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[Warenwolf]

Well, here is my second attempt at a Mechwarrior story. First one can be found here.

It is a second installment in the Dogs of War series (nice way of saying that I am too lazy of coming up with a proper title of my stories.) so perhaps it will be better (no guaranties - read on your own risk).

The story is true to the canon, does not involve any famous characters etc, etc... English is not my first, second or third language. You have been warned.

Now about the story:

It takes place in Free Rasalhague Republic, two months after the declaration of the independence. The four mechs (a lance) have been sent to investigate "strange" sightings along the coast 50 kilometers south of Skalteborg, the capitol of Skalte IV.



Below you will find the first part of the story (1300+ words). It is also the 0.9 draft so I may change it in final version (as in changing the text but not adding or omitting events). If there is an interest for it, I may post epub or pdf versions of the story so you can read it on your phone or offline.




..................................................

Dogs of War

Tale of Anna

2. May, 3034
Miklasjö coast





“Keep up, Alpha 3!” captain Ingvar yelled at Johan, for the third time in the last half hour. The young mech warrior, fresh out of the academy, had once again failed to keep the proper formation with the rest of the lance.
“Sorry, Sir!”
“Thinking of Jannicke, brother?” Anna teased her absentminded twin brother over the private channel.
“Mind your own business, Sis”

The four mechs traveled on the little used road that once connected the now abandoned tidal power plant to Skalteborg, planetary capital of Skalte IV. The road was in bad condition, barely visible through the dense grass that was growing through the numerous cracks in the asphalt. The forest was getting less dense as they were nearing the coast and the sea could be seen through the trees.

The commanding officer of the four mechs, Captain Ingvar Johansson routinely looked around, checking the surrounding area, not trusting the sensors' readings. Nothing moved in the forest – not that strange because human settlers had not imported wildlife with them. Still, he was expecting to see an occasional forest worker here and there but the last group of people he had seen had been half hour ago.
He piloted the only military mech of the lance, the ancient Dervish. Rest of the mech were militarized agro- and forestry mechs, piloted by green mech pilots. The most junior members of the lance were Holm twins, Anna and Johan, barely three weeks out of the academy. Lance's second in command was a veteran soldier, Björn Hauge – however his service time had been in a guerrilla infantry squad as a machine gunner.

However, Ingvar was not too concerned over the bad shape of his lance or the fact that forest was unusually devoid of forest workers' activity. Their mission was to investigate the sightings of unknown forces along the coastline of Miklasjö. After centuries of struggle, the Combine granted Rasalhague independence two months ago, and the Kurita troops in Urasoe Base across the straits of Miklasjö were scheduled to leave Skalte next standard week, so it was unlikely that Dracos were acting up. In Ingvar's opinion, the sightings of unknown forces were probably byproduct of the combination of Himkok spirit intake and rich fantasy of the forest workers in the woods along the coastline.
The Skalte's valdherre was of different mind and had ordered mobilization of the planetary militia and sent the planet's only mech force to investigate the sightings. Ingvar was certain that valdherre was overreacting but he still insisted on the proper combat formation, something one of the Holm twins seemed to struggle with.

Ingvar sighed. He was getting too old for this. When he “went native” and left the mercenary work for a quiet life on Skalte with a local girl almost twenty years ago, he told himself that he would never go to war again. And then latest round of Rasalhague rebellions started and war came to his home. That war was over now but he really regretted that he had signed up for militia duty. Being planet's only veteran mechwarrior with military mech meant that he was constantly working, seeing his wife and their kids only occasionally.
Damn, at least during the Rebellionhe had some down time, he mused.

“Sir, I think I got something on my sensors,” Björn reported over the lance channel, interrupting his thoughts. Lazily, Ingvar checked his own sensor readings, replaying slowly the last few minutes' recordings. As usually they were acting up.

“Just ghost images, Alpha 2,” he concluded.

The entire lance had chronically under-maintained equipment of ancient vintage. Ghost images of contacts that were not there were frequent occurrence - if the sensors worked at all...

“I guess so, Sir”

Then the sensor and IFF readings went wild along with Ingvar's heartbeat. His sensors were reading several mediums along with an heavy mech in front of the lance. Ingvar realized that he would not get back to his home in time for the afternoon supper.
“Lance elements, ..” he managed to say over the com before his mech was hit by three autocannon rounds, slamming into his mech's midsection. His Dervish tottered backwards before crashing to the ground with smoke coming out of its midsection.

Björn opened up with his mech's machine guns, firing wildly into the forest. He managed to kill few infantry soldiers before his mech, a converted forestry design, was hit by four inferno rockets, transforming it into a superheated torch. He continued firing, cutting down one of the anti-mech missile teams. He lurched his mech in path of incoming Warhammer heavy mech. The pilot of the Warhammer guessed his intent and easily sidestepped Björn's mech that continued for few moments on his path before collapsing on the ground when the ammunition stores in his mech's legs exploded.

“Die uragirimono! ” the pilot of the enemy Warhammer yelled through the external megaphone as he finished of the prone Ingvar's Dervish with a PPC shot.

“What are we supposed to do!?” Anna was asked by her brother. The sensors registered now two full enemy lances powering on, one in the forest to the east of their position and one in the rocky beach west of the road.

“I don't know! Pull back! We can't take them on!” she replied, feeling increasingly desperate. Her mech was armed with six machineguns making it useless against “proper” mechs. The armor on it was of the makeshift type, effective only against small arms fire.
A group of enemy soldiers tried to attach magnetic mines to her mech's frontal legs. She instinctively lifted her mechs on it's rear legs before bringing her front crashing down on the enemy demolition team. Using her machineguns she lay down a withering rain of bullets on the rest of the advancing infantry, forcing them to back off.

She then switched her attention to another demolition team attacking her brother's mech. 37 mm tungstein tipped bullets killed the four men team instantly, tearing their bodies apart.


Several laser hit her brother's mech as he tried to reverse his mech, melting the makeshift armor plates and burning the insides of the mech. His four legged mech dropped on his rear legs. The enemy mechs were now in range.

“I can't move!”

“Get out!”

Her brother never managed to exit his mech – the 100 mm autocannon shell tore into the unprotected cockpit of her brother's mech. Slowly, it fell down with smoke trailing out if its cockpit.

Anna desperately tried to open a com line to her brother's mech, refusing to accept the reality of what she was seeing, “Johan? Johan! Johan, answer me!”

“Get out kid,” Ingvar's voice could be heard through the inter-lance channel. The old veteran had somehow survived the impossible. His voice was strained and barely audible “Nothing... nothing you can do for your brother. Run...Save yourself girl...”

With tears running down her face, Anna put her four legged into sprint mode. A swarm of missiles hit the ground where her mech had been few minutes ago. A pair of inferno missiles missed her by few meters, hitting the trees and the ground behind hour, creating a wall of flame between her and the hostile mechs. An autocannon shell hit her mech with glancing hit, still managing to rip away a large armor plate that had been bolted on her rear left leg.
Two mechs came running from her left side. Her mech's computer identified them as Cicada medium mech, a mech design she remembered from her academy classes.
She realized that her mech was not fast enough to outrun the two fast mechs. One laser bolt hit her right rear unarmored leg actuator, causing her mech to trip and fall on its side, rolling once over.
Dizzy from the beating her body had just received, Anna tried to turn her mech around and bring her six machineguns around to fire on the enemy. She did not notice the blood dripping from her mouth.
Just as she brought her mech around, the unarmored cockpit of her mech was bathed in the deadly light from several lasers.
With horror she watched the metal of her cockpit melt within one second. She started screaming when the now molten metal started dripping on her face.


End of part 1.



Go to the part 2 of the story.

Edited by Warenwolf, 25 June 2012 - 09:27 AM.

[Beazle]

Honsetly, pretty decent, but you lost me at agro and forestry mechs. You didn't really see those in 3034. Most of them would have been scrapped for parts to keep "real" mechs running.

