Starfire

((Hello All! Welcome to Starfire. This story is finished and the second story is in the works. We have taken liberties with physics and a million other natural laws to bring out what we thought to be a grand adventure.

Warning: Extreme language. These boys are not from a \"preppy shite school\" as Tex would say. *w*.

Summary: Two mercenary pilots meet during a routine job which turns foul. Thrown together first for revenge, then for far more primal reasons, they seek to make peace with each other and their place in the midst of a brewing revolution. Tyrin, finding himself in love with the over exuberant Howard \"Tex\" Heeseman, has to come to terms with his attraction and maybe convince Tex that good can come from the other side of the fence.

**text** - radio speak (in this case, from the main ship)
[[text]] - radio speak (in this case, from the suits)

Enjoy!))

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Chapter One: Firefight
by Memme and Earth Gurl

Off on Tex\'s left, a flare of light against the black of the sky. Not a star or a meteor, not this deep. He hits the com, radioing back to the convoy. [[You guys caught that?]] his voice sounding empty here in deep space, personal, almost as if he\'s in a womb. He swivels his chair, looking to the side and flicking the missile bays, waiting on his suit to power up weapon systems. It doesn\'t take long, 5.05 seconds, but it\'s good to have it done. Sometimes.. a second means a lot.

**what was that, rider?**

[[The flare to the starboard.. see it? Again.. three.. you guys got company.]] He wonders at what the cargo would be that would deserve such a high priced escort. He grins. So.. this was the reason. It doesn\'t matter if they\'re military or pirates.. they\'re not gonna take his meal ticket.

**Got it, rider. We\'re powering up. It\'ll take us forty two seconds to be in stations.. can you hold until then?**

Tex\'s laugh sounds out over the com. [[Baby.. I\'ll let you guys have whatever the hell\'s left over!]]

Meanwhile, Tyrin was just out there... Sitting in the middle of nowhere, having nowhere else to go... It\'s just him and his bitch now... yeah, that\'s her name... Bitch...

So anyway, there he is, just sliding along the black blanket of space when he sees three or four flares whizzing by him, going north towards another ship... Well, hell! Finally some damned excitement! Tyrin sits up in his chair, rubbing his hands together as he gets himself ready... Firing up the laser cannons on the Bitch\'s flanks and unsheathing a fire that\'s kept on her back... Damn this girl is hot!

Tyrin slips up behind the \'company\' keeping quiet and watching the others, taking in the supposed battlefield... \"Entertain me... Oh gods, -please-...\" Tyrin says, patting the red buttons on the steering mechanism...

Two mobiles, a cruiser, and a suit... not a bad fleet and all military. Shit... that makes the stakes a bit higher. I mean, of course the guys Tex is guarding are illegals. Attacking military means that if he lets anyone get away, then they get his girl\'s name plate back to the depots and he\'s up shit creek for a week or two until he can change her electronic signature. It\'s not that it can\'t be done. But it\'s a definite pain in the ass and he\'d rather not lose half of his earnings over some stupid shit like that.

\"Hey guys!\" Tex waves but of course they can\'t see through the diluted cockpit. He waits, keeping to the side of the cargo ship. [[You guys got it?]]

\\Vessel, you and your guard are to stand down. This is the IES Army and you will stand down. We repeat, stand down.\\ The open com is buzzing and Tex grins.

**Blast \'em** the voice comes from his employer.

[[Sure thing, babe!]] Tex grins and hits his power button when suddenly a voice crackles over his com.

[[I feel like playing... Lemme in, will ya?]]

Tex laughs. \"Holy shit\" He would know that voice and that mech signature anywhere. [[Bad Penny! Whatcha doin\' man? You wanna play? Sure as shit you can!]] He finds himself feeling a bit lighter. This guy\'ll know. [[This is Dipshit.. you and me had drinks last year..]]

[[Bad Penny here, and hell yeah I remember that smart ass! I\'m all over it baby!]]

[[Honey.. you couldn\'t handle this ass...]] Tex laughs. [[Kay! You take your right.. I\'ll take mine..]] And the game is on.

Tex wings it to the right, cutting over the nose of the cargo ship.

**We\'re ready!**

[[Fire away, babe!]] his voice calm over the coms.. Then he begins to play a bit.

The mobiles shoot off to either side, their heavier armor making them formidable opponents. That means that the suit will try and pick up on the needs of the cruiser, more likely than not figuring on he and Bad Penny being shot out of the sky. Suits are tough, but some of the more rogue suits can match even a cruiser if they\'re smart enough.

And Tex is smart enough.. and his girl? Why damn.. she\'ll blast a hole in all the right places for him to stick it to this damn doll.

