Supervisor's Notes

The schoolgirl who wants topractice being a historian is an excellent role with further uses while it is still available, Misha. Unfortunately, Kerensky was no place to start. Getting an interview with her was quite a coup, but she's impenetrable.

All this tells us is that Kerensky is just another woman who may have had plastic surgery to preserve her youthful good looks.

PAINTING THE TOWN

-Mark O'Green

‘No more.’ Sergeant Gunnar Toshira steadiead himself against the armored personnel carrier's uneven movement, and pulled off his helmet. After wiping the sweat from the bald strip down the center of his short-cropped black hair, he tugged the helmet's padding loose. ‘Somebody please get the hatch. I'm burning up.’

Before anyone else could move. Recruit Miko Wanabe quickly slid out of her sling seat and started working the upper hatch mechanism.

Toshira prodded the cooling unit. ‘No more of this.’ He readjusted the padding and bent to test the helmet again. ‘Twice a year we cross the desert to Sibitsu Station and at least once my helmet fails.’

The hatch popped open. A folding fan of late afternoon sunlight slanted to the back of the vehicle. Recruit Wanabe eagerly turned to Toshira. smiled, then hustled back into her place.

‘Twice a year. One week out—’ Dust swirled in and circled Toshira. He sneezed once and was about to again when the dust he inhaled triggered a coughing fit. Voice raspy, he tossed the offending head gear to the painted steel floor. ‘That's it. My last tour.’

The helmet skidded into the feet of Recruit Aragi Naiku. He arched his long neck and glanced down, trying unsuccessfully not to smile as he reached out to pick up the helmet.

Sergeant Toshira opened his hands, gesturing for Naiku to toss the headgear back. ‘Going to take a picture of yourself with my helmet?’

Naiku's smile opened into an expanse of white teeth as he dropped his free hand to the camera bulge in one pocket. His eyebrows flicked twice, and then he gently tossed the helmet back to his Sergeant.

‘By the way, Aragi, got that timer working yet?’ The Sergeant made another pass across his bald patch. ‘What a relief it will be. No more gadget-crazy Recruits. No more riding in rolling steel cans.’ He coughed again. ‘I will have a life.’

Toshira heard laughter. Wanabe nodded furiously and clenched one fist in a gesture of determination. ‘I. too. plan to go on to be a pilot It is a good thing.’

‘Wha—’ Realizing that the Recruit had interpreted his words to fit her personal dream. Toshira smiled gently. ‘No, Miko. I'm not going to be a 'Mech pilot. I meant a life where I don't get up before the sun. One where I don't guard paint factories in the middle of a desert.’

From the back of the APC, hard face illuminated by wavering light, Corporal Toragi Mannimoto called out. ‘She's expecting a big promotion for opening the hatch. She will become an officer anda man!’

More laughter from the back. Miko flushed, wishing she could sink through the webbing and disappear into the bulkhead.

‘And I won't have to put up with too-smart troops.’ Toshira said.

Naiku patted Miko reassuringly and addressed his Sergeant. ‘Then returning your helmet makes me head of Internal Security Force.’

Toshira snorted. ‘No. I think that position is already filled,’ he told Mannimoto.

The Corporal glared back. ‘The woman has to learn her place.’

‘As you should learn yours. Corporal?’ The Sergeant held eye contact for a moment, then moved to the hatch opening. Before disappearing, he turned back. ‘No more.’

Toshira stared to the southwest, across the top of the Scorpion tank left and forward of him, searching for specific mountains. The armored formation was staggered, supposedly to reduce dust, but even the foothills were hazy. Toshira bent down. ‘Not too much longer.’

A voice from below called out. ‘Sergeant? Is Teddy Kurita going to be there?’

‘Teddy?A close, personal friend of yours?’ Toshira tried to identify the speaker.

The only answer was Naiku's snicker.

Toshira's face wrinkled up, and his mouth became a wide gash as he mimicked Aragi's smile. ‘No, Teddyis not coming. Why would he want to come here?’

‘Do you question the way of authority?’

‘No, Mannimoto. I'll leave that to you.’

Toshira heard murmurs as he stretched back into the hatch opening. He stood silently, enjoying a rare breeze that had suddenly come up.

In the distance, he could now see his landmark hill, a worn mound with a pasty white streak. Old Man's Curse, he called it Anyone who saw it once was destined to see it enough times to become old, too.

A speck of sand made him blink. As his eyes caught a hint of blue, he looked back to Old Man's Curse.

The top ot the Scorpion was gone.

Then the concussion hit, Shrapnel tore noisy holes in the surrounding air. The force buffeted Toshira and he rolled with it, tucking his legs to a fall inside the vehicle. ‘Full speed!’ he yelled to the driver. ‘Veer right!’ Then he shouted. ‘We're under attack!’

The squad scrambled, and a series of nearby blasts rocked the APC. ‘Right side hatch.’ Toshira barked to Wanabe, who was already breaking the seal.

The Sergeant glimpsed a figure moving to the turret. ‘No! Prepare to evacuate!’

Mannimoto raised his head. ‘Continue!’ He pushed through two crouching soldiers. ‘Toshira. we must fight!’

Toshira started toward his Corporal. ‘First we contact the station. Aragi?’

‘Just static, Sergeant.’

Long seconds passed as Toshira and Mannimoto glared at one another. They heard explosions outside, but only the hissing ot the radio inside.

A nearby blast sent the APC sliding to one side. As the Sergeant regained his feet, he ordered sharply, ‘Everyone out!’

Wanabe went though first, one hand on her rifle, the other on the opening to swing to the left. Naiku swung right. Toshira passed in between. The two Recruits hesitated, but followed Toshira.

At the sound of nearby impacts, Toshira spun and threw himself over a small dune.

Wanabe and Naiku dove beside him. Mannimoto was just meters clear of the doorway when an autocannon volley split the opposite side of the APC. The explosion threw Mannimoto even further away as debris sprayed into the air. The vehicle lifted briefly, teetered on a track, then thudded back into the sand.

Toshira took a breath to calm himself and restrained Naiku from heading back. The Sergeant had witnessed the effects of high-velocity impact on an APC before. He remembered how the interior metal peeled away and turned to shrapnel. And he remembered what it did to the men inside. Mannimoto lifted his head to see. As the smoke and dust cleared, the Kuritans watched a 'Mech lance close on the broken armored column.

‘Marauders!’Wanabe said, gaping. Toshira grunted and scanned the battlefield. The 'Mechs had hit the tanks first. The only Hunter was destroyed, its turret mostly gone, and the top shredded and peeled back like a child's toy. All of the Scorpions showed damage, too. Few were operational, with only one unscathed. Troops scattered across the sand, some tiring, others looking for leadership. Toshira tried his communicator but got only the buzz of static.

Naiku readied his rifle and aimed at the closest 'Mech.

‘No!’ Toshira grabbed the Recruit's shoulder. ‘Don't make yourself a target.’ He pointed west. ‘Start that way. We must get to the station.’

‘We must stop the 'Mechs!’ Mannimoto turned and crouched in the sand.

‘Recruits Wanabe and Naiku, it Corporal Mannimoto does not follow my orders in five seconds, you will shoot him. When we reach the station, you will file reports on how the Corporal refused to do his duty to protect Sibitsu Station. Four, three—’