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Subject: "(SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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"(SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War"
 
   Tuesday, February 2, 2410
11:35 AM
Deedlit Satori Mandeville Memorial Institute
Jeraddo, Republic of Bajor

Although the dining commons on the first floor of Hannibal Hamlin Hall was the primary location for students to eat while on campus, it was hardly the only place at DSM to obtain sustenance. There was the Henry Knox dining commons near to the athletic complex, recently opened but sparsely attended due to the fact that Residence Group East had only just started to fill with students. There was the "Cafe-on-the-Commons", a bistro-style dining establishment attached to the Student Union that offered somewhat more elegant fare for outdoors dining when the temperatures weren't fifty-or-below degrees. And then there was the Walker Auditorium "Snack Bar", which also operated the refreshments stand during performance intermissions, and was a popular hangout for those students involved in the performing arts.

Kaname Sterling wasn't a theater major by far, but she didn't mind helping out her friends who were involved, and her organizational streak was considered to be practically a compulsion by some of her more waggish detractors. So it was that this day she was currently taking her lunchtime meal in the Snack Bar, accompanied by Lindsey Willows and several of their mutual friends.

"Ok, so, we're waiting on a break while some of the set for the shop is being repaired," Mizuki Inaba explained to her (mostly) attentive audience while they ate. "James, who's playing the plant, is busy going over some of the choreography with the guy playing Seymour. They're doing their thing while Trudy comes walking along in her Audrey costume."

"Ok, so far, so good..." Kazuya Kurauchi nodded, showing he was paying attention.

"Anyway, he's got the medium-sized puppet of the plant, and he's doing his thing, and Trudy walks past. The plant lunges forward, snags on her dress, and --- woosh! Away goes her dress COMPLETELY, because she was just getting her costume fitted, and it was just tacked together -- it just fell apart! Leaving her in her underwear!"

"Oh man," Nao Zhang groaned with a facepalm and a smile.

"So we're all just sitting there, in that moment of 'WTF'-ery, when James just looks at her, blinks, and exclaims, 'Sorry!' Trudy smiles, nods, and that looks to be the end of it."

"Well, when you have something like that happen, what else can you do?" Maya Mukai asked rhetorically.

Mizuki laughed. "And then, oh, this is the best part -- Mother Superior, who's been standing out in the audience with a totally flummoxed expression, watching all this, comes up on stage, and says --" At this, Mizuki pulled herself upright, affecting the calm, pleasant tones of the drama and dance teacher, Ms. Steinberg, "'Miss Galloway. While I can certainly appreciate the desire of comfort while on stage, I would appreciate it if, during the performances, you did not wear your 'Hello Goth Kitty' underwear ensemble. In the interests of historical accuracy, of course.'"

Despite herself, Kaname had to laugh. Just then, a sturdy female voice interrupted them, asking, "Hey, Kaname. Mind if we sit here?"

Kaname paused, and looked up at the two new arrivals to the table. She briefly hesitated, before gesturing towards two of the remaining empty seats across from her. "Sure, Chie, go right ahead. You too, Aoi."

Kaname had nothing personal against Chie Hallard and Aoi Senoh. They were both good people, upright and optimistic, and generally well-liked across campus. However, they were both members of the staff of the primary student newspaper, and she always felt the need to watch what she said around them. She never could tell when something she said or did in their presence would end up on one of the pages of the Institute Intelligencer.

They didn't seem to be in "snouting for news" mode just now, though; in fact, like everyone else on campus, they wanted to talk about how much they were looking forward to Sanity Week. The run from the start of C-term in early January to the much-anticipated week-long break in the middle of February was a long one, unbroken by any holidays - that was why the break was called Sanity Week - and everyone on campus was feeling the first tickles of serious eagerness for it now that it was within sight.

"Have you heard anything about who Student Activities has lined up to play the Winterfest dance?" Chie asked the group in general.

"No, but it'll be the Art of Noise," said Nao. "Castle Alumni Day is that Saturday, right? So they'll be here, and if they're here, who else is gonna do it?"

"They might not be looking to put on a show," Aoi put in. "I'm not even sure all of them are going to be here this year. Lindsey, you hang with that crowd, have you heard anything?"

Lindsey shook her head. "Nope, but I wouldn't bet against Nao's hunch."

Chie took a pull on her Coke. "I dunno if the school can afford them nowadays."

