Hatchy's Helpers: True Stories from an Unbelievable Time

[Hatchy]

Captain Hatchsune cranes her neck up towards the large holo-map displayed on the wall of the bridge of the Beta Aquilea, her small stature makes her unable to view the map comfortably any other way without standing clear across the room. The name 'Aurigan Coalition' flickers across the top of the screen as names of systems and planets and jump points fill the rest.

DD, Hatchy's Helpers Second in Command, steps onto the bridge and his attention is drawn to his Commander viewing this unfamiliar system. He stands behind her and has an unobstructed view as he stands more than a foot taller than the blonde Captain. 'Whats this?'

She remains silent until she can sense DD's impatience, 'I dunno! It looks like its at the end of the universe!' She pinches her fingers against the display and shrinks it down, showing its very, very distant placement in relation to the Inner Sphere.

He sighs, 'Then why are you looking at it?' More of a rhetorical question, as he knows what the answer is going to be. 'We are here.' DD flicks his finger and scrolls the map much further up to where they are now, orbiting Tharkad.

Hatchy ignores the statement and moves the map back to its original position. 'I thought Arugula was a food...'

'What?' is the confused reply from her 2IC.

The Captain points to the Aurigan sector, 'Arugula!'

The bald DD takes a sharp breath in and holds it for a moment before answering, 'Aurigan, you mean.'

'Thats what I said!'

He lets the breath out and closes his eyes, 'You know that is about a years travel, right?'

'Great! Gives me lots of time to practice my harmonica!' Hatchy produces the instrument from a pocket and spins towards DD. Standing on her tip-toes she proceeds to play it as loudly -and poorly- as she can, garnering another sigh from her counterpart.

'The Archon personally insures that we stay employed, remember?'

'And?' She keeps playing in between words, 'I've checked the numbers, the foundation is doing really well. We can hire another ship and there is more than enough people qualified to take control while I'm gone. Nobody has to come, some can stay behind to help run the show.' Hatchsune's tone is that of being completely unconcerned.

DD's jaw drops as he stares at his tiny Captain, not understanding why she is willing to risk everything that everyone has worked so hard for.

Hatchsune stops playing and acknowledges the concern setting into D.D.'s face. She grabs his arm and sighs, 'We meet with her in a few days, we can ask if she can suggest someone to take over while we're gone, unless you want to stay and do it...' Hatchy's grip tightens as her voice goes soft, her blue eyes sparkle as they start to water with the thought of him not joining her on another adventure.

As he looks down at her, someone who is more of a baby sister than his commander, he understands that her mind is made up. "OK, Hatchy. We'll talk with her.'

She beams back up at him.

He takes his finger and points it just below her chin. She looks down to it and he flicks her in the nose, she giggles and falls into him. They both view the map silently for a while.

'What do you think?' Hatchy eventually says, still clutching DD's arm.

'Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.' And gently squeezes her shoulders.

 

[Hatchy]

‘Uniform six-4, in need of extraction. Heavy casualties, over.’

‘This is Hatchy-1, copy. Relay position, over.’

‘Super six-8, requesting aid. Over.’

‘This is Hatchy-1, copy. Relay position, over.’

As the Beta Aquilae loiters over the battlefield, dozens of requests for assistance from Lyran units roll in over the coms. A civil war had broken out in the system of Black Earth. It was later discovered that a Draconis Combine backed coup had given the advantage to the opposing political faction in order to have influence over the nearby Kikuyu system and its mineral resources. The advantage was a small mech force, that was mostly untraceable, which easily swatted aside the infantry heavy garrison. Hatchy’s Helpers medical expertise would be vitally needed as both military and civilian casualties were heavy and the small force of combined arms that the Helpers could field was enough to counter the upstart political faction.

The Leopard class dropship suddenly lurches as Hatchsune takes the controls, dipping the nose forward in order for her to see out the bridge viewports, her stature is too small to see out of them without flying the ship at a 45 degree angle, much to the discomfort of the ship’s occupants. The bridge crew pours over the IFF readings and chatter, best relaying the information to their commander. She then takes a moment to asses the information.

‘Kilo-11 to Hatchy-1, we are just East of Super six-8. Falling back to meet to Six-8, require medical assistance, over.’

‘Hatchy Actual to Kilo-11, request accepted. Medical inbound.’

‘Uniform six-4 to Hatchy Actual, we cannot fall back to six-8, over.’

‘Hatchy Actual to Uniform six-4. Extraction unavailable, but aid is inbound.’

‘Copy. Anything would help.’

‘Don’t worry Uniform six-4. Pedal to the floor, we’ve got you backdoor.’

‘Solid copy, Actual.’

The commander calls into the ship’s coms, ‘Hatchy One-5 and One-5 Bravo prepare for insertion in 6-zero. Proceed to sector 4-niner in support of Super six-8. Location should be on your screens now.’

The VTOL pilots confirm the order as they prep their machines for flight.

Hatchy One-4, prepare for insertion in Sector five-2 in support of Uniform six-4, location should be up on your HUD now. Insertion in one-20.

Hatchy One-4, the jump infantry commander responds, ‘Affirmative, commander.’ He looks down to the dog strapped to his body and pets his head and scratches behind his ears, ‘OK, Chopper! Time to go to work!’ He then feeds the dog a treat as the rear doors to the Leopard open. The infantry commander looks to his unit and gives a 2-minute hand signal then focuses his attention to the opening.

In the bay above him, the engines of Hatchy One-5 and One-5 Bravo hum steadily at low power. Standard procedure for Hatchy’s Helpers is that the birds are released first by being ‘dropped’ out of the back of the ship in succession at about 200 meters. As soon as the helicopters are clear, the jump infantry then throw themselves out of the back of the dropship with parachutes to slow their descent to the 50 meter mark or so to then release the chutes and use the jump packs to slow their landing.

‘Hatchy Actual to Hatchy One-2. BB, do you see that Firestarter to starboard?’

‘Affirmative, Actual.’ BB views the opposing mech from the multiple displays in his Shadow Hawk that are being fed the external view from the bridge.

‘AO prep is there, prepare for insertion after One-3 and One-4.’

‘Solid copy, Actual.’

‘What does she mean by that?’ The rescue dog handler and newest edition to the Helpers, Zoyra, expresses her wide-eyed concern to Hatchy’s Second in Command, DD.

The bald DD sighs as he checks the safety harnesses of the crew around him before he focuses on Zoyra’s dogs. The giant Blue Great Dane and a small Beagle bounce around a little as he checks their helmets and straps. He turns back to the young Zoyra, checks her harness and helmet and finally straps himself in.

‘Its why we need these,’ He taps his helmet and sighs again, ‘she’s...aggressive.’

Hatchsune raises the nose of the Beta Aquilae quickly and Zoyra’s head is snapped back with the sudden movement, she closes her eyes and starts praying to some ancient god as the rest of the crew carries on as if everything is normal.

With the Leopard now traveling upwards at a 45 degree angle, the wheel-clamps on the helicopters are released and they fall out of the back of the dropship. After a few moments of One-5 correcting its descent, Bravo is dropped and the pilot powers the engine up to recover in text-book precision. They soon give an ‘all clear’.

‘Chief Weapons Officer, deploy counter measures.’ Hatchy chimes over the comms, ‘Daisuke, you’re up.’

The Leopard’s CWO activates a barrage of blinding chaff ahead of One-4’s drop, filling the sky with material to obscure the deployment of the vulnerable jump infantry.

‘Solid copy, Actual.’ Commander of One-4 gives his platoon the ‘go’ signal and he observes all of his unit jump from the back the Beta Aquilae. Before he jumps, he makes sure that Choppers ‘doggles’ are secure before launching himself and his counterpart out of the back of the boat. After a moment, he radios, ‘All clear, Actual.’

The tiny commander kicks the nose back down as she banks towards the Firestarter, jolting Zoyra again. DD looks to her and seems to have difficulty choosing his words, ‘...you’ll understand in a moment why she is going to do...what she is about to do.’ As if he is trying to convince himself about the forthcoming actions of his commander.

‘Hatchy One-2, prepare for insertion after door is clear.’ The door to mechbay 1 rolls upwards and locks into place, signalling a green light. BB hits a series of buttons to release the 55 ton Shadow Hawk from its travel harness and carefully moves the machine to the opening, ‘One-2 to Actual, in position.’

‘Copy, One-2. Jump when ready.’

‘Solid copy.’ BB surveys the ground through his various displays and watches the altitude meter drop steadily. At the 50 meter mark he propels the mech out of the craft and places its jump jets on full power to slow its descent to the surface. ‘All clear, Actual.’ He lands without issue and proceeds to the landing zone.

‘Copy.’ The large door trundles shut.

‘Bridge to crew, prepare for a hard landing.’ Hatchsune calls into the coms.

Zoyra’s eyes go wide as she quickly turns to DD. He just takes a big breath in, ‘Take a big breath and hold it. When we hit the ground, let it out.’

‘WHAT!?!’ Is the only thing that comes to her mind to scream.

The Beta Aquilae’s engines are put into reverse to slow the giant craft, causing even more jarring and shaking as the airframe groans under the strain. ‘Time to clear the dance floor’, Hatchy exclaims as she points the nose of the Leopard at the 35 ton Firestarter and its supporting units.

The ship rocks violently at the impact of the mech against the nose as Hatchy and her co-pilot fight to maintain control. The nose is quickly brought up as the engines roar in full reverse, sending the surrounding infantry on the ground scrambling, some holding their ears.

‘Impact!’ The Leopard lands flat on its belly, throwing up huge chunks of asphalt and dirt as it plows through the ground, smashing through buildings and enemy vehicles, leaving a wide trench behind it. Before the ship comes to a complete stop, Hatchy pulls herself out of her seat and starts struggling towards the exit at the back of the bridge. The momentum of the sudden halt propels her down the hallway and she tumbles towards the ladder to the lower decks. The Captain slides down it into the main passenger bay before anyone else is out of their seats, appearing in front of DD and Zoyra with a big grin on her face.

The rescue dog handler stares at the tiny woman in complete disbelief. Nothing about her new employer is believable, from the child-sized body and the pink tutu that covers it, to the pink kitty-eared hat with a communications headset that has a custom strap to fit over said ears.

‘You guys good?’ Captain Hatchsune says excitedly with a thumbs up.

Her Second in Command extracts himself from his seat and starts to unbuckle the three newest recruits of Hatchy’s Helpers. ‘As good as any other time after one of your landings.’ He reply’s dryly.

Hatchy just grins back at him, ‘I’ll have nightmares about what I did to that mech pilot in a few days, but the LZ is clear and your brother is about to secure the site.’

Usually, the tiny Captain uses the ship to clear a landing zone and then the air deployed units secure the area after ‘landing’. Once the zone is secured, the remaining units onboard the ship deploy into the field. However, sometimes they have to fight their way out, but today is not one of those days.

‘I don’t doubt BB at all.’ DD gets the last of the buckles off and proceeds to the nearby lockers to gather gear.

‘Oh my goodness!’ Hatchy squeals, ‘You are so cute! Look at that helmet!’ She sticks her nose right into the face of the Beagle, Charlie. ‘You ready to go to work, buddy!?! People need you! You’ll help save a lot of lives today!’ Her eyes are wide as she nods.

Charlie licks her face and she uses both of her hands to scratch him under the jowls and his neck, they press noses and Hatchsune’s grin is ear-to-ear.

Zoyra raises out of her seat, ‘They need to work, you can’t distract them like that.’

‘Yep!’ Is the Captain's answer as she turns towards the gigantic Blue Great Dane, Tethra. They stare eye-to-eye for moment as he is the same height as Hatchy. ‘Hellooooo, handsome. We need you! You’ll save lots of people today!’ She presses her nose to his and continues grinning.

The dog just stares back at this small creature at the end of his nose.

Zoyra breathes in sharply to lay into her new commander about proper etiquette, but Hatchsune quickly blows the wind out of her sails.

‘Actual to Hatchy-2.’ The Captain calls into her headset, ‘BB, SITREP.’

‘Area just about secured.’ BB answers in between communications with the bridge. From the raised vantage point and the electronics, the bridge crew acts as an observation post for the other ground units. All work together to secure the landing zone in order to conduct further ground operations. He is just finishing clearing up the few pockets of resistance with the anti-infantry weapons equipped onto his Shadow Hawk.

‘Copy.’ The blonde Captain taps her headset, ‘Actual to ground personnel, get ready to roll.’

Hatchy turns back to a very confounded Zoyra and gently places a hand on the handler’s arm. Looking up at the tall and statuesque woman, the Captain's eyes go soft as well as her voice, ‘They need you out there, I know you will do great. Together, we can help more people than I can possibly do on my own. I need you.’

Zoyra’s stares down at the little Hatchy looking, wide-eyed back up at her. She sighs, ‘There are no better dogs in the galaxy and we will do our best to help you, Captain.’

Hatchsune grabs onto the handler’s arm with both hands and smiles wide. Her eyes flash and she giggles, ‘Tethra is certainly the tallest!’

The announcement comes in from the bridge, ‘LZ is secure, Actual.’

‘Solid copy.’ The tiny Captain stands straight and turns towards to the main door. She sprints towards it and towards a medical kit that she leaves at every exit. ‘Actual to all remaining units. All units deploy, area secure. Set up perimeter and prepare for casualties. Civilians are first priority. Last one out doesn’t get paid.’

With that, the bay doors slowly open. When the bay door is open only a sliver, Hatchy wriggles under it and rushes out into the field; tutu, kitty-eared hat and all.

Zoyra is rendered speechless again by her tiny blonde Captain and she turns to DD with wide, dark eyes.

He shrugs, ‘She needs to be the first on the ground.’

There is a pause as the young woman tries to take in her first combat experiences with her new unit.

‘And she has complete faith in us.We don’t need you out there quite yet, just make sure you have everything.’ The 2IC hands Zoyra the equipment for dogs and sprints after his commander.

She shakes her head and turns to Charlie and Tethra, ‘Well?’

The dogs looking back up at her and panting is the only reply.

‘OK, boys. Lets get to work.’

 

[Hatchy]

The television studio is set up on the ground floor, giant glass windows face the busy city street as commuters and tourists pass by. It is a very casual set up for a morning show with the host and his guests sitting in plush chairs around a low coffee table, their backs are to the windows but that doesn’t stop the odd passerby from looking into the window and waving before being ushered away by security. There is no live audience, instead there is a live feed to a number of very large screens outside. The intro begins with a lot of flashy graphics and poppy music and a host of homogenous ethnicities, Dennis, is dressed in a fashion that befits a dance-club goer. His long hair has been dyed and tied in a multicolor display, he’s sporting blue contact lenses that glow in the dark and he wears tight clothing that enhances his muscular build.

