Cavalier's Gambit 2 -ch 14-

Chapter 14

Wayne felt itchy. Like when his mother used ‘Bunbun Blue’ detergent when he was a kid and it make him break out in a rash and hives all over.

To the point that he spent more time itching at his skin than he did staring at girls.

“How bad is this for me again?” Wayne grumbled, as poured more water into the rag he was using and scrubbing at his face, neck and head. He looked to the dropship pilot from, surprisingly, the Hesh house.

The woman was digging around in the first aid kit that most pilots had in the cock pit.

“Bad,” the pilot grumbled as she flicked through the contents. She found whatever it was she was looking for, broke the seal, undid the cap, and then stuck sub-dermal applicator into it. “This’ll help and bring down the symptoms.

“For now, keep scrubbing. Change the rag after you finish with your face. This’ll help limit the problem. Your exposure was really light so it’s not as bad as Captain Chilton feared,” the pilot answered and then tapped at the applicator. She shuffled forward, grabbed Wayne by the belt, and started unbuckling it.

“Uh,” Wayne said in a flat and very nervous tone. He was positive the pilot needed to get at his thigh rather than doing anything strange. “Want… me to do it and turn around or something and—”

The pilot jerked his pants down to Wayne’s ankles, the clank and thump of the buckle smacking into the deckplates even as they continued to fly away from the combat zone.

They couldn’t simply fly upwards as they’d likely get taken out by a missile from a jet. Until they cleared the immediate hostilities they couldn’t break into orbit.

Grabbing him by the thigh, the pilot leaned in and slapped the sub-dermal applicator to his leg. There was a brief hiss and he felt a pinch but that was it.

“Oh, wow,” Barbie said, entering the area at the front of the drop ship specific to the pilots and personal crew. “That’s… fast, Wayne.”

Even as he wiped at his face he looked down at the pilot kneeling in front of him, then to Barbie and Cara who had just come in through the doorway. From their perspective, he knew exactly what it looked like.

The latter’s leg was moving stiffly but seemed alright. As if they’d splinted it or medically treated it already. That or she hadn’t actually broken it, but bruised it.

Wayne wasn’t quite sure.

“Come back in ten minutes for the next show?” he offered in a voice that didn’t even sound like his. At the same time the pilot only laughed, moved away from him, and started digging around in the medical kit again.

“That takes care of a lot of it, but you’ll still need to decontaminate and get an actual medical clear,” the pilot warned. “You’re not on a clock as much but you still are in a different way.”

“I heard he usually only takes like ten minutes,” Barbie said as she came closer, then leaned over, peering at Wayne’s front and his currently boxer-clad self. Staring at his wait then back up to his face. “Or so what Tink told me when I got her to talk about it.”

“I did say ten minutes for the next show,” Wayne said, dropped the rag to the side and grabbed another from the locker he was standing in front of. It had a bunch of hand towels in it that looked like they were used to clean up the ship at times.

Grabbing the water bottle he poured a liberal amount on the cloth then started wiping down at his left arm.

The pilot shook her head, laughed, and looked between Wayne and Barbie.

“I didn’t think this would be how my first day as Lord Hesh’s dropship pilot would be,” she murmured then closed up the first aid kit. “I’m going to go hand this off to the infantry in there. They could use it to help a few people out and honestly your case isn’t so bad. You just need a real decontamination and medical help.”

Smiling at him, the pilot left and went into the back of the ship.

“How’re we looking back there, Barbie?” Wayne asked, scrubbing at his arm with some strength. He could actually feel the thin film of some slippery material on his skin coming off as he wiped and pushed.

“Pretty great actually. You clearly work out,” Barbie replied, leaning away from him and clearly looking at his backside.

“Yes, our perfect Lord is perfect,” Cara agreed. “You know he asked for a situation report though. Lord, all is well. The mechanics are working on fixing what they can. Most of it was you, Sal, and Barbie.

“Barbie’s Walker got it’s joint freed again, apparently it was just a locked actuator that they were able to release. Your laser cannon is destroyed. Sal’s shield is destroyed. Your cockpit was sealed by you, but it’ll need a full rebuilt. The structural integrity of it is ruined.”

Barbie laughed and walked around Wayne to stand in front of him. She looked like she was contemplating helping him scrub down.

“Don’t. I can literally feel it on my skin. The pilot had gloves on for a reason,” Wayne warned. “If you help me, you’ll just get it on yourself,” Wayne said before she could do something. Even as he continued to wipe and scrub at his skin.

“Lord Hesh, I have Captain Chilton on the line,” came the voice of the other pilot at the front of the ship from the speaker above him. “Alright, put it through. I’m listening. Just… sponge bathing.”

“You’re what?” Wendy asked right above him.

The pilot had apparently put him through immediately.

“Scrubbing my skin. Trying to get some of this gunk off. Pilot has some basic medical. She said it’d help and injected me with something. Said this would help but it wouldn’t solve it,” Wayne answered. “Now what’s up? I wasn’t expecting you to just drop in on our way out.

“I’d normally ask what blew up, but at this point, it’s more ‘what didn’t blow up’ I guess.”

