This is the continuation of the story idea I had in this thread:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=46551.0
So I guess I'll try my hand at writing. I'm going to try to write out one of the more emotional scenes I have in my mind, because writing things from the beginning seem really hard.
Please leave feedback, I find it very inspiring to write when I know people are reading. Even a little comment helps alot.
"At the border of Geitenhand"
On a barren and sparse landscape, trails of dust signify three hanzers coasting along. The hanzers show clear wear and tear, with their armor chipped and beaten, as well as their guns worn. Between them, they show their individual colors of red, dark red, and dark green, but all have the insignia of a bloodied and dying dog on arm plates. Inside, Jay, Raha, and Donovan travel to meet Nikopo's contingent, sent to hunt them down. Inside their hanzers, Jay and Raha sweat nervously, not because of the upcoming battle, but because of Donovan. Jay, sitting reclined in his seat, arms crossed, with his hanzer's monitors blinking "Auto-pilot". A large frown decorates his face when a droplet of sweat falls onto his brow, where he then suddenly wipes it off, sits up, and flips a switch. Over in Donovan's green hanzer, he grips his controls tightly, and stares blankly through his monitors when a video chat window opens on his monitor, showing Jay's face.
"Hey, are you alright over there Don?"
Don snaps to alertness, his concentration broken.
"Y... Yeah, I'm alright."
"You're not thinking anything funny are ya?"
"No, of course not."
"Just remember, we're in too deep to have any regrets."
"I know, just leave me alone right now."
and with that, he flicks off the communication. He looks close into the distance. He looks for any sign of the enemy force as the tension builds in his stomach. "It shouldn't be this hard" He thinks, "I've fought and killed over 100 soldiers before her. What's one more?", and the thought made his heart sink. It wasn't just one more person, it was alot more. In the contingent sent to kill him, was Julia. He knew this, and his whole body tightened up.
"Why did I even get to know her?!" He thought, their stint together was brief, but their emotions, and that night, was sincere. He loved her, but this war has placed them on separate sides, destined to collide with only one faction leaving alive.
His heart was truly broken in two, with one half belonging to Julia, and the other being his loyalty to Blackheart. What he was going to do was his next choice. He thought, him and Blackheart had gone through alot, far too much, and he was without a doubt a man that deserved his respect, and his ambition is awe-inspiring to say the least. "I don't want to betray Blackheart. I know that much. No matter what, I won't ever turn my back to him. I'll keep my promise, and see this through to the end.", and it was decided. He looks out the monitors again, and saw what he knew was going to be the battlefield, and his heart sank even further. He couldn't let his emotions overcome him, and so he closed his eyes and tried to think of something to calm him before the fight, when like a goddamn baseball bat to the face, he remembered that bastard, Darius.
For the longest time, he had been trying to decipher what the hell he meant on that day in Waltshier. Donovan thinks back, to that one day: In the Waltshier Military base, near his bunk. The plaster white walls, and metallic, he remembered it all. He had been carefully tending to his liquor stock when Darius appeared, which wasn't abnormal, but what was strange was the smug smile across his face, which was his way of saying "I know something you don't!". Don was about ready to go tell him to go fuck himself before he even said anything, but Darius was able to start the conversation nonetheless.
"Hey, how ya doin?"
"How am I doin?"
"Yeah, how ya doin?"
This was incredibly odd, as Darius would never bother himself with politeness or niceties, ever.
"I'm doin alright. Don't tell me you want some of my rum."
"No, no", and he just looked at him intently.
"Uh, then what'da want?"
"I understand you've been getting to know that one bitch pilot... Julia, was it?"
"Watch your fucking mouth!" Don snapped at him.
"Heh, I guess so." his smiler getting slightly wider, "How's that turning out for ya?"
Don eyed him suspicously, "Mind your own business."
His smiler got even wider, as though he were trying extremely hard to contain his laughter. He turned to look him in the eye.
"Want me to give you a piece of advice, courtesy of a better pilot?"
"Better pilot? You don't even have a hanzer!"