"I don't think they charge the school," Lindsey mused. "Alumni spirit and all that."

"Yeah, well, more power to 'em. I graduate from this place, I'm never lookin' back. Don't get me wrong, I like the place," Nao insisted, "but I'm not the nostalgic type."

"Aw, c'mon, Nao," Maya chided her. "Look me in the eye and tell me you're not going to miss the good old days."

"The Halloween Gala," Mizuki said.

"The Paul Szlyk Club of America Club cookout," Aoi chimed in.

"The Autobahn at night," Kazuya agreed.

"Soldier Boy blowing up the mailroom," Chie said, and they all laughed.

"Speaking of, where is Sergeant Furij the Howling Commando today?" Nao asked when they'd finished.

Kaname looked around the table, noticed everyone was looking at her, and went red. "How should I know?" she asked over-casually. "He's the one who's got me under surveillance, I don't know where he goes."

"That whole deal is just sixteen flavors of weird," said Mizuki.

"Pff, tell me about it," Kaname replied. "Point is, whatever you guys think, I am not holding his leash. In fact, beyond our little 'arrangement', which was not supposed to be a matter of public record thank you Constable Odo, I really don't know anything about him, other than that he's a military nut and a huge pain in my ass."

"And cute," Maya remarked, making Kaname cough on her soda.

"When he's not launching a pre-emptive strike on the Snacktron in the Union lobby," said Chie. "What was that about?"

"Or what about the time he hauled out a spear gun during water polo practice?" Lindsey asked.

"Well, to be absolutely fair, he did think I was being attacked by a shark," Kaname said, not entirely sure why she felt the need to defend him.

Kazuya looked at Kaname skeptically. "In the pool?"

Nao nodded. "Yeah, ol' Shark Week didn't think it was that funny."

"He is cute, though," Maya put in again, speculatively tilting her head while Kaname looked at her funny.

Nao snorted. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, of course he's cute, but he's a retard or something."

"That's ridiculous," Lindsey protested. "Sosuke's not retarded..."

Kaname resignedly muttered, "That we know of."

"... he was raised by wolves," Lindsey continued, ignoring her friend's interjection.

Chie considered this proclamation thoughtfully. "That would explain the incident at lunch last week."

Aoi added, "That or paranoid schizophrenia."

"A schizophrenic might believe the Jell-O was poisoned, but he wouldn't take a flamethrower to it," Kazuya countered.

Kaname rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. It was only a small fire."

"It set off the sprinklers!" Nao exclaimed.

Kazuya hrmed, and thoughtfully admitted, "It was really bad Jell-O, though."

"And it was only a small flamethrower," Lindsey pointed out.


The sound was so familiar, and yet so wildly out of place, that for a few moments it didn't consciously register on Sosuke Sagara's mind.

He was en route from Lobachevskiy Hall to Walker Auditorium, mildly annoyed with himself for the lapse in concentration that had led him to linger at the former when he knew perfectly well that Kaname was going to be lunching slightly earlier than usual at the latter. The job, he knew, was threatening to settle into a routine. Routine was the enemy of preparedness; it dulled one's edge. He would have to find ways of working around the set structure of the school day and maintain a proper level of -

- what was that noise? He could swear he'd heard it before. It was tickling at the edges of his perceptions, a heavy mechanical rumbling noise interspersed with little squeaks and rattles, the sound of a large machine. An earthmover, perhaps? No... the pitch of the engine was wrong, and...

Sosuke broke into a run, veering off from his planned path between Maxim and Hopkins Halls, and following the sound to the southeast instead, back around Lobachevskiy and up the slight ridge that separated the science buildings from the banks of Mandeville Stream and the athletic complex beyond. Some distance away, trundling across one of the athletic practice fields, he saw a low, dark shape. Dropping instantly to the snow and wishing his uniform were somewhat less obviously black against the white, he pulled a pair of collapsible electrobinoculars from his pack and zeroed them on the anomalous object.

That was why the sound was so familiar.

It was a tank.