They didn't start to become common again until much later on, and were, in my opinion, only put in so that they could make "click-base" mech mini's with chainsaw arms. Every time i see them i get a bad taste in my mouth.

Warhammers are a heavy, not an assault.

They writing was good though, even with the negative of the psuedo-mechs at the start, it was good enough to draw me in and make me want to read what comes next.

[Warenwolf]

Beazle, on 12 June 2012 - 09:06 AM, said:

Honsetly, pretty decent, but you lost me at agro and forestry mechs. You didn't really see those in 3034. Most of them would have been scrapped for parts to keep "real" mechs running.

They didn't start to become common again until much later on, and were, in my opinion, only put in so that they could make "click-base" mech mini's with chainsaw arms. Every time i see them i get a bad taste in my mouth.

Thanks for the feedback! and thanks for the Warhammer correction.

Regarding industrial mechs:


I will point out that in "Mercenary Star" by William H. Keith (which is considered canon if I am not mistaken) which takes place around 3025, militarized industrial mechs are used by rebel forces (their performance is horrible). There is also a mention of several industrial mechs.
So from my perspective, canon-wise the industrial mechs (militarized or not) are "legitimate" as long as they are not portrayed as equals to military mechs.

I kind of put them in there in order to showcase the disparity in forces and firepower (a "professional" military force vs very unprofessional militia force). Basically they are cannon fodder and will not really get much attention besides of what you have read so far.

Edited by Warenwolf, 12 June 2012 - 10:04 AM.

[Beazle]

Warenwolf, on 12 June 2012 - 10:01 AM, said:

Thanks for the feedback! and thanks for the Warhammer correction.

Regarding industrial mechs:


I will point out that in "Mercenary Star" by William H. Keith (which is considered canon if I am not mistaken) which takes place around 3025, militarized industrial mechs are used by rebel forces (their performance is horrible). There is also a mention of several industrial mechs.
So from my perspective, canon-wise the industrial mechs (militarized or not) are "legitimate" as long as they are not portrayed as equals to military mechs.

I kind of put them in there in order to showcase the disparity in forces and firepower (a "professional" military force vs very unprofessional militia force). Basically they are cannon fodder and will not really get much attention besides of what you have read so far.

Ya, i remember them being in some novels, just didn't like it. There are a lot of things that made it into the novels that don't really jive well with the game, or universe, and i always considered those to be one of the big ones.

I get why you did it though, and it was really a minor point.

[Warenwolf]

First of all I want to apologize for the delay of posting the part 2 of the story. The reason for this is that I had my hands full with work and will probably continue to be just as busy until the second half of July.
I have decided to post the draft of the part 2 - that means that it cuts off in a unnatural place + at some things will be changed in the finished version (not the events that take place only the wording + some fluff added).
Expect the final version of part 2 and part 3 to be posted in the second half of july.

Update. As promised entire part 2 is now posted. Bit rushed I admit.







15 years later
Nyland Port




Bureaucratic mistake. That is what they call situations like this, Mattias thought. A mercenary mech lance, originally bound for Thule had been rescheduled to Nyland by a clerical error. Mattias, in lack of a more proper port official, had been assigned by his länsman brother to meet and deal with, what would probably be a very angry group of mercenaries.
Mattias sighed at his poor fortune. He, like any sensible citizen of the Rasalhague Republic, thought of mercenaries as glorified bandits. Now he would have to deal with group of them - that is if he could find them.
The drop ship has been down for a day but the mercenaries and their mechs were nowhere to see. The two port workers, part time dock workers that is, could offer no information on the missing mercenaries. Just as he was about to inspect the port's storage area, a blond woman in dirty blue coverall, exited the steel metal container that serviced as the port terminal's cantina. She headed straight towards him. Mattias could see the left side of her face – it was horribly scarred and disfigured.
“Work accident,” the woman explained, obviously aware of what had caught the port official's attention.
“Oh..Sorry...I did not mean to stare”
“That's ok. I am Anna Holm, the liaison to Buck's Boys mercenary lance.”
So she was not the mercenary herself, merely a go between civilian government on her planet and the mercenary group, Mattias thought.
“I was told you have been looking for a group of mercenaries?”
“Of course. A terrible mistake has happened. The freighter captain that brought you here apparently received orders to change course while you were still inbound to his ship. I don't understand why and how. Where are the mercenaries?”
“They got suspicious after being landed here so they camped their mechs behind the hill,” she said pointing to hill behind her.
“Oh..I see...Well, the next outbound freighter to Thule is Nevros, arriving in four weeks...ah..that is roughly three standard week's time”
“So we are stuck in mean time here?”
“I am sorry but it seems like it...”



One Standard Week later





“Can we go home earlier today?”
The high school history teacher Olaf looked up from his desk on the pudgy kid that had asked the question.
“No”
“But other teacher's always are letting us of earlier these days. It is end of the school year and we are finished with the book...”
“Well, the other teachers are kind, considerate people that like working with children. Do I strike you as one of those?”
“Ahh..no?”
“Exactly – NOW SIT DOWN! We are going to have a visit from a veteran of Ronin War...”



Anna breathed a sigh of relief. She hated talking about the Ronin War but whenever the people found out who she was, she was nearly always asked to do just that. This also happened when the authorities on Nyland found out who she was. Due to her being an officer in KungsArmé, she couldn't refuse an official request for speeches about Ronin War.
The truth was of course that she had not actually participated in Ronin War – except of being one of the first victims of it. Most of the war she spent in a hospital with doctors trying to save her life - and then another half year after the war was spent in the hospital after reconstruction of her face failed and caused further complications.
Still, because she was the sole survivor of “Ambush at Skalteborg” (that despite not being anyway near Skalteborg and being just a 20 to 30 seconds long, one sided fight, was elevated to heroic last stand by brave soldiers of KungsArmé which had fought against numerically superior force) she was ordered to make inspirational speeches now and then. Those speeches, Anna was told, were building national pride which would inspire future generations to great deeds.

Well, Anna thought, the kids on Nyland Elementary School No. 1 were not inspired. Actually they obviously wanted to be somewhere else. So did Anna. Still she did her part and they did theirs, clapping politely at the end.

She was sitting on the bench in front of the now empty school, which was a prefab building with no windows. The planet was not one of the worst places in the universe – Anna had seen worse – it had actually a stable climate and breathable atmosphere. But it was definitely one of the most boring places in the universe. Entire planet had one color – gray. Its inhabitants were almost all farmers and almost all settlements featured no more than four buildings. The settlement she was in, actually the capitol “city” of the planet had no name, consisted of three building clusters, that of school, port buildings and that of länsman/port office/planet's parliament building – which was a lofty name for what was just a rusty container. The inhabitants lived in what Anna seemed to be simply holes in the ground which were covered by tarpaulins to keep the elements out.
There was no bars or for that matter any sort of entertainment industry, except a cantine that served lukewarm bland food besides alcoholic drinks that were served only on Saturdays when entire community collectively got drunk as skunks.
The entire settlement was presently covered in thick mist, detracting nothing from the dreary atmosphere of the place.