He begins, ‘GOOOOOOOD MOOOORNING Tharkad!’ There is a dull cheer from outside. ‘Today we have some very special guests indeed! We have the very great honor in welcoming the ‘Saviors of Concord’, the ‘Angels of Arcadia’, the ‘Defenders of Waypoint’ themselves, Captain Hatchsune, BB and DD!’ There is more cheering from outside.

Hatchy sits between the brothers BB and DD, her small frame sitting on the edge of the chair, her feet unable to touch the floor. She’s swinging them back and forth and bangs her heels together occasionally as BB lounges back into his piece of furniture. DD sits in his chair, respectful of his surroundings. All three are wearing neck ties and vests, but that is where the similarities in dress code stops. Hatchsune is also wearing a pink tutu with big red boots and a blazer, the bespectacled DD is wearing dress pants and shiny dress shoes while BB is in jeans and vintage sneakers. He also sports a vintage cap and a pair of sunglasses. The trio look more like members to an alternative rock band than they do medical professionals.

The group gives a broken responds, with Hatchy being the loudest, ‘Thank you! Very happy to be here!’

Dennis cheerfully rolls into the next part of the introduction, ‘Now your organization, Hatchy’s Helpers, have been able to make a name for themselves as of late and have received high words of praise from the Lyran High Com...’

The host is cut short as Hatchsune interrupts without hesitation, ‘What you are mentioning is only three worlds in this very large universe...that isn’t enough. Three worlds in millions isn’t enough.’ She leans forward, her legs stop swinging as her eyes narrow and she stares at the host.

Dennis shifts with a little discomfort, ‘So, Captain Hatchsune, for our viewers that are unfamiliar with you, I will need to get them up to speed. If you need to add anything, by all means, chime in!’

BB quips with a snicker, ‘Oh, she will…”

She frowns at BB and gives him a backhand across the chest. She giggles and then hits him a second time. Turning back to the host, she says with a smile, ‘You can call me Hatchy.’

‘Can do!’ The host begins again, ‘You three are medical professionals that have created ‘Hatchy’s Helpers’ in order to be able to give medical aid to the most hostile of zones. Most recently, while fulfilling your contract with the Lyran Commonwealth in the Buckmister System conducting battlefield surgery on the front lines, your organization provided healthcare to the most rural communities on the planet of Port Moseby.’

‘We did!’ Hatchsune beams with delight at these facts. Her legs start swinging again.

BB seems bemused by his blonde Captain on his right and his older brother, DD at the far end, looks as if he is going to pass out from holding his breath too long. DD’s violet eyes dart nervously towards Hatchy everytime she speaks or moves or breathes.

Dennis starts up with the usual line of talk show questioning, ‘Now Hatchy, you are from a remote farm on Alshain V and joined the military in order to be able to study medicine?’

She nods enthusiastically, ‘Yup. We were pretty remote...lots of banjos and sheep…’ her eyes flash as she grins.

The host follows up, ‘Could you tell me a little more about that? I don’t know much of the country other than I drive through it to visit my mom. Sheep, I do know.’ He winks at her. ‘Did you like living on the farm?’

Hatchy starts rocking a little as her legs swing. ‘Yup! I loved it! Its was me, Mom, Dad and my four older brothers with no TV or electricity, it was just us and a few friends and we had such a fun time together.’

‘No electricity? Really?!?’ The host reacts.

‘Just in the shop! It wasn’t until Mom and Dad were older and there weren’t as many of us on the farm when we brought electricity into the house. We didn’t really need any of it, always a lot to do and always kept each other entertained.’

‘WOW!’

‘I know!’ She claims loudly, ‘Funny how you can go from candlelight to hyperlight in a single lifetime!’

Dennis stammers, ‘That’s amazing, I can’t even imagine! So four brothers?’

The tiny Captain nods, ‘I was the baby and the girl and got everything that I wanted...drove my brothers crazy!’ Her eyes and smile are wide, ‘So when Mom and Dad weren’t looking, my brothers made me pay for all of it. Having four older brothers toughens you up real fast.’

‘Oh I know,’ Dennis says, ‘I have six!’

‘REALLY!?!’ Her eyes go even wider, ‘That would be fantastic!’

“Mostly it was, but it is reason why I needed to get these…’ He holds up his arms and flexes his muscles. There is cheering from the crowd outside.

Hatchsune holds up her scrawny arms and flexes, ‘I was throwing hay bales at 13. Dad got hurt and had to drive the truck and it was me and my brothers that chucked and stacked the bales.’

‘How heavy are those?’ Dennis asks with genuine curiosity.

‘Well, our main crop was alfalfa and my brothers refused to let Dad make ‘girl bales’ so each one was about 60 pounds and I had to throw them up to my brothers standing in the back of the wagon so they could stack them.’ She arches an eyebrow, lowers her arms and flexes again.

Dennis smirks as he eyes the tiny woman up and down. Hatchsune is barely 5 feet tall.

‘But yeah!’ She takes a deep breath and picks up where she left off, ‘Was helping dad birth lambs when I was 6…’

Dennis interrupts, ‘Oh! You really did have sheep!’

The tiny Commander grins and nods and then continues, ‘...was driving at 8 and could fix everything on the farm by 12. When all my brothers left for school, I was managing field workers at 15.’ She then takes another deep breath.

‘And chucking bales.’ Dennis flexes and Hatchy quickly mirrors him, growling playfully. They both burst out laughing and the crowd does too.

‘Why did you decide to go into surgery then?’ The host asks after they had recovered.

She giggles, ‘I didn’t want to be farmer!’ Hatchy calms down a little. ‘When you’re so far away from everything, you have to learn how to do everything yourself and you need to help your neighbours so everyone can survive. Me and Mom were helping other women deliver babies, I was 14 the first delivery I handled on my own.’ She quickly ads with a grin, ‘And, no, it wasn’t mine.’

The host is almost rendered speechless again, ‘...really…’

Hatchsune emphatically nods, ‘Yeah! I had to drive by myself to the next farm. It was nothing special, really. Everyone had to know how to do everything, but that’s when I knew I wanted to be a doctor.’ She sighs, ‘But the army was the only way I could do it. Med school is too expensive and I couldn’t pass the university entrance exams anyway! I didn’t get to go to a real school growing up, so the academic requirements were well past anything I could do.’

‘I was never big on school myself, just went for the girls.’ Dennis winks at her again.

She grins back, ‘I was able to become a Hospital Corpsman with the Navy and I would go with the ground units and tend to the wounded in the field. While I was stuck on the ship with Timmy, I was able to focus on surgery with the help of his equipment and get my skills to where they need to be.’ She takes a deep breath as if she had not taken one during her answer.

Dennis interjects, ‘Yes, Timmy. We’ll get to him in a moment, thank you, Captain Hatchsune.’

She nods in excitement.

The host turns to DD, ‘Now, DD, you and BB are brothers from Blackstone? Where you worked as salvagers but you are also a surgeon?’

DD tenses up even more. His blue-eyed Captain grips onto his arm and giggles. She whispers, ‘Breath, silly.’

The olive-skinned and bald DD uses his finger to push up his glasses as takes a breath. He slowly releases it, ‘Yessir...well, Blackstone and salvagers yes, but I’m not a surgeon. I’m specializing in organ-growth and I only assist with surgery.’

Hatchy chimes in, ‘You do FAR more than assisting…’

The older brother shifts uncomfortably, ‘I had to discontinue my studies due to funding issues, mainly. Like the Captain, the nearest med school was many systems away and the costs added up quickly...I had to go back and work with my brother just after my 4th year internship. I was still able to practice medicine to a limited degree and I did assist many people in the frontier, but I am not fully qualified yet.’

‘Organ growth?’ Dennis asks.

‘Timmy can do anything!’ Hatchy exclaims.

DD glances over to her and proceeds to answer the question, ‘Yessir. There is an advanced lab on board that allows us to clone cells to facilitate tissue growth, we use them to grow new organs for our patients. We bring scientists from most of the major institutes on board to help with the research. It is something that can benefit everyone, so everyone is welcome to volunteer. We do offer it as a service to the private sector in limited quantities, the amount of revenue generated is something we cannot pass on.’

The host furrows his brow in contemplation, ‘I’m guessing that it also helps keep the ship secure by having various Heads of States dependant on it?’

The Commander grins and cups her hands. She places them on the top of her head like ears and each brother quickly grabs an arm and forces them to her side. Hatchy protests for a moment before clasping her hands in her lap.

The older brother continues after a moment of struggle, ‘When we were able to get organized with Hatchy’s Helpers we were also able to set up a medical training program including an internship. With the assistance of Captain Hatchsune...’

She kicks at him and whispers, ’...lighten up a little...’

He stammers and scowls slightly at her, ‘...and...and our new training program, I can be finished my studies by the end of the year. I try to focus on the admin side of things right now so Comman...Hatchy can focus on saving lives.’

Hatchy quickly turns returns the scowl to the bald brother before turning to Dennis, ‘DD organizes all our medical staff and is responsible for assigning the priorities in the field. He also helped grow all the new organs I needed.’ She glares at the older brother, ‘...I owe you everything…I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you...’

Dennis tries to quickly shift the attention away and place it on BB ‘So, BB, whats Blackstone like? Its pretty remote as well, isn’t it? Were you guys just as versatile?’

As the younger brother takes his turn to speak, Hatchsune grabs the oldest brother by the arm and rests her head on it.

‘I think so,’ BB begins.

And then is cut off, ‘BB is a whiz with mathematics! He can guess a lost ships location by its last known tragmectory. And he was able to get Timmy ‘unlost’!’ Hatchy’s eyes light up.

BB throws a glance at Hatchy and responds casually, his chin resting on his fist as his elbow rests on the arm of the soft chair. ‘Well, we all do our part to assist Hatchy in her duties, we currently do not have enough staff so everyone wears many hats.’

From behind her, Hatchy pulls out a pink cap with cat-like ears on the top of it. On the cap is a black badge with a pink ‘H’ in the center and she pulls it all the way down to her eyebrows so the badge is in the middle of her forehead. She gives a very wide and happy smile.

Dennis stares at her for a moment and gives a grin, ‘But you are primarily in charge of security?’

He leans forward in the chair. Placing his elbows on his knees, he clasps his hands and continues, ‘Security is my main concern, but we have a few other key people to help out. I pilot one of our mechs and keep the larger threats away from our Area of Operations, Daisuke is our ground commander.’

‘And Chopper!’ The blonde Captain interrupts yet again, ‘They make up one of our K-9 units! Then there is Zoyra, Charlie and Tethra! Tethra looks me in the eye, he’s so tall!’

The host takes a sharp breath, ‘OK, Hatchy, we can get to them in a minute…’ He looks back to the younger brother.

BB shakes his head slightly before continuing, ‘Daisuke and I do our best to keep us secure, but we can’t be everywhere so we sub-contract a lot out. When funds allow it, we hire infantry, aerospace fighters, mechs...whatever we can get.’

The show host jumps in, ‘That doesn’t seem in line with a humanitarian organization, does it? Hospitals using guns?’

BB just raises an eyebrow slightly, ‘When you’re operating in hostile zones, or even just dealing with civilians that are worried and panicked, our very valuable equipment and supplies need to be secured. Our jumpship needs to be secure, as does our dropship, our Area of Operations...we haven’t had the manpower enough to take care of everything, we’ve been over-run too many times lately and not by civilians.’

Hatchsune stops smiling and swinging her feet, she looks down to the floor and starts to play nervously with the fabric of the tutu. After a few moments, her posture straightens and a look of determination washes over the Captain’s face.

‘How so? Can you tell us some more about that?’ Dennis notices Hatchy’s reaction and decides to push further.

DD takes this as his opportunity to answer, ‘On Buckmister, our operating station was overrun by Combine troops, looking for Commonwealth Officers. Hatchsune threw herself in front of one of the patients and they shot her to get to him.’

She angrily ads, ‘They shot me in my new liver!’

Dennis is surprised by this news. He stammers slightly, ‘Well, they were never ones to confine themselves to anything like conventions of civility...attacking a hospital...wow...and did you report this?’

‘To who?’ BB answers, ‘Nobody could care less or it wouldn’t keep happening.’

There is a moment of silence.

Hatchy tucks her legs in and proceeds to stand up on the chair. She pulls her blazer off to show a very scarred left arm. ‘DD used the equipment onboard the ship to grow me some new skin. When DD and BB rescued me, I looked like I was a thousand years old! So many scars...but I decided to keep some as reminders.’ She holds her left arm up and the camera zooms in. Next to a large chemical burn scar that covers most of her hand from the wrist down, there is a horrific electrical burn scar on the inside of her forearm. She points to it. ‘This one! They were after Timmy’s brain and they figured the best way of getting his brain was to beat my brains out. They tied me to a chair, smeared medical gel over my arm and then used a stun baton to burn me. When that didn’t work, they just beat me…’

Another silence falls over the whole studio.

 

[Hatchy]

She pulls out a plate from her mouth and holds it up, it holds three of her bottom teeth. She grins, showing the hole in her smile, ‘The Homsar agents...they were going to kill me and would have if BB hadn’t shown up. He saved me that time!’ Hatchy turns to him and beams.

The host is noticeably confused, ‘Homsar agents?’

‘Yeah! They were muttering something about the Precentor!’ She turns back to Dennis.

Dennis’ eyes go wide, ‘Comstar? You have gained quite a following!’

BB turns to the host, ‘You know what a happens to a whole tomato when you cook it? It bursts. That’s was her face looked like…’

‘HEY!’ Hatchy turns to him while still standing on the chair and crinkles her nose in disgust, ‘...jerk…’

Hatchsune replaces the plate into her mouth and lifts up her shirt to just above her bellybutton to reveal more war wounds. The blonde points to a pair of gunshot wounds still pink from being so recent, ‘That’s where they got me...I have to wait months now for my new liver to grow…’

BB leans over and uses his finger to poke her in another scar, a small one, about one inch long on the left of her abdomen. She giggles as she recoils from the prodding. ‘Sometimes we need to have protection from our own patients.’ He says.

‘Yeah!’ she says excitedly, ‘This is where a patient tried to stab me. Tried? He was successful! He almost killed me!’ Her eyes and her smile are wide, ‘Got me right in the gut and no one was around with enough experience to stop the bleeding.’ Her smile fades as she runs her finger along a scar that is a few inches below her bellybutton. She pauses with a long silence before she pulls her shirt back down. She hops into the air and kicks her legs out, flopping back into the seat in a storm of pink crinoline. Hatchy leans against DD and resumes smiling broadly, ‘And it was him that saved me.’