"Heh, heh, trust me on this one. We've been through quite a bit of stuff, and between everyone, you're probably the only one that doesn't deserve to be gutted outright, so let give you a helpful little piece of advice: forget about Julia."
Don was shocked, but Darius' tone was unusual, it wasn't like anything he'd heard from him before, "What do you mean?"
"You need it spelt out? Forget. About. Julia. You're a soldier, and soldiers should only think of the battle. Trust me on this one Don, don't think of her as anything more than a little toy that you get to play with right now, and you'll be better off."
"Hey, fuck you man!"
Darius isn't effected by insults, but this time was different. The smile dropped off his face, and a serious look overtook his features.
"You don't believe me? I see, I get it, I understand... Take this as a warning though... love will be the death of you."
"Hey, I can handle my own. You don't worry about it."
"Want me to tell you what I think?"
"Heh?"
"You want to know what I honestly, truthfully think? You're making a mistake."
Don's expression tightened up in frustration, but Darius wasn't finished,
"Let me tell you one last piece of advice, and this is real... It's the one thing I could never do: kill your emotions. If you do that, Don, I can guarantee you will be able to complete any mission handed to you. Just refuse to feel anything, and complete your mission. It's not too late, you can still do it."
The seriousness of this tirade was bothersome to Don's expectations of Darius, and didn't know how to respond, but apparently he was done, and he turned about and walked out of the room before a response could be gathered.
Donovan opened his eyes, "What did he mean by that?" he rolled over his mind, but thinking about that smug smile just made him want to kick it in. "What did he mean by that last part? That 'it's not too late' part? Did he fucking know this was going to happen? How? That was weeks ago!" and rage boiled in Don's mind, but, like a beacon, his mind returned to that one phrase: "Kill your emotions".
That one phrase, it seems like his answer. Closing his eyes, Don thinks once again very hard, to suppress his grief over the situation, to ignore his feelings for Julia, and to think only of victory. Like trying to put out a stovetop with your barehands, it burned, but every bit of it was necessary. "I need to do it, there's no other way." His breathing quickens, his head aches, and tears try to rush to his eyes, but he fights them all back.
"If I can forget. I can win." he says to himself.
"If I can kill my emotions, then I can complete my mission." reiterates.
"If I can kill my emotions... Then I can kill her too." he chants one last time. His heart has been put into it's place. he opens his eyes.
The battle is upon him.
Along the brush and rocks and crags of Geitenhand, three shining, sinewy hanzers travel. The are ocean blue, dark yellow, and pastel white armors gleam in the sun, while their weapons are polished to a sheen. Garriett, Julia, and Bertrund have been dispatched by Nikopo to travel and eliminate the Redhounds.
They search in every direction to detect them first, but have yet to come into contact with them. Inside, the members are getting restless. Julia, having placed her hanzer on auto-pilot, is bent over and biting her nails. Despite them already being reduced to stubs, she gnaws fruitlessly anyway. Frustrated, she bites at the skin around the nail, doing just anything to preoccupy her mind. With a misplaced bite, she draws a drop of blood, and she watches as it makes its way out of the pinhole sized injury, dribbles to the tip of her finger, and then falls. As it collides with the bottom of her cockpit, a video chat opens unexpectedly, causing her to jump to attention.
"Yah! Uh, what is it Lieutenent Garriett?"
"Just thought I'd check up on you."
"Oh, me, yeah, I'm doing fine" Her voice cracks, and Garriett knows her well enough to know that means she's lying.
"Do you have anything on your mind? Battle is near, and I can't have you distracted."
Julia sits quiet for a second, thinking of what to say. She hadn't told any of her comrades of her feelings towards Donovan, a secret that she must keep to avoid having her reputation ruined. In her mind, she quickly scrambles together a reasonable response.
"Well..."
"What is it?"
"The Redhounds... we fought alongside them before, and they're probably the reason we're alive today. Are they so bad that we have to hunt them down? Isn't there any way we can forgive them?"
Garriett hears this, and fumes, "No, we can't. They lied to us."