The lack of any social outlet of course did nothing to improve the sour tempers among the mercenaries. The three mercs belonged to the mercenary company called Buck's Boys. Their leader, Buck Lavrov, looking to increase his profits, had agreed to detach three mechs and their pilots to bolster the defenses of Thule, a planet on the very edge of Rasalhague space.
Anna and her own mech was to go with them and function as the liaison officer between the mercenaries and Thule's valdherre. Unofficially she would also gather as much information as she could on Buck's Boys by carefully and unobtrusively questioning the three mercs once they were away from the watchful eyes of their employer, Buck Lavrov.
Mercenaries had been as dangerous to Free Rasalhague Republic as the ronins during the Ronin War. At the outset of the war, the young state had turned to mercenaries in order to stave of ronin's attacks but most of the mercenary companies did no fighting at all, citing various reasons for avoiding fulfilling their contracts. Many worlds suffered greatly, lulled in false feeling of security due to the presence of a hired mercenary mech force that would do no fighting once ronin forces arrived.
For these reasons RIIA, Rasalhague Internal Intelligence Agency, kept close watch on the mercenary activities in the Republic, occasionally making use of Kungsarmé personnel like Anna for information gathering activities.
The info gathering part of her assignment was a standard routine which Anna had done many times before. She personally doubted that she would be able to uncover anything new or unexpected about the Buck's Boys – the old Lovrov was a greedy fellow running his company with iron hand but that was not unusual or unknown to RIIA.
Nothing she had hear from the three mercenaries had contradicted this notion.

A figure emerged from the mist, hurrying towards her. After a moment of tension, caused by unexpected appearance of the man, Anna relaxed. The man was Mattias, the clerk she met on the arrival to Nyland.
Perhaps he has some info on when we leave this hole, she thought. The man was sweating despite the cold temperature.

“Löjtnant Holm! There you are.. I was looking all over the place for you”
“What is the matter?”
“We got emergency on our hands! Half hour ago we were contacted by the HPG station”
This got Anna's attention. Nyland had no HPG stations. Officially at least. And Anna had never heard about an unofficial HPG station...
“You got a HPG station on this planet?”
“Sort of..It is not working properly according to COMSTAR,” Mattias explained, “they tried to explain it to me but I did not understand what they were talking about”
Strange, Anna thought – something wasn't right about this. She was willing to bet that no official body in the Republic knew anything about any HPG stations on Nyland.
“So what do they need help with?” she inquired.
“That's just it – we only got a repeating SOS signal. That's why I approached you. Except for the Länsman and his two deputies, we have no armed men on this planet. ”
So the clerk thought that whatever problems the HPG station had, would require a mech force, Anna concluded. Better to inform him of the lay of the land.
“Mattias, I need you to understand something. While I work with mercenaries, according to contract we, that means Kungsarmé, have with them, I have lot of influence but no direct control over them. You need to speak to them about any help you may need.”


The port's cantina served as the temporary conference room for the occasion. The three mercenaries kept together, sitting on the one of the tables. Anna studied their faces discretely. She wanted to gauge their reactions.
James was the oldest of the group, his leathery and scarred face a testament of his hard life. He was high in the hierarchy of the mercenary company and Lovrov had probably put him in command of the mercenary lance because he trusted the old man. Anna had quickly discovered that this tight-lipped man of few words was someone not likely to spill any information to her unless he intended to do so. Right now his attention was on the man who was giving the briefing on the HPG distress signal, the Länsmann of Nyland, a bald man approaching his fifties, which also happened to be the oldest brother of Mattias. Occasionally he would glance at Anna. Watching for my reaction that one, Anna thought.
Unlike James, Arvin was a man eager for the respect of others, loved speaking about the exploits he hard been part of. As a consequence of this, Anna had no trouble in making him talk and he was generally good source for information on Buck's Boys – as long as you never forgot that he did not consider the honesty to be a virtue.
Rikke, the youngest of the mercenaries, was having trouble sitting still and was constantly fidgeting with her hands. She was a hyperactive girl in her twenties, new to the mercenary business. Naive and sociable, she befriended Anna instantly. Often a secondary source to Arvin's tales, Rikke's version of Arvin's stories would let Anna determine how much of what Arvin was telling was actually truth.
The länsmann Markus was speaking slowly, as if every word had to be forced out of his mouth. Right now he seemed to have forgotten what he had been talking about, “Where was I?”
“In addition to emergency signal?” Mattias tried to help.
“Yes, yes...In addition to the emergency signal... Or actually before the emergency signal...We have detected...well, it was actually a man in the neighboring settlement that received the word from his cousin in a fish farm village 4-5 days from here...”
Rikke's face changed to the one of a woman wishing that she could die right this moment. Anna struggled not to laugh.
Not noticing this, the länsmann continued to drone on, “could have been couple of village boys... Well, it is not important... They saw, or perhaps someone told them about it...three trails in the sky that we...that is to say I...I think that those were the trails of drop ships... A day later the emergency signal came from that defect HPG station”
“A defect HPG station? Never heard about such thing,” James commented, rising a brow and looking at Anna.
Mattias shrugged, “That is what comstar guys have been telling us...”
James grunted. Obviously he too, just like Anna, was wondering about what COMSTAR was really doing on Nyland. HPG stations were extremely valuable, as only means of communication between the human worlds. While they could become offline for whatever the reason, COMSTAR never used a decade, if Mattias and his brother länsmann were to be believed, to repair a HPG station. Something was odd about this story.
“So we are to assume that whoever landed, attacked the HPG station after the landing...” Arvin commented. Anna agreed, “Seems about the right – the question is who?”
She turned to the länsmann, “Any possible candidates?”
“Well, there have been raids on this planet... by pirates. ”
“When was the last one?” Rikke asked.
“20-23 standard years ago”
“But the security of this and neighboring systems has been heightened considerably since that,” Anna pointed out.
“This is true,” the länsmann conceded.
“Three dropships sounds to me like a lot of metal being offloaded,” James commented looking squarely at Anna. He wants me to know that he doesn't like this at all, she thought.
“That too is true,” the länsmann said.
James smiled and shook his head slowly, “So we are to advance to a position 500 kilometeres away, with no prior knowledge of the lay of the land”
“You will be provided with tactical maps and...” Mattias interjected.
James raised his hand stopping Mattias, “allow me to finish. We are to advance on a substantial hostile force we know nothing about for sole reason that some COMSTAR nutcases that have been clearly lying last 10 years to you peasants what exactly they are doing in middle of nowhere, are crying for help”
He took a breath, “Go suck vacuum”

Here we are, Anna thought – she had expected James to refuse. Mattias and his brother were red in the face, despite her preparing them for this moment.

“You are contracted to Rasalhague Republic, ” she pointed out to James.
“Seems to me that COMSTAR is the one crying for help...”
“Cut the ****. You know very well the Republic is obliged by the treaty between the two to support COMSTAR in matters of security. Republic local forces have to investigate the SOS from COMSTAR. You and your sorry ***** are hired by Republic. You breach that contract and you know what Buck will do. He will not risk his reputation with, “ and here Anna took a breath before spelling out the next word, “C-O-M-S-T-A-R'S own Mercenary Review Board - He will boot you out of the company instead.”
James looked at the floor smiling, “If you were leading a lance... With no tactical support... No knowledge of what you were getting into... Would you take your men and women into that sort of fight?”
“I say we take a peek... If there is no heavy opposition, we fight. If we they too tough for us, we fall back and regroup”
James exchanged glances with other mercenaries. He spat on the floor and said, “Fine, we will do it – but how will we do it?”







The HPG station, bearing no name, was placed in the hills, over 500 kilometers from Nyland Port. The four mechs could get there in two to three days but Anna had chosen a route along a several settlements that would lengthen the trip to one standard week.
Anna reasoned that the force that had landed would have managed to overcome the defenders of HPG station, if there were any in first place, long before the relief force arrived, so by plotting an indirect route by some settlements she hoped to gather some intelligence from the settlements along the way. Also she hoped to recruit some volunteers for their mission.

Their force was a decent one on the paper – Anna's own Grasshopper heavy mech was the most powerful one in the lance. Despite that and that she commanded over the operation, it was the James who was the commander of the lance with his own medium Trebuchet. The lance's anti-infantry role was filled by Arvin's Vulcan, while Rikke piloted a battered Clint that she had inherited from her mother.
During the third day of their march, a line of locals has formed behind their four mechs, riding all sorts of vehicles. They were armed with assortment of weapons, from home made chemical propellent firearms to rusty ancient Mauser laser rifles.
These men were supposed to keep the hostile infantry busy, if there was any, but Anna doubted the local “militia“, as they loved to call themselves, would be of any value. Or sober, she thought, looking at the young men drinking home brew liqueur in back of pick up car. Right now they were riding beside her mech and one of them was mooning her.
Definitely drunk already, she thought. You don't provoke a girl when she rides a 70 tons death machine when sober.
“Want me to deal with him?” Rikke asked.
“Nah, we might need them”
“For what?”
She sighed, “Trying to think of something...”