DD shifts uncomfortably once again, ‘You actually operated on yourself...I just assisted…’

The commander rocks to her left before quickly shifting her weight the other way, crashing into him. ‘Take a compliment…’ she frowns, ‘You assist me more than you want to admit.’ She emphasizes the ‘you ass’ heavily.

The host grins. ‘You have some harrowing and heroic stories for sure, Hatchy. But let us get back to the Comstar agents for a sec...they were after your ship?’

She loudly proclaims, ‘Yes! Well! No! They were after what Timmy knows! And I’m the ONLY person that has access to that!’

Dennis seems confused, ‘But announcing that on interstellar television seems a bit...counterintuitive…’

The younger brother smirks, ‘Yep. That’s Hatchy.’

She takes a swipe at him.

He dodges, ‘But she didn’t tell them anything, Hatchy is tough as nails. She fought those clowns until the very end, she was still kicking and screaming at them when I got there.’

Hatchy gives a smirk back at him before taking another swing at the younger brother.

DD’s eyes are wide as jumps into the conversation, trying to reign in control of the situation, ‘Timmy has some very advanced medical knowledge and the ship has systems not available anymore, it is with these systems and knowledge that we are able to help as many people as we are.’ He places a hand on the commander’s shoulder and squeezes gently, reminding her to stop getting carried away. ‘We welcome medical scientists from all houses to research with us in order to prevent any hostilities against us or our patients.’

The host finally gives in, ‘Alright, let's talk about Timmy before we show some footage of you guys in action. You and your ship ‘Timmy’ were rescued by B.B. and D.D. here,’ Dennis motions to the brothers, ‘after you were stranded alone for three years in deep, deep space.’

‘Well,’ she interjects, ‘the ship is the SLDFS Namida, the computer is Timmy....really, it is Tin Man...but that's silly. And I was stranded for five years, completely alone for three.’

Dennis’ eyebrow raises, ‘Sure...you survived living in space for an extremely prolonged time, something very...unheard of. You lived in near weightless conditions with very little water or food and was able to keep an entire Invader class Jumpship maintained on your own.’

Hatchy’s attention is drawn to Dennis’ hair, she climbs across BB and reaches for the host before the younger brother pushes her off his lap and onto the floor.

She scrambles to her feet and climbs into Dennis’ lap to face him, then proceeds to play with his long hair. The host is noticeably uncertain, but her breath is warm and has the inviting scent of honey and mint.

‘I wasn’t on my own.’ She continues, ‘Timmy was able to give me everything I needed to make sure both of us would survive. Timmy could manufacture replacement parts back then and with the schemadrics on board I could easily repair most issues. Anything I couldn’t do myself, I helped Timmy build his own autlomated repair system.’

At this close distance, Hatchy’s unique speech pattern is very noticeable to the host, her vowels seem very forced and she has some trouble with ‘th’. This is in addition to her inability to pronounce certain words properly.

He draws on his professionalism to continue, ‘How was it that you came to be on the ship in the first place?’ Dennis asks.

The older brother nervously looks towards her, BB’s eyebrows raise as he cocks his head slightly.

‘Stationed on it, of course.’ She says happily.

D.D. lets out an audible groan and his brother grins.

The hosts eyebrows also raise, ‘Stationed? On an SLDF ship? That's...ummmm...difficult to believe? I’m sure you understand…you would have to be three hundred years old.’

Hatchy’s big, blue eyes narrow as she tangles her fingers into the hosts hair, ‘Do you think I understand it? Do you think I wanted to wake up one day and find out all my family and friends were gone? Do you think I wanted to be left completely alone aboard a spaceship?’

Dennis feels her grip tighten on his mane, so he quickly changes topic. ‘So you were found around Last Chance,’

‘Yeah!’ Her demeanor changes instantly. ‘It's kind of,’ Her grip relaxes and she resumes playing with the host's hair. She seems to struggle a little with the next word, ‘i...ron...ic, yes?’ She throws a glance to DD.

‘I’d say so!’ the host continues, ‘Now how did you get there?’

‘Navigational system got corrupted mid jump when we were leaving the Rim Worlds. Nothing we could do could fix the error and we just jumped and jumped, getting more and more lost.’ Her tone changes to one of more frustration before her eyes go wide and stares off into the distance.

Dennis shifts in his chair, ‘You said you were stuck on that boat for two years with others?’

Hatchy’s unblinking eyes go even wider as she continues staring at some unseen point over his shoulder. There is complete silence. Her stare then snaps towards the host, the cold and hollow glare sends a shiver down the host’s spine.

DD jumps in, ‘Even we don’t know what happened during that time, it is something we don’t talk about.’

The host skillfully begins to recover the situation, ‘For your survival, Hatchy, you engineered some pretty innovative ideas, to the point where those ideas are being tested to see the viability on a larger ship with a larger crew. Can you tell us what a few of them were?’

‘Sure!’ She grins as her big, blue eyes flash in excitement, unconsciously grabbing handfuls of Dennis’ hair and tugging at them. It was almost as if someone wound her key to tight before they let her spin. ‘Well, what me and Timmy were able to do was take supplies for six months and stretch them to last three years. We came up with synthetic amphetamines to thin the blood to survive in lower oxygen. AND to give me energy with little food. They were highly addictive. And they almost killed me! It's the reason to why DD needed to grow me new innards, but somethings can’t be fixed though!’ Her eyes are wide as she stares into host with a slight grin. ‘We created a pressurized sleep chamber that allows you to sleep for days, while using the waste byproducts generated to grow plants. But don't ever use those amphetamines before going into one....the nightmares last for days! Bloody battlefields and patients you couldn’t save...for days and days....mangled hands touching your face that you relive over and over…’ She runs her fingers down Dennis’ face, catching him with her nails.’They call me mommy or angel or just stare at me while their lives slip through my fingers ...those nightmares over and over for days and days...’

 

[Hatchy]

There is another long silence as she digs into her pocket and produces one of her red hair-bands, she continues like she never said anything, ‘What I’m most proud of is the food we came up with!’

Dennis stammers out, ‘R...r…really? What did you come up with?’ No guest had ever been able to throw the seasoned host off as much as the tiny blonde sitting in his lap right now.

‘Well, came up with the idea to use the heat and condensation from the energy converter on the battery to grow edible moss. Tastes like it sounds! But it did the trick.’ She nods enthusiastically, ‘We grew a kale derivative in the life support module where we let the carbon dioxide leak a little so not as much needed to be converted. And, as kale can grow well in low temperature, we were able to keep the temperature down, further saving energy.

So...umm...Hatchy...I have some questions…’ His eyes are wide as he tries to pull himself together.

‘Everyone always does…’ She replies as she focuses back on his locks.

‘How are you 300 years old.’ His tone is unmistakably doubtful.

‘Well, technically I’m 263 years old, if you count the years from my birth...but I’m only 29.’

‘And you act like you’re 12.’ BB fires in.

Her face turns sour and she stretches the elastic back to shoot the younger brother, it goes wide of the target.

Dennis’ brows furrow, ‘...ok...what? Can you explain that to me please?’

The Captain then pulls out a red ribbon from a pocket and turns her attention back to the host and his mane of hair, ‘You’ll have to ask them, I don’t understand any of it.’ she then whispers as her eyes go wide, ‘Not a thing.’

The host carefully turns to the brothers, ‘Could you please shed some light? None of this makes sense.’

DD is the first to respond, ‘What we know for sure is that the Namida was a ship that was apart of the 13th Royal Infantry Division that did misjump in 2785. When we discovered the ship, and Captain Hatchsune, the ship’s cronometers read 2790 and were working properly.’

BB ads, ‘When I went through the navigation system, I noticed that the last number of recent jumps were based off the star charts from 2785. The problem with that is stars move over time, and a difference of .01 degree in your calculations takes you light years off course…’

The Host attempts finishes the sentence, ‘So when the navigator started using the 2785 star charts to jump in 3018…’

Hatchy whispers, ‘...lost...and everyone was gone…’ Her stare is distant again as her fingers stop moving through handfuls of hair.

‘None of it still makes much sense.’ Dennis states.

The tiny Captain outstretches her arms in a flourish and wiggles her fingers, ‘Yet here I am.’ She leans into the host and taps his nose with hers. ‘DING!’

Dennis cracks a smile. ‘A Star League ship, huh? Must be worth a lot, I’m sure more than just Homsar have come looking.’

‘Many.’ She grins as she still is nose-to-nose with the host. ‘And they have all failed. And will always fail.’ Her eyes flash, ‘Timmy is the best for many reasons.’

‘So there is other technology on board other than medical technological breakthroughs?’ Dennis asks. His producer is in his earbud telling him to continue with the current state of the interview, the reaction by viewers is overwhelming. Both good and bad.

Hatchy worms her way even closer to the host while still pressing noses. She places her hands on his chest and runs them under his collar, ‘Yep. And I’m in complete control of it.’

‘Complete control, huh?’

‘Complete.’

The two on the chair stare at each other for a moment as BB attempts to control his laughter. DD just glares at his brother. Dennis notices nothing of the exchange.

‘So why don’t you sell some of this other technology? I’m assuming its advanced weapons tech...you could make an absolute fortune.’ He suggests.

Her pupils go from wide and dark to narrow pinpoints. She whispers, ‘I wish to clearly know You, the Primeval Being, because I cannot fathom Your intention…’ She grips onto the hosts’ collar as her voice raises, ‘I am the possessor of all opulences! I am the Terrible Destroyer of all beings on all worlds!’ She’s almost hysteric as she pulls at his clothes and shouts, ‘Arise for battle, O Arjuna! You will gain fame by conquering the enemy and enjoy a flourishing kingdom!’

He stares back at her, his eyes and mouth wide open.

She presses her face back into his and growls, ‘Thats what you are suggesting? For me to profit from being an instrument of destruction? A child that loses their whole family, with no one left to hold them; to tell them that they are safe and loved cannot be reconciled with any amount of wisdom, justice or love! Let alone money!’

The brothers quickly get out of their seats and move towards Hatchsune. This behavior is nothing new.

Hatchy continues shrieking, ‘I am not going to be responsible!’

BB and DD grab onto their Captain and struggle to pull her off the host, she kicks and lunges, knocking the table over and sending mugs of water and papers all over the studio.

Hatchy fights to get her hands back on him, ‘He’s...not...under...standing…’ The fire in her eyes almost ignites the building. She pushes and grasps, almost breaking free a few times, but the two men wrestle her back to her seat.

Dennis managed to get out of his chair, but only proceeded to stand behind it.

His producer just kept saying, ‘GREATGREATGREAT!’ in his ear then advises Dennis to take it to commercial.

‘We’ll be right back!’ The host turns to the camera.

What was caught on a few PDD camera’s during the break was Hatchy being thrown into her seat. She quickly leapt up onto the chair to stare DD in the face and proceeded to scream at him with tears streaming down her cheeks. After a few moments, the eldest says only a few words to her and she stops mid sentence and sits down. She wipes her eyes and folds her hands on her lap before BB pulls out some toffees out of a pocket and hands them to her. She takes them and stares at the floor, unwrapping them and eating them in silence.

On the return from the break, everyone is sitting in their seats and there is an uncomfortable calm in the air.

Dennis starts, ‘So! We all see that you are an extremely passionate person, Hatchy! We have some footage here of you applying that passion into your profession.’

A giant screen begins to display the recording of a field hospital, littered with many blood soaked bandages and patients on stretchers.


‘Oh yah!’ She exclaims loudly, ‘I forgot that this was being recorded!’ She shoves another toffee in her mouth and watches the screen with her big, blue eyes.

 

[Hatchy]

The cameraman has Hatchsune and her nurse centered as the pair work on a patient. Hatchy has to stand on a supply crate to be able to work and the nurse is assisting the surgery. Both are already doing far too much for only two people, they are the only two in the tent with a half-dozen patients.

“Dammit…’ the Commander spits as she gets deep into the abdominal cavity of the Lyran soldier, ‘I can’t see...suction...nope...can’t…the fragment is under the ribs...and it's bleeding...can’t, get at it...’

The nurse does his best to keep the area clear of blood, but is unable to to help further due to the number of other tasks he has to do.

‘You!’ Hatchy looks over to the reporter and motions to the table, ‘I need you...HE needs you...now!’

There is a pause as Hatchsune and the nurse stare at the journalist, then the reporter rushes over to the table while the camera still rolls.

The tiny surgeon points to where the journalist needs to stand, ‘Gloves and mask are there, just put them on and grab there,’ she points to the lower part of the ribcage, ‘I need you to pull up the ribs because I need to get under them, I can’t pull the organs out far enough to get in there, I need room…’

He puts on the required gear then there is some hesitation from the cameraman.

She shouts, ‘NOW!!!’

The reporter jumps and slips his fingers into the stomach of the patient, grabs hold of the ribs and gently pulls.

Hatchy moves around to try and get a better view before she jumps onto the table and straddles the patient. She peers into the cavity as she roots around, ‘Pull back a little more...that's better…’ She sits back up straight and stretches out her neck and fingers.

‘Remember sailor,’ she starts talking to the patient, ‘you are not allowed to touch the girls, keep your hands to yourself or you will be escorted out of the building.’ She then leans back into him and resumes her work.

She starts singing as she pulls out pieces of shrapnel and sutures up tiny wounds.

‘L’amour est enfant de Bohême,

Il n’a jamais jamais connu de loi.

Si tou ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime.

Si je t’aime, prends garde à toi!’

As the footage rolls, Hatchsune stops paying attention to the video and starts to lip synch to the the song that she is singing on screen. She turns her attention to DD and proceeds to antagonize him to the best of her ability, ‘Si tou ne m’aimes pas, si tou ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime, Mais si je t’aime, si je t’aime, prends garde à toi!’ He finally snaps when she touches his face with a finger, his frustrated reaction completely satisfies the tiny commander.

The reporter assisting with the surgery is starting to look a little green as the procedure continues, but Hatchy keeps giving instruction even as a large spout of blood shoots from the area she’s working on and hits her in the face. ‘Clamp! Dammit...clamp!’ There is some feverish moments of silent work as the bleeding is brought under control.

‘Dude!’ she exclaims, ‘That was right in the eye! At least give a girl some warning next time!’ She leans into the journalist and wipes the blood on her face off on his shirt-sleeve. She does it several times, almost taking enjoyment out of reporter's reaction before she returns her attention back to the patient.

