Riot control (englisch)

[Li-Ion]

Mein erster Versuch eine Kurzgeschichte in englisch zu schreiben.

Als pdf bei http://autoren-zone.com/ zum download.

Riot control

It was a cold and rainy night in Port Richard. Sudden Lightning painted the sky blue, and
the constant water running down a Wolverine made it hard for it's optical sensors to
discern anything. Victor saw the world around him in shades of green, switched back to
infrared, which was even more boring and depressing, in it's shades of gray.
»Anything at your place Sarge?«, came the clear voice of Liu, Call sign Raven, over his
headphones.
»No, everything quiet. Storm hast still to come.« he gave back.
A constant ping showed Victor the position of her Shadow Hawk. Suddenly another ping
appeared. This sudden movement pulled his synapses out of their uneasy slumber.
»I have a blip, about three clicks southwest, anyone got a visual?«
It looked like moving through buildings quite fast, so it had to be airborne or Godzilla was
tearing the half city apart without anyone noticing.
»Got it. Civilian chopper, looks like media. Am I on the telly now?.«, echoed the voice of
MacHenry.
»Yeah, let's get on TV and start our global domination tour!«, prompted the so far silent
last quarter of the lance, Call sign Thor.
»Stop the chatter. And before we start any tour we should have at least one jam session
that does not end in drinking all my beer, before we even played one song.«
»You lack of true metal spirit, my friend.«
»And you lack of discipline. But as long as I find no better base guitar I won't throw you
out.«
»Strategic thinking, indeed.«, interrupted MacHenry. »But we should concentrate on our
boring assignment again. Maybe some underground movement does us a favor and starts
headless shooting.«
»As far as we know they still lack of Mechs. I mean anything bigger than a cargo-hauler or
industrial exoskeleton, with a machine gun attached and someone stupid - or desperate -
enough to actually use such a construction.«
»I think desperation is a basic concept for an underground movement in the Free World
League.«

[Li-Ion]

The next half hour saw almost nothing beside grayish or greenish views on the same
boring streets and a small change of weather. The cold and chilling wind was now replaced
by a not-so cold wind from the seaside. The rain also changed but not much to the better.
Victor was not feeling like he was stuck in a flush anymore, and the rain was rather light,
but dense now. Small droplets covering one almost completely in a couple of seconds,
because they seem to come from everywhere. So in fact you were as wet as half an hour
before when going outside, but in a slightly more comfortable manner. This and the fact
that there was still no headless shooting, despite the tensions in the city, left an empty
feeling in Victors stomach, which he could not explain properly. Some kind of precognition
maybe, so he was not surprised as a Sergeant of the local militia broke the uneasy silence
in his cockpit.
»Sergeant Rikers? Sergeant Quincy Anderson from the Port Richard militia speaking. We
have a situation here.«
»Rikers listening. Please specify. The world is full of situations.«
One second he thought he should save his smart comments for the rest of his mercenary
bunch, and sound more like a professional, when dealing with someone who works for
that someone who actually pays his bills. But on the other hand... whatever...
»We are at Albert Schweitzer-Lane and a large group of protesters is coming our way.«
Albert Schweitzer-Lane was directly leading to the hospital. The building whose entrance
Victor was actually guarding at this very moment by his mere presence. More the
presence of a humanoid war machine weighting 55 metric tons, in which he was sitting in.
He opened the channel to his lance.
»Finally work. Raven, move down Albert Schweitzer-Lane and rendezvous with our friends
from the militia. Some protester are coming their way and may be looking for a fight.«
»That weather should really have cooled them down.«
»Unfortunately they're not cool enough, so keep them quiet but disable lasers and make
sure no shell of your AC hits some angry demonstrant by accident.«
»Roger that.«
»Thor, move up to Schweitzer-Lane and keep an eye on the rear entrance of the hospital.
I don't want contraband sneaking in while I stand in front of the building like an idiot.«
»Rock 'n roll. I mean roger.«
»MacHenry, what's the status at the power plant?«
»The chopper just backed off, looks like it's moving your direction.«
»More Raven's. Watching her handling a demonstration is surely more interesting than
watching you watching them.«
»You're breaking my heart, Sir.«
»I'll buy you a new one when we're back on Outreach.«
He opened the channel to the still waiting militia Sergeant.
»A Shadow Hawk is coming to your position and will help you handling the situation.«
»Only one Mech?«
Victor was something between surprised and annoyed. This grounder pounder dares to
say 'only one Mech'?
»What do you expect me to do? Send a lance of Battlemechs to form a blockade?«
»This protesters and delinquents have to be dealt with!«
There was this tone in Anderson's voice Victor didn't like. He was not sure if the Sergeants
motives for stricter handling were driven by fear or hatred.
»I can't loosen my defenses around the power plant and the hospital too much.«
»You can return swiftly, when you deal with the problem fast enough.«
»A coupe of protesters running around at about ten at night and at that weather? There is
surely a better time to start a revolution. No, they are on their way to you because others
rely on distraction caused by their arrival.«
Some seconds silence, Anderson seemed to think over that.
»But when you're wrong...«
»Then I'll take responsibility for some broken bones your men might get. If you're wrong,
would you take the responsibility for loosing a hospital, or a blackout in the inner city, or
both, with full media coverage? Don't say you didn't notice the chopper thats circling
around your position since a couple of minutes.«
That seemed to hit the right spot.