The villages they had been visiting had always couple of young men willing to join the ”militia” but no information about the invasion forces. The first few settlements hadn't even heard about any landings of unknown forces. As the days went on the rumor spread and to Anna's chagrin the locals tended to fill in the missing details with their own fantasies and had little tangible information to give.
It was only on the fifth day that they arrived at a settlement called Bygda where locals had some solid information about the unknown forces.
“Definitely pirates, madam Kavellrist” old man told Anna.
“How do you know?”
“A son of my cousin saw their vehicles a day before yesterday. Square things with wheels...”
“Where is that son of your cousin? May I speak to him?”
“Well, he traveled back to the capital to tell them of them pirates”
Great, Anna thought. She looked around. Entire settlement have crawled out from their holes, or for whatever passed for their homes, in order to watch the woman KungsArmé officer with horribly scarred face. She had no doubt that her scars would be often repeated tale in the boring nights for couple of generations.
“Can anyone tell me how these vehicles looked like? What they were doing? Were there any mechs around? Information like that.”
“Well they were square and they had rocket things on them. There was two of them, madam Kavellrist”
“Did they knew they were being observed?”
“No madam... There is no better hunter than Thomas in these parts, I can assure you of that. That boy can hide inside your cockpit and you wouldn't notice it”

No further information could be found in the settlement so the mechs and militia moved on after they resupplied on the water. As they were leaving the settlement, the villagers were waving them goodbye. Rikke had her cockpit open and was blowing kisses to local young men that grinned as idiots. The young women with them were not equally amused and were showing the middle finger to Rikke. Anna doubted the gesture was a numerical symbol for number one...
But most cheers were directed to Anna's Grasshopper. The huge mech with Free Rasalhague Republic banners hanging from the sides of the mech's arms, belonged to KungsArmé and not some mercenary outfit. The villagers were awed and visible proud at such awesome display of their nation's power.
Milita men from the capital had already in short time they stayed there managed to spread the rumor that she was a hero of Ronin War that had with this very own mech fought alone against a company of Ronin mechs.
Anna had to be careful with where and how fast she stepped as the villagers tried to touch her mech. She understood their feelings – she too as little girl felt like that when a rebel mech passed through her city.

They were still within the sight of Bygda settlement when they encountered the enemy.
The road the mechs were following was swinging around a hill and just as Rikke reached the curve, a vehicle identified by the computer as Packrat almost crashed into her Clint's leg. The driver stopped for a second, as if wondering of what had just happened, then rapidly reversed the vehicle.
“Unknown Packrat, identify yourself,” James barked over the external loudspeakers. The answer was swarm of six missiles that barely missed the left leg of the Clint. Arvin was first to react, firing his machine gun and medium laser on the Packrat. Rikke joined in with her own medium lasers, scorching the sides of the reversing vehicle. The Packrat simply exploded, overturning in the process.
All mech were now sprinting to catch any potential enemy force behind the hill before they regrouped, but there was no enemy force remaining.
“A scout?” Rikke suggested.
“Where is the other one?” Anna asked.
“The other one what?” Arvin wanted to know.
James explained, “The old man was talking about pair of vehicles. Scouts vehicles rarely operate alone. It is likely that there is a friend of his around here somewhere...”
But the sensors showed nothing. The land around them was devoid of any activity and the only sound being picked up by external mics was the burning of the wreck.
“Rikke and Arvin – you two move around and establish parameter security. One kilometer out. Anna – may I suggest investigating the wreck?” James asked.
“Agree on that. I will ask the militia to scour the surrounding area for any signs of vehicle passing. May give us some clues of where the second scout is”

The wreck offered few clues. The design was definitely a Packrat, a durable and decently armored scout vehicle. Obviously rashly painted in fresh camouflage painting with original gray pain showing through, this vehicle was also badly maintained – usually the front armor on a Packrat was enough to defeat the 14.5 mm MG shells from Arvin's Vulcan, but this time they went straight through the four crew members. The communication equipment was non-standard for this vehicle, the original communication suit replaced with civilian grade communication devices. The ****** and SMR ammunition had been removed, the additional free space being filled by now melted plastic bottles of fuel and water.
The smell of burned flesh and fuel pervaded the air. James and Anna, along with few militia men had struggled, under great risk of secondary explosions, to put out the fire. Fortunately only the two bodies in the read had been touched by the flames. The two in front, despite being mangled by machine gun shells were not touched by the fire.
“No uniformity in their uniforms,” James noted, trying to wipe the blood from the sleeves of the jacket of the one of the bodies. He was looking for a unit patch but there was none to be found.
“Pirates then?”
“Could be mercs too... Scout details are rarely issued uniforms”
Seeing Anna's questioning glance, he explained further, “You never know if your scouts get killed like these ones here. Lack of uniforms will deny the enemy information about the identity of merc unit they are dealing with. Identity of merc company can provide great deal of information”
“I still think we are dealing with pirates” Anna said, pointing towards the smallest of the crew members, badly burned and lacking his head.
“That guy was barely out of his teens”
She then pointed to the dead women, “His mom. The father beside her and I bet that the body next to the kid is his own sister”
She turned towards James, “Some pirate gangs operate as collection of family cooperatives. The crew of one tank, or in this case a scout vehicle, are all relatives. Mechs are piloted and maintained by one familiy and so on...”
“And then they land and attack a HPG station relatively deep in Republic space?”
“Who knows... We are not that far away from pirate space. Two jumps away and we are in no man's land”
“Hmm... I hope you are right... Anything else you want to see here?”
“No, I don't think there is anything left for us here... Lets move back to Bygda and make sure someone brings news about this to the capital. Also we need to tell them to bury the bodies. Perhaps they can scavenge something out of the wreck too...”





Nearly 10 kilometers away by now, a lone Packrat was driving away at full speed.









Continue reading the story.

Edited by Warenwolf, 30 August 2012 - 09:58 AM.

[Bophades]

Well writen Keep up the good work

[pilot x0]

nice job i couldnt read all of it

[Eyclone]

Some great imagery in the first part, keep it up buddy

[Warenwolf]

Ok, part 2 has now been posted in its entirety (2500+ words added).

If you have already read part 2 that I posted on 25th of June, start reading from "The port's cantina served as the temporary conference room". I promise that part 3 will arrive soon too.

[Warenwolf]

"Better late than never" - or so they claim. Well, with great delay (due to the several reasons) here is part 3 of the story. Notice that F*L*A*M*E*R ( a weapon in mechwarrior universe) is being censored by forum sw. I have no idea of why.


................................................






Anna oriented her mech so that the front of her cockpit was turned towards the sky. She could see thousands of small rain droplets falling towards her mech, splashing on the cockpit glass. The sky was uniformly gray, with no apparent cloud movement that would indicate how fast the rain would pass. She shivered despite the interior of cockpit being quote warm.
“Still raining?” Rikke jokingly asked over the com.
“Yeah... No sign of it stopping soon either”. Anna oriented her mech so she could see the road in front of her, before she accidentally stomped over some militia vehicle. At least the rain had not transformed the road into mud yet, restricting the mech's mobility.
Still mechs were leaving deep marks on the road, forcing them to walk behind the militia vehicles, since some of the later had problems traversing over the holes in road left by mechs' feet.