Specifically, his well-trained eye recognized it at once as a Neue Deutsche Waffen-und-Mechafabrik Panzerkampfwagen XXVI - the cutting edge of Niogan main battle tank design circa 2390 and still in front-line service with numerous small armies and planetary defense forces around the galaxy. Sosuke watched it moving across the field and ran down his mental list of quick things he knew about it. Mass, about 55 tons; armament, one 120mm Class X autocannon by Rheinmetall-NDWM, three 12.5mm machineguns; powerplant, 14-cylinder Maybach diesel; rated road march speed, 45 mph. Its Niogan crews call it the Honigdachs: "honey badger". A robust and formidable fighting machine if well-handled, with an outstandingly accurate and reliable main gun, though the power train can be temperamental if not meticulously maintained.

To that list, after a moment's reflection, he added one more known fact: It was not, insofar as he knew, supposed to be here. There was no reason for an armored fighting vehicle to be making its way across the practice fields on a crisp Tuesday in February. Who had brought it here, what they were hoping to accomplish, he neither knew nor, right now, cared.

What mattered to Sosuke was that the tank's anomalous presence made it a threat; one that could not be tolerated.

Lunch could wait.

He crept back behind the brow of the ridge until he was sure he was out of the tank's line of sight, rose, and ran toward Spencer Labs.


"Are you sure you left him a message, Kaname?"

Kaname sighed. "Yes I did, Lindsey. I left him a phone message, an email, two texts, and even gave him a post-it at breakfast letting him know I'd be here instead of Hamlin."

"Gee, one would think you were really worried about him being out of the loop, Kaname," Maya commented with a grin.

"Who, me? Hah ha ha, no, of course not!" Kaname said with a rather forced laugh. "I just want to make sure I'm not in violation of Article Eight. Who cares if he's actually here..."

"Mmm-hmm, of course not," Lindsey murmured with a slight smile. "That's why you've looked at your watch six times in the last - " She blinked, letting the indictment hang, as movement near the entrance caught her eye. "Uh oh, Kaname. Incoming freshman at five o'clock low."

"Eh?" Kaname paused, then turned around to look across the building's lobby. Over by the far entrance, she could see a smudge of rust-red hair, and the glint of glasses, as the head they were attached to quickly surveyed the area before plunging into the snack bar seating area several steps shy of a dead run. The figure got closer, weaving around the planters and tables, and soon it dawned on Kaname that it was one of her floor residents, Irina Woods. Within moments, she had arrived at their table, and came to a halt next to Kaname, hands on knees as she tried to recover from her rapid approach.

Kaname had a distinct sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that had nothing to do with the Red Matter she'd eaten earlier in the meal. She reached out with her hands to steady Irina's shoulders, and said, "Hey, hey, Irina, where's the fire? What's up?"

Panting for breath, Irina looked up at her RA and said simply, "It's Sosuke."

Kaname groaned. It would just figure that the reason her self-proclaimed bodyguard was late was because he'd gotten into some trouble. Again. What would it be now? Deciding to proactively detonate a "tampered" mailbox? Sweeping the trash disposal area for "harmful biological contaminants"?

Kaname didn't get a chance to ask, because just then there was a faint, but noticeable "boom" sound from outside. She couldn't identify the specific source of the sound offhand, but she'd been around enough military hardware in her life so far to be able to recognize the sound of a heavy-caliber cannon firing in the distance.

"Oh no," Kaname murmured, her eyes going wide. Then, without further discussion or debate, she handed her school bag to Lindsey, pulled on her winter coat, lept from her seat, and left the snack bar area at a dead run.

Kaname's companions looked at each other in brief confusion, before Lindsey spoke up, gathering up her own things along with Kaname's. "I, uh, better go help her before anything else goes boom. Later!"

The group watched as Lindsey raced out the lobby doors, in the same direction as Kaname had taken. Chie looked at Aoi. "Scoop?"

Aoi nodded. "Scoop."

With a grin, Chie apologized to the remaining people at the table. "Sorry, gotta go, news awaits! Wait up, Aoi!" she called out, going into a run to follow her roommate as she readied her camera-enabled cell-phone.

Again, the other students at the table watched as the pair departed, and then Irina cried out, "Wait for me!" and ran after them.

For several moments, the remainder seated at the table just sat there, stunned at the rapid departures of half their lunch companions.

Finally, Kazuya spoke. "So... how about them Knights?"

/* "Cool Running"
Toshihiko Sahashi
Full Metal Panic Original Soundtrack Album */

Once out of the warm confines of Walker Auditorium, Kaname poured on the speed, rapidly leaving her friends in the dust. At the best of times, it would take her about twenty minutes or so to cross from the corner of the Performance Center and Residence Group West to the edges of the athletic fields, longer if it was a pleasant day and she didn't have anywhere particular to go.

