?"

     "What am I deflecting from?"

     "What you want to ask is why I asked you to couple with me."

     Fiona lay still. "Maybe. But I figure you would tell me when you were ready."

     Abigail closed her eyes. "What if my answer was that we needed to break the ice, as it were. And that you are finally coming into your own and are not some frail Inner Sphere trinket and so I felt the desire?"

     Fiona rolled over to look at the woman beside her. "I would say you are probably lying since you started your answer with 'what if my answer was'. And that if I deflect with humor, you deflect by doubling down on what is right and proper and expected."

     Abigail opened her eyes and turned her head to face Fiona. "What you said today, about being sure of your path, but feeling alone on it, it mirrors some of my own feelings from my sibko days. We start out as many in the sibko, but by the time that warrior testing comes there are often only a handful. In my own sibko near the end, we were down to six of us. We had grown up together, learned to live and fight together. But suddenly at the end, each finds themselves very much alone. I remember that feeling well. My sibkin were beside me but I was alone. I could trust no one, think of no one but myself. I would fly or die on my own abilities. It was a feeling of being all alone in a crowd."

     She paused. Fiona took the pause as a chance to interject. "And what happened? I mean obviously you are a warrior, so you passed whatever test you faced."

     "Aff, I and one other of my sibko tested out as warriors. But our friendships were shattered, the sibko was no more. I felt very alone. The concept of the Clan was vague and nebulous, and offered no comfort. I found purpose again, obviously, but I do not think I will ever forget that feeling."

     "You guys, you are so different, even in your childhood. I do not know that I will ever be able to fully adapt."

      Abigail raised herself onto her elbows. "And yet our emotions are the same. The honest answer to your question, is that I do not know why I asked you here tonight. I saw your plight, I empathized, and it happened. I do not regret it. I hope that you do not either."

     Fiona smiled playfully. "Does this mean that you are on my side now?"

     Abigail elbowed her gently. "It means that you are a filthy freebirth with delusions of grandeur who will most likely meet an inglorious end, but that I will not challenge you to a trial of refusal should you beat all odds and succeed. Take that as you will."