Bertrund, who had been connected to Garriett, chimes in.
"Yeah, and that mongrel leader Blackheart tried to kill Nikopo! They were all in on it!"
Garriett nods, "I'm not sure what you had in mind Julia, but they're ALL guilty of high treason! King Grimaldi himself has ordered their death, to make an example of that traitor Blackheart and all his lackeys. On top of all that, if it weren't for them, I'd still have my hand." Garriett says, his eyes focusing on his new prosthetic hand.
"Well, I just thought... nevermind."
"Look, I can understand if you feel appreciative for their help in the past, but orders are orders."
Julia's heart sank, she didn't know what to say. She loved Donovan, and didn't want to meet him on the battlefield.
"Alright Garriett, I understand." She replied, being sure to not to let her emotions give anything away this time. She flicks the communication off.
"Dumb! You knew it was a bad idea, but you fell for him anyway, why'd you do that?!" she thought to herself, resting her face in her hands. Near weeping, she thinks back, and tries to remember the day she fell for Donovan.
She remembers clearly, awhile ago, while the entire caravan was travelling through a backwoods forest heading towards Vermenda. Her, in her standard light scout hanzer, and Donovan, in his custom tracker hanzer affectionately named "Bethany", were ahead of the pack to vigilantly watch for any enemies, as well as make sure the trail is clear of debris. Their hanzers, navigating the narrow trails, it was hard to see much of anything through the trees. They both kept their hanzers knelt down to see things through the sparse trunks as opposed to the thick tops. Her and Donovan had been bantering to pass the time.
"And then Raha fell into the river!" Don says.
"Fell into it?"
"Yeah, dumbass trying to catch up on that one guy we were chasing, and he fell face first into the river."
"Wha, how?"
"Well, apparently the riverbed is really soft, and when his hanzer stepped into it, the depth surprised him, he fell forward and got stuck in the mud. The funny thing was, his hanzer isn't waterproof, and it's a frontloader, so he was stuck there while his cockpit filled with water, and he couldn't get out! Asshole would've drowned had I not pulled him out."
Julia laughs, Donovan seemed to have a ton of these stories. Don continues,
"Yeah, and he didn't even thank m... Hold on. Did you see something"
Donovan was noticeably spinning his cameras around to get a better look.
"What is it? Did you see something?"
"Yeah..." He said, disattaching his Mk. 3 hanzer pistol from the compartment on Bethany's chest and aiming it at a suspect spot in the forest. All of a sudden, gunfire rings out, like a ten machine guns firing at once, and a swath of trees explode into splinters! Don fires three shots into the chaos, only to see the offender had leaped above the trees, and diving at him, clawed hand readied! Donovan swings his gun up and fires! The shell deflects off it's armor, and his pistol clashes with the enemy's claw, showing the area in sparks as the Tenalian hanzer skids to a halt, and the remains of Donovan's gun hit the ground.
"Hey, I've never seen this kind before." muses Donovan, apparently unaffected by the sudden violence.
"Heh?" and she looked, and he was right. The attacking hanzer was definitely a commando-class, but this was a new type, with a large circular gun attached to its other arm. Julia quickly whips out her own pistol and fires, only to see that he's disappeared, and the tree behind him now decimated. Donovan screams over the chat,
"Julia, behind you!"
and she turns, only to hear the same gunfire ring out, like a thousand firecrackers going off. All of a sudden her hanzer is pelted with thousands of tiny bullets which all harmlessly bounce off her armor.
"What the..."
and as she's about to swing her gun around, all of her monitors flicker to blackness. On the outside of her hanzer, all the cameras which allow a hanzer's pilot to see have been destroyed by the rain of bullets.
"Gah! I can't see!"
The sudden loss of sight interrupted her movement for just a fraction of a second, but it was enough for the enemy hanzer to throw a wild swing with his claw, taking off her gun arm. The Tenalian rears back for another swing!