“Yeah, that, I guess,” Wendy agreed, sighed, and sounded bothered. “Bertson house is begging for you to do a special mission.

“They’ve got a number of family members they’re trying to evacuate from a family estate that’s outside of their fleet’s envelope. They can’t defend it directly, but neither can the enemy fire on it either.

“There’s a high probability that there’s a strike force inbound to capture or kill everyone at the estate.”

Wayne groaned at the very idea of what was being said. The last thing he wanted to do was to get back down on the planet and head back into combat.

“They just want us to land, grab them, and get out?” Wayne asked.

“That’s… the problem, actually,” Wendy grumbled. “They just want you to go in, get them out, then be gone. Which isn’t that big of an issue.

“It’s what isn’t being said that makes me leery and feeling like this is a bad idea.

“And what that is, is that if that strike force is indeed there, or on the way, it’s probably got some ugly portable anti-air weaponry with it. If you manage to get in, you could get stuck there as they could easily be ready to knock you out of the sky if you try to leave.

“That assumes you get in. If they’ve already set up in the area, or nearby, that means that the dropship might get blown up on arrival.

“There’s three failure points and I hate them all. Arrival, death, Arrival, stuck. Arrival, departure, death.”

Wayne couldn’t disagree with hwer at any point. Her logic was sound and made sense.

Each of the three failure points she listed were all critical points that couldn’t be argued with. They were risks that would be there and couldn’t be nullified in advance.

“In other words, we can’t do it because it’s too much of a risk and we’d likely just get creamed,” Wayne summarized.

“That’s my personal thoughts, but I know you, Wayne. You’re going to ask me probably two questions, maybe three, then suggest a course of action I’ve already thought about,” Wendy complained.

Unable to help himself, he grinned and nodded his head.

It seemed Wendy had figured him out, down to his DNA.

“How many are we supposed to save? Are they fat?” he asked. If it wasn’t more than two people, he could probably stuff them into patchwork with him and exit quickly. All they’d have to do is hot drop him in by dropship and then wait for his return. Especially if the pay and favors were high value. “How high is the pay? How much would it benefit Mirkil?”

“Two people if they’re both alive. Neither is fat,” Wendy answered quickly. It sounded like she was looking through paperwork as she did. “The nephew of the crowned prince of Bertson and a daughter far removed from the line of inheritance. Primary is the nephew, that’s success or failure. The daughter is a secondary.

“The pay is eye-watteringly high. It’s just… it’s gross. It’s very very high and it reeks of absolute shrieking need. This nephew knows more than he should alive and dead. I have no idea why and it isn’t our place to ask why given the pricetag they offered.

“As to what it would get for Mirkil… a lot. It’d probably give Josephine and her dad enough prestige, given that you’re the royal fiance and Mirkil house, that they could ask for a small planet that hasn’t been colonized yet and get it.

“This mission would give Mirkil house a lot of room to navigate with the Bertson house and all their allies, without ever having to enter the Bertson sphere of influence, or give up anything.

“Now that I’ve answered all of that. I can already guess what you’re going to suggest next. It’ll be something along the lines of ‘I’ll just go get them in Patchwork’, or along those lines. Right?”

“More or less,” Wayne admitted. “Cara’s been keeping good care of Patchwork so I know it’s in pristine working condition. I could get in as as scout, put both in, since I already know Cara never put physical controls back in after her implant, fit them, and get back out.

“I think I could make it happen pretty cleanly and quickly, honestly.”

The biggest issue would be getting that chip in Warhorse over to Patchwork. He wasn’t sure if he could manage that on his own but he’d been the one to put it in the first time.

He didn’t think it’d be an issue, he wasn’t a noober when it came to Walker’s after all. Moving a chip from one to another was certainly something he could manage.

Wendy sighed loudly, and then groaned.

“Wayyyne, you’re not supposed to risk yourself like this. The whole point was to stop risks like this, wasn’t it?” Wendy demanded.

Wayne laughed at that, shrugged, and shook his head.

“I’m not going to run away and hide,” Wayne said with a laugh. “I’m not going to just take my ‘house’ and go pretend I’m something I’m not. I don’t have a grand enough name to shot-call from the back every time.

“That’s a name like Alexander or Felix. Maybe Edmund. I’m just… Wayne. And Wayne… Wayne gets in there and gets the job done.

“So, thoughts?

“I feel like it’s worth it if the pay and the prestige is that high. Just make sure they know I don’t want pay unless we complete the mission. Just in case both of the targets are already dead.

“I do expect them to cover costs for the mission though even if both targets are already dead.”

“They won’t argue with that,” muttered Wendy. It sounded like she had her head down in her hands and was rethinking her world view. “They’re willing to pay half the contract amount up front just for you to make planetside and get to the estate itself.

“Miriam said don’t take it.

“Josephine said don’t take it.

“I say don’t take it.”

“Take it,” Cara said immediately, with force and absolute conviction. “Take it! You’re Lord Hesh! My perfect Lord!”

Cara said it and marched over to him. Her bright red hair and star-like eyes gazing at him in a way that made Natalie seem like a casual fan of his.

