FicWad

Ten years ago
'Stoker, message from Sergeant Scabbard!'
Stoker swore and pulled up short on his way across the yard. 'The hell? Fazer, can't this wait?'
'Sorry, Stoke, he's actually sent a messenger this time and she says she's gotta be back by sunset.'
Stoker cursed again and stamped across to the partially open hut which, apart from the hospital, was the only part of the Freedom Fighters' base that any of the Army had so far been allowed to see. Just because you were on the same side didn't mean you had to be foolishly trusting.
'Right,' he said, slamming the door behind him. 'What is it this time? And make it quick. Oh.'
The girl was a stranger, younger than the messengers had normally been, neatly dressed and very surprised. She was standing beside her bike holding her helmet in front of her like a defensive weapon.
'Sergeant Stoker?' she said.
'Yeah,' said Stoker. 'It's OK, kid, I'm not gonna bite you.'
The girl carefully hung her helmet on her handlebars. 'Sorry.'
'No, my fault. Most of Scabbard's messengers're used to me by now. How old are you, kid?'
'Sixteen. Don't you need to know who I am?'
'Sixteen, sixteen... You're Vigor's girl, aren't you? Carbine?'
The girl blinked. 'That's very impressive.'
'Not really - ten years ago I can only remember one other six-year-old girl with brown fur and black hair who stayed behind. Didn't Mantra lose an arm a couple of years ago?'
'Yessir. She was one of the unlucky ones,' said Carbine stiffly. 'A lot more just died.'
'So I hear. So, what's the message?'
'Our water supply has been halved this time. Scabbard says that we can live if you don't help us, but only just and it will be very hard for everybody.'
'Yeah? You got the supply figures?'
Carbine handed Stoker an electronic pad. He contemplated it for a while and said, 'And what makes him think we're in any better shape here?'
Carbine shrugged. 'Hope. And...'
'Yeah?'
'Well, he said, "Stoker might be a bastard but he's a resourceful bastard and at least he isn't a rat."'
Stoker laughed, startling the girl. 'You think he wanted you to tell me that? No, don't answer that. Well, you go back and tell Scabbard that we've got it bad too but since I'm not a rat I'll get our own figures and talk to my people and we'll see what we can do.'
Carbine smiled. 'Thankyou, sir. You have no idea-'
'Oh, I don't, do I? And I'm not sir, I'm Stoker. You're what, Cadet Carbine?'
'Usually.'
'Well, clear off, Cadet, go tell Scabbard we'll do our best.'

Nine years ago
Stoker looked around the Army training yard. There had been changes - more damage, for one thing, and none of the faces he had passed on the way here were as he remembered them.
'Love what you've done with the old place, Scabbard,' he said. Scabbard ignored him, and instead addressed the lanky teenager at Stoker's side.
'Throttle - my, how you've grown.'
'Yeah. It's kinda normal,' muttered Throttle, hands in his pockets. Stoker whacked him round the back of the head.
'Hey, rookie, what did I tell you about respect?'
'But Stoke, you said-'
'Never mind what I said. You want people to think I never taught you anything?' Throttle subsided, muttering, and Stoker grinned at Scabbard. 'Teenagers. Can't live with 'em, can't shove 'em in a lava pit till they learn sense. So, you wanted to train 'em together today? Why?'
'Just interested in the rising generation, that's all,' said Scabbard. 'You took about half the Army's children with you when you left.'
'Yeah. All that talk of hope for the future, it kinda gets to people. So where's your rising generation?'
Scabbard raised a com speaker and said, 'Send in Corporal Carbine, please.'
Stoker's eyebrows shot up. 'Corporal? The girl's what, seventeen?'
'Our rising generation is rising fast.'
The door opened and Carbine entered, not much changed from the first time she and Stoker had met except for the pips on her shoulder and the air of confidence and efficiency. Stoker glanced at Throttle, then nudged him. He stopped staring.
'Sir,' said Carbine, then turned to Stoker. 'Hello Si... I mean, Stoker. And you must be Throttle?'
'Uh, yeah. Hi.'
Stoker bit his lip, trying not to laugh. He could feel Throttle's embarrassment from here and it really wasn't funny, but - yes, it was funny. Throttle had been trying to act cool lately, and had mostly just been annoying Vinnie and Modo. Stoker gave in and handed him a dart gun.
'OK, let's get started. Target practice.'
'Oh, Stoke - you know I never miss!' said Throttle. Carbine just rolled her eyes but strapped her gun to her leg. Scabbard whistled and the two bikes parked at the end of the yard started up.
'This time,' he said, 'You're trying to make each other miss. First one to get all twenty targets wins. Come on, Stoker.'
Stoker and Scabbard retreated behind a clear screen to watch the action. Throttle got the first two targets without a problem, Carbine got the first four.
'So,' said Stoker. 'How 'bout we fess up and admit what we're really doing here?'
'I don't know what you're talking about,' said Scabbard. Throttle got another two targets, then Carbine drove close beside him and the next shot pinged off the screen.
'Carbine's your student. Throttle's mine. They're not training together. This is a competition.'
'Oh, right. Yes. And why not? It'll be good for them.'
Carbine was seven shots ahead of Throttle and her strategy was clear now - every time he aimed she brushed close or smiled or tossed her hair and his shot went wide. Stoker cursed silently. Aloud, he said, 'They're not in competition. Hey, what if they are, maybe they are. But so are we.'
There was a silence from Scabbard, then he said, 'If you say so. But it looks like my girl's winning.' And it did. Carbine fired, hit and stopped.
'Twenty!' she said. 'Throttle?'
Throttle counted. 'Eleven,' he mumbled.
'Yeah,' said Stoker. 'And next time he'll know better than to let that kind of dirty trick work on him again.'