[Li-Ion]

After some minutes the demonstrants reached the blockade with Raven's Shadow Hawk in
front. Stones were thrown and the leg of her Mech got a new paint job, but the 30 feet tall
machine was intimidating enough to prevent them doing something really stupid. At least
for now...
»Sergeant Rikers to HQ, are you listening?«
»We hear you loud and clearly.«
»We need infantry ASAP, for riot control.«
»Infantry assets not available at the moment, our boys are scattered around the globe.«
»When can I count with some squads?«
»Tomorrow morning.«
»You're joking, right? What about armor?«
»Our tanks defend the base, Sergeant.«
»I'm talking about our reserves, not every tank is on duty now. Get me a lance of
Scorpions going, now!«


Suddenly red lights flashed, the acoustic alarm for incoming missiles hit Victor like a
shock. Time seemed to slow down, he had this deer-in-the-headlight-effect, as he saw two
short range missiles heading in his direction, directly aiming at his head. Jumping out of
the way could have lead to the missiles hitting the hospital behind him. In an ill-fated try
to intercept the missiles by hand, the arm of his Wolverine moved up. The cockpit was
shaken heavily upon the impact, Victors head smashed against the ceiling, his blurred
vision cleared up rather fast, so did the white noise on his monitors. His heart raced while
a cool, synthetic female voice said: 'No structural damage, all systems nominal.'
»Sarge!«
»Hold your positions, only minor damage...«
The Wolverine moved fast onto the building where the missiles came from. His weapon
systems were powerful enough to level the entire block in a matter of seconds, but that
was not helping at this moment. Especially not while this media chopper was still around.
»I have some movement here...«, said Thor. He was a bit fast with the trigger-finger
sometimes. If he would come to this situation...
»I'M UNDER FIR...«
»HOLD YOUR FIRE!«, shouted Victor into his mike, while spotting two guerrillas who were
reloading the SRM-launcher, they just fired at him.
»But I'm under attack, DAMMIT!«
»By idiots with infantry weapons and you're an even bigger idiot, if you're destroying an
entire block to just hit some morons!«
More missiles flew in his direction, but not well aimed this time, one barely hit his knee,
the other tore a hole in the street behind him.
»What should I do? Play the pinatá for them?«
»Your Phoenix Hawk has hands, use them. Puke them with your fingers.«
As he was saying this, the giant finger of his Wolverine's left hand tore through the wall,
behind which the two guerrillas just tried to disappear. Victor retracted the finger and
tried to see the attackers on infrared. He saw one body lying on the floor and some
movement out of that flat. Looks like he scared the other guy off. Now he noticed the
news helicopter circling directly over his head. And one missile-team was still sitting in a
flat, probably preparing for the next shot.
»Two civilian cars try to break trough here.«, MacHenry said.
»Intercept.«, was Victor's order, while he scanned the front of the building for the
remaining attackers.
»Got em, five down.«, Thor remarked.
»Then back at your position. Looks like I lost my second pair.«
He found the window from which they shot at first, but the flat behind seemed empty, at
least no one he could see. An explosion switched his attention to northwest, the power
plant.
»Stopped them, seemed they had explosives with them. The second car detonated right in
front of me as I kicked.«, came MacHenry over the radio.
»Kicked?«
»Shooting heavy lasers at an unarmored vehicle seemed overkill to me.«
»Any damage?«
»Just scratches as far as I can tell, some windows broke, but my beauty stood between
the power plant and the detonation as it happened. The scars on her knee will heal in
time.«
With his 'beauty' he referred to his – rather ugly – Griffin Battlemech.