Tyrin streams to his own right, whipping the sword around to the front of the suit before giving a bit of a pleased yell, something like \'YEE FUCKIN\' HAW!\' before he swings and puts a dent into the closest enemy, which is the suit... Of course... Pickin\' onna kid smaller than him, but that\'s part of the fun, isn\'t...?

The fire sword comes down and simply tears the suit to two pieces before it blows up before him...

[[Don\'t hate, baby... participate!]]

Tex\'s crow erupts over the airwaves. [[Hooollly shit, man! Nice one!]] he crows. Now that was nice.. reallll nice. That\'s one thing he likes about BP, the guy has his head on straight.

The mobile is sneaking up around behind the cruiser and Tex squeezes off a missile without much of a chance to aim. It\'ll hit or not, either way, it\'ll give BP a chance to notice the sneaking fucker. The burst from the cruiser\'s side flares slightly before the fire is doused by deep space.

[[I try buddy...]] Tyrin says as he indeed catches the ninja wannabe mobile as it comes behind the cruiser... Tyrin gives a quiet whistle, looking at it... before he\'s on its tail, right behind the fucker...

Tex cuts into a quick turn, leading the second mobile on a bit of a chase. \"Yeah!\" as he drags it into a stop, using his back thrusters. The mobile isn\'t accustomed to a suit that is as maneuverable as Suzanna. \"Your mistake, ass hole..\" he grins and pulls his thermal cannon, lining it up in the cross hairs. The mobile\'s driver pulls to the side, knowing that the thermal can\'t do him much damage in the side.

Unless it\'s this thermal. He grins, hitting the switch and watching a high intensity beam pulled together by his man Owen down topside. It\'s like a laser, and while it can\'t blow the piece of shit up, it can... in this case, cut a swath through the hosing on the thing\'s susceptible side as it\'s \"arm\" is raised to aid thrusters in slowing it\'s spin. It\'s gearing up to shoot off to his right, gonna come back around from a distance. But the thermal doesn\'t give it a chance to do that. Hitting the back of the thruster, he screams a whoop as the booster rocket explodes. It\'s a lucky shot, but it makes damn fine fireworks.

[[You guys got yer weps up yet? Shit!]]

**Sorry kid.. we got it.. but we got more bogies comin\' on..**

He stops. [[Yeah? So? Blast that baby!]]

He\'s stopped in the midst of debris and taps his radar. Not on screen yet but his eye can see what the cargo ship\'s pilot is seeing. Fuck. It\'s a nice line, musta used hyperdrive to skip into the battle area. It isn\'t normal to take it that close, but the military had been working on getting coordinate jumps down. Shit.. double shit. He can\'t give up. Before they\'d done a counter attack, he could have pleaded innocence. Just another merc. But now.. he\'d attacked a military convoy. He was dog meat, even more so than the cargo ship because they\'d not fired one fucking shot.

[[You fucking bitch!]] Tex snarls into the com and then [[BP.. party\'s over, sweet cheeks..]] His anger flooding the channel.

[[The hell do you mean? Aw, shit, Well, if we\'re gonna do this, let\'s do it hard!!]] Tyrin screams into the com, blasting the mobile with the laser cannon, placing two holes in the torso of the suit, blasts coming from either side before that blows the bottom half clean off...

\"That\'s mah Bitch! Do it baby!\"

He purrs at his machine before joining DS on the other side of the cruiser... [[What\'s going on over there?]]

Tex spins his suit to face the cruiser and sensing the thermals on that fucker heating up, an alarm goes off. Fuck.. in the missile sights. \"Dammit!\" He grimaces and then with a wry grin shrugs deeper into his harness and nods. \"Okay baby.. give me your shit..\" He\'s implanted a secondary alarm, for when the missile should head out. The alarm blinks and he\'s ready. A flip, twist and evasive thrusters kicks him hopefully out of the cross hairs on the ship.

And then the missiles start coming from the convoy. Tryin growls, jumping in behind his partner, watching the oncoming missiles as they head straight for him... The fire sword is out again and he spins it, with a pivoting mechanism in the arm, deflecting each one right back to where they came from... The sight is pretty as he sustains damage to the front of the cruiser, but not much else...

[[Damn, damn, damn! The hell you get yourself into man?! You owe me big for this...]]

Tex comes out fifty yards to the side of the cruiser. \"DAMAGE!\"

~Wing, 1.23, operational to 50%~

\"Shit.. that was close..\"

[[Anything you want, BP..]] he laughs.

But it\'s even closer. He looks over the cruiser\'s bay and curses softly. The line is near to eight, two more cruisers and six dolls... it\'s gonna be a hard ride. It\'s dead space and the nearest port is a good twenty minute run from here. But.. what the hell. Life isn\'t good unless you prove it\'s fleeting now and again. \"What the hell..\" he grins.