The area around them was uninhabited, the only sign of human presence on the planet being the narrow gravel and dirt road. On both sides of the road, from Anna's perspective, was a sea of gray man-sized bushes, going all the way to the horizon. Their movement in the wind was similar to the movement of the waves.
The only feature that stood out in this landscape was the hills they were approaching - entirely devoid of vegetation and entirely dark gray due to the color of the stone. Who built this road and for what purpose, she asked herself.
Arvin's voice over the com brought her back to the reality, “Hmm... Anyone else having ghosting on his sensors?” .

Anna tensed and quickly rewind the sensor recording of the last few minutes. Ghosting on the sensors always made her nervous. On the recording, she too could see ghosting, few distortions in the magnetic anomaly detectors sensor's output.
“I saw few lighting flashes moments ago – perhaps they gave you false readings?” Rikke suggested. Lighting tended to confuse MAD sensors. Not leaving anything to the chance and being driven by almost manic compulsion, Anna again reviewed the same sensor recording, but this time overlayed with infra-red sensor data from the same time sample. She could clearly see a tiny red smudge appear and disappear over the ridge of the hill in front of them. A red smudge meant a heat source. A heat source in this region meant a man made machine.
“Spread out! Spread out!” Anna yelled in her mic, relaying her message both over the com link and the external speakers at maximum gain.
“What the matter?” James demanded to know.
“Ambush! Spread out!”
Before she finished, she saw a stream of missiles climbing towards the sky, turning after few moments and than setting course towards the column. A second or two later, the missiles struck down – too short of the militia vehicles. The enemy mech must have been firing from maximum range.
“He fired too early, ” James said, “I think it was 20 missiles in air. I still have no reading on him. Too much iron in those rocks or something. Could be either a mech or vehicle based launcher”
Perhaps I startled him so he fired too early? Anna asked herself. No way somebody at the hill in front of them heard her words clearly during this rain... But if there were some infantry around them, hiding in the bushes...
“I think we got enemy infantry present,” she warned militia men and the rest of the lance. She explained quickly her reasoning for thinking so to James over the com.
“Ok, I agree. Arvin and Rikke be ready for infantry action on our flanks.”
At same time Anna warned the militia, “To all militia elements, we got probably enemy infantry around our flanks...uhm...at our sides... Spread out, but stay close to the road. Don't worry if they try anything - the mechs supporting you will give them **** ”

The haphazard group of men and few women that had attached themselves to the mechs were probably useless in combat but would act as trip wire if the hostile infantry attempted to close on mechs. Rikke's Clint and Arvin's Vulcan would be sufficient to stop any enemy infantry action.

“I see the enemy mech” James announced, “it is an Archer”

The mech was visible for only few moments. It fired another salvo before retreating.
Anna glanced at the combat computer – there was no warning of incoming missiles. Was he targeting some of the other mechs? She followed the trails of missiles – they landed among the now empty militia vehicles, destroying six vehicles, probably damaging some of the others too. Huge explosion followed, creating thick column of rising black smoke. Secondary explosions could be heard.

“They are coming!” one militia man reported via com. Of course he did not say who was coming or where they were coming. Anna turned her mech rapidly, looking at each side of the road, trying to see if there was any weapon discharge who could give a clue about where the attack was happening.

“Infantry elements on our right,” Rikke reported. Anna couldn't see them but apparently Rikke could. She fired her torso mounted lasers on some, to Anna, unseen targets.
Arvin fired his ******, creating a wall of fire on the left flank before crossing the road and joining Rikke. Good thinking, Anna thought. The fire would slow down any potential infantry attack from the left flank. Until the fire was extinguished by the rain, she thought as the rain increased in intensity in just that moment.

“Lets move ahead to that hill, I don't want to be under LRM fire, ” James suggested to Anna.
“Stay out of the road”
“Thanks for advice kid,” James retorted caustically, already moving his mech away from the road, “I learned nothing during the last 25 years in business...”
Moments later an explosion blast rocked his mech. The explosion had removed large part of the road, creating a three meter crater. The Trebuchet was unharmed though – it was outside the effective radius of the bomb. Probably it was detonated remotely, the operator hoping to inflict at least some damage on the mechs.
“Archer in the front line, roadside bombs... These guys don't got proper mech force” James concluded. He was right, Anna thought. Archers were support mechs, rarely moving in front lines. The road side bombs were intended to thin out their force and then infantry and the archer would mop up the survivors. Then again, the enemies plans may be something much more elaborate. Well, we'll find out...

The Archer pilot realized their intentions and changed his target. He fired a salvo straight at James' Trebuchet. James answered the fire with his own 30 missile salvo from his two LRM 15 launchers. Few moments later both mechs staggered under hits of several missiles. The Archer suffered obviously the most – the James' missiles salvo was heavier by one third and more missiles have struck true – the enemy mech slowly limped away from the view.
James swore, “I lost few heat sinks and my right leg shock pads are damaged. Chunks of front armor in all sections are gone too. I have to slow down”

“Copy that, I'll advance on my own”
She looked back where the battle was raging between militia and hostile infantry forces. The smoke from the burning car wrecks was obscuring much of her vision but still she could see Arvin's Vulcan 's machine gun fire. There was also evidence of his ****** being liberally used. Rikke's Clint was firing at something farther down the road on the opposite side from Anna.
The mud and the dense bushes made Anna's advance cautious – she lifted mech's legs high, threading carefully so she did not become stuck in the vegetation or unseen ground object, which always could happen even to biggest mechs. She also vary of the enemy infantry as she moved outside the range of the militia firearms.
The tactical display told her that Rikke's Clint was using her jump jets, landing 30 meters behind Anna's Grasshopper.
“James told me to provide support for you”
“You are welcome, look out for infantry. We got confirmed hostile mech id – Archer. Could be more out there... How is militia doing?”
“They will probably hold...Ahh..The enemy armor detected on sensors”
Several Packrats were being detected by the sensors. They were in what appeared to be hastily put together entrenchments on the bottom of the hill, camouflaged by the bushes. The two mechs were still outside the range of Packrat's primary weapon, the SMR-6 launcher and Anna exploited this, firing her torso mounted large laser on the nearest vehicle.
The Packrat was not outright destroyed, rather his front armor melted, covering the front wheels, probably immobilizing the vehicle. Another Packrat was hit by the 50 mm autocannon shell from Rikke's Clint, tearing off it's SRM launcher.
“Save the ammo, I doubt our ammo carriers survived that second missile strike from that Archer”
“Copy that”
The Packrats were pulling out. Clearly they did not expect a front to front combat against undamaged mechs. The immobilized Packrat's crew abandoned their vehicle, running uphill, away from the two advancing mechs. Anna left them alone, instead using her large laser on one undamaged Packrat. This time the laser beam went unexpectedly through the retreating vehicle and ignited the ammunition storage. The resulting explosion overturned the vehicle and blew out all the hatches.
“Watch out, demolition team on your right,” Rikke warned.

Nearer to the hill, the bushes were less dense and Anna could see a four men team rushing from bush to bush, advancing on her Mech. She started walking backwards and out of the Rikke's Clint's lines of fire. Rikke quickly fired her medium lasers on the demolition team, killing two men outright. The two remaining men froze. One of them panicked, turning and throwing his weapon to the ground. The remaining man after a brief pause, rushed forward towards the Anna's mech. She fired all of her medium lasers, killing both men instantly.

“How are you two going?” James asked over the com link.

“Seems that there is no enemy forces between us and the hill ahead.” Anna said while using her IR sensors to check her surroundings. There were individual heat sources around here but they were obviously moving away in all directions, probably trying to put as much distance between themselves and the two mechs, “Are you watching out for that Archer?”

“The Archer had not made his appearance yet. Probably hiding behind the hill or something. Be ready for any surprises they may pull”

“Copy. We'll be ready. Jump and scout, Rikke?”