Just as they start to wrap up with the surgery, DD and some other aid attendants rush into the tent with more casualties. ‘Hatchy! Young male with crushed tibia and severed Anterior tibial artery.’ He’s carrying the boy in his arms and rushes to a table.

Hatchsune leaps from her patient and is close behind the older brother. She looks back to the pair on her former patient, ‘Close! He’s good to go!’ She gets to the table DD is at and rips everything off it, sending it skittering across the floor and moves a supply crate into position so she can start to tend to the child. DD then places the boy on the table and rushes to tend to other patients.

BB cackles, ‘Watch the camera guy!’

When the journalist can remove his fingers from the patient, he wobbles in place before turning to the overflowing garbage bin and vomits into it.

The tiny Captain swats the younger brother, ‘He did awesome!’

The camera is still rolling as Hatchy takes the child's hand. Her big eyes sparkle as she smiles at him, ‘Hey you! I’m gonna help you, ok? I’m gonna fix your leg all up, I promise!’

Amidst the blood and moaning and crying and chaos, the child focuses on Hatchsune without letting out so much as whimper. The boy nods and squeezes her hand.

Another patient is brought in screaming and thrashing in agony and startles the boy. The young patients stare goes wide as his attention is drawn to the new arrival and his grip tightens.

‘Hey, hey, hey...look at me…’ She places a hand softly on the boy’s cheek and directs his face towards hers, locking his focus back onto her. She continues, ‘You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met! Strongest too! Look around at all these grown-ups...you’re WAY braver than any of them.’ The footage stops.

In the studio Hatchsune is perched on the edge of her seat staring intently at the screen, her watery eyes are wide and unblinking. Her grin is ear-to-ear.

‘Hatchy saved the boy's leg...she saved many lives that day…’ DD places his hand on her shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze.


She gives a shuddering sigh filled with emotion, ‘WE saved many lives that day...that reporter saved that man's life that day...he would have died on that table. I had his life in my hands and I wouldn’t have been able to keep holding onto it if it wasn’t for that reporter being there…I would have lost him...’ Hatchy turns to the host, ‘Anyone can be a hero, anyone can save a life...you just need to be willing…’

 

[Hatchy]

‘Well, Hatchy’ Dennis responds ‘...you’ve...you’ve definitely sent us on a rollercoaster ride of emotion today! Let us look at some other things that The Helpers have accomplished during their deployments.’ The host grabs an electronic tablet from his side table and starts scrolling through it.

‘You broke a human trafficking ring on Arcadia and the nearby Gienah…’

Hatchsune jumps in without hesitation, ‘Child trafficking.’ She is noticeably agitated again.

DD takes this as his turn, ‘We were able to discover the operation when we were treating the cholera outbreak and treated a child that had some noticeable signs of abuse. My brother, here, was able to track down the ring-leaders and our special operatives were able to conduct a zero-G raid on their dropship.’

Dennis turns to BB with his eyebrows raised, ‘So, you’re a mech pilot, navigator and a detective?’

BB shrugs his shoulders, ‘I bore easy.’

‘Did you carry out the raid as well?’ The host says incredulously.

The Captain jumps in, ‘That was Daisuke! He is the best soldier in the entire galaxy! With that raid, we were able to completely smash that crime syndicate. We attacked every stronghold of theirs and routed out every corrupt political and law enforcement...um, person...with all them gone, both systems stabilized.’

‘WOW!’ Is the host's’ response. ‘But it looks like you’ve been doing those kinds of acts during most of your deployments.’

DD answered, ‘Well, yes, we are sent into troubled areas that The Archon is the most concerned about but doesn’t have House resources to handle it.’

Dennis continues, ‘Yeah...stopped a coup on Virtue, overthrew the government on Morningside, breaking up more than one crime gang, arresting corrupt officials...besides building schools and hospitals, you seem to be very active in redeveloping the very foundations of the systems you are assigned to.’

Hatchy’s eyes narrow into a glare and she stares at the host silently. After a few long moments she answers, ‘And we are the best at it. Because we have the best people. The Archon trusts us and we’ve never failed her.’

The host sees that he just might get jumped again as Hatchy twitches in her seat.

The older brother offers up an explanation, ‘If we are to go into a planetary system and bring aid with no reform, the aid will be useless in the end due to an existing political system that is broken.’

The younger brother continues, ‘We are sent to the most difficult of areas in order to strengthen the loyalty to the Commonwealth. And that can only be done by gaining the trust of the people, ensuring that they understand that The Archon does have their best interest at heart.’

Hatchsune continues scowling at Dennis, ‘Everyone deserves a fair chance, everyone deserves the chance at happiness and peace. Just because Johnny and Jane Average on Howick was born into poverty doesn’t mean the local government gets to take away their basic needs like clean water and health care for their newborn baby and ailing grandparents. It doesn’t mean the criminal underground gets to prey on their business. Doesn’t mean the gang's get to pay off the local police…everyone deserves the same chances as you or me...’ Her tiny fists are clenched and she’s perched so far forward on the chair that her toes are touching the floor. ‘I will give them that chance.’

DD’s eyes widen as he leans forward to place a hand on the Captains shoulder, ‘We do have Justice Official’s that travel with us, everything we do is sanctioned by the Archon.’

Hatchy squirms from under the brothers grasp.

Denis stares at the tiny woman, digging very deep into his bag of broadcast host tricks, ‘Are you actually a Captain?’

She stares at him for a moment as her scowl lifts away, ‘NO!’ She giggles, ‘But I write the pay cheques! I always wanted to be a Captain of a ship.’ Her eyes flash as she smiles.

BB slides in, ‘We don’t really have ranks, a handful of us are ‘Commanders’, we are pretty informal off the field.’

Something catches the Captain’s eye on one of the monitors, it's a little boy with his face and hand pressed to the glass. She turns to find him and waves frantically before leaping out of her seat and running to the child. His mother is also there carrying the much younger sibling. Hatchsune presses her face to the glass too and the pair make faces at each other through the transparent surface leaving drool and snot all over the window. The both giggle with every wipe back and forth.

A security guard approaches the family to get them to move, but Hatchy points at the guard, shakes her finger at him and slowly curls her fingers into a fist. Her cold stare makes him back off.

The Captain then looks for a way on the street and after a few failed attempts, an intern assists her and she runs to the boy. The show producers scramble to get cameras outside and do so just as the baby in the mother's arms reaches for Hatchy, wanting to join in the fun too.

The gasp of glee that comes from the Captain can be heard over the loud traffic, she looks to the mother to gain permission and the parent nods with a very large smile, handing over the infant. Hatchy almost explodes into a giant pink cloud of happiness as the baby wraps its arms around her, and for a few moments, nothing else in the universe exists.

Dennis stands and the two brothers follow suit, they head to the window to watch the tiny Captain sing and dance with the children. The mother laughs and claps as she watches, the crowd watches too, giving cheers of approval. The cameramen move around the trio and the crowd, recording the display for the many millions of viewers, but there are no longer cameras rolling in the studio.

The host stares at the tutu clad, kitty-eared hat wearing Hatchsune and shakes his head. The brothers glance at each other and DD shakes his head as BB chuckles, ‘She’s like a Playing Mantis…’

‘Praying Mantis?’ Dennis asks.

DD scowls at his younger brother.

‘Nope. Playing Mantis. She likes to play with her food before she bites its head off.’ He slaps the host on the shoulder.

The producer chirps in Dennis’ ear that the segment is going to be ending in 60 seconds, so he needs to get outside. ‘Gentlemen, if you could, we need be outside, show is almost over.’ He smiles as he ushers them out.

‘You’re an ass.’ The older brother says to his sibling under his breath.

BB grins.

Dennis pulls the three together, the five as Hatchy is not letting go of the children, and starts to wrap up their time together. ‘Everyone can see at how dedicated and passionate Hatchy’s Helpers are and we wish them all the best of luck. If you wish to support them and their various humanitarian missions, go and purchase some Helper Bonds! Thank you everyone! We’ll see you tomorrow, Tharkad!!!’

 

[Hatchy]

(When I woke up yesterday morning and saw Gronks thread https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-did-you-start-as-a-mercanery.1074550/ I just started writing with no real idea as to what I was going to write. I just started face rolling. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, even if no one else is. There are a few edits now)

Hatchsune stares wide-eyed out the bridge view port of the SLDF Namida, the black void encroaching into the ship itself as the systems of the vessel begin to shut down; only the life support systems on the bridge remain.

As she floats in the zero gravity, she clutches a homemade doll of a pony, a childhood toy and her only physical companion over the last 3 years. She strokes the length of its body and kisses its head as her eyes dart over the ships systems. The Namida, like her, is slowly dying.

The ships computer, Tinman with its emotionless tenor, reports, 'Carbon dioxide filters at 99 percent of maximum capacity, Lieutenant. There is an estimated hour of life support available.'

'Thanks, Timmy...' She coldly responds. She catches her reflection and sees what the last years of her life on this boat has done to her; left her a hollow shell, her body is nothing more than skin stretched over bone, her eyes are sunken and black and she no longer has the energy to even care about her impending death.

She holds the doll up to her face and starts to talk to it. 'Well, Skully? What do you want to do? We can either climb into our sleep chamber and go quietly or we blow everything up.' There is a pause as she 'listens' to Skully's response. Her eyes go wide and she grins and nods, 'YEAH! Lets make this tiny corner of the universe know who was here! THE MIGHTY HATCHY!'

There is a pause as she holds the doll tight to her chest and stares back out the window. She then whispers in a distant voice, 'If there is anybody listening, I promise I will heal and help. I promise I will fight for those with less than what I had. I promise I will make a difference.' Her voice goes even softer as a tear starts to roll down her cheek, '...I promise, promise...'

Hatchy grips Skully even tighter as she sighs and shakes her head. 'Well, lets get this over with...better to burn out than fade away. Timmy, prepare self destruct sequence.'

'Copy, Lieutenant.'

'Timmy, I keep telling you to stop with the 'Lieutenant'...its Hatchy. Hatchy, Hatchy, HATCHY!!!' She pauses, 'Or Captain!'

'Copy, Lieutenant.'

She shakes her head and grins, 'Well, gentlemen, its been a pleasure serving with you. I'll be sure to include the highest commendation for you both in my report. Timmy, prepare to launch record buoy, I need to upload my,' she takes a sharp breath, 'final report.'

'Copy, Captain.'

The tiny Captain blindly writes her final report, not consciously knowing what the words she enters into it are. She grabs Skully again and fights back the tears that are welling in her, 'OK Timmy...lets blow this popcicle stand.'

'Initiating sequence.'

Her heart sinks as she stares into space, '...I promise, promise...' and breaths in deeply to steady herself in order to face these last moments with dignity.

As Hatchy gazes into the cold void, a flash of light a few hundred meters off the starboard bow announces the sudden arrival of a starship.

 

[Hatchy]

As usual, someone else here gave me the idea for an actual 'Space Opera'...blame @CmdrDunsail !


The Namida floats parallel to the disabled Merchant class jumpship ‘Bahvin’, the distance is only 50 meters. The skilled pilots and the ships advanced computer carefully monitoring the situation as the two ship's accelerate through space at dangerous speeds. The Bahvin’s hull was struck by debris and the resulting damage rendered the thrusters inoperable, locking the ship on a permanent course. The Namida heeded the distress call and Captain Hatchsune committed the resources of Hatchy’s Helpers to the rescue effort.

Tethers connecting a pair of spacewalkers to the Namida spool from their reels as Hatchsune and Lead Technician Joon approach the stranded Bahvin, using their thruster packs to correct their course. Joon holds a third tether, one that will ferry parts and equipment between the two ships. Chatter fills the comms as the two ships communicate with each other and the approaching repair party, giving exact location of the damage. Before long, complete information is scrolling across the displays inside the pairs helmets. They meet with a pair of techs from the Bahvinand they begin to lead them to the troubled area, there is pointing and discussion and one the crew leaves to go back to the ship to retrieve some items.

The Helpers secondary dropship, the Maggie Mae, maneuvers itself to the opposite side of the damaged jumpship. A safety measure to ensure a quick response in the case of an incident and the Maggie Mae also carries a multitude of spare parts that are not carried on the Namida.

Hatchy calls over to her Korean counterpart, he is relatively new to the Helpers and not much taller than Hatchsune, but he seems to know his way around a spaceship better than most. He also suspiciously knows how to acquire the most rare of equipment and, most important of all, he is a willing participant in all of the Captains games. ‘It looks like it will take about two, two-fifteen…’

Joon turns his head to her, ‘Two-fifteen, eh? I think that's means some Chess!’

‘YES! We haven’t done that in a while!’ Is her emphatic reply. She activates a projector on the side of her helmet and a holographic keyboard appears on front of her, with a wave of her hand, she moves it off to the side.

‘Chess?’ Zoyra asks BB and DD as they float in the cargo hold, getting ready to fill bins with the equipment needed to fix the Merchant.

BB’s eyes go wide as he starts waving his arms in an ‘X’ movement, he is mouthing the words, ‘NO! DON’T ASK!’ The comlink needs to be open in order for the requests to be filled as quickly as possible.

She is puzzled by his response, but aks a second time, ‘Chess, Captain? Do you play while you work?’

BB sighs heavily, ‘Now she really will do it…’

DD smiles, ‘You’re just angry because it's the only thing you can’t do well.’

‘Shuttup.’

Zoyra just looks at them very confused.

There is a pause, ‘No! But that is a good idea! Its Chess! The musical! Daisuke, feel like being Freddie?’

The infantry commander excitedly replies, ‘Of course!’

Hatchy calls out again, ‘Zoyra, we need a Svetlana! You have enough time to learn her parts, she doesn’t show up until act 2!’

The K-9 handlers confusion had not lifted, ‘What?!?’

‘That's OK, you have a little while to get the hang of things.’ The Captain's voice is filled with confidence that the young woman will join in the event.

‘WHAT?!?’

BB shakes his head in frustration as he knows he is stuck listening to a performance that is only marginally better than a high-school play for almost 3 hours; the comms need to remain open and Hatchy takes it as an opportunity to perform. ‘I hate all of you.’

DD grins.

The Captian types a command into the holographic keyboard and music starts playing.

Hatchy begins singing,

O light the heart

That lingers in Merano

Merano! The spa no

Connoisseur of spas would miss

So healthy

Highly recommended

Is this sweet metropolis

Mental and physical bliss!

Joon joins in,

The gods have smiled

And bless-ed is Merano

Merano! There are no

Fitter burghers to be found

Such vigour!

Take the time to taste us

We'll give you a welcome that's typically Tirol

For then we are sure of our ground

Fight now we're Italian -- we used to be German

The border keeps shifting around

And DD takes his part while looking at his younger brother, he sings very deeply,

Speaking as one of the patriarchs

I don't mind taking your lira or marks

The younger brother starts mouthing some very nasty words and flashing even nastier gestures.