Today, driven by necessity, she intended to cross the distance in five minutes or less.

And it was hardly a pleasant day, seeing as it was still the middle of winter in the Jeradar Valley.

But that didn't matter to Kaname Chidori Sterling. The eldest Sterling granddaughter was a very athletically-inclined individual. She had a long history of competing in track and swimming events (often placing first or second) at the middle and grade-school level. Although she wasn't formally a member of any of DSM's interscholastic sports teams, she was more than willing to participate in the in-school intramural versions. If a member of a team was sick and unable to play, Kaname was often the first person to be asked to stand in -- which she often did, willingly. In fact, the softball teams had just yielded to the inevitable and issued Kaname her own locker, because she semi-regularly attended their practices and games due to her love of the sport.

These traits all combined to form another point of commonality between Kaname and the famous DSM alumna, Utena Tenjou. Though, to the best of Kaname's knowledge, Utena hadn't attempted sprinting across snowpack and incompletely-plowed sidewalks in the middle of winter. Or if she had, nobody else lived to tell the tale.

Immediately her mind surveyed the available paths ahead of her as she ran. Fortunately, it was a cloudy day, so she wasn't blinded by snow glare. A trampled path cut across the southwest corner of the common, forged by many students making their way from Maxim to the Fountain of Art's small plaza over the past few weeks. Good enough. She tore down the trench rapidly, weaving around the few students who didn't immediately get out of her way.

The unofficial path soon joined the official one that marked the southern edge of the Commons. This one was at least plowed, but in turn that meant that while it was mostly free of snow, some parts had melted and refrozen, leaving a barely perceptible sheen of ice over the sidewalk. Kaname entertained a brief moment of wishing for her softball cleats, but crying over lack of equipment never did anybody any good, so she returned her focus to the path ahead. Instead she jumped between the icy patches, taking care to land on the parts that had been sanded and salted.

Before she knew it, the footbridge over Mandeville Stream loomed in her vision. If she kept on her current path, she would need to proceed further, past the recently opened Residence Group East, and take a right at the swimming facilities to reach the practice fields.

Kaname couldn't afford that delay. As she ran, there was a sharp, staccato popping sound, occuring in tripled bursts, from the vicinity of the athletics complex. Unbidden, a tiny voice in her mind spoke up, providing salient information to the current situation:

Roginov BK-540 37 mm Assault Rifle, common medium-range Arm Slave weapon, used by -

Will you SHUT UP already? Kaname retorted angrily, and the mental presence rapidly withdrew. She was already crossing the bridge, she didn't have time for this. Going the usual route would take way too long; she was going to have to take a shortcut.

Before she reached the edge of the bridge, she vaulted over the railing.

Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, Mandeville Stream and its banks were not frozen over, courtesy of the steam pipes that ran underneath the campus. (The previous year, this had led a student from Toril, in the far-Rim Abeir system, to dub it the "Little Neverwinter River".) Although the banks were somewhat rocky and dirt-strewn, they were clear, which was much more important to Kaname at the present time.

By the time she reached the lower bridge that marked the path from the Castle and the science buildings to the athletic fields, she was getting pretty winded, but her heavy breaths still weren't enough to hide what sounded to be a pretty sizeable crowd in the distance. She scrambled back up the bank, through the snow, up to the other path, and didn't have much longer to reach the playing fields proper.

The sight that greeted her briefly took her aback. A mass of black and grey, which quickly resolved into groups of students, was gathered along the edge of the fields closer to the Commons and along the Athletics path. She couldn't get a clear view of the practice fields proper, due to all the bodies in the way, but at least one of the things on the field was readily visible due to its height. She had to pause a moment just to take it in, her initial disbelief warring with the side of her that was evaluating the scene with cool dispassion.

"Spirit of Light, he didn't..." Kaname muttered, and then she shook her head. "No, of course he did."

Grumbling to herself, Kaname began to wade through the assembled students. Along the way, she bumped into another teen who was heading the other direction. They both stumbled, but kept their footing, and the one she ran into straightened his glasses and then exclaimed with surprise,

"Kaname! Thank god Irina found you!"