“Sure thing,” Rikke replied. She used the jump jets of her Clint to lift her mech in air. Then she turned them off, letting the gravity pull her back to ground. Few shells flew past her mech on the way down. Just as she was about to land, she fired her jump jets again, slowing the decent to a speed that would not damage her mech's legs.
“Well?” Anna asked.
“No Archer, but I saw four Hetzers. They saw me too by the way”
James who was listening in on their communication commented, “I would give you LRM strike support but I have no idea of how much ammo we got left. Better save the missiles for enemy mechs”
Anna agreed, “I concur. Lets advance on them. How is the fight going Arvin?”
“The enemy infantry is shattered. Militia sustained casualties. No further enemy presence detected”
“Copy that. I will take the lead – Rikke follow me closely. James and Arvin could you link up with us?”
“Sure, I will join with James first and provide him with anti-infantry protection. Together we will advance towards the hill.”
“OK by me, inform the militia to remain with the remaining vehicles and see if there are any wounded enemy survivors”
Anna increased the speed of her Mech, taking a route that would position her to the Hetzers' side armor. The non-turreted tank was lightly armored but it still had a AC/20 cannon which could seriously damage her Mech.
“Jump in the air so they can see you just before I enter their view,” Anna told Rikke just as she was about to crest the ridge.
Two of the Hetzers took the bait, turning their vehicles towards the Clint. Using her arm mounted medium lasers, Anna quickly dispatched the one of the Hetzers, the weakly armored sides of the tanks quickly melting away and giving away.
Rikke fired her lasers at one of the Hetzers but missed. One of the Hetzer fired on Anna and missed but his friend, firing moments, later did not. Anna could swear that she could see the huge 150 mm shell traveling before hitting her LRM-5 launcher. Entire mech staggered backwards. BDA computer indicated that the LRM-5 launcher's status was red, meaning that the launcher was merely dead weight now. Her medium lasers cycled and were ready to fire. She fired taking out another Hetzer through its front armor.
She quickly closed the distance to the two remaining Hetzers and used her leg to overturn one of them. She stepped on the other, paying attention to not apply too much pressure to the vehicle so that the ammunition did not explode and damage her mech's shock pads. She applied just enough pressure to panic the crew and to disable the tank.
A swarm of missiles hit her Mech, staggering it. She straggled with keeping it upright and barely avoided falling. At same time a heavy support laser squad firing from until this point concealed bunker opened fire at her, further adding damage to her front armor. Despite the trashing she was receiving, the BDA informed her that she was still OK.
Regaining balance she turned her mech towards the new threat. The Archer was partly exposed behind some boulders. Before she could return fire, it disappeared behind the boulder.
She decided to ignore the heavy support laser bunker and instead, using her jump jets, vaulted over it, towards the boulder where the Archer was hiding. She went around it, making sure that she was well inside the minimum range of the Archer's LRM launchers.
“There is a Heavy Support Laser bunker here, at intersection of D2 and D3 sectors, watch out,” she warned the others, referring to the tactical map of the area that the battle computer automatically generated. A streak of srm missiles flew wildly, making Anna glance on the sensors – a Packrat they have engaged earlier had returned but had been promptly destroyed by Rikke's Clint just as he was about to unload his SRM salvo on Rikke. The HSL bunker seemed to shift attention to the Clint, that deftly dodged the laser fire.
As she came around the boulder and within the line of fire of the Archer, Anna was greeted by the torrent of laser fire from the Archer's two forward mounted medium lasers. Responding in kind she answered his barrage with her own. Firing all her four medium lasers and the one large laser she scored hits on the Archers center torso, melting armor. The enemy pilot fired another LRM salvo but she was well withing the minimum range of the missiles. The impact detonators failed to arm themselves in time and missiles bounced harmlessly of her mech.
While waiting until the lasers were ready to fire again, she quickly studied the enemy mech – it had been in battle before. The armor was full of small craters and deformations typical to laser fire. One of the LRM launchers' openings was partially melted, rendering that launcher ineffective. That explained why the LRM salvos he was launching were lighter than usual. She saw that the Archer pilot struggled with maintaining mech balance, constantly needing to correct his mech which indicated gyro damage.
Before she managed to fully analyze what she was seeing, the Archer suffered from the 30 missile barrage fired from the James' Trebuchet who was firing indirectly. Only one third or less of the missiles struck their target, majority either overshooting or hitting the boulder but it was enough to punch through the already weakened armor of the Archer. One of the arms was blasted off and the Archer step took one step forward. Anna fired her medium lasers one more time and the system computer warned her of the climbing heat. The enemy mech starting falling forward. Before it hit the ground the Archer pilot ejected. Anna watched the parachute land, noting the landing site before turning her attention to the HSL bunker. Seeing that Arvin was already engaging it, using his mech's flamethrower to neutralize the HLS squad inside the bunker, she proceeded to the site where the enemy mech pilot had landed.

The pilot was a blond man in bloody t-shirt and shorts, struggling and failing to stand up. One of his arms were in an unnatural angle. With his healthy left arm, he took off his neurohelmet and dropped it by his side. Looking up at Anna's Grasshopper, he lifted his left arm over his head, signaling surrender.

Edited by Warenwolf, 30 August 2012 - 05:23 AM.

[Warenwolf]

This is second part of Part 3. As I already wrote in last post, the forum sw does not allow me to post messages above certain length. Also the censor filter acts up on rather innocent words....
---------------------------------