A fair amount of the other crew, including Daisuke, join in,

Oh I get high when I saunter by the mountains of Merano

Rosy-cheeked Merano

Flourishing to a fault

The sparkling streams, the bracing air

The therapeutic salt

I'd have to be carried away to call a halt!

‘They usually do Les Miserables.’ DD tells Zoyra.

‘I know that one, I love it!’ Her confusion lifting as understanding of what is going on begins to settle in.

The older brother’s eyebrows raise, ‘Yeah, they do it in French.’

Confusion has now turned into coriousnes, ‘Really?’

BB groans, ‘Neither one of them speak French.’

‘Oh.’ She pauses for a moment, ‘There is a Merano on Tamarind…’

DD interrupts, ‘It's not the same Merano, not really sure where. Terra, I think.’

Zoyra continues, ‘What's it about?’

The bald brother responds, ‘It's about honor and ego and duty and politics and there is two love triangles, it is a really good story if you like your stories set to music…’ He raises a finger, ‘Excuse me,’ He sings his next lines,

So come to us and feel the force

All major credit cards taken of course

The Search and Rescue Officer cracks a smile.

He continues, ‘I suggest you go learn your lines, I know she wants you to participate. Besides, gets you out of a little work...she’ll forgive that. She will be a little hurt if you don’t at least try...she looks up to you.’ The guilt trip is a little obvious, but he is speaking the truth.

‘She gets over it!’ BB retorts.

‘She does not and you know it.’ His brother snaps back.

‘Yeah, because we always have to do what she wants…’ The younger brother complains.

DD’s eyes narrow, ‘That's not true either, you’ve never bothered to ask her about doing something else!’ He adds crossly. ‘When Daisuke suggested ‘Tommy’ she was quite happy to agree and then she learned the lyrics for the next time it gets played.’

They siblings stare at each other for a few moments angrily.

‘If you don’t like something, do something about it. Just ask her!’ DD leans in with a pointing finger.

BB rolls his eyes, ‘You sound just like Dad…’

His brother quickly replies, ‘And you sound like Gramma Yasdi…’

The Captain of the Bahvin calls over the comms, a level of annoyance in his tone, ‘Whats with the singing, whats going on?’

BB responds with an equal level of annoyance, ‘We’re fixing your ship, it's going to last for 2 more hours.’

‘Can you make her stop?’

‘Do you want your ship fixed?’

‘...yes, sir…’

‘Then I can’t make her stop.’

‘...’

Daisuke begins his part as Freddie, the American Chess Champion that is about to be dethroned.

DD claps his brother on the shoulder, ‘See? You do understand!’ Stop being such an ass about things, it's easier for everyone involved.’

BB’s glare continues.

Zoyra pushes off and heads down the hallway, ‘I’m going to go learn some lines, it does seem like fun!’


‘Its best to try, no one will fault you for that.’ DD calls after her.

 

[Hatchy]

Laying under the cover of debris and darkness, Captain Hatchsune lays with Zoyra and her two K-9’s, tracer rounds impacting into the rubble above them firing at targets behind them in the distance.. The Great Dane, Tethra, stares intently at the occupants on the top floors of the reinforced building across from them, with aid of the thermal vision installed into his ‘doggles’. The Beagle, Charlie, keeps a watchful eye of the groups flank.

The Combine troops swept into the Port Moseby system very quickly with little opposition and took over a number of civil buildings in the more important cities, trapping many civilians. The Archon dispatched as many units as quickly as possible to counter the offensive, with Hatchy’s Helpers being one of the first to respond.

Hatchy peers at them through infrared binoculars before handing them over to Zoyra, she’s running her toes through the dirt, seemingly enjoying the sensation in her feet. ‘They have civilians in there with them, some are on the top floors, can only assume they are being used as shields.’ The tiny Captain punches a few buttons on her wrist display, ‘Main entrance is there,’ she points, ‘but the service entrance is to the right...it’s probably our best bet.’

She pauses, ‘Of course…’ she says as she looks over the schematics of the building, ‘there is a daycare…’

‘Of course there is.’ Is Zoyra’s very cold reply. ‘How quick were the evacuations?’

‘We have to assume it wasn’t quick enough.’ Hatchy chews her lip, fighting off a sudden charge of emotion, and turns off the display. She activates her comlink, ‘Hatchy Actual to Hatchy One-4, SITREP.’

Daisuke responds, ‘One-4 to Actual, heavier forces than expected, but nothing we can’t handle. No mech units encountered, but plenty of infantry with supporting LAV’s and aerial assets that are slowing us up.’

The Captain explains her situation, ‘I think we’ve found the CnC, but they are on the top floors of a reinforced government building with a commanding view over the streets and plenty of support weapons.’

An anti-aircraft battery opens fire from atop the building, bringing down a Port Moseby Defence Force VTOL that strayed too close. It crashes to the ground between the building and the small group, after a few long moments of Hatchy and Zoyra staring at the wreck, they see movement from inside.

‘Actual?’

‘One-4, there are also civilians inside. Zoyra and I are going to enter the building from the East side service entrance,’ Hatchsune taps a few keys on her wrist computer pad and sends over the building blueprints to Daisuke’s HUD unit. ‘We need the building clear in order to medevac the wounded from site, area is too hot for our choppers to land. I’ll initiate RTI (Real Time Intelligence) during our advance, we need you here ASAP to clear the roof and work your way down. I will repeat, there are civilians.’

‘Affirmative, Actual.’ he leaves the channel open for an extra second to let the Captain listen to his orders to the rest of his elite jump platoon. ‘Alright, One-4. Just get this Scumbine Trash to the curb, the Captain needs us in sector 3 ASAP.’ His com shuts off.

Hatchy smiles slightly then reactivates her comlink, resuming running her toes across the ground. ‘Hatchy Actual to Hatchy One-2. SITREP’

BB in his Shadowhawk responds, ‘Engaging multiple mech assets, they are assaulting the dropship LZ. Looks like its light elements...One-3 and our HAV’s are holding them off. Requesting permission to lure enemy forces away from the LZ and scout.’

The Captain calls to the VTOL loitering over the battlefield, ‘Hatchy Actual to One-5, SITREP.’

One-5 calls back, ‘We’re awaiting orders, Actual, pretty quiet in sector 5. All systems are in the green.’

‘Actual to Hatchy One-2. Proceed as requested.’

‘Solid copy, Actual.’

‘Actual to One-5 and One-5 Bravo, proceed to the building at these coordinates,’ Hatchy sends over the information from her wrist unit, ‘stay at minimum safe distance, proceed to objective when One-4 has neutralized rooftop defence systems.’

‘Solid Copy, actual.’

Zoyra looks sideways at her Commander, ‘Why do you do it all yourself, Captain? Why even attempt to command from the field like this?’

The tiny Captain pauses for a long moment as she focuses her attention on the movement in the downed helicopter, ‘...if I make a mistake, it's my fault, no one else's...like those crewmen, if I don’t save him right now, it's my fault if they don’t make it. Everyone in that building is now my responsibility too.’ Hatchy turns to the young Zoyra, ‘I don’t want you, or anyone, to have to make those kind of choices...it's not fair to ask that.’

The K-9 handlers brow furrows, she always is taken off guard at Hatchy’s extreme swings between personalities. ‘Is that why you didn’t tell One-5 about the civilians? It doesn’t matter if it's fair, Captain, you can’t do it alone...and we all feel guilt when we fail.’

Hatchsune’s eyes light up as she nods, ‘Let's go bring him home.’ And she crawls out of cover toward the crash site, her pink tutu rustling on the debris.

Zoyra sighs as she raises her pulse rifle, switching her reflex sight to infrared. She issues Charlie the command to follow the Captain and trains her rifle on the building containing the Kuritan forces. Hatchy’s pink tutu and pink hat is still fairly visible in the dark. ‘She’s completely crazy.’

Hatchy darts between cover, moving as fast as her legs will allow, needing to wait as regularly timed flares lighten the sky expelling night vision countermeasures, bathing the ground in red light. Explosions ignite only a few blocks away, lighting the sky further and shaking the ground. The Captain finally makes it to the downed VTOL, jumping inside it.

There she finds the four crewmen, one of which is conscious and staring at her in disbelief. ‘Ma’am?’ He stammers. Charlie enters in behind her, sniffing the air.

She swings her bag in front of her, showing him the red cross on it. She notices his rank insignia, ‘Flight Lieutenant, I’m Captain Hatchsune of Hatchy’s Helpers. Are you the only one conscious? What are your injuries?’

He stares at her again, her tiny frame, her striped tights, long blonde braids, pink tutu and pink hat with cat ears, covered with an olive drab jacket. He shakes his head thinking, ‘Goddamn Mercs...goddamn unprofessionals…’ But he actually does report the situation, ‘I can’t tell about the Crew Chief, but my co-pilot is dead and I can’t move my right leg, I think my pelvis is broken.’

The Captain issues a command to the Beagle to check the Crew Chief and approaches the pilot, carefully examining him. She activates her coms, ‘Zoyra, pilot is conscious…’ Charlie trots over to her and sits down, ‘...and two casualties. Pilot is immobile, will stabilize I will need assistance to extract him back to your current position.’

‘Solid copy.’ Is the dog handlers reply.

The pilot scowls at her, ‘You won't even check the Crew Chief?’

She is unblinking as she looks him over, ‘Unnecessary. You’ve been impaled on some rebar, good news is that it looks like it has missed your organs.’ She goes into one of her pockets and produces heat tape and a small thermal lance and prepares the point of entry by taping the area around the wound and placing the thermal lance on the piece of metal. She next opens her canteen and holds it over the wound entrance. ‘Ready, Flight Lieutenant? Grab hold of me and when I tell you to pull, pull.’

He nods his head and grabs onto her tiny frame.

She actives the lance and the super heated plasma burns quickly through the bar, to counter the intense heat on his clothing, she splashes water on the pilot, ‘Pull.’

They both heave and he falls out of his seat on top of her, Charlie’s nose is quickly pressed into Hatchy’s face, ‘It's okay, Charlie. I’m okay. Good boy for checking. How are you, Flight Lieutenant?’

‘Nothings changed...I still hurt.’

‘Zoyra, I need you.’

‘Solid copy.’

Hatchy tends to the pilots other wounds as Zoyra makes her way carefully to the chopper. Tethra remaining back to keep a vigilant eye out for potential threats.

With painstaking care the group makes it back to the original position, with Hatchy even covering their tracks by various means. Comfortably back in cover, they notice a Combine patrol coming from the East of the building, heading towards the downed VTOL.

The Captain produces a rifle from the rubble and hands it to the pilot as she helps him into a firing position, ‘Don't fire until they notice us, I sent some tracks off in another direction, hopefully they give up and go back into the building...we’re too close to their reinforcements to try to neutralize them now.’

‘Copy.’ Is the reply.

 

[Hatchy]

The group holds for a quite some time, observing the activity surrounding the building. With the patrol out, they don’t want to risk making their way back to friendly lines so they sat in waiting; timing patrols and taking notes and sending them off to the awaiting units maintaining a holding pattern. Occasionally they catch sight of a civilian, sometimes an adult, sometimes a child as they are purposely moved in front of windows as shields.

This agitates the Captain. Her scowl becomes more apparent the longer the group sits, her blue eyes dart around the building as she twitches anxiously, her fingers digging continually into the dirt. Zoyra knows what is about to happen, she just makes herself ready for the inevitable ‘GO’ signal.

Hatchy punches a few more buttons on her communications system, macro presets to give the quickest and quietest commands and she turns to the K9 Specialist, ‘We’re going to enter from the service entrance. You...’

She turns to the Flight Officer, ‘...I need you to hold here and give direction to the incoming units or alert us to a returning patrol. This position is the rally point.’ She pulls out a tiny, short range communicator and hands it to him. ‘This isn’t encrypted, so only use it when you have to.’ She gives him the communication designation codes.

‘Affirmative, Captain.’ He responds.

‘Let's go. We should have 40 minutes before the patrol returns.’ Captain Hatchsune says to Zoyra as she presses one last button, sending the same signal to One-4 and One-5. She scrambles over the rubble and Specialist Amilakhvari is hot on her heals, with her dogs hot on hers, and the small group dashes towards the building, using as much cover as possible.

Reaching the East entrance, the group cautiously flatten themselves up against the building, Tethra with his ‘doggles’ scanning the interior and Charlie protecting the rear.

‘Suppressor.’ Hatchy says to Zoyra.

A stunned look flashes across Amailakhvari’s face for a brief second before she clues into what her Commander is saying, the K9 handler is still rather inexperienced when it comes to operations such as this. She quickly attaches a suppressor to her pulse rifle and turns on her laser sight.

Hatchy only has her brown leather medic bag slung over her shoulder and is otherwise unarmed.

Zoyra looks the Captain up and down, not willing to question orders when it comes to this seemingly insane operation, but Hatchy moves with complete confidence and this assures the relatively inexperienced Specialist.

‘There is a bay behind these double doors, and then a hallway with two rooms on either side, then it opens up into a lobby with the staircase and two elevators.The daycare is on the main floor.’ The Captain states as she uses her hands to gesture her words, then asks, ‘What does Tethra see?’

Zoyra holds her rifle to her shoulder and flips a switch on her rifle scope, it connects to Tethras doggles so the handler can effectively see what her dog sees. ‘Can’t see too far into the building, too much interference with this reinforced concrete, but I can see two hostiles and a civilian in the first office to the left...there is a few more figures that pass by the hallway opening...no real pattern.’

‘Good work.’ Hatchsune slowly opens the door. She motions Charlie to follow her and the pair slip quietly into the building. Tethra and Amilakhvari keep a watchful eye though their thermographic sights and after a few moments she signals Zoyra to follow. The room is dimly lit, so Zoyra deactivates Tethra’s thermal imaging and the group sit quietly behind some supplies and observe. A third soldier enters the room with the three others and discusses orders, eventually he leaves and heads back down the corridor.

The Captain quietly makes her way to the wall next to the doorway, the sound of fighting still rings through the air outside and the occasional nearby hit makes the building shake, masking her movements. She motions Charlie and Zoyra to follow and Tethra stays put, eyes on the hallway.

Hatchy turns to Amilakhvari and motions to the hostiles in the room and then runs a finger across her throat. Zoyra nods and cinches her rifle to her vest with its quick release straps and draws her pistol, attaching its silencer to its barrel.