Eight years ago
It was Vinnie's thirteenth birthday and he was being taken to choose his first bike, the bike he would learn to ride on. He entered the garage and was overwhelmed by the sound of engines, the scrape of metal on metal, the squeal of cutting torches and so many voices - mechanics, people talking to their bikes, people talking about bikes and weapons and everything technological.
'Looking for someone, kid?' said a woman in overalls, wiping her hands on an oily cloth.
'Yeah - Stoker sent me to find Flash.'
'Oh, right, well, he's teaching at the moment. Can I give him a message?'
'I'm gettin' a learner bike today.'
The woman smiled. 'Oh, I see - happy birthday. Vinnie, isn't it?'
'That's me.'
'I'm Valkyrie. Call me Val. Hm, well, I daresay Flash wouldn't mind being interrupted for a birthday bike. Follow me.'
The first they saw of Flash and his student was two antennaed heads, one blond, the other light brown, on the other side of a yellow adventure tourer.
'OK, now to replace the wheel,' Flash was saying. 'Here, you do it. Remember what I told you?'
'Hey, Flash, someone to see you,' said Val.
Flash looked up, annoyed. 'Can't you see I'm busy?'
'Too busy for a birthday bike?'
Flash met Vinnie's eyes. 'Oh. Oh, well, then. In that case...' He patted his student, a pretty girl of about twelve, on the shoulder. 'Sorry, Harley, we'll have to finish this tomorrow. Off you go.' Harley ran off and Flash turned back to Val. 'OK, Val, I'll take it from here.'
'See you, then. Have a good birthday, Vinnie.'
When Val had gone, Flash said, 'Vinnie, Vinnie... you're Stoker's youngest.'
Vinnie shrugged. 'Stoke's not my dad.'
'I guess he's not, but round here family's where you find it. You could do worse than Stoker and Throttle. He's been in here with that Modo kid doing battle bike training, both of 'em seem alright. Anyway, you don't want a battle bike yet. The others are through here.'
Flash opened a roll-up door into another room filled with bikes. Since these were the training bikes, and a mouse usually moved on to an AI-enabled battle bike after a couple of years, none of these were new, but all of them were well cared for and in perfect working order. The instant a bike could no longer be kept completely reliable it was dismantled for its parts and scrap metal.
'So, birthday boy,' said Flash. 'Take your pick.'
Vinnie walked around the bikes, eyes wide. Eventually he turned to Flash and said, 'Which one's fastest?'
Flash burst out laughing. 'You realise seventy per cent of boys ask me that? You want the hyperbikes. Over there.' He waved a hand at a cluster of bikes built like rockets. 'We've got two with a top speed of 250mph but if you want my opinion?'
'I... OK then.'
'You want the Samurai ZZR. That black one. Top speed 230mph but much better handling than the Bolt 20K.'
Vinnie looked at the bike Flash was pointing at. It had been repaired a couple of times but was otherwise a beautiful machine. He nodded. 'Yeah, OK. That one.'
'Well done, kid. I'll bring it round to Stoker's tomorrow morning, shall I? In time for first lesson?'
'Sure. Thanks.'
'You're welcome. Congratulations. And happy birthday.'