The evening brought with it two SOAR helicopters bringing with it Markus, the Nyland länsman and his brother Mattias, along with few ammo crates and food that were quickly distributed among the militia.
Anna and James, that had been supervising the unloading of LRM missile containers out of Anna's Mech and into James' Trebuchet– now that her LRM launcher was disabled, the ammunition for it was useless for Anna but could partially replenish the expanded ordinance of Trebuchet – walked over to the two men. Rikke and Arvin soon joined them.
Shaking his hand with Anna and ignoring the mercenaries, the länsman congratulated Anna on the victory, “Congratulations on your victory Lojtnant Holm! May the rest of them be as easy”
“I did have some support,” Anna pointed out to the länsman, nodding towards the three mercs. Despite she being the one to largely break the enemy forces, she knew it was unwise from the länsman to minimize the mercenaries contribution.
“Of course... Congratulations to you all”
“It did come with cost though... We lost one third of militia. Seven dead, one guy missing, thirteen walking wounded and four seriously wounded”
“We got your message. Unfortunately the two SOARS is all we got on entire Nyland and they lift capacity is only 6 patients each...”
“I understood you got prisoner?” the länsman asked, “where is he?”
“Unfortunately, the poor '**** died perhaps an hour after his capture” James explained, “probably inner bleeding or something like that. Lost his consciences and there was nothing we could do for him”
“Was there other prisoners? I got impression in initial communication we had that you were rounding up enemy infantry survivors,” Mattias asked.
Arvin spat on the ground before explaining, “Well you see... Some of your boys got wild while we were questioning the mech pilot...”
“What do you mean by wild?”
Rikke snorted, “Seems like they had this idea of combat where only the enemy gets killed or wounded. The militia men got somewhat angry over the fact that it isn't so, so instead of guarding the four prisoners they shot them, after a round of beating.”
This information visible shook the two brothers. The länsman Markus was the first to speak, “This is not how we do things on Nyland.... Are the perpetrators known?”
“We got the four of them under guard. There were probably more of them participating and since nobody acted to stop them, technically all of militia men are guilty.”
She and James exchanged glances – the two of them strongly disagreed when Anna decided to arrest the militia men that were supposed to guard the prisoners. According to James, nothing good would come of it. Anna decided to follow the law and arrested the guards but not before having to shoot one of them in the arm when he tried to resist. At some point she was afraid that entire militia unit would turn against them but the things worked out at the end.
After a moment of silence, the länsman spoke “Well, due to current situation, I think it is best that we postpone any legal process. I will of course require your statements after the things have settled down. I will handle the four men”
Anna nodded in agreement. The crime trial would have to wait.
“But did the questioning of the pilot led somewhere? Or did he die before you got anywhere with your questions,” Mattias asked.
“Sort of... We know definitely that we are dealing with pirates. Their leader is certain Chu-Sa Chishiko Tardieu,” she paused to see whether the name was familiar with two men.
“Never heard of him”
“Same here, I would have to check the archive in the Port but I am quite sure that he never passed our planet”
“Well, the pilot claimed that the HPG station was COMSTAR forward depot of some sort and that “Chu-Sa” as they call him, which apparently is his “rank” - equivalent to the rank of Överste-Löjtnant in DCMS”
“So this is a former Drako pirate?” Mattias interrupted.
“Ronin apparently... During the war, he got information about the depot and is leading his pirate gang here to plunder it...”
The länsman shook his head, “Something is not right in that story. Why not plunder it during the war? Ronin needed equipment badly, especially in the end. If such information sufaced during the war, you can bet they would be falling all over themselves to get their hands on some extra equipment. Besides that I never heard about a Överste-Löjtnant with name like that in this sector and I would know if there had been one back then. I was compiling gathered information for the intel back in '35.”
“The pilot was vague on the details,” James admited, “but I got feeling he was speaking truth. Perhaps mr. Tardieu was never a Öve...” he struggled with pronunciation of the republic's title before shrugging and resorting to English, “Lieutenant Colonel in DCMS, but it is not rare for pirates to give themselves titles and ranks. Most of them also gladly embellish their achievements in life”
“Regardless,” Anna continued her story, “the man we captured claimed that their world had 12 thousand people living on it before some unknown raider force arrived and took control.”
“Rival bandit or pirate gang?”
Anna shrugged, “Perhaps...Although the pilot made some strange claims. Apparently the invaders fielded unknown mech types superior to anything he had hear about. They also shot down couple of dropships and that only one dropship that survived. The one on which their Chu-Sa, together with couple of hunderd people, were able to flee from invaders. By sheer coincidence as the invasion happened, a group of pirates we are dealing with were in transit to a jumpship in order to start another series of raids.”
Mattias was obviously skeptical about this, “That sounds unlikely....”
DropShips were valuable and expensive piece of equipment and it was hard to envision any forces out there who would destroy rather than capture those valuable ships.
“Well, pirates...” and at this point Anna took a quick glance towards the three mercenaries, “and some mercenaries tend to exaggerate the facts when it comes to explaining their defeat or inaction. Claims of unknown mech types and overwhelming enemy forces are not rare ingredients in such tales.”
The two brothers nodded. She continued, “The last information we got from the prisoner is that many disagreed with Chu-Sa's choice of stopping here. During the fight with COMSTAR forces, which I had no idea of being present on this planet, their sole remaining dropship was damaged. The pirates are aware of us marching on their camp so they decided to ambush us here with aim to either damage us enough to drive us off or to damage our supply and repair capability. We did not get anything more out of the man...“
The länsman smiled, “Obviously they failed in their ambush”
“Depends on how you see it. We don't know anything about their mech force and we have lost our ammunition trucks and our militia force has been hammered. We never had any repair capability in first place...Any prolonged fighting will see us defeated. The only light in the tunnel is the fact that COMSTAR HPG station is still holding on, keeping most or some of the pirate force busy... Their mech force is bound to be limited too by the fact that they only had an Archer mech to spare for the ambush force.”
“So what are your plans?” the länsman wanted to know.
Anna sighed, “We are merely five hours away from our goal. The pirate force knows by now that we are coming. So I intend to sleep well tonight. I would also be grateful if you could get some of SOAR helicopter pilots to take a couple of circuits within an area 50 kilomters west of our position tonight. Enough to be picked up by the enemy radars but too far out to be fired upon.”
“What good is that for?” Mattias asked, visible confused.
Anna smiled - “I want them to know that we are coming”







Chishiko Tardieu stepped outside his tent. The camp had been under high alert status for sixteen hours know, awaiting the expected attack from the approaching mech force. He stifled beginning of his own jawn. His men expected no weakness from him and he intended to not show any sign of tiredness.
Once again he was on the run. And just as the last time he found himself in same situation, everything that could go wrong, went wrong. The depot should have been lightly defended and yet one medium mech lance and score of AC and laser turrets were defending what seemed to be a HPG station. Three medium mechs remained of the defense force and enough of the turrets to keep his forces at bay.
Two weeks ago he had been Daimyo of an entire planet. And then out from nowhere some savages, once again, came and took what was his. He shook his head trying to shake away the desperate need for sleep. He had been awake for fifteen hours, ever since the report of the failure of the ambush had reached him. The approaching enemy force for some reason failed to press their advantage.
Again, for the hundred time these last hours, he cursed the traitors and dissenters in his ranks. The depot was masked as a HPG station. Fooled by this some in his ranks questioned the wisdom of expending their meager resources on capturing such targets.
Tardieu shook his head. Fools! Would a COMSTAR communication installation be defended by a mech lance and two rings of laser, LRM and AC pop-up turrets? His arguments seemed to convince few. He saw that many of his man were defeated in the spirit and just wanted to give up.
Most of them were among the honor-less infantry and armor units. This in turn forced him to keep his loyal mechwarriors around himself - doing otherwise would see him risk a coup from traitors. Which meant that ambushing force had not adequate mech support.
Only four mechs remained to him. The armor force was decimated and the infantry demoralized. The dropships Long Tom III cannon was silent now, having expanded its ordinance to reduce the defensive ring around the depot. The cannon would have been very useful against the enemy column approaching his camp but once again faith decided otherwise.
Still not all was lost. Despite being decrepit, the Fortress class dropship with its loyal crew had enough remaining firepower to defeat any attack. The failure of the approaching mech lance to press an attack was a sign that they were more critically hit than the initial reports indicated, he told himself.
As he went inside his tent, the need for sleep once again started to overpower him.
He was startled by his aide, “Chu-Sa! They are coming! The enemy is coming!”
Finally the enemy was ready to give battle!

The old man grabbed his neurohelmet and started running towards his Orion mech. The camp was buzzing with activity, with people rushing to their positions. Roar of remaining Packrats' engines filled the air.
The two Cicadas being piloted by Kusik sisters were already taking their per-arranged positions. Fighting as pair, they more than compensated for the light armor of their fast mechs.
Meyer, his right hand, was already preforming power up tests on his own Hunchback.
Climbing the ladder, switching to the dropship channel, he asked, “How is COMSTAR reacting?”
“Still, in their positions. No mech activity.”
Tardieu knew that he was theoretically in a risky tactical position, being sandwiched between two hostile forces but he was confident that his infantry supported by the dropship would keep the COMSTAR mech lance at bay.






“Mech power up detected” the cold voice of the tactical computer announced, adding another blip to the existing two on Anna's tactical display. Ten seconds later yet another mech power up was announced.
After half a minute with no further readings, James offered his opinion, “They got only one lance?”
“Confirms what helicopter pilots reported,” Arvin agreed.
Anna was not so sure – SOAR helicopters did not possess military grade sensors. But on the other hand, all or nothing type of ambush tactics she had seen so far also indicated that no large hostile mech force was present on the planet.
Rikke's Clint and Arvin's Vulcan were leading the attack, their task being identifing positions of enemy mech forces and flush out any infantry.
Anna and James mechs were close by, ready to reinforce and support when the contact with enemy mech force is made.
The militia was behind them, their chief task being to provide anti-infantry support, although Anna considered the volunteers forming the militia to be of limited value in the coming engagement.