Charlie is motioned to go down the hallway and stand in front of the open door containing the small party, he wears no combat vest, so he looks like just any regular dog, unlike Tethra who is outfitted like his human counterparts. The beagle stops at the door and looks in, his head cocks to the side as he stares at one of the enemy soldiers.

‘What? Where did you come from?’ A response is heard from one of them as he sees the dog.

‘Those dummies must have left the doors open, I’ll go check.’ Says a female voice. ‘C’mere boy!’

Charlie turns and heads back into the bay with the soldier behind him, she stops in confusion as she sees the doors closed and that's when Zoyra acts, grabbing the soldier by the mouth and dispatching her with several gunshots underneath the left armpit. Charlie barks to further cover the sound of the silenced pistol. Then the pair quickly move into the room and the K9 Specialist puts the second enemy down with a few well placed shots.

The startled civilian stares at the pair in horror.

Hatchy stares at him and gives him orders in a low tone. ‘Help us get these two into the other room, then head out the door and head back to crashed helicopter, hide by there. We have a man stationed by.’

He, again, stares in horror.

‘NOW!’ She gives a whispery growl.

He jumps up and helps move the fallen soldiers and quickly runs out of the building.

The group, including Tethra, move into the next room adjacent to the lobby entrance to the building. Amilakhvari activates the Great Dane’s thermal imaging again and looks through her rifle scope. Hatchy activates her wrist unit and a small display of the lower level is projected onto the wall, pointing to where the daycare should be.

‘Is anyone in there?’ She asks.

‘Affirmative, Captain. Looks like four hostiles and eight civilians...some children, I think, but I can only guess based off their size.’ She motions Tethra to scan the rest of the floor, ‘There are six more guards outside the front entrance...one is an MG team.’

Hatchsune takes a deep breath in and begins to remove her military equipment, leaving her in her tutu, striped tights, a pink sweater and her hat and she tucks a pair of flashbangs into her sleeves. ‘I will get into the daycare, you need to take care of the entrance and we need to get the kids back to the rally point.’ She makes Zoyra turn around so some detonation cord can be retrieved from the Handlers backpack.

Zoyra takes a deep breath herself, understanding the complexity of the next few minutes.

‘You need to be quick and you need to aim true. I know you can do it, I trust you through and through!’ Hatchy grins as she gives her counterparts arm a gentle squeeze.

The Tiny Captain outlines a ‘doorway’ on the wall with the direction of the thermal imaging, she used double the amount needed as the new ‘doorway’ will be right next to the front entrance of the building.

She checks the time and gives a three minute signal to the K9 Specialist, the wait feels like three hours.

When it's time to go, Hatchy leaves the room and commands Charlie to follow. The pair enter the lobby, in front of the posted guards drawing a look of confusion from a few as she enters the daycare. There are six children and two adults in the corner of the room with four enemy soldiers scattered about, all with their weapons at the ready.They all look at diminutive Captain in surprise as she motions Charlie to go to the children and approaches the largest of the hostile occupants.

They take no aggressive action as she looks more like one of the children than a combatant, just an aggressive tone, ‘Hey! No one is suppose to be walking around! Get over there and sit down!’

She stands in front of the large man and checks her watch, drawing another bellow from him to sit down. She just stares up at him.

Charlie is doing his job of keeping the children occupied as one of the women caring for the children looks to the pink-clad newcomer, Hatchy in return gives a motion to her to cover the childrens eyes.

The large soldier shouts again as his counterparts get closer to surround her, his arm goes up to strike her and she quickly counterstrikes the man in the groin with her fist, causing him to double over. His companions move into action at their platoon mate going down, but Hatchsune produces the pair of flashbangs and sets them off.

She is somewhat stunned by the grenades herself, but through the ringing in her head and the blurriness in her vision, she turns to the adults with the children and yells, ‘Loading bay! We have people! Follow the dog!’ And her attention is drawn back to the soldiers struggling against the surprise attack. She strikes with punches and kicks, aiming for noses and jaws and groins and ears, anything to slow down her targets. Eventually they start to succumb to her quick and vicious attacks.

The igniting of the flashbangs, of course, drew the attention of the front door guards. They start to shout in alarm and enter the building, rushing in right past where Zoyra is positioned on the other side of the wall. She detonates the explosive cord as they pass, catching a few in the explosion.

At the same moment, the VTOL’s of One-5 begin to arrive and buzz the building, causing even more confusion.

The Tiny Captain turns to see if the children are being moved out of the room and as she does so, the first enemy occupant, the first one she hit below the belt, grabs her and throws her across the room as easily as one would throw a bag of laundry. She smashes into tables and chairs, but is quickly to her feet, ignoring the pain surging through her entire body and jumps back at him, clawing and gouging any part of exposed flesh that he has.

He is far too large of an opponent and it doesn’t take long before he does get the upper hand and he looms over her with his hands around her neck and starts to squeeze. She tucks her chin in and tries to break his hold, but his fingers find the right place to cut off Hatchy’s air supply. He does make the mistake of getting his face too close to whisper something, she can’t hear him as her heart is pounding loudly in her ears, but the Captain does get her thumb into his eye and feels it enter his skull up to the knuckle. He shrieks in pain, but doesn’t relinquish his grip, he simply straightens his arms and squeezes even tighter. She keeps struggling and kicking, grunting and gasping, but stars are filling her vision and a pain in her chest is growing. Her grip on him loosens and her hands fall to the floor, Hatchy stares at her opponent sneer down at her in joy at his apparent victory before her vision fades to black.

Very, very faintly, she hears Tethra’s thunderous bark and the fingers around her neck are gone and so is the crushing weight on her chest. Before she even has her faculties, she’s on her feet and starts to cough and gasp. She staggers and turns to the barking dog and yelling man, she thinks it is the voice of the same man who just almost killed her, but she can’t tell, she’s completely out-of-sorts.

She hears a, ‘Captain!’ in the distance and falls back to her knees, gagging and coughing and gasping for air. Hatchsune hears the sound of a pulse rifle firing and then feels a hand on her arm before hearing, ‘Captain!’ over and over. ‘Captain!’

After a few agonizing minutes, Hatchy’s vision starts to return and her breathing, while still laboured, is returning to normal. She looks up and sees Zoyra with a very concerned look on her face, ‘Zoyra *cough* SITREP.’

 

[CmdrDunsail]

As usual, someone else here gave me the idea for an actual 'Space Opera'...blame @CmdrDunsail !

Wait...what ?!

(Saves to txt file for break reading...)

 

[Hatchy]

‘Civilians are accounted for and unharmed, currently sitting tight in the loading bay.’

‘Good.’ Hatchy wheezes, ‘Good job, Zoyra...thank you.’ She struggles to her feet and waves off any offers of assistance. The Captain dashes out of the room towards the loading bay, with the K-9 handler and her dog close behind, stopping briefly for the gear that was left in the room previous.

The rescued group turns towards Hatchy’s small team when they enter the bay and watch the tiny Captain as she makes her way to the doors that lead outside. Cracking them open slightly, Hatchy pears outside.

Hatchsune turns back to the civilians huddled in the corner and approaches them with her arms open, ‘We have people outside, we will take you to them. You will be very safe with them.’ She checks her wrist unit, the signal from Hit-One blinks on screen signalling that they have achieved the first objective of making it to the roof of the building. ‘Let’s go.’

The train of people snakes its way through the rubble away from the besieged building, with Hatchy and Charlie in the lead, Zoyra and Tethra bringing up the rear.

Daisuke, Commander of Hit-One, broadcasts over the Hatchy’s Helpers communication channel, ‘Hit-One Actual to One-5,’

‘One-Five to Hit-One Actual, send it.’

‘Proceed to extraction point, rooftop secure.’

‘Solid copy, Hit-One Actual. One-5 and One-5 Bravo are moving to your location.’

The Captain opens up her comms, ‘Hatchy Actual to One-5.’

‘One-5 to Actual, send it.’

‘Extraction for plus nine needed at Rally Point David, one casualty.’

‘Actual, I acknowledge all, what is the status of your casualty?’

‘PDF pilot disabled.’

‘Good copy Actual, are you taking fire?’

‘Negative.’

‘Priority, Actual?’

Hatchy looks back and sees that everyone is seemingly fine. ‘Two.’

‘Solid copy, Actual. Little Birds at Rally Point David in fifteen.’

‘Solid copy, One-Five.’

Within visual distance to the location where Hatchy and Zoyra left the disabled pilot, Hatchy holds up to let everyone pass so she can get a good look at the recently rescued hostages and signals Amilakhvari to take the lead.

From beneath her feet, the Captain feels a steady thump...thump...thump and the rubble around her begins to move. ‘Zoyra!’ She shouts and scrambles to the highest point she can find, spinning in all directions looking for the source of the disturbance. She sees it as it rounds a damaged structure, a Centurion not clad in the Planetary Defence Force colors stomps towards the building currently occupied by Hit-One and behind it its supporting infantry.

‘Hatchy-Actual to One-5! Incoming hostile heavy mech and infantry assets! Abort extractions! Abort extractions! Requesting immediate fire support!’

‘Solid copy, Actual.’

‘Hatchy-Actual to Hit-One Actual, incoming enemy reinforcements. Centurion with supporting infantry on foot, will reach your position in ten!’

‘Solid copy, Actual.’

The Centurion stops and turns towards the Captain standing out in the open, its communications suit picking up her transmission signal. Its large bore cannon arm raises and attempts to train on the tiny figure before it releases a gout of high explosive rounds. Hatchy leaps out of the way, tumbling down the rubble pile she was standing on as the cannon rounds impact where she was moments before. She’s quick to her feet, but the 50 ton machine is just as quick, it reaches her position and begins to stomp on the ground and smashing buildings, attempting to use the falling rubble as deadly projectiles.

Zoyra gets the group to the location of the pilot, but they are unable to move out with the Battlemech being so close. Hatchy’s slight frame allows her to weave in and out of the rubble, occasionally she allows herself to be seen as she scurries around the machine's feet, keeping its attention on her.

The pilot of the Centurion takes a few steps towards the position held by Amilakhvari and the freed hostages and Hatchsune appears in the middle of what's left of the road and runs in the opposite direction, away from the group. The giant machine turns and raises its foot.

The force of the mech’s stomp causes the road to buckle and heave, like someone in a cartoon stomping on a floorboard, the machines stomp launches Hatchy into the air. She falls heavily back onto the broken concrete.

The ground all around the Centurion begins to break and crack and a large fissure begins to open, making its way quickly towards the group at the extraction point, as an underground structure begins to collapse. The hole quickly reaches the terrified group and engulfs them, swallowing a few in its dark maw as the others cling desperately onto the rubble and each other.

Hatchsune somehow hears the cries and stumbles to her feet, her body is wracked with pain; broken bones and heavy bruising, bleeding wounds and missing skin, but she keeps moving. She runs her tongue across her teeth, ‘Good, haven’t lost any more.’

The tiny Captain reaches the rent in the ground and sees Zoyra clinging onto as many others as she can, doing a quick head count she sees that three children, one of their adult caregivers and Charlie is missing. Without so much as a word, she leaps down the hole.

‘CAPTAIN!!!’ Zoyra screams.

The Centurion turns its attention to where its little pink target had moved to and raises its autocannon. Amilakhvari stares in shock and gets prepared to let go to join her Commander underground. She turns to the Flight Officer, ‘Can you make it down there?’

‘Even if I have to flop like a fish, I can make it down there.’ Is his reply.

There is a crackle over the radio, ‘One-Five to Hatchy-Actual. One-Five on site, providing fire support.’ And volley after volley of missiles from One-Five’s heavy VTOL’s impact on the Battlemech, rocking it back from the volume of firepower.

The close support chopper soon sweeps in, unloading its deadly payload of SRM’s and machine guns, first on the mech and then moves in on the infantry a few blocks away, the pilot darting between the Centurion and buildings as if it were a playground obstacle course, getting close enough to drop fragmentation bombs from the helicopter’s wing pylons. Another large volley of long range missiles from the support VTOL’s impact against the Battlemech.

*Captain Hatchsune does disdain all weapons of war, but she understands she needs to make concessions in order to force peace. It upsets her to the point of tears knowing the fact that a lot of individuals are completely incapable or unwilling to take the steps necessary, but she accepts it. So she takes that weight off their shoulders and puts it on her shoulders and she repents in her own way. It is her own resources that are expended to care and treat the injured brought on by conflict, even the enemy soldiers caught in the devastating firepower of her gunship’s sights. She works tirelessly to undo the damage that has been done, she understands it is her responsibility.*

The enemy infantry makes its way closer to Zoyra’s position, soon making it untenable. Her and the other mobile adult get the kids safely on solid ground and support the injured pilot between them.

She calls over the comms, ‘Hatchy-One-2 to One-5, Rally Point David no longer secure, falling back to Rally Point Cristopher.’

‘Solid copy, One-2. We’ll support your withdrawal.’

‘Hatchy-Actual is down, unable to retrieve. Need immediate ground support on David.’

‘Solid copy, One-2. Deploying all available units.’

The intensity of fire from Hatchy’s Helpers supporting units increases, crumbling the 50 ton machine under withering fire. Its supporting infantry digs into the surrounding buildings, taking cover from the airstrikes.

The battle rages for hours, well into the night. The Helpers rely on specialized infantry to clear buildings as heavy weapons cause far too much structural damage, but fortunately, the members of Hit-One and the mounted troops of One-5 relish the challenge of close quarters. They are the backbone of Captain Hatchsune’s agenda and are compensated extremely well for it. The Commanders are given access to special equipment from the secure vaults on the Jumpship Namida, a privilege only given to a select few. But clearing buildings is a very slow process, so right now, the area where Hatchy and the others disappeared into the ground has not been secured.

At the Helpers Area of Operations, the 2IC, DD Ghorbani, paces back and forth as the communications officer cycles through every channel, ‘Command to Catcall. Command to Catcall, do you copy, over.’ Catcall is the emergency call sign for the Captain this mission.

Amilakhvari and her Great Dane enter the command tent, ‘Birds need to refuel, Tethra and I will head back out. Any word?’

DD grasps his bald head with both hands and lets out a very long breath as he digs his nails into his scalp, ‘No.’

Her expression changes to an even deeper shade of anxiety. Her attention shifts to Tethra, ‘We’ll find her, won’t we?’ She strokes the dog down the length of his neck.

Tethra gives a steely look to her and DD, indicating he just wants to get back to work.

‘Command to Catcall, do you copy?’

DD continues to pace.

There is a crack as a channel over open communications squacks to life with a song sung very loudly and poorly by a very familiar voice, it's Hatchy.