Seven years ago
It was sure to happen eventually. So far the only ones to be taught personally and regularly by Stoker were Throttle and Vinnie, because he was bringing them up; and Modo, because Flare and her children were practically part of this mismatched family now. But one of the trainers was reporting a problem student, who wouldn't be disciplined and wouldn't be taught.
'Sounds like prime Freedom Fighter material to me,' said Stoker, when he heard.
'But she's disrupting the class,' said the tutor. 'She's... arrogant. Says we're underestimating her. Keeps picking fights.'
'Hmph. Maybe she is a problem student, then. So are you underestimating her, Beamer?'
Beamer gestured wildly. 'I don't know! Maybe we are - she's certainly talented in some areas. But she has no concept of teamwork. She keeps saying she can rely on herself.'
'Who's her family?'
'Her mother died in childbirth. Her father was captured just over four years ago and is still missing. She's been a disruptive element in the nurseries ever since - twelve is far too old to go into the nurseries, I've always said. But there was nothing else to do.'
'Yeah... OK, I'll have a look at her. I'll bring the boys, if she's as disruptive as you say they ought to know.'

The girl was standing in the middle of the training yard with four targets around her and a dart gun in each hand. As Stoker and his students watched, she fired in quick succession behind her, in front, to either side, to right angles, to the opposite right angle - she hit bullseye every time. She had fur the colour of slate, her short hair was so black it had blue lights in it and her eyes were hard and dark as sapphires.
'Blue, right?' said Stoker.
'Yeah,' said the girl, firing into each target in quick succession.
'You wanna stop practicing and talk to us?'
'Nope.' She crossed her arms behind her head and fired into the target behind her.
'What's up, kid, I ain't done nuthin' to you.'
'Right. You ain't done nuthin' for me, either.'
'What's up with /her/!' muttered Throttle, coughing to cover the sudden peak of his voice. Modo's voice had broken a year ago and now it was Throttle's turn; he had been trying to say as little as possible to Carbine for the past month.
'You're a good shot, ma'am,' said Modo.
Blue spared him a cursory glance. 'Yeah,' she said. 'I am.'
'Beamer says you want a challenge, kid,' said Stoker. Blue stopped shooting and appeared to listen for the first time.
'You think you can teach me something?' she said.
'Well, I dunno. We can try. You gotta agree to learn, though.'
'Hey, you can teach me something and I will listen till the ducks come home.'
'Good. In that case we just gotta decide if we need you or not. Guys?'
Stoker turned to the boys. Throttle looked surprised, opened his mouth, shut it again and nodded.
'She's pretty, she's welcome,' said Vinnie, grinning. Blue snorted.
'Uh, yeah,' said Modo uncertainly. 'Sure. Great.'
'Well, that nails it,' said Stoker. 'Welcome to the class, Blue. Hope you're up to it.'

In the Army barracks, Scabbard went through the proposed manouver, the positions lighting up on the board behind him.
'You can't be serious,' said Carbine when he'd finished. 'We'll be massacred.'
'Sergeant, these are our orders,' said Scabbard stiffly.
'Yes, but they don't make /sense/! I mean, look at this, if we come in from here we'll be trapped in this valley with the Plutarkian guns here, here and here, no cover and no retreat! Do you think they'll hold their fire out of /pity/?'
'Sergeant Carbine! We obey orders!'
'But-'
'We obey!'
Carbine subsided. She knew she'd have to tell Stoker about this, and she hated doing that. She was starting to lose count of the number of times the Freedom Fighters had come in and covered the Army's back.