“Infantry contact on the infrared!” Arvin reported. He jumped forward, landing close to the enemy positions. His opened up with his ****** and machine gun, killing few men and panicking the rest.
“They are packing up and leaving...whoa!”
A pair of PPC beams had hit his mech, melting armor from his legs and torso.
“Two Cicadas are closing on your position,” Rikke informed Arvin. The computer identified the two medium mechs as the rare CDA-3C variant, fielding a PPC and pair of machine guns.
“Jump back”
“I got dead left jump jets”
“Damn, I am reinforcing,” Rikke told him, starting her own jump jets. Arvin retaliated with the autocannon fire but the fast Cicada he had been targeting easily avoided the incoming shells. He switched target to the second Cicada, opening up with his medium laser but this one too disengaged, quickly moving outside the effective range of his weapons.
“Arvin, don't go after them!” James warned the young as Rikke's mech landed next to Arvin's Vulcan.
“No intention of doing that, those two pack a punch”
“We got positive id on the heavy mech, it is a Orion, ON1-K variant. Closing on your positions”
“He is mine,” Anna stated, “keep other mechs busy while I deal with him”
“The Cicadas are coming in for another round,” Arvin reported. He was trying to reach a small group of trees in order to have some protection from the attack that was sure to target him.
“Supporting fire” James announced to the rest of the lance, firing all his LRM launchers immediately after the Cicadas entered the range. As the loading mechanism reloaded the missile tubes, he fired another salvo.
Rikke too engaged one of the Cicadas, using her AC-5 Armstrong autocannon, missing narrowly her target.
James' first salvo was also ineffective – most of the missiles missed the fast Cicada, which happened to be the same one Rikke had been targeting.
Both Cicada's fired their PPC's in unison, scoring hits on Arvin's Vulcan. The mech exploded in bright flash, nearly blinding Anna and staggering Rikke's Clint that had been following it.
As she looked again, she could only see two mech legs remaining of the Vulcan, standing for few moments before falling to the ground. Arvin was dead.
James' second salvo hit it's mark at the same moment, ripping one of the Cicada's arms. It swayed from side to side, the mech pilot clearly suffering damages in control systems. The wounded mech tried to get away.
“This one is for Arvin,” Rikke screamed in rage, firing two shots from her Armstrong autocannon, targeting the enemy mech's rear armor. The 50 mm shells tore into their target and the enemy pilot decided to punch out.
“Incoming Rikke!” Anna warned Rikke as she saw a swarm of missiles boring on the Clint. Rikke used her jump jets in order to try to avoid the incoming missile swarm but it was too late. Good portion of missiles hit her, causing her to came crushing down to earth. Anna feared that Rikke was out of fight too.
“I am OK...wounded but OK... ” Rikke announced with strained voice. Her mech straightened itself up but it was evident that Rikke was struggling with controlling it.The computer informed Anna that Rikke's Clint had been fired upon by a Hunchback, HBK-4J variant. It was holding position behind the Orion mech that was now withing the range of her large laser.
“Engaging the enemy heavy mech,” she said over the lance channel.
“Supporting,” James added. Rikke used her jump jets to position her mech beside Anna's.
Anna targeted the left torso of the Orion mech, aiming for the LRM-15 missile launcher system. The large laser hit its target just as the stream of missiles was launched from the missile launcher. Anna used her jump jets to avoid the missiles successfully and the 15 missiles hit the ground instead of her. Suddenly her mech was forcefully rotated 90 degrees making Anna dizzy for few seconds. She had been struck by 80 mm shell from the Orion's autocannon. The damage was superficial according to damage assessment but the mech's left arm was not feeling right.
She turned her mech again towards the Orion, in time to see it hammered by the swarm of 30 missiles fired by James' Trebuchet. She fired her large laser once again, scoring a telling hit on the Orion's center torso, melting the armor. The heat of laser, darkened the surrounding paintwork. Once again she saw missiles flying towards her and once again she used her jump jets to avoid the incoming missile swarm. She landed unscathed but her computer informed her that heat had now risen to dangerous levels. Anna had no need of the computer telling her that – the heat in the cockpit was now uncomfortably high and her cooling west was struggling to keep her cool.

Quick glance on the tactical display showed that remaining Cicada was engaging the Trebuchet, now almost 400 meters behind her Grasshopper. That meant that James was distracted by the immediate danger to himself and would not be able to help her.
Using irregularities in the terrain she made sure that enemy Orion and Hunchback had no longer her in sight. She waited for her heat values to come down.

“Got him! He is bugging out” she could hear Rikke yell over the com. Anna couldn't see what was happening and said so over the com.
“Cicada is retreating,” James informed her, “the mech is severly damaged. But I got only two missile salvos left and I am empty.”
Anna saw another missile salvo flying over, the missiles leaving tiny smoke trails in their wake, presumably heading towards James and Rikke.
“Incoming” Anna warned the two. Seconds later, Rikke voice came over the com, “He got me chief! Controls dead, weapons offline, I am punching out”
“Get back to militia positions,” Anna advised not sure if Rikke heard her before punching out. She hoped that Arvin had managed to rout all of the enemy infantry. Otherwise Rikke would have hard time evading them until reaching the safety of militia lines that were now over one kilometer away.
James contacted her over the com, “I am focusing on Orion. Two missile strikes and then I am closing in for close combat”
With a swarm of missiles flying over, Anna once again entered the fray. The Orion was now barely 200 meters away. She could see that repeated missile strikes had hurt the mech. She fired all her lasers on the Orion and the enemy mech replayed in kind. Both mechs were rotating trying to mitigate damage from the laser fire by spreading it over larger areas, not allowing the single section to be hurt.
The Hunchback joined the battle unleashing another missile salvo on her, which she couldn't dodge. Her Grasshopper mech stumbled and she almost fell. The laser mounted on her left arm was damaged, reducing her medium laser battery from four to three lasers. She was hurt but still the armor values were still good.
“He is not firing his autocannon,”James noted, “something is wrong with it. I am closing in”
“Keep the Hunchback from my back” Anna said, noting that the enemy Hunchback was trying to flank her and get at her weaker rear armor.
“Acknowledged”
In addition to the autocannon, Anna thought, the Orion's LRM battery, was probably disabled by her first shot since the Orion only used it once.
Keeping the distance from Orion would maximize her advantage, making the her harder target for Orion's SRM-4 torso mounted missile battery. Not willing to gamble, she closed the range.
Orion opened up with his medium lasers, aiming for her mech's knee joint, scoring a solid hit. Four missile salvo scored hit on her center torso, creating four craters in the armor.
Anna responded with ripple fire of her lasers, firing them individually to reduce the heat buildup. She targeted the Orion's LRM launcher, hoping to trigger the LRM ammo there or at least to damage the actuator.
She wrecked the LRM laucher system but otherwise her efforts were fruitless.
“Bit help over here?” James asked. He was locked in a deadly struggle with the enemy Hunchback, which had a serious edge in close range combat. Anna rotated her mech so that her arm with damaged laser faced the Orion and then fired the large laser on the Hunchback's weak rear armor. She was rewarded with an explosion that ripped the mech's left arm off.
Meanwhile the Orion had not taken the bait of firing on her damaged laser but instead again focused on her mech's knee joint. She used her jump jets to vault over the Orion, rotated and fired her medium lasers on the mech's exposed back, scoring telling hit, nearly melting though the armor there.
Orion's pilot rotated his mech and fired his lasers and a SRM salvo once again on her left knee joint. She cursed herself for not moving the leg in time while the lasers boiled her armor there and missiles struck in the weakened armor structure. The warheads exploded, effectively disabling the joint.
James noting the exposed internals of the Orion's back, turned and fired his lasers. The resulting flash blinded Anna. James had “cored” the Orion, killing its pilot.
“Good kill!” Anna congratulated James over the com but when her vision cleared, she saw that James action had exposed him for the killing shot from the Hunchback.
Now the enemy Trebuchet was focusing on Anna. With dread, she noticed that until now passive pirate vehicles were finally making their move, getting closer to her position.
She couldn't out-turn the medium mech that was soon to be reinforced by at least three Packrats and she realized that she was about to lose the battle...

Edited by Warenwolf, 30 August 2012 - 09:56 AM.