[Li-Ion]

The next twenty minutes local fire department and police forces swarmed around the
power plant, as well as ambulance vehicles, which were able to drag three wounded out of
one of the cars. MacHenry was right, they found plenty of explosives in the car as well,
but fortunately the detonators were still separated from the plastic.
»Sarge, you get company.«, Thor stated.
»Can't see anything on the scanners.«
»Large group of people northeast with Jeeps, Bikes and Vans, heading roughly your way.«
»Or Raven's. Again. Raven, your statu... what the fuck are you doing there?«
Victor just realized that her Shadow Hawk was kind of dancing, lifting arms and legs,
twisting the torso in a random way.
»Intimidation tactics, Sir.«
»You think you can scare them off by an improvised rain dance?«
»I place my feet in a menacing manner over parts of the crowd.«
»Menacing manner?«
»About a meter over their heads. Or was it around a foot?«
Seconds of silence.
»Well, try not to hurt anyone with your... intimidation tactics, but I would prefer when you
would stick to more conventional methods of riot-control.«
»That's boring, Sir.«
»We're not here to be entertained. At least not today.«
Meanwhile the group of people Thor mentioned earlier came along. Roughly hundred
civilians with cars, bikes and purple flags.
»Whats the dominant color over there, Raven?«
»Color, huh?«
»Do they carry any signs or flags?«
»Signs with 'free us from the league', stuff like that.«
»Looks like the counter-demonstration is just heading your way.«
He didn't want a riot turning into a street war, especially not with the media in his neck,
so Victor opened the line to his external speakers.
»In the name of the Free Worlds League: access to this road is restricted. You are ordered
to leave immediately, otherwise I have orders to use force to stop your advance.«
The first cars stopped, insecure how to handle a talking, 55-ton war machine. A man
stepped on the roof of one van, that also had some speakers of impressive volume.
Obviously the leader of this bunch.
»We are free people of the Free Worlds League, we demand our right of going wherever
we want.«
»This is a theater of war, your rights are diminishing as soon as someone has a bigger
gun.«
»What? You can't do that!«
»I am part of the mercenary unit Ghost Riders, under contract of the Free Worlds League
with the assignment to uphold peace in this city. As ridiculous as it sounds: in order to
achieve this I am ordered to use brute force where I consider it necessary.«
He tried to emphasis on the words 'mercenary' and 'ordered', knowing that this certain
combination is a well known warning sign to anyone who dealt with mercenaries before.
Mercenaries have the reputation not to care about moral or legal issues, only about their
orders as long as they get paid for it. Sometimes being a mercenary caused a lot of
problems, but sometimes it really helped.
»But...«
»Sorry you misunderstood: this is not a discussion. This is an order: leave this street
immediately or face the power of a Marik-Wolverine first hand.«
To underline his words he lifted his heavy laser in firing position, placing the golden
crosshair on the mans chest. A man gazing into the barrel of a gun, or laser in this case,
has almost never a good bargaining position. The next seconds would show if he would
really want to die for his cause. Both men grew uneasy, but Victor had the advantage that
he could not be seen, only his his impressive metal shell. The leader still acted confident,
told the driver of the van something Victor couldn't understand. Then he looked up the
Mech, back to the crowd, up to the Mech again. His aura of self-sacrifice faded, he stepped
down and the Van took another road. With the others to follow. Victor sighted relieved,
the bluff had worked.