Six years ago
The shouting could be heard inside the medibay long before the source of the voice actually entered.
'Put me down, you idiot, I can walk, you know I can walk, you-' There was a short silence, then a barrage of screamed abuse and the door opened revealing a mangled and deeply unwilling Blue in the arms of Modo, who looked almost scared of his load.
'Well, we know she's alive,' murmured Machete to Flare. 'I'll deal with this, honey. You can kill her later for calling your son those names.' Flare fled, and Machete marched up to the patient. 'So, what happened?'
'Bike crash,' said Modo. 'She was-'
'Hey, I/ can/ talk!' snapped Blue.
'We know,' said Machete blandly. 'Well?'
'Racing Vinnie,' said Blue sulkily. 'Hit a patch of oil. Make him put me down, I can walk.'
'Not on that leg you can't. Looks to me like a break. You're not being independant, you're being /stupid/. This way, Modo.' Machete stalked off down the hall.
'Woah,' said Blue. 'Takes no prisoners, does she?'
Modo didn't reply, just followed and laid Blue carefully on the bed where Machete pointed. The medic ran an X-ray gun over Blue's leg and nodded. 'Fractured femur. We'll put a cast on it and you'll have to stay here for a while, heaven help us.'
'Sorry Blue,' said Modo. 'You're gonna have to let someone care 'bout you for once.'
Blue sighed heavily. 'Daddy would hate to see me like this.'
'You think so?' said Machete. 'Your father would rather you were cured, my girl. Modo, can you make sure she doesn't escape while I get my kit?'
'Uh, sure, ma'am,' said Modo. Machete strode out, leaving them alone.
'One of the things my daddy told me before he left was always to make sure I could rely on myself,' said Blue.
'Yeah, but he didn't mean you had to stop relyin' on anyone else at all.'
'Easy for you to say. You've got family. People who care about you.'
'Yeah, but...' Modo stopped.
'What?'
'Well, Ah was gonna say you got people that care about you too.'
'And you didn't because you know I haven't.'
'No. Cuz you have.'
'Oh, yeah? Who?'
'Yeah, that's why Ah didn't wanna say it. Ah didn't want you to ask me that.'
Blue propped herself up on her elbow with a little difficulty and stared at him. He didn't meet her eyes. 'Well, Modo, I had no idea.'
'Yeah, well, now you do.'
'Yeah. Um. Well, alright then, I'll do you a deal. I will stay here in this medibay and be as good as gold until the medics say I can go. But.'
'But?'
'But you have to come and visit me every day. Promise?'
Modo looked startled, but Blue was smiling. After a moment he smiled back. 'Yeah,' he said. 'Ah promise.'