[[You in, BP?]] He grins and guns it, straight over the cruiser, using it\'s field to shield him at first, then heading straight into the line, using his thermal liberally, almost like a laser cannon, not as good, but almost as good. Good fucking enough.

Tyrin growls more and pulls back going for the dolls first, letting the cannons do all the work as he fires off exactly six cross pattern shots, all of them going in different directions but ultimately coming around to their prospective targets blowing gaping holes right in the heart...

[[Damn, I\'m pretty! So what the fuck do we do with those cruisers, DS?]]

[[Do you wanna do the mouth while I do the rear?]] Tex is laughing, but his face is set. It was fucking nice to have the dolls taken down. But now BP was right.. they had the cruisers.

The thermal is a toy to these monsters. They\'re not like a battle ship or anything that massive. But against a suit, it\'s like a cat and mice. In this case, three cats and two mice. The only thing they had going for them was that they were quicker. But they didn\'t have two WEPS stations in the suits.

Well, well, well... The milly\'s going all out now... Just for an illegal cargo ship... Ah, there is no stopping the Army, though... Tyrin is knee deep in shit, but he just grins... Risking his neck... he loves the thrill of it... he loves that moment where he is right in between living and dying, not giving a fuck whether one or the other happens...

But back to the battle, he screams with delight as DS kicks on AC/DC and he listens to his choices... The mouth eh? [[I can certainly do that for ya man!]]

[[Kay... you break left.. I\'m agoin\' right. That one fucker is limpin so he should be easy for you. Take out the weps stations first... shit, you know what ta do!]] Tex laughs. [[See ya on the flip side, baby.. you an\' me\'r gonna have a hot night tonaht!]] \"Fuck.. I need some good kick ass music.\" He mutters to himself as he reaches down and punches the player.

They\'re electronic media, loaded into the data base. Not something most guys used their computer for. But he loved his computer and she loved him and one thing they both decided (in his mind) was that music is good for the soul when your life is on the line.

Not to mention it drives the baddies crazy. He hits the open mike, the first strains of and his own voice joined in, off pitch and excited with battle on the verge, [[THUNDAH... nah nah nah nahnahNAHNAH!! THUNDAH!!! YEAH BABEEE!]] rebounds into the cruiser battle rooms and bridges and the suit rocks off to the side with the sounds of AC/DC rocking the speakers in the control rooms.

Wild laughter and he punches it. [[Hell YEAH!]] his words no longer hidden, the button held down. He won\'t receive shit, but he won\'t have to worry about that anyway. Not if he doesn\'t survive this.

The suit checks, stoops and then swerves around the lee of the cruiser, trailing along it\'s leading edge, he lets off a round toward gun bays and then unlocks a missile. Tossing that at the lower duck, sitting at the lower side with the automated weapons systems, he follows the sides around. The shields are harder here, no chance of getting a decent shot into the side bays because there aren\'t any guns here. But coming right up over the side would be a good way to get himself killed too. He follows the side along and behind, darting under a thruster rocket, the fuckers could melt yer suit around you if they fired off a hyperjump flare. He looks around him, noticing the third cruiser is turning, heading toward him. He\'s on the fucker\'s tail and this asshole is gonna pick him off of it. [[Stupid fucking gay boys! You can\'t get into this bitch. She\'s mine!]] and with a sudden gunning up, he shoots up and over.

The first hit is deflected and he dodges the next, coming up and taking part of his shield out as he crashes the side of the suit into the duck on top, the rounded top where the systems held sway. The damn operator was on the bridge, but that was okay. [[But I\'ve got dibs on her mouth if you wanna share..]] his voice a grim low laugh as he follows the top of the ship, coming nearer to where the bridge is situated.

Another hit takes him on the right side, luckily not where he\'d blown his shield and he can hear the danger bells. He sees the other cruiser coming in close. \'That\'s it, baby.. come on in close,\' he thinks with a satisfied grin.

He makes a quick turn, the second cruiser, seeing where he\'s heading, tries to bank off, but the cruisers are stupid slow creatures in close combat. And he screams [[TAKE IT ALL, FUCKER!!]]

Thermal cannons... not much good. But it\'s worth a good shot.

See, the hyper drive core is here.. he\'s seen enough schematics to know it\'s there. And if he had enough fire power he could set off the chain reaction.

Or.. if he managed the shot.

He turns the suit so it\'s going backwards, flying blind, squeezes off four rounds into the two shield productors, watches one go up in flames even if the second holds. It might be enough. He shoots off a fifth, no time to see if it blows or not, turns back and takes the thermal cannon and punches a hole into the upper deck with the beam, straight through the armored top of the core and into it.

[[I\'d run if I were you..]] his voice low and calm, AC/DC pounding across his chest as he does a full stop, kicks the main boosters of the suit\'s back end into the side of the ship, and gets the fuck outta dodge.