Kaname didn't waste time on pleasantries. "Shinji, sitrep!"

Shinji Kazama gathered himself with visible effort, and confronted with an irate Sterling, rapidly explained the situation as best as he was able. "Irina and I were working extra time in the MechaEng shop in Spencer when Sagara barrelled in, asked if the weapons were loaded on Kermit, and then powered him up and started heading out even as we tried to explain that we only had a low-ammo assault rifle and a half-working monoblade for practice. Then he started running across the field, and then..." He shuddered, briefly. "Then I had Irina run off to find you."

Kaname pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to forestall the headache that would occur if she thought too much about the situation. "Dammit," she muttered under her breath, before going on in a more normal tone, "Does he want to get expelled? Because at this rate, I don't see what else is gonna happen." Not waiting for a reply, she frowned and shouldered her way through the rest of the crowd, finally coming to its edge, which was being demarked by a line of Resident Advisors who had deployed to contain the crowd.

So emplaced, Kaname could now see the action on the practice fields in full, and what she saw didn't lift her spirits any.

It was a scene that could have been lifted straight out of the Niogi-Novaya Rodina Winter War of 2392. A single tank was roaring across the practice fields, facing off against a thin-limbed, bulbous-bodied fighting machine that was doing its best to keep from being shot with the tank's cannon, returning fire when it could. Kaname didn't recognize the make and model of the tank, but she did recognize the mecha it was fighting with, for a very good reason. She had last seen it crouched, nestled in a wall gantry, in the Spencer Mecha Engineering Lab, where it was used as a demonstration and testing article for the more technically-minded mecha-heads among the students.

Admittedly, the whole thing took on a level of surreal comedy, given the fact that the Rk-92 Savage Arm Slave that was on the field of battle was painted not its original Neo-Soviet brown nor in any of the several standard camouflage patterns, but a bright green. Not the best color for winter stealth, but in a battle like this one, cover and maneuverability were more important that concealability.

"This is a classic faceoff," she heard someone say in a voice like a sportscaster's. Pushing the rest of the way to the front, she saw Professor Hammond standing with the control headset that went with one of those multi-camera repulsor drone cinéma vérité recording systems on his head, speaking cheerfully for the record.

"The Panzer 26 was the front-line tank employed by Niogi's New German Bundeswehr against the Neo-Soviet invasion forces of the Winter War," Hammond went on. "Many times during that war, they found themselves confronted by the Neo-Soviets' most numerous armored weapon: the Savage."

Hammond kept up his cheery play-by-play, apparently indifferent to the danger, as the tank and the Arm Slave jockeyed for position. Both vehicles had ceased firing, for the most part, and were spending all their time in a sort of ground-based mechanical dogfight, each trying to line up the perfect shot on the other while staying out of the line of fire - or to keep from firing into the crowd. The Savage was at a bit of a disadvantage here, lacking the tank turret's 360-degree field of fire, but it was moving with shocking fluidity for such an aged and decrepit (to say nothing of jury-rigged) piece of machinery.

"Now, while the Savage is perfectly capable in urban environments, mountainous terrain, and against infantry and light-armored vehicles, usually it is not capable of going up against modern heavily armored tanks," Hammond said. Then, with complete equanimity, he added as the Savage pulled off a lightning-fast course change to box the tank in against the embankment at the corner of Walsh Arena and the football stadium, "However, the skills of the operator can sometimes overcome this, as we can see."

Aboard the Panzer, James May contemplated the tank-shaped hole he had just nearly punched in the back wall of the hockey arena and inquired calmly, "Permission to say 'oh cock,' Generalfeldmarschall von Clarkson?"

From the turret above and behind him, Jeremy Clarkson replied not at all calmly, "JAMES, GET US OUT OF HERE BEFORE HE TURNS US OVER!"

May did his best to comply, but the Savage was closing fast, and unless he was willing to damage one building or the other, he'd have to make about a 150-point turn to escape (for which there wasn't time), or just throw it into reverse and ram the Arm Slave, which stood a fair chance of getting them fatally grappled and/or speared with the anti-armor vibroblade the Savage held in the hand that wasn't clutching its assault rifle. He had just about made up his mind to try his luck with the arena - this was a life-or-death situation, after all, or so it appeared to him - when intervention, in the form of an electronically amplified voice, roared:

"YOU, IN THE FROG! DROP THE KNIFE AND STEP AWAY FROM THE TANK!"