[Li-Ion]

About fifteen minutes later, the rain was about to die.
»Ash. The purple flags you mentioned.«, Raven started.
»Whats with them?«
»They're almost here. Looks like they just have taken a detour.«
Victor took some seconds to realize the situation.
»HQ, where are my tanks?«
»En route, e.t.a. seven minutes.«
That was nice, but late and tanks would probably not help that much. They were a
mercenary unit suited for open or guerrilla-combat, and not babysitting or police work.
»Raven, give me two blips where the groups are. Thor, move to my position and patrol
round the hospital, assign the Scorpions to help you ASAP. MacHenry, proceed with
whatever you're doing.«
Two blips appeared on his screen, with Ravens Mech in between, while his Wolverine
turned around, leaned forward, and with a hard burn from it's jump jets the Mech reached
for the sky. Shattering of asphalt accompanied his first landing. He sprinted through a
small park, leaving giant footprints in the nicely cut lawn, before sheer power was
victorious over aerodynamics once again, letting the Mech fly over a couple of houses on
it's fiery wings. Crushing standardized concrete blocks on the street, the Wolverine landed
next to Raven's Shadow Hawk, covering her back.
»That was about time, Ash.«
The two Mechs were now between the lines of two rival factions. Roughly dividing it in
pro- and contra-League would not reflect the political situation in Port Richard and
surroundings in a proper way. In his four months in the League, Victor realized quite fast
why mercenaries love and hate this successor state. Love it because there is always a job
to find. Hate it because the jobs here always kinda suck. Enemy lines are never sharp and
well defined in the League, todays friend may be tomorrows enemy, todays lover
tomorrows murderer.

[Li-Ion]

Despite the still cool wind, the heat was on the street. Both sides seemed frantic from the
central point of view, yelling paroles, throwing stones and even the occasional Molotov
cocktail, turning the street itself in a battlefield with broken windows and burning shops.
»Any great plans Ash? This would be the right place and time.«
Again, this empty feeling in his stomach. But this time he knew what it was. Victor was
sitting in a powerful machine of war, one of the finest weapons the successor states have
to offer, a monster of hardened steel and carbon, that could eradicate each side of this
fight with ease. Despite that he felt helpless. And that scared hell out of him.
»Ash?«, Raven's soft and calm voice dragged Victor out of his sudden numbness.
»No plan this time.«, the first time for years, Victor added silently. So far no one started
shooting, which was a good thing, because as soon as someone starts shooting in a bar
fight, everyone else realizes that they have guns themselves or that there may be a
shotgun under the counter. But how to end this fight before someone does something
stupid?
»They need to cool down and back off.«
Raven turned the head of her Shadow Hawk, scanning the street. Then, with a swift and
elegant movement, kicked the next hydrant into a window, which was not broken so far.
Using the massive foot of the Mech for directing the stream of water, she improvised a
water thrower, flushing a couple of protesters off the sidewalk.
»Time for conventional riot-control.«, echoed her sweet voice in his mind.
Victor did the same on his side, pushing some of the now charging purples back.
»This won't last forever.«
»Nothing lasts forever, my dear.«
That made him almost smile, while he opened a com-channel to someone he was missing
here:
»Sergeant Anderson, Rikers here, where are you?«
»I found it fitting to regroup my forces, you seem to handle the situation quite well.«
»Get your lame asses over here, scatter the groups and arrest their leaders!«
»Sorry Sergeant Rikers, but you're not in the position to give me orders. And besides: I
don't like your tone.«
»That is NOT the right time for jokes Sergeant, we're here to help you doing your job, so
don't let us down now.«
»I know my job very well. My job is to keep an eye on the streets, and to keep them
quiet. As far as I can see, there are two groups of delinquents and protesters that cause a
problem. And it looks like this two problems might solve themselves in a matter of
minutes. We will then come by and collect the pieces.«
Victor was baffled, so that he didn't realize the first shot that fell and from where. In a
matter of seconds the streets below seemed to explode, no improvised water thrower
could help anymore, the two fronts clashed together. He saw men and women clubbing
and shooting each other to death at short distance, frantic men cheering their comrades
to participate at this massacre. The two Mechs couldn't move anymore, without possibly
killing someone in the process. The chaos under him left Victor stunned, unable to move
or react otherwise, he hung in his safety belt, waited for a wonder or this nightmare
simply to end.