The blast rocks him like a baby and he is hollaring in triumph, turning on his rear screen and watching the explosion take the first and then travel into the second with the force of a sonic wave. [[Holy SHIT! Sweet baby James.. I got one fer you!]] he\'s crowing and turns to look back to see how BP fared.

Tyrin yells as he comes right up on the first cruiser before he takes the sword to the injury DS had caused and swiping right down its side, taking any guns or other weaponry with it... So now, there\'s a great big slice in the side of the cruiser, but still, not with much result... Except for the disabling of weapons... But he did get that at least...

He groans as he ponders over what to do with this shitty situation, but he\'s thrashing out to the music on his com before he pulls back just a bit, pulling out his ultimate weapon... But before he can get it out, he sees an explosion far to his right and he screams with delight... [[Gah-damn- that was fucking sexy!]] Oh, yeah, let the good times roll... So now, there is only one cruiser left, he got the already handicapped ship, the one with no weapons and a huge ass hole in its side... The left arm of his suit transforms with the flick of a switch and it reveals a a hand that has a hole in its palm...

[[Watch the fuckin\' birdy you dumb fucks!]]

Another switch and the whole hand begins to glow a very blinding deep amber and from the middle of that same hand comes a thick and hard beam of light that fires through the nose of the ship and spills out to the back, stretching out for miles...

And you think he doesn\'t call his suit Bitch for a reason!?

[[WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!! Bullseye ya muthafuckas! DS, Get the hell out of here if you don\'t wanna be turned to dust!]]

Because that\'s what happens... This isn\'t a laser beam... No... This is some state of the art shit he created himself... By using materials not sanctioned for mech use... hell, he had to... Shit gets treacherous out there... You gotta be treacherous right back... This is plasma stored inside a big capsule... The raw materials from uranium... Don\'t ask how he got it... Just know that it\'ll fuck someone\'s world up...

So back to the ship, from the nose to the ass, the whole ship turns blinding red before it explodes... But this is big... Possibly too big for anything other than a suit to get away from... Luckily the cargo ship was out of the blast radius and he prayed to gods DS was out of there too...

Tex doesn\'t hear the get out of here.. because he\'s still got his mike stuck on broadcast, receiving nothing. He grins, watching the beam cut through. [[Dammmm... nice piece, Bad Penny!]] his grin growing.

Then fading. [[Fuck.. what the hell?]]

The ship bursts into light, the screen in front of him turns white.. completely white after a deep magenta. [[FUCK!]]

He guns it, being far enough away that he might be able to cut loose and not sustain too much damage. The blast radius can\'t be too far.. not in space. But it\'s gonna be one hell of a ride.

It\'s when the outer rim comes just behind him that he remembers his shield is down in back, from having been hit earlier. He slams the music, the AC/DC cranking up so far that all he can feel is the music shaking his suit. The hit to the music closes down the com link and he\'s in space, silent but for the sheer knocking noise of the music.

It hits him in back, he can\'t hear the danger signals, can\'t feel the hit because of the beat. He stares into the stars, watching them turn red and then smelling smoke.

He bursts free of the blast and comes out, tumbling, his thrusters behind dead. Dead in the water.. the suit does a slow tumble. He stares at his screen. \"Fucking damn.. what the hell was that? Sweet shit, man!\" but the com link is dead. He is speaking to space.

And the cargo ship. He stares at it as it comes into view during one of the revolutions. \"Fucker..\" his voice soft.

Then... the missile alarm goes off. \"Fuck.. what?\" he looks around trying to see if anyone is there. No one.. then, wide eyed, he stares at the cargo ship. \"Fuckin assholes!\" his face turning red. He\'s almost with his back to them so it\'s a matter of backwards shooting. He revolves the arm of the suit, facing behind him, revolving.. where would it be? There.. and fires up the missile bay. He\'s got on baby.. a mama fucking ton of war head at it\'s tip. He kisses the air and sets it off. \"Hit it, baby doll...\"

The hit to the cargo ship comes at the same time the missile is launched from it\'s bay. He revolves around to face the missile, a little off target because of the shock wave from the hit. It slams into his right side, shield down, explosion sending him off away from the debris... cursing his fate even as the hit knocks him in his harness and cuts out power.

\"Dammit!!!\" hitting his console, he stares at the plate window, then groans. It hadn\'t hurt at first, but he\'d knocked his head somehow.. somewhere.. probably when that missile hit his side. And at the moment, either a gas leak, in which case good by Suzanna, or a good knock...or both. But he\'s seeing stars. \"Fuck..\" his voice soft, tinny..

And then it\'s blackness, the stars close in around him and he knows no more.

((Next Chapter: Yer place, or mine?))