‘Beth I hear you callin’,

But I can’t come home right now.

Me and the boys are playin’,

But we just can’t find the sou-ound.

Just a few more hours

and I’ll be right home to you…’

Over a secure channel, Hatchy One-3, BB Ghorbani in his Panther states, ‘I hate her so much sometimes…’

There is a collective sigh of relief as it feels all the oxygen has been let back into the room.

‘Location?’ DD says with some excitement in his usually calm voice.

‘Negative, sir. Seems like she was using a radio station.’

Amilakhvari is noticeably relieved too, but the dog still just wants to get back out to the field. ‘Orders, sir?’

‘We’ll try to get an idea of the location of that last broadcast and then send you out on a bird, Hit-One and One-5 Dismount are still occupied with hostiles in the initial area of her disappearance. So it's you and BB, really.’ His brow furrows.

‘Affirmative.’

More hours pass and DD is still in the command tent, but his resolve has slipped a bit as he nods in and out of sleep. The occasional ‘Command to Catcall’ still gets repeated over the channels, but silence is still the only reply.

As the sun begins to rise for its morning trek across the horizon, a very familiar voice, singing very loudly and very poorly, is heard at the entrance to the tent.

‘Trying to live without your love is one long sleepless night,

Let me show you, girl, that I know wrong from right.

Every street you walk on, I leave tear stains on the ground,

Following the girl I didn't even want around’

DD snaps out of his twilight state as the tent’s occupants rush to the door. Hatchsune stands there, with the three children and Charlie in a backpack.

She is almost down to nothing, the children wear most of her clothing, including her boots. A toddler is clinging to her as she holds him, he is wrapped in her jacket and wearing her hat. A girl of about 6 holding hands is on her left, she is wearing the tutu and the sweater and a boy of about 12 is on the right, wearing her boots and has an SMG dangling around his neck. Hatchy’s grin is ear-to-ear and her eyes are wide, signalling to DD that she is really, really hurt, but she continues to stay close to the children. All she is wearing is her tights and a tanktop and her jaw is clenched firmly to stop any visible shivering.

The trained emergency caregivers carefully approach the new arrivals with blankets and cookies and warm smiles.

‘It's ok, they’re friends, I told you.’ Hatchsune says soothingly.

All the children view the strangers with suspicion, the toddler clamping even tighter to Hatchy, twisting his fingers tighter into her hair. One of the Helpers nurses produce a big cookie and shows it to the girl and motions her to come into the big, warm blanket held by another staff member.

‘It's ok, they’re friends.’ Hatchy repeats.

Hesitantly, the child takes the cookie and has a bite. The sweetness of it entices her to let go of Hatchy’s hand and enter the embrace of the fuzziness of the blanket.

Another member holds her arms out to the toddler still grasping to the Captain and he refuses to let go until a giant cookie is shown to him. He eyes the cookie, the nurse and the girl in the blanket up and down before he agrees to be taken away from Hatchy’s hold. Even then, he has a really good grip on one of her long braids which takes some convincing for him to let go.

After she hands over the child, her body is still locked into the position it was when she was holding him. Her eyes go even wider, ‘Been holding him for 6 hours…’ and she forces her body back into a regular position, shielding her pain from the 12-year-old to her right.

The staff make motions towards the boy, trying to reach for the gun around his neck, offering him food and the blanket, but he stays firmly planted at the side of his half stripy tight clad rescuer. He shuns any form of contact, only clutching his gun tighter while huddling even closer to the tiny Commander.

Hatchsune turns to him and gently places her hands on his face, gently stroking his cheeks and running her fingers through his hair, they are the same height so they look each other in the eye as she speaks, ‘You did so awesome out there. We made it here, to safety, because of you. You are the bravest and the best! It is OK, they are my friends, you’ll be warm and safe here. My friends are the best in the whole galaxy! No place safer than here, I promise promise.’ She hugs him tightly and kisses him on the forehead before reaching for the firearm around his neck. ‘It's ok, you are safe.’ She retrieves the gun from him and wraps her arms around him, ‘Thank you.’

The boy bursts into uncontrollable tears, clutching her as he sobs.

“It's OK, you are safe. You are awesome.’ She repeats over and over as she strokes his hair, fighting her own tears off.


They both get covered by a blanket, but she reaches the the point here she is unable to fend off her own emotions and they both fall to the ground sobbing. ‘You’re OK,’ she repeats over and over, ‘You are safe. You are awesome.’

 

[Hatchy]

BB floats into the central mainframe module of the Invader class jumpship, Namida, looking for Captain Hatchsune. Between his sleep cycle and transport from the planet he hadn’t seen her in about a week.

‘JEEZUSCHRIST!’

Every panel has been pulled off the wall and every wire has been pulled into the room and Hatchy floats in the middle of it all with a display in front of her where she communicates with the ship’s computer, Timmy. She is in the process of replacing every wire with red ones and weaving them intricately into each other and changing all the interface inputs to the same one. She doesn’t acknowledge his appearance, but instead works away, unblinking, as she taps the pad and makes voice commands to the computer so it can bypass and reroute so no functions are disrupted onboard.

He stares at her in horror and awe.

She nods off halfway through a braid and Timmy tries to prompt her, ‘Hatchsune. Captain Hatchsune…’ The computer cycles through some commands and BB can see some code being rewritten on the screen before it blinks off.

‘Greetings, Commander BB.’

‘Tinman...are...are...you okay?’ Tinman is the actual name of the ship's computer, given to it by its Star League designers, but Hatchy doesn’t like that name so she calls it Timmy, but BB doesn’t like Timmy and the ship itself doesn’t care what its called.

‘Affirmative, Commander. Captain Hatchsune deemed it wise to rewire the access to central core as there has been a lot more activity on board recently. We came up with a system that is impossible to break without the key code.’

BB looks at the intricately woven tapestry of red wire in front of him, the complete control wiring of the ship wound and wrapped, crossed and braided, bypassed and routed into a pattern that hurts the eyes when stared at for any length of time.

Hatchy wakes up and continues working as if she had never nodded off. The display flickers back on and she works away, her tiny fingers dancing and darting between strands of plastic coated wire until she is just about finished.

The computer asks, ‘Commander, for security reasons can you please leave the module?’

The Captain raises her hand and waves him off. He’s used to it, when she is focused on something, she isn’t hospitable.

‘Alright, but how long has she been at this?’

She glares at him with a cold fury rivaling a blizzard. Her complexion white and eyes black from exhaustion.

‘5 days, Commander.’

‘How much longer?’

Hatchy’s eyes go wide and her lips pull back in a sneer.

‘I will inform you when it's completed.’ Is Timmy’s reply.

BB shrugs his shoulders and scowls back at the Captain and leaves the module. The door shuts behind him.

Hatchsune turns back to her work and looks over the infomation rolling across the screen, ‘Is this going to work? One hundred percent for-sure, for-sure?’

‘One hundred percent. Captain, what is your name?’

She thinks for a minute and then giggles, ‘I dunno!’ She breaks into laughter.

It takes a few minutes to regain control of herself but she can see that she’s on the last step. She looks over the schematics one last time before taking the last set of wires and weaving them into each other and connecting them to what seems to be a completely ordinary string of other braided red wiring.

Her eyes are heavy again as she stares at this final piece and pulls at her red tie to unravel it. While staring at the final piece, she braids her own tie into an Eldritch tie knot that is the exact duplicate of the Master Override Access. There a few like it scattered over the room, but only enough so the Master Override blends in.

‘Done?’ Her little head bobs as her eyes close.

‘Complete, Captain.’

Timmy opens the door and BB is there with his arms crossed. She smiles warmly and pushes off towards him, gently falling into the Commander and she curls up into his arms, tucking her knees up into her chest.

The door closes and Timmy seals it, the computer empties the room of oxygen and shuts off the lights.

She sighs as she smiles, getting as tight to BB as she can and starts gently snoring before he can even call her name. He just shakes his head and takes her back to her sleep chamber.

 

[Hatchy]

Captain Hatchsune cranes her up at the tall woman standing in front of her and reaches her hand into her pocket. Hatchy's blue eyes are wide and her gaze slices through her counterpart to something distant far behind.

Zoyra Amilakhvari stares down at her tiny Commander, 'Hatchy? Are you OK?'

The Captain fishes out a notebook and hands it to Zoyra; she opens it and sees nothing but page-after-page of names, the first names in the book being the original crew of the Namida, the Hatchy's Helpers jumpship. Dozens and dozens of pages containing an almost countless amount of people are bound within this tiny notepad.

Hatchy starts repeating the names in order before Amilakhvari starts to understand the significance of this little book. Her dark eyes are wide with shock, '...Captain...'

Hatchsune pauses as her gaze goes even more distant before snapping back to Zoyra, 'I held all of their hopes and dreams in these fingers,' she holds her small hands up and examines them with a glossy expression, 'and I couldn't keep holding on to them anymore.' There is a slight waver in her tiny voice, 'I had to let them go.'

She pauses for whats seems an eternity to Amilakhvari. Zoyra's chest begins to tighten as she searches for something to say or an action to take, but the heartache that her Commander shows freezes her in place.

'But,' Hatchy snaps out her trance and fishes out a different notepad from a different pocket, she smiles as she flips to a page near the end, 'these are hopes and dreams that we gave.' She places a finger on a name, 'This person here, this is someone that you gave hopes and dreams to...and to everyone after.' There is a long list of names that Zoyra remembers; pages and pages of people and places.

The Captain holds both books up, 'As long as this one always has more names than this one,' she waves the second book as she drops the first book slightly, 'there is redemption.'

She takes a deep breath and repeats herself with a nod, 'Redemption.'

 

[Hatchy]

Zoyra lays in BB’s arms and gazes out of the open floor-to-ceiling windows as the twin golden suns break the clear horizon, their light casting shimmering reflections on the glass-blue water of the bay as they make their way up into the morning sky. White linen curtains hanging on copper rods snap gently in the ocean air while a quiet ring of delicate wind chimes break the silence, urging the occupants of Chateau Saint Patiens to wake and revel in this glorious of morning.

She gasps as she squeezes his hand; the dinner with the Archon, dancing to the full orchestra under the moonlight, the wine, the giant mattress with generously soft bedding, the night with BB, the view of the twin suns over the Great Valloirean Sea and now the scent of the first meals of the day being placed onto hot coals in the courtyard are things she never dreamed of ever happening, not to her anyway.

Zoyra looks back to the younger Ghorbani, ‘God...do you have to wear those all the time?’ He’s already wearing his sunglasses.

He grins at her, ‘Of course I do. I’m a Rock Star.’

She purses her lips together and rolls her dark eyes, ‘Pfft...’ then drops herself against his chest. But, she moves a little too fast, as last night’s wine starts a gentle drumbeat behind her eyeballs.

‘Ack…’ Zoyra places her hand over her eyes.

‘Heh.’ is BB’s amused response. ‘I warned you about the gewurztraminer, the Archons favorite goes down really smooth.’

There is a soft knocking at the door informing the occupants that morning tea is waiting for them outside the door when they are ready.

Zoyra uncovers her eyes and looks back out the window, ‘I’ve spent nights on the beach before on Tamarind. We were allowed to take our boards to school as most of us were competitive surfers, so the teachers would try to encourage us as much as possible. We would leave school as early as we could on Friday and head straight to the beach and wander home Sunday sometime to shower...and the parties during a competition were crazy...but nothing like last night.’

She crawls over BB as she heads towards the door, making sure to pull the bedding off him so she can wrap it around herself before she opens the door. He places his arms behind his head and grins, not showing any signs of shame at all.

Bringing the tray of tea and biscotti back the mattress, she lays it carefully down and sits beside him, making sure to have as much of the covers wrapped around her as possible. Before reaching for a cup of tea, she runs a finger along his body, enjoying his shameless display.

He says with a grin, ‘Hey, I live in space, remember? If you can be naked on a spaceship, it’s easy to be naked on a tropical planet.’

A song falls into the courtyard from the penthouse as Hatchsune starts to sing,

‘E volvavo, volavo felice

Piu in alto del sole ed ancora piu su

Mentre il mondo pian piano spariva, lontano laggiu…’

‘She sounds really happy,’ Zoyra says with a smile ‘...do you think she’s up there with someone?’

BB scoffs, ‘Hah! No. I can guarantee she just has the dogs.’ He rolls over and reaches for a cup of tea for himself.

‘Why do you say it like that? Couldn’t DD be there with her?’

‘Definitely not. They are both far too focused on Hatchy’s Helpers to even consider that type of relationship.’ He noisily sips his hot beverage.

Zoyra seems puzzled. ‘I see how they are together, she is always leaning on him, clutching his arm, sleeping on him, holding his hand…’

‘And antagonizing him?’ BB’s eyebrows raise from behind his sunglasses. ‘Watch what he does. He just lets her do those things to him the same way that you allow a small lap dog do what it wants to do…’

‘What?’ is Zoyra’s incredibly indignant response.

‘Look...she’s like our baby sister, even though she’s 300 years old. He’s the big brother that she idolizes, she’s the one he has to clean up after. Remember, she grew up in a house full of boys where she was the youngest…’

Hatchy then bellows,

‘VOLARE!!!’

And there is a slight pause before Charlie’s howl is heard, ‘rowr, rowr!’

‘CANTARE!!!’

‘Rowrowrowr-rowr!’

Zoyras eyes go wide as her face drops,’ What is she doing to my dog?’

‘Turning him into a tenor, by the sounds of it.’

She turns to him and stares for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

 

[Hatchy]

It takes a minute for the dark-eyed Marikian to recover before she can gather her thoughts, ’Do you believe that she is 300 years old?’

He shrugs, ‘No, but who cares. She does, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?’

‘Well kinda…’ Zoyra sighs, ‘It completely undermines what she is, Behnam.’ Zoyra is one of the few that can pronounce BB’s name correctly. ‘If you believe that, you’ll start believing that there is talking bird-aliens.’

As BB sips his tea, his eyebrow raises, ‘Uhhh...have you met her?’

Then as if on cue, Hatchy bellows again, ‘VOLARE!’

He continues, ‘She is hardly concerned what people think of her.’

‘Rowr-rowr!’

Zoyra giggles, ‘I guess not.’

BB lowers his cup, ‘Truthfully, she could have killed the entire crew for all we know, and out of guilt, fabricated this persona of hers. All of the records for the entire time she was on that ship before we got there were erased and the only thing she talks about is a few of her early deployments and her family.’

Her dark eyes go wide, ‘And that doesn’t worry you?’

‘Nope.’ He raises his cup to his lips again, ‘If she’s going to kill us, she’ll do it while we’re in our sleep chambers and we won’t know it’s happening anyway, so who cares, it’s out of our control.’