“Yes,” she hissed, staring into his eyes. Her fingers twitched and her hands clenched into themselves. It looked like she wanted to grab him.

Looking at her, he smirked, watching her.

“I’ll do it,” he said, staring at Cara. “Though it seems like I might need to beg Tink to make a specialized light-Walker for me. I can’t keep taking Patchwork from Cara. I may have made the damn thing, but it’s not mine alone anymore. A specific Walker for Cara and her needs.”

Cara’s eyes flew wide and she nodded her head.

“Oh, Tink’s already working on that. All those Walker’s that Josephine and Miri keep parading in front of her has spurred her own. Destrier was completed with all the parts she got from Josephine.

“She finished up Natalie’s and Barbie’s rebuilds, last I heard. She’s in the middle of building one outright for Cara.”

“Why am I unsurprised. She’s a genius,” Wayne said, then huffed. “Okay! Go ahead and sign on the line for me, Witty and Attractive Captain Chilton.

“I’ll see if I can get my skin scrubbed clean and get ready. I’ll let you handle the pilot and everything else. You’re an amazing woman, Wendy.”

“Alright,” Wendy mumbled, sounding as if she was still face down in her hands. Not that he could blame her.

He could easily empathize with her position and see it from her point of view. From her shoes, no less.

“I’m not looking to be stupidly heroic, Wendy. I’ll do everything I can to keep myself safe. This is an opportunity though,” Wayne said softly. “These things don’t come up that often and neither do they present themselves in such an easy way.”

“Yeah,” Wendy whispered, followed by a cough. “Yes. I understand. I expect you to come back safely. I’ll arrange the decontamination  for your arrival after you finish this mission.

“I’ve already taken care of all the arrangements for the pilot as well. They’ve course corrected to make this happen.

“You owe me so many dinners, Wayne Hesh. So many. Do you understand?”

Grinning he only nodded his head. He had been scrubbing at his arms the whole time. He threw the hand towel to the side, grabbed a new one, than pulled off his shirt.

“I understand Wendy, I’ll make sure you get those dinner dates,” he promised. “Please disconnect the line and do what you need to Wendy, I’ll get ready here. You’re talking to us through an intercom so I can’t really hang up or anything on my own.”

“Got it,” Wendy said.

Wayne huffed, spread water onto the new hand towel, and set to work scrubbing at himself.

***

Settling into Patchwork Wayne was surprised.

It felt as it should, but also, not.

Not at all.

He’d moved the chip over successfully but hadn’t really looked around the interior of the cockpit. So focused in his task that he had barely looked up at all.

Now that he was getting ready to drop from the dropship and haul ass, he now realized it wasn’t the same feeling anymore. It reminded him of going to an area that he used to know, only to come back after a few years.

Things were where they should be, but that there was also a lot of things that were different.

Cara hadn’t changed anything, but it didn’t feel as it should to him either.

The smell was different. The feel of the seat was different.

Even the lights to the alerts on the sides felt different.

Reaching up to adjust the fan, he found it was gone, causing him to look upward.

It wasn’t where it should be, but it was still there. It was directly in front now and above him. It’d blow down across his face and down his front instead of the back of him now.

“Huh,” he murmured as he got settled into place, then turned the fan on. “Not my Walker anymore. In fact… Cara might want to keep Patchwork for herself rather than have Tink make her one.”

He wasn’t speaking to anyone other than himself.

Much as he had often done when he took his first missions.

A memory of killing Rodents of Unusual Size popped into his mind.

“Fucking ROUS, they were nasty,” he said and held his breath as the bay drop light turned yellow from red.

Bracing himself, Wayne sat there.

Then it turned green and Patchwork, and Wayne, were set loose.

They plummeted out of the dropship, fell to the planet’s surface some thirty feet, and hit with a boom.

Yet no sooner than Patchwork was able to move, Wayne was off at a dead sprint.

The waypoint marker was visible with his eye and on the inside of the Steel-Glass.

Sprinting across the distance, Wayne began making his way to the target.

A flicker of paper caught his eyes and he looked down.

Nearly directly beneath him and attacked to the medical kit that was always there.

Stuck to what looked like a small sheet of steel stuck into the kit itself he saw a series of pictures.

An older man and woman that looked like Cara but also not.

Two children, which weren’t hers he knew since Cara had told him she had no children. That meant they were likely siblings or her and a sibling.

Next to that, were several pictures of Wayne.

Wayne doing various things in the garage and even the captured photo of him standing upon the edge of a capital ship after crippling the Dashi fleet single handedly.

Below that was another picture.

Of Cara and Wayne standing side by side, taking by Miriam after he’d returned to the group after his space victory. They’d been stated as PR photos but clearly Cara had gotten once for hself.

He only noticed in this moment that Cara wasn’t looking at the camera.

She was staring at Wayne.

“Fuck to the death, right?” Wayne said to himself. “But it isn’t that at all. It’s something very Dashi. I’ll need to go to Dashi with her.

“Let’s hope that translation AI arrives soon. Then I can eat it. Then I’ll be able to understand Dashi, even if I can’t speak it. It’ll certainly make it easier to learn though. It did say it had an education function as well.”

Wayne ran on.