"Shit! I can't do anything! Eject!" she thinks as she smashes down on the hard plastic covered explosive ejection button. Within a fraction of a second, her seatbelt tightens, binding her to her seat, as the back of the hanzer is blasted open and little rockets hurtle her seat out of the hanzer, and into the air just as the Tenalian commando plunges it's claw straight into her hanzer's chest. A parachute deploys, and Julia floats to the ground as she witnesses the commando lift her hanzer off the ground with it's one arm, and effortlessly toss it into the forest as it crashes down and destroys some trees with several loud snaps. Narrowly avoiding death, she looks up and sees Donovan's hanzer staring the commando down. Donovan sees that Julia escaped, and readies his tungsten carbide combat knife. A foreign chat request makes it's presence known to him, however, and he connects. The Tenalian speaks to him,
"My name is Grey, Faradaian. Surrender now or die at the hands of my shrapnel spitter!"
"Fuck you!"
And with that, another volley of hot lead pours from Grey's gun, and Donovan, realizing that while the little bullets wouldn't hurt him, would hurt the now vulnerable Julia, quickly positions himself to take the brunt of the hail of bullets. Using his free hand, he picks Julia's seat up, and opens the rear hatch of his hanzer.
"GET IN!" he yells exasperatedly. Julia undoes her seatbelt and jumps in with him and he drops her seat and closes the cockpit hatch.
Tens of thousands of little tinks are heard as Donovan's cameras are quickly knocked out one by one, until he himself is blind.
"Thanks, but what now?"
"This guy..."
Grey charges him, and throws another swing!
Donovan handles the controls, and his hanzer swings his tungsten carbide knife and parries the attack! Sparks fly all over the area as the commando's claw is sent skyward.
"IS DEAD!"
Donovan, despite being unable to see, instinctively thrusts the carbide knife straight into the Commando's chest plating, bisecting the pilot in his cockpit. Donovan gives a strong push, and throws the hanzer off his knife, where it smashes into the ground, lifeless. Don puts his knife back into it's sheath, and opens the hatch. He spins his hanzer around so he can confirm his kill with is own eyes.
"Damn straight..."
"Wait, how'd you do that?!"
"Do what?"
Julia sits there, in the small space of floor between the pilot's seat and the controls, completely dumbfounded.
"You know what I mean! How were you able to do that? Fight without seeing!"
Donovan looks at her for a moment, thinking of a reply. It'd always just been instinct for him, something he'd never had to put into words before.
"Well... I suppose I listen real close, and you can tell how far away the hanzer is by that."
"Yeah?"
"And, I mean, I've killed punks like this 10 times over. I just think 'well, what's he likely to do?' and then I just react."
"...That's it?"
"Well, I suppose it takes a certain amount of experience... to avoid hesitating."
Donovan then pushes some buttons, finally sending a distress signal back to the caravan.
"Maybe I should've done that first..." Don says as he reclines back in his chair.
"Will you teach me?"
"Heh?"
"Teach me how to do what you did." Julia says, almost wide-eyed.
"Heh, sure. When we get to the next base."
Part relief, part appreciation, and part happiness to be alive all swirl together in Julia, culminating in a pleasant smile. Donovan interjects,
"Wanna see if I can pilot Bethany backwards to the caravan?"
Yeah, Julia remembers it clearly, that was the first time she started to have feelings for Donovan. She lifts her head up from her palms, only to see little pools of tears had collected in her hands. Tilting her hands slightly, she watches as the little pools drained from her hands, onto the floor.
"I... I can't do it..." she thinks.
She looks at the screen, and realizes something horrible.
The battle was upon her.
Meeting eachother, the two hanzer units spot eachother. Julia spots Donovan's hanzer against the sunset, forming a grim silhoutte. "Oh god." she thinks to herself. She hesitantly switches her hanzer back into full manual mode and moves in line with her squad mates. "Targets spotted, 1750" Garriett rattles off the status and time to for his onboard recording program.
"I'm ready when you're ready" Bertrund tells them both.
"Alright, let's do this!" yells Jay, sending his hanzer into a full sprint.
"Let's kick some ass!" Raha follows, unsheathing his 40ft hardened steel blade from backmounted holster.
To be continued.