He seems to enjoy the horrified reaction on his new lover’s face.

‘The fact of the matter is,’ he starts again, ‘every single person in the galaxy wants what is on the Namida. There are things on that boat that do not exist anywhere else, it is all from a time lost long ago...suits of powered armor, mechs that don’t exist in books, weapons I barely even recognize...it’s all technology that will change the Inner Sphere forever.’ He takes a breath, ‘And everyone has tried to take it, but all have failed and it stays locked up in the central computer, Tin Man. Only the Captain has access to it and she allows the computer to act on its own in defense of the data; Tin Man accessed the central computer of a ComStar star base, on its own, and proceeded to destroy it after ascertaining that agents were getting ready to board a shuttle with the ComStar envoy and attempt to take over the ship. Again, the ship did all of that on it’s own.’ He pauses, ‘It has hacked into and shut down Jaime Wolf’s ship, it has hacked into and shut down Hans Davion’s ship, it has attacked and destroyed pirate vessels on it’s own while we were planetside...she re-programmed the most advanced AI in the Sphere to do nothing but protect what it has in its databanks. It can calculate jumps and make them on its own, it can refuel itself and it will kill to protect itself...and kill to protect her. I know it is monitoring every transmission right now as we speak.’

Zoyra’s stares at him open-mouthed. ‘...Behnam...I...I… had no idea…’

He grins, ‘And it now has space dementia, just like her.’ and then raises his cup in the air and gives a wink to the sky.

BB sees the horror creeping into Zoyra’s face and quickly changes the subject, ‘Joon might be up there with her, would explain why she is so loud this morning. But I can say nothing is going on, he is her baby brother and treats him like that.’

She stutters out, ‘Yeah, he idolizes her…’ as she takes a sip of tea.

‘Have you seen him when he she’s put him in a dress and does his make-up? And she gets in a three-piece suit? And they have a *** tea party?’

‘What?!?’ She has to cover her mouth to keep the last sip of tea in as she almost chokes.

‘Yeah! Like that’s fine if he’s 6 years old...but he’s 18! That is going to give him SO many issues in a few years…’ BB shakes his head as he reaches for his packet of cigarettes, in addition to tea, Valloire produces the best tobacco in Lyran space.

After clearing the tea from her lungs, she points out, ‘Some of his tattoos are Korean mafia...one is even for 5 years of service.’

‘Yep, I know. I pointed this out to her when we first rescued him...then she disappeared with him for about a week and came back with these crazy jump routes and refueling points...calculations that cut travel times or kept us completely off ComStar radar...just...I dunno...she acts like a spaz in public, on TV, but when it comes down to it, she pulls off these strange power plays with everyone…’ BB is noticeably confused. ‘It’s like if she gets you alone, you are hers…’

He continues, ‘It’s like when Jaime Wolf and Natasha Kerensky met with her...she didn’t allow anyone in with them, she even kicked out their bodyguards! They had swagger going in, but they didn’t have any swagger coming out...and then Daisuke showed up with a bunch of men and equipment similar to what was in the hold of the ship and they became apart of our forces.’

Zoyra can see the conflict in BB, with him perceiving that he has fallen into a web. ‘But what does she do with this ‘power’? She does amazing things, things that no one else can do...she gets us to do amazing things, things that no one else can do...all she does is give of herself.’

Behnam sighs, ‘Yeah I know...I just have to keep reminding myself of that...just can’t help but think there is something bigger going on behind my back.’ He places a cigarette in his mouth and lights it by flicking a match with his thumbnail.

She smiles, ‘Yes! And that drives you nuts! That’s the issue here, I think, knowing that you are the one being played…’ Zoyra lets the blankets fall and to expose her chest, she pushes her shoulders back slightly.

He cocks his head to the side and reaches for her, but she pulls away, just out of his grasp.

‘We have the photo shoot and the interview in few hours and I want to have a good breakfast first,’ Zoyra stands and lets the bedding fall to the floor, letting Behnam look at her before she positions herself over him and lowers back down to the bed. ‘You better *** me now, no telling when I’ll let you do it again.’

He looks at her with a smirk, ‘Don't cheapen the moment with foul language, you harlot…’

Zoyra quickly pulls a hair from his armpit, ‘*** off. And do it better than last night...it was only so-so.’

She can feel his icy glare through his sunglasses, ‘I’m going to wreck you…’

‘Yeah, yeah...that’s what you said last night…’ She takes the cigarette from his mouth and leans in for a kiss.

And Hatchy continues to serenade,

‘Nel blu occhi tuoi blu

Felice di stare quaggiù con te!’

 

[Hatchy]

Daisuke Endo is the best foot soldier in the entire Inner Sphere, his exploits are legendary, but only inside certain circles. When you are apart of the Secret Services, you can save an entire solar system from total destruction and not have a single person have the slightest idea who you are, but in a universe full of Battlemechs and spaceships, being the best infantryman is akin to being the world’s tallest midget.

He’s not sure about how he feels about fighting against his former countrymen, he enjoys the fear that he brings to them as no one knows better about his accomplishments than the attacking Kurita forces, with which he honed his considerable skill serving with most of his life. But anyone who knew anything about Special Forces, knew Commander Endo and it wasn’t long after the Wolf's Dragoons were employed by the Draconis Combine, Jaime Wolf came looking for Daisuke to recruit him into the ranks of the Seventh Commando. Even though Commander Endo was getting on in years, he still wanted, needed, to be in the field. However, in the ranks of the Combine Forces, his duty and honor were bound to his position so he soon would be regulated to a training camp or, even worse, administration. He knew he would die a slow death, a prospect the opposite of appealing to the old soldier.

So when Jaime Wolf approached Daisuke, the warrior broke his Samurai vows, so as a Ronan, he could decide his own future. The Dragoons had no code when it came to their clandestine maneuvers and Jaime had nothing but complete faith that Daisuke would get the job done, regardless of the complexity and hazardous the mission.

And then mission of the greatest difficulty arose; the Hatchy’s Helpers jumpship Namida. But to get to the Namida, a task of even greater difficulty made itself apparent, her tiny Captain, Hatchsune.

Daisuke has always lead from the front, he has always been the first one on the field and the last one off and today was no different. Angel 5, one of the eight Hatchy’s Helpers rapid deployment helicopters, descended the last few meters before touching down on the rough landing field. Its only occupants is its crew, a wounded member of Commander Endo’s unit Hit-One, Daisuke himself and his dog, Chopper.

Before the rotors have stopped, the MASH staff swarm the vehicle and pull the soldier onto a stretcher, quickly checking his wounds before the team runs the casualty to the operating tent.

Daisuke looks down to Chopper and see’s his K-9 companion passed out cold on the deck of the helicopter, he calls to his dog and there is no response...the pup is exhausted after 3 days of continuous fighting. Commander Endo chuckles and lowers himself to the deck and sits down, which soon proves to be a mistake. Not just the dog is exhausted.

In an instant, he feels all of his 42 years. The last three days have been some of the most intense combat he’s ever encountered, starting with an extreme HALO jump and ending in an aerial assault against an Amphigean command unit. He’s greatly enjoyed the last three days, as he was given free range to use any unit in any way he wanted, an opportunity never given to him before, but his body is now reminding him he’s no longer a young man.

He had the first clue yesterday when he had to break into his stimulants earlier than usual. Combat stimulants are standard issue with the Seventh and, after discussing the usage with Captain Hatchsune, the labs on the Namidawere used to improve the formula, making the crash a little gentler.

...but it's different now somehow…

It didn’t help that when he needed to take the stimulant, a firefight started almost immediately and his high was coming on as the red and green tracers started to pierce the the still night. The hiss of the colored rounds as they passed his ears, the way the leaves rustled and the crack of the bark as the trees snapped from motor rounds were all mutated into howls of animals as the drugs surged through him. If he could have just laid there, he probably would have enjoyed the show, but his training fought hard to take control of his body and for a few minutes, he just watched himself being pulled along, shouting orders, firing his weapon, getting the unit consolidated to counter...it was the most realistic movie he’d ever seen! Then he remembered he was the star. But he really did just want to watch.

The rest of the night was kind of a blur, but at the end, it was the same result as it always has been; Commander Daisuke Endo leading Hit-One to a successful completion of a very risky operation.

He thinks to himself, ‘Man...those Amphigean’s are tough...they fight like desperate men...they fight like her…’

‘Her’, meaning Hatchy...he still has teeth marks on his ankle from the last time they sparred, she bit through his gi. He had to choke her out to get her to stop. Every Amphigean he cut down, he pictured her face on their bodies.

But as he sits on the deck of the copter, his body starts to shut down. He can feel his hands begin to shake, his vision is starting to get blurry and he feels so tired. But he sees it's not just Hit-One that had worked themselves to exhaustion. Zoyra Amilakhvari and BB lay together on the Great Dane, Tethra; Zoyra’s thigh has been bandaged and BB lays with an intravenous bag attached to him. BB spent three days fighting inside the cockpit of his Panther, 8 Track, his body reduced to nothing much more than skin being stretched over bone.

A crashed Stork heavy lift helicopter of Hatchy One-5 lays across the field from him, One-5 Dismount suffered heavy casualties and there is a part of him that feels a great sadness, even though he teases them relentlessly about being ‘Discount’ troops. The Ivymen fought hard and pushed Hit-One everyday, they truly were amazing soldiers, even though he would never admit that to them.

The 8 Track stands slumping as coolant gets pumped through its frame from a coolant truck and Merica Marquis’ Jaegermech stands clad in an emergency gantry trying to extract him from the cockpit. An enemy cannon round entered the cockpit and smashed his bionic leg, the unexploded shell twisting and and tangling its way below his seat. Commander Endo can hear Merica’s bellows from where he sits, he can’t quite make out what he’s saying, but it makes him crack a smile.

Daisuke starts to zone out as he scans over the the armored water container that the Helpers carry instead of a mech in one of the Beta Aquilae’s mech bays. The tracked and armored hundred ton fresh water carrier sits next to the small lake, a number of hoses reach into its depths, pumping water into the container for it to purify and expel back into the natural reservoir. It's a machine that he’s never seen before he was attached to the Helper’s, never even thought about such a machine, but it has been put to use in every deployment, either bringing fresh water to dry lands or purifying putrid and poisoned water from effects of war. It could very well be the most valuable piece of equipment Hatchy’s Helpers have and the brain child of Hatchy herself.

Commander Endo feels his body slump further, his feet ache, his back aches, his head is starting to pound...but he sees ‘her’ exit the surgery tent and stumble towards him with a sleepy grin on her face.

Hatchsune jumped with him that first night, she was first on the ground then and she’s last of the ground today, and he knows she’s here to rub it in. He knows she has been on the go for the entire time, she is wearing the same clothes; her striped tights having large holes in them and a massive wound that has been stapled up along her right knee, but her customary tutu no longer is clinging to her body. Her boots are off and so is her pink hat and blood and dirt and sweat cover every inch of her.

Hatchy tugs at her bloody apron, throwing it to the ground before she hobbles to Daisuke, planting herself next to him. ‘Your man will be fine, he’ll be be fully recovered after the next space flight…’ And she falls fast asleep leaning on his shoulder.

 

[Hatchy]

The hull of the shuttle Woodstock groaned as it enters the upper atmosphere of Port Moseby, the turbulence of the entry causing the craft to bounce, shaking its occupants. The point of entry was timed so the setting of the planet’s sun would mask the entry of the vehicle into the atmosphere and then the electronic counter measures aboard would further obscure the presence of the vessel.

Inside the craft, Captain Hatchsune and the Crew Chief carefully examine the members of Hatchy One-5 Bravo Dismount, the Tactical Medical team of Hatchy’s Helpers. The HALO gear of each member thoroughly inspected before the upcoming drop from ultra-high altitude. The final member to be checked is Hatchy herself, the Crew Chief giving her the ‘ready’ signal by slapping her on the shoulder.

She looks to her 2IC and lowers her chin slightly.

He responds by snapping a crisp salute, ‘A-ten-hut!’

The members of Hatchy One-5 Dismount snap to attention, forming a pair of lines in the shuttle’s cargo bay.

The tiny Captain makes a final inspection of her team. With her hands out and palms up, she quickly passes between them, each member in turn outstretch their hands to meet hers and a series of slaps are heard as open palm meets open palm. At the end of the line, Hatchy turns back towards them and takes a deep breath.

For a few moments, she focuses on the newest member of the team, a fresh graduate of the Corpsman Cadets. ‘I’m not going to tell you stories about how none of you are going to get hurt today. I’m not going to tell you stories about how you will not lose a brother or sister today; we are going head first into the Dragon’s teeth...it is not going to be easy, it will require every ounce of training you have. Our brothers and sisters are trapped in the Dragon’s Den and we need to get them out, we need to get to them before the Dragon devours them.’

Hatchsune takes a breath and her voice raises slightly, ‘Today, you enter the Shadow of the Valley of Death, but you will know no fear. For if you have faith in yourself, you will make a difference! You will be the Light in the darkness! If you have faith in the men with you, you will make it through that valley! Have faith and you will bring your brothers and sisters home!’ Her voice raises again, ‘We are Hatchy’s Helpers! Not just the best Tactical Medical unit in the Inner Sphere,’

She shouts, ‘But we are the Best Mother *** Unit in the whole Goddamn Galaxy!’

‘Who are we!?!’

‘Captain! We are Hatchy’s Helpers!!!’

‘What are we!?!’

‘Captain! We are the Best Unit in the Galaxy!!!’

Hatchy screeches, ‘I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!’

The team erupts, ‘CAPTAIN!!! WE ARE THE BEST MOTHER *** UNIT IN THE WHOLE GODDAMN GALAXY!!!’

The Captain breaths deeply to recover her voice as she grits her teeth in approval, looking over each of her team a last time. She gives the signal to open the the rear door of the craft and she slaps her visor down.

That is the signal to her Second in Command, ‘On the ready line!’ He bellows.

Before turning towards the door, she says through the comlink, ‘I have faith in every one of you, you will make a difference. See you in the Valley.’

She then turns to the now open ramp, the last rays of light shining into the craft as the sun slips away allowing the darkness to rush in to cover the Woodstock’s final approach to the drop point.

Hatchy takes a moment to look to the starry night and briefly thinks of home before taking a breath. She holds it for a moment and then starts running at the opening, exhaling she calls out, ‘Last one on the ground doesn’t get paid!’

And she launches herself into the darkened sky.

 

[Justin Kase]

If you fade to black like the Sapranos and leave it here... I will find you

Enjoying the continued tale!