The Savage paused, its body language evincing its operator's surprise (which was another way in which May, no amateur MechWarrior himself, recognized that operator's skill), and turned its sensor-turret head toward the source of the voice: a tall young woman in a student's uniform, standing on the far ridgeline with a megaphone in her hand (clearly just snatched from the startled grasp of the person standing next to her).

May took advantage of his foe's momentary distraction to reverse the Panzer through the narrow gap left, pivot away from the arena, and head out into the open field again. He still wasn't sure where he was going - there wasn't really anywhere to go out here - but at least he was no longer pinned.

"What are you waiting for, Jezza?!" he demanded. "Fire!"

"OH DAMN AND BLAST," Clarkson not-really-replied, and May rolled his eyes, wondering how his colleague had managed to disable one of the galaxy's most reliable autocannons.

Sosuke recovered from his shock and gestured for Kaname to find cover - what did she think she was doing, standing out in the open like that? - before pivoting the Savage and striking out in pursuit of the tank again.

Kaname watched him go, resisted the urge to hurl Yukino Chrysant's bullhorn to the ground in frustration, handed it back to its owner instead, and asked, "Professor Hammond, do you have a line to the guys in the tank?"

"I - "

"RICHARD THIS BLOODY CANNON'S JAMMED AND WE'RE GOING TO BE KILLED! WHERE IS THE AIR FORCE?!" the handy-talky on Hammond's belt bellowed.

" - as a matter of fact, yes," said Hammond with considerable sangfroid. He removed the radio from his belt and presented it to her, adding heartily, "Best of luck!"

"Thanks," Kaname replied; then she pressed the push-to-talk and said, "Hello, hello, can you hear me? Who's driving the tank?"

"Who's this?! What've you done with Hammond?" Clarkson's voice replied.

"Calm down, Jeremy, honestly, the more centuries go by, the more like an old woman you get," May interrupted. "James May here, luckily I'm the one driving. Tell me you have a plan, whoever you are."

Kaname peered across the field, gauging distances in her mind, and then said, "Turn left about 30 degrees and make for that stand of pine trees. About 20 yards before you get there you'll cross over a drainage ditch you can't see, it's hidden by the snow. If you're going fast enough you should clear it."

"But with luck our friend in the Savage won't," May replied in a voice like a thoughtful nod. "Good thinking. Thanks. I'll be calling you back for Plan B if that doesn't work," he added wryly.

"That is Plan B," said Kaname.

"I was afraid of that," said May. "Here we go - !"

It was almost an anticlimax, really. The Panzer hurtled over the ditch at its much higher flanking speed, barely clipping the lip at the far side; Sosuke realized its presence too late to halt the Savage's headlong charge and blundered straight into it, going down in a tangle of limbs. The Savage's turbine ingested snow and flamed out. By the time he could restart it, the tank would have time to come back and finish him off three different ways, so instead he shut down the electrics and prepared to bail out.

When he emerged into the daylight, it was to see the tank parked at the edge of the ditch, a few yards away, with two members of the faculty climbing from the hatches - and what looked like about three-quarters of the campus police surrounding the Savage.

"Sergeant Sagara, why am I not surprised," said Odo, deadpan.

Sosuke blinked the snow-dazzle out of his eyes. "Constable Odo," he said. "What... "

"I take it you were unaware that Professors Clarkson and May had scheduled a joint session of their fourth-period classes today," Odo went on dryly.

"Classes?" Sosuke pondered this for a moment. Clarkson taught vehicle technology and engineering; May was a military history professor. Sosuke had considered taking the latter's class for professional enrichment purposes, but it conflicted with part of Kaname's lunch hour, and the mission, of course, had to come first...

"I must say," May remarked, "I had intended to give a little talk about the advantages and disadvantages of bipedal mecha versus conventional armored fighting vehicles on the modern battlefield, but the visual aids I was planning on using were a bit smaller-scale than this."

By this time Hammond, Kaname, Lindsey, and a few others had made their way across the snowy field as well, and curious onlookers were taking advantage of this opportunity to see the school's Savage from an unaccustomed angle.

Sosuke looked from May to Clarkson to Odo, then - looking only slightly abashed - said, "Ah. My mistake. I was under the impression this was a hostile incursion onto campus, not a safed-weapon battlefield demonstration. I will be sure to check my schedule and announcement bulletins for more information in the future."

Standing next to Sosuke now, Kaname turned to her best friend and said too-calmly, "Lins? Fan."

Like the second at a pistol duel, Lindsey ceremoniously removed an object from Kaname's satchel and handed it to her. This was a large, meticulously folded, paper fan. Kaname had made it in a fit of pique once she had realized that she would not always have a rolled-up magazine with which to smack some sense into Sagara, and that using a baseball bat would be counted as aggravated assault under the Campus Security rules.

Now she swung it with all her might, bringing it down on the top of his head with a tremendous crash of paper, and yelled at the top of her voice, "THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT OK!"

Sosuke raised a hand and rubbed the top of his head. "That actually hurt," he said in a tone of mild surprise.

"If that's the worst punishment you receive for this incident, consider yourself fortunate," Odo observed. "Let's go... President Tiefeld will have to decide your fate himself. I don't even have a regulation for firing artillery at faculty members... yet."

Watching as her self-proclaimed bodyguard was meekly led away by the campus police, Kaname gave a huge, deflating sigh and handed the fan back to Lindsey.

"This is not going to look good on my résumé," she moaned.

Lindsey snorted unsympathetically. "Come on, you're lovin' this," she chided her friend. "Normal girls run the risk of getting abusive boyfriends. Not Kaname Sterling! That crap is bush-league. You get crazy mercenaries."

Kaname made the I'm-surrounded-by-imbeciles face, but didn't have the energy to issue an actual denial, as she trudged away after the dispersing crowd toward the cooling remains of her lunch.

"Well, lads," said Hammond to his colleagues, "on the plus side, that was some excellent footage; and if we ever find we need a 'Mech Stig, I think I know who we can call!"

"Christ, don't even joke," Clarkson said. "That young man's some kind of maniac."

"Yeah, but I think he might be our kind of maniac," Hammond said, and Clarkson eyed him skeptically for a moment, then grinned and admitted,

"I think you might be right."

"Chaps... " said May thoughtfully.

"Yes, James?" Clarkson asked.

"How are we going to get it out of the ditch?"

"Well... " Clarkson stood gazing at the fallen Arm Slave for a moment, then shrugged and said, "We'll just have to start it up and... climb out. I mean, how hard can it be?"

"DSM Panic! Mission 4: The Lunchtime War (On Tonight's Top Gear!)"
(a Symphony of the Sword Mini-Story) by Philip Jeremy Moyer and Benjamin D. Hutchins
Special to the Eyrie Productions Discussion Forum
© 2011 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
(SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War [View All] pjmoyermoderator Aug-04-11 TOP
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Droken Aug-04-11 1
      RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War pjmoyermoderator Aug-04-11 3
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Prince Charon Aug-04-11 2
      RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War pjmoyermoderator Aug-04-11 4
          RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Verbena Aug-06-11 13
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War trboturtle2 Aug-05-11 5
   Credit Where It's Due dep't Gryphonadmin Aug-05-11 6
      RE: Credit Where It's Due dep't Mephronmoderator Aug-06-11 16
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War dbrandon Aug-05-11 7
      RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Gryphonadmin Aug-05-11 8
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War ebony14 Aug-05-11 9
      RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Gryphonadmin Aug-05-11 10
          RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Prince Charon Aug-05-11 11
              RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Gryphonadmin Aug-05-11 12
                  RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Prince Charon Aug-06-11 19
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Star Ranger4 Aug-06-11 14
      RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Peter Eng Aug-06-11 15
          RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War CdrMike Aug-06-11 18
          RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War MoonEyes Aug-07-11 21
          RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War zojojojo Aug-08-11 27
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Meagen Aug-06-11 17
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Barricade Aug-07-11 20
      RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Gryphonadmin Aug-07-11 22
          RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War trboturtle2 Aug-07-11 23
          RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Barricade Aug-07-11 24
              RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Gryphonadmin Aug-07-11 25
                  RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Barricade Aug-07-11 26
              RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War pjmoyermoderator Aug-08-11 28
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War Senji Aug-09-11 29
   RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War trboturtle2 Oct-21-11 30
      RE: (SoS) DSM Panic Mission 4: The Lunchtime War The Traitor Oct-23-11 31


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