Five years ago
'Well, who'da thunk it?' said Vinnie while they waited in the mess hall with the rest of the guests.
'I'd have thunk it,' replied Throttle. 'Could be the saving of them both. She needs someone to take care of her but he needs someone who won't let him wrap her in cotton wool.'
'Yeah, I guess. Could also be a match made in hell, though.'
Throttle thought about it. Modo and Blue had been inseperable for nearly a year now and then he had proposed just after Blue's eighteenth birthday and had gone around with a silly grin for a month when she accepted.
'Nah,' he said. 'Not this one.'
'If you say so, bro. Hey, here they come.'
Blue and Modo entered the hall from opposite doors, both looking happy, nervous and very clean. The water shortage had meant that the washing away of the former life had had to be done with dry cleansers, but the meaning was the same. They met in the middle of a ring of people, as many witnesses as could be found - there were even a few people from the Army here. Stoker patted them both on the shoulder and said, 'Right, then, we're here, we can start. Ahem. Ladies and gentlemice, all of us here have come to witness the marriage of Modo and Blue. We are here so that everyone can say that we saw, and we heard, and we know what they said to each other here. Because while we are at war, the safest place for the records of family and friends are in our hearts and minds. One day maybe we will be able to write their names together for eternity, but for now we will watch, so we can tell our children that we were here and it was so. Modo and Blue.'
There was silence for a moment, then Modo spoke. 'Blue. The universe is a big, lonely place an' it don't care how much you get hurt. You been livin' most of your life by that but now you don't gotta cuz/ Ah/ care an' Ah love you an' Ah'll protect you till Ah ain't got breath to raise mah head. Ah remember when you tole me you couldn't rely on anyone but yourself. When the day comes when you can't rely on me no more that should be the same day Ah die. Ah don't know what the future'll bring an' Ah'm not perfect. All Ah can offer you is the best that Ah can be fer the rest of both our lives.'
In the crowd of watchers, Flare started to sob gently. Blue bit her lip and, after a couple of false starts, replied. 'Oh, Modo... If my daddy could see me today - who knows, maybe he can - he would be so proud that I've found a mouse like you. As far as I'm concerned you are perfect. But this universe is a terrible place and I will protect you to the hilt and beyond, and if anyone tries to hurt you in any way they'll have to cut me down to get to you. Yeah, I can rely on myself. You can rely on me too. Till the bitter end, I swear. I'm not perfect either, but I'll do my best and if your faith in me turns out to be misplaced then I may as well be dead. The future's uncertain, but I'm pretty sure I'll always love you.'
'Love means a lot of things,' said Stoker. 'It means taking the good with the bad. Do you understand?'
'Yes,' said Modo and Blue together.
'It means that you must protect them but you must also let them fight for themselves. Do you understand?'
'Yes.'
'It means being there when they need you, a family even without blood ties, a home for eternity. Do you understand?'
'Yes.'
'Then we have all seen and heard, all here know that Blue and Modo were two, now they're one, and may their road always be easy. Ride free!'
And as the crowd erupted in a deafening cheer of 'Ride free!', Modo swept Blue into his arms and kissed her.

Four years ago
The sound of gunfire filled the air; the Freedom Fighters had joined the Army to defend Dark Lake Cave but they were being beseiged by Sand Raiders from the front, rats from both sides and Plutarkians from above. The only escape was into the cave itself and that would lead the enemy straight to the lake.
Blue's bike screeched to a halt beside Stoker's and she yelled, 'We're getting hammered, Stoke! We have to get rid of that destroyer!'
Stoker looked up at the menacing bulk of the main Plutarkian gunship. 'You think you can get a platoon up there, girl?'
'I can give it a shot!'
'OK, Stoker to all double-Fs - Blue's platoon, up to the destroyer any way you can, take out those guns but don't bring the damn thing down on the lake! Modo, Throttle, you deal with the rats!'
'What about me, Coach?' said Vinnie drawing up on Stoker's other side. It was only his second battle with any level of command but he'd crowed about the last one for weeks.
'You, Punk? You'n me're gonna make gravel of these Sand Raiders. Everybody /move/!'
The battle raged on and gradually the rats and Sand Raiders started to retreat. Overhead there were a series of small explosions and then soldiers from all sides had to run for cover as the guns started to drop off the destroyer, which turned and headed off into the distance.
'/Blue/!' yelled Modo.
'Modo, duck!' shouted Dart. Modo ducked as a compact missile just missed his head and exploded in the cliff face behind him. He returned to the fight and eventually the enemy was driven off.
'Home, and don't spare the horses!' called Stoker.
'No - we gotta find Blue's platoon!' said Modo.
'Yeah, and for that we're gonna need a ship! Can your bike fly off world? Cuz mine sure as hell can't.'

The rescue ship went out once, it went out twice and then Stoker declared the mission useless.
'You can't do that,' snarled Modo.
'I can,' said Stoker.
'Fer all you know she might be alive. We c'n find her!'
'Her and ten others, Modo. Your wife got one rescue mission more than anyone else would get - we're at war here, son, we can't chase the lost forever.' For a moment Modo looked as though he might knock Stoker's head off, but Stoker just looked him steadily in the face and he sighed and sat down.
'Ah said Ah'd protect her till Ah dropped.'
'I'm sorry, Modo. If she's still alive she's gonna have to protect herself this time. We did our best. You did your best.'
Modo glared at him. 'No. Ah didn't,' he said, and strode out of the room.
'Ah, hell...' muttered Stoker. He picked up the com. 'Flare, your boy's on a suicide course, can you stop him?'

