MIGUEL
By  Sideman

"You wanna know why I'm drinking?" Miguel laughed, but it was bitter. He signaled to the girl behind the bar, holding up two fingers. "Dos mas, por favor" He turned back to Mae, still holding up his hand. "They used to call this a peace sign...can you imagine that?" He dropped his index finger. "This meant fuck you, even back then...that one's eternal." He opened his index, middle and ring fingers and waggled them back and forth. "this one was the 'fuck peace' sign...now that's what I like." he turned back to the bartender, still holding his hand up. "Make that tres mas...fuck peace, tres mas...gimme three steps..."

Mae stiffened. She had hoped to get him drunk, and then ply him with sweet words. Now he was already drunk, ugly drunk, and she didn't think that sweet words were going to persuade him, not in this mood. She caught the bartender's eye and mouthed "water". She was going to need all her wits about her to complete her mission and persuade Miguel to put his life on the line for the Iilani. Suddenly Miguel was looking right at her, suspicion pulling his face into a scowl.

"I don't give a shit you drink or not," he said. "you drink rat piss, you want...I'll even buy it for you." His eyes were no longer bleary, his gaze steady. "You drink, you don't drink, it's all the same to me. You got reason to drink...I got reason to drink." Mae waited, hoping to draw him on. "You don't think I got reason? I got reason to drink myself dead, sweets."

"My boy Rackoski, he's like a brother to me, right? Every time I need him, he's there...and same with me for him. We joined the Lance together, went through basic together. We were as tight as it gets. A man can marry a woman...hell, a man can marry lotsa women...but when you got a bro that put his ass on the line for you, day in day out for years..."

"So we're on recon patrol, me and 'Ski, out in the mountains on this shit-hole Lyran dump called Reich...we're ass-deep in Falcons, everywhere you look. The assault team took out the main force, but they ended up split up, doing the guerilla thing in the hills...they're raiding the perimeter at night, they're knocking out the civilian power grid. Somebody must've told them about the Light Horse, cuz they start raiding towns, killing civvies...the Light Horse goes batshit, the 51st is about to quit the taskforce and start garrisoning towns to protect the civvies.

Me and Ski are in a pair of brand spankin new Bushwackers, a gift from Prince Victor. We're loaded energy only, out for a week in the boonies on our own. It's not bad, we cover a couple hundred clicks in three days, taking it easy. It's our third day, we're bedding down for the night. We found a place in the hills, sheltered with some trees and a little lake...there's an old house there with these two crazy old guys, they say they're twins but they're like a hundred years old...they bring us out some steaks and home-brew hooch, we start a fire...Me and Ski both got our Beagle probes active, set to audible so we can hear if they pick up something...we eat like bastards, drinking this piss-ugly beer. After midnight, we send the old guys back to their house, we bed down in our Bushies full of beer and steak. Life is good, we're talkin on the close band, lookin up at the Reich stars.

It's about 2AM local time when the Beagle goes off. I almost shit myself, reaching for my neuro-helmet in the dark, one hand on the power up switch. The targeter shows me a Daishi and four blobs that may be Toads. Toads...they call 'em Elementals now, that's what the Clanners call 'em...we called 'em Toads, cuz that's what they look like. I power down the close band and the Beagle so the Clanners don't see it and call Ski. He agrees that we gotta take them out. We can't run from the Toads, and that Daishi will eat us alive if we don't come in hot. The Toads are about a hundred meters in front of the Daishi in a skirmish line, coming right for us. We decide to take them out first and then run, staying out of range of the Daishi's AC's. The two old guys are gonna have to fend for themselves. Thanks for the steaks, bros.

The passive shows the Toads right on top of us before I get visual. I finally see them, skirting the old bastards' house, getting in position to storm it from all four sides. the one nearest me gets into position, waiting for the word to go when I power up and nail him with my ER large, all in about a half second. He just explodes, meat and Ferro-fibrous raining down. Ski takes my lead and nails Toad2 with his extended range large laser, punching a white hot hole through his faceplate.

Toads 2 and 3 scatter. I machine gun Toad3 and he goes down, his legs bent backward at the knee. He's twitching, but down. Ski is on top on Toad4, literally, his Bushie's left foot grinding this twitching lump into the mud. I fire up the Beagle and it shows the Daishi right on top of us, it's time to bug out, but I can't get visual. I hear the sound of God burping and my Bushie goes down, the left side armor gone from Mr. Daishi's AC20's. Now I got visual, but I am down. I start trying to rock my way up, but Mr. D's on top of me. Another shot from his AC's and I know I'm toast.

Just then I hear this god-awful racket and the Daishi just disappears in a cloud and this flash of light...I hear Ski on the close band, laughing his ass off. "Get some, asshole...how you hangin, Mikie?" I tell him I'm cool, but down. he just laughs. "Watch this," he says.

I see Ski's Bushie start back stepping, trying to open the range to he can unload his lasers and stay outta the AC20's range. The Daishi sees it, and tries to close, but Ski's Bushie is faster and he alpha strikes while the Daishi is still scrambling. the Daishi lights up, but when the smoke clears, it's still moving, and I see it bring it's AC's up, pointed right at Ski. I keep rocking, and get the Bushie up just as the Daishi unloads all four UAC20's right into Ski's cockpit. The cockpit lights up from inside, and then just evaporates...Ski's Bushie just stands there, a gaping hole where the cockpit oughtta be.

The Daishi is moving slow, it starts swinging around back to me. I guess he expected to find me still on the ground, cause when he sees me up he cuts loose with everything he's got, wild, without aiming and barely even scratches my paint. I bring the Bushie into a trot, and, before his weapons can recycle, I dump both banks of ermeds into his chest at point blank range. If his fusion plant blows, I don't give a shit, I know I'm dead with the next shot anyway. Besides, me and Ski had a deal, two for one, we go together.

The next shot never came. Neither did the explosion. The Daishi just fell back, real slow, eight smoking holes in a tight little group on it's chest...

The Daishi's pilot actually lived...so did Toad3, minus his legs. Toad3 made it back to base as a prisoner. The Daishi pilot had an accident with me and the two old bastards...a real slow accident that took a couple of hours. But it didn't bring Ski back to life...all it did was make a mess."

Miguel looked down into his pint glass, as if unable to fathom how it had emptied itself. He just continued to stare, and Mae was afraid to break the silence. She hadn't expected all of this venom, an unbroken stream of bitterness. She didn't know what to say.

Miguel seemed to sense the awkwardness, and softened some. "Shit, I mean, I see you people getting the shit kicked out of you every day...people die, good people die, and it's no excuse to be an asshole." He slid the empty glass up the bar, away from himself. "But it is a good reason to get a little fucked up every now and then."