Flare caught up with Modo outside the bike shed. 'Modo, you stop right there!'
'Gonna stop me bringin' mah wife home, Momma?' said Modo.
'Ah'm gonna stop you killin' yourself. Come on, son, tell me Ah didn't raise no dummy!'
'Ah dunno, but if you did it ain't your fault. You think it's stupid to think Blue's alive?'
Flare hesitated. The next words came carefully, aware of the fragility of the situation. 'Modo... sweetie... suppose she is alive. If everyone's OK, she's got her whole platoon helpin' her an' she'll be home. She'd hate you to get yourself killed fer her.'
Modo smiled bitterly. 'Ah ain't gonna get mahself killed, Momma,' he said, and vanished into the bike shed. Flare was about to follow, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
'Let him go,' said Throttle. 'He's just gotta be by himself, maybe bust a few rat faces. He'll be fine.'
'How can you be sure?' said Flare.
Throttle shrugged. 'Can't. But he's got a tracer on his bike and in his helmet and if Vinnie'n'me'll keep watch. We'll go get him if we have to. But I don't think we'll have to.'

They didn't have to. Modo came home with blood in his fur and his bike dented and spent the whole night making repairs, polishing it to a brilliant finish and speaking to no-one. He went out on longer and longer trips, went longer and longer without speaking to anyone and got less and less sleep.
Eventually Throttle and Vinnie ambushed him in the bike shed. His bike was already perfect but he kept cleaning it and repairing it, as though a perfect bike would bring Blue home.
'I know all bikes like a bit of TLC but I think all this polishing's starting to get on her nerves,' said Vinnie conversationally.
'What do you guys want?' said Modo without looking up.
'Stoke said he was gonna have to find a new team leader,' said Throttle.
'So let him.'
'We don't want him to,' said Vinnie. 'C'mon, bro, we're a team. Or we were.'
'Blue would really hate to see you like this,' said Throttle. That got a reaction.
Modo jumped to his feet and yelled in his face, 'Don't you dare talk 'bout Blue to me!'
'Woah, woah big fella, cool it! Just worried about you, that's all.'
'Yeah, your mom says you're losin' weight,' said Vinnie. 'Heard her sayin' somethin' 'bout puttin' you on sleepers. I know you been up later'n me every night this week.'
'Bad dreams, bro?' said Throttle.
Modo sagged, defeated. 'No. The dreams Ah c'n handle, it's the wakin's the killer.'
'Stoke thinks you blame him.'
Modo shrugged. 'Hey, he went back twice. Most people only get the one time an' we ain't got that much time round here.'
'Right,' said Vinnie. 'So why're you wastin' yours?' Throttle shot him a dirty look but Vinnie continued regardless. 'You're throwin' your life away, bro - you know what I'm scared of? I'm gonna die one day an' get to heaven an' your woman's gonna whup my tail for lettin' you go off the road. I was lookin' forward to the afterlife but you're makin' sure me an' Throttle get hell wherever we go, cuz if I know Blue she's gonna find us.'
Modo stared at him, then at Throttle, who shrugged. 'You gotta admit he's got a point. There's gonna be a notice up in all the places we could go: "If Whiteass and Crazyface, AKA Vincent and Throttle, show up here, send them to Blue for interrogation. Possible reward."
Modo snorted. 'Ah never did find out why she called you Crazyface,' he said.
'Trying to make me laugh,' said Throttle.
'Yeah, well, she was just tryin' to piss me off,' said Vinnie. '"Whiteass" - huh!'
Throttle put an arm around Modo's shoulders. 'Listen, Modo, we all miss Blue. Come on, we'll go to the mess hall and get a few drinks, talk a few memories. Or if the mess hall's too public there's our place. But you can't sit around going crazy by yourself.'
'Yeah,' said Vinnie. 'Let us help, we can all go crazy. Sounds like much better fun.'
'Vincent?' said Throttle wearily. 'Shut up. Well, bro? You coming? Worth a shot.'
Modo sighed. 'Yeah,' he said. 'Ah guess it is.'

AND YOU KNOW THE REST...

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Someday you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms

Through these fields of Destruction
Baptisms of fire
And I've witnessed your soul, friend
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
But we have just one world
Though we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell
The moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line in your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms