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Notice this part is a lot longer than the other than the other ones as I felt compelled to finish it out.
Part 1 here: http://mwomercs.com/...-artwork-fluff/
Part 2 here: http://mwomercs.com/...-phoenix-fluff/
Part 3 here: http://mwomercs.com/...-phoenix-fluff/
Part 4 + Conclusion - Shadowhawk
“Vampire!” yelled Scar over coms.
Scar had an excellent view of the Battlefield and considering his Shadowhawk was the closest they were going to come to a recon mech he got volunteered as the next best thing to a Scout. Scar was using the Shadowhawk’s excellent mobility and jumpjets to move along frozen rooftops to survey the area and call out potential ambushes and traps.
So when the Locust burst from cover and Bossman swept back to hammer it Scar had the perfect view of what was about to happen. So he did the only two things he could do; called out Vampire as a warning and ignited his jumpjets to leap to the next frozen structure to get a better firing angle.
The jump was a long one and Scar couldn't spare any additional thrust to feather the landing. The 55 ton mech slammed into the roof cratering the Ice encroaching the building sending meter long chunks showering up and out into empty air.
If it wasn’t for his Lancemate being in mortal peril Scar would of taken a moment to reveille upon the beauty of the imagery. Like some ancient god descending from the heavens to smite the wicked announcing its presence in meteor landing of fire and ice.
Doubtful those to be smote would go quietly.
As the Ice shower of his landing cleared sensors identified 3 targets a Thunderbolt, Highlander and Blackjack. He didn’t see the Locust but that didn’t concern him a lot at the moment.
What concerned him was that his Shadowhawk had myriad of weapons that allowed him to fill basically any role at any range but the downside to being a jack of all trades was that he was a master of none which meant that it would doubtful if he could throw enough hurt downrange to be able to dissuade his targets from destroying Bossman’s Battlemaster.
Swinging his torso around he lined up a shot on the Highlander and triggered his LRMs without lock on and cut lose with the AC5.
Most Mechwarriors he knew disliked the Class 5 Autocannon for its heavy weight and poor damage output. But not Scar, he loved the AC5 for its quick reload time and precision. When it came to his box of tools Scar with the AC5 was a surgeon with a scalpel and he used this Scalpel to stich a line Autocannon rounds up the Highlanders Left torso.
Scar had hoped to rock the Highlander enough to spoil its aim but the Highlander just had too much mass and shrugged off the hits. The upside was that the Highlander didn’t move at all and the dumbfired LRM’s streaked in and splashed around the Highlander’s legs doing minor damage.
“Bossman coming up on your left” called Amaro firing at a run.
The pressure wave from the recoil of Amaro’s massive Kali Yama cannon was visible even from where Scar was at, as it displaced air, ice and snow around Amaro’s hunchback as it cratered into the Thunderbolt. That Thunderbolt pilot was not a happy camper.
Time to switch tactics.
Scar swiveled his torso and dialed up his zoom magnification zeroing in on Thunderbolt.
Waiting...and Tone as the LRM5 locked on. Scar pulled the trigger and 5 long range missiles erupted out of his right torso and went screaming down range like a school of deadly explosive fish.
Still zoomed in and letting his view stabilize Scar triggered a burst of his AC5 which lanced out and exploded off the Thunderbolt’s cockpit.
Results were instantaneous as the rattled Thunderbolt backed up and put a building between him and the incoming fire.
“Bossman, break right and pull back!” said Amaro seeing the opportunity.
The Shadowhawk launched off another LRM salvo at the Thunderbolt knowing they would impact structure but serve to keep the Thunderbolts head down for a few more moments.
“Locust on me, he’s under my guns!” called Kat. Scar could see her Catapult desperately trying to track the nimble Locust.
Igniting the jumpjets again Scar left his perch and vaulted forward to the next building. Mid-air Scar touched off a burst of his AC5 towards the Highlander but his shot went wide. This time he did feather the jumpjets and touched down without ceremony in a position to support either mech.
“Negative!” Bossman said over coms “Scar keep the Locust off of us. Amaro, Kat Push in, hammer them. Highlander is primary”
Scar smiled, Bossman’s up. We are back in the fight.
Kat’s K2 kicked up a rooster tail of frozen ice and debris as she rushed her mech forward to support the advance ignoring the Locust.
The Locust ran after the Catapult machine gun’s blazing like a toddler annoyed that she was being ignored. Scar smiled as she made the mistake of running in a straight line.
Scar opened up with his AC5, Medium laser and SRM2.
The AC5 hit high blowing chunks off of the Locust’s right rear torso followed by the two short range missiles which detonated on the rear armor with medium laser raking the legs.
The Locust broke off and cut left behind a building.
Scar’s Shadowhawk took several steps and launched itself into space again using its jumpjets to soar to the next building, landing and building momentum took several more strides and launched again up into the air to land on a much taller building all the while scanning for the Locust.
He spotted it.
The Locust no doubt trying to be clever tried to double back and was bolting back the way it came to try and engage the Catapult again.
Scar lined up his shots and triggered his AC5 catching the Locust in the legs and searing armor off the right arm.
Scar’s respect for the Locust pilot went up several notches as the Locust instantly reacted turning inside the attack dodging the twin SRMs and retaliated with its own medium laser raking the front of Scar’s Shadowhawk.
However the Locust’s brilliant evasion didn’t work towards its strategic benefit as was headed directly towards the Shadowhawk, exactly in the opposite direction of where it wanted to go. The Locust pilot seemed to realize this and before Scar could fire the Locust pulled up, throwing icy shards and debris as the pilot fought to bleed momentum skidding on the frozen terrain and then cranked the Locust into a left pin turn and bolting down a narrow passage between two buildings.
“Highlander down” Called Bossman over Tac-Net “Full Court Press”
Scar’s Shadowhawk took flight again soaring forward to land on the building beyond where the Locust turned. Scar had to briefly fight for control against gravity as his Shadowhawk landed awkwardly crushing some old communications equipment. Sure enough there was the Locust attempting to evade back around.
The Locust pilot saw him and immediately evaded cutting back to the right getting further from where it wanted to go with Scar’s Medium laser and twin SRM’s chasing him all the while firing a staccato bursts of its machine guns back towards Scar.
He could understand the Locust pilot’s frustration. The Locust is built for speed and has lots of it but in the close confines of the frozen city of ice and steel the Locust pilot was expending vast amounts of effort taking the streets and passage ways while Scar’s Shadowhawk used jumpjets to soared effortlessly among the tops of the buildings and avoid the obstacles.
The Locust pulled a U-Turn around a building and charged the Shadowhawk.
“This was new” Thought Skar surprised.
Locusts did not go head to head with other mechs, especially ones that out massed them by 35 tons.
The Locust opened up with its medium laser scoring a hit on the Hawks Left leg. Scar returned the fire with his AC5 hitting dead center mass and medium laser and SRM’s to the side torsos.
Still barreling in the Locust cut loose with both of its Machineguns. The range was a little long for accuracy but the 20mm shells still managed to wash over the front of Scar’s Shadowhawk pitting it.
Scar’s next salvo was going to put the Locust in the dirt for sure and he tensed waiting for his weapons to cycle.
Incoming fire rocked his Shadowhawk from behind spoiling his aim and chewing up his fragile rear armor. Another shot and warning lights flickered has his right rear armor was breached. He couldn’t take many shots like that.
The Locust all but forgotten Scar pirouetted interjecting and taking the incoming fire on his left arm and then his stomach dropped out from under him as he slammed the pedals down and lit off his jumpjets sending him violently skyward, directly up.
Scar turned his mech slightly in midair and spotted his attacker.
“Ah the Blackjack” thought Scar “his situation wasn’t as dire as first thought.” The Blackjacks dual Class 2 Autocannons where still lancing out trying to track the flying Shadowhawk. Scar snapped off an AC5 shot towards the Blackjack and was mildly surprised when it connected with the mechs right torso.
“Watch your Six Locust got by me” Called Scar over coms
Scar was going to feather the Jumpjets for landing but then an idea occurred to him and instead he bent the Shadohawk legs and braced for impact.
Scar’s vision briefly greyed out as the 55 ton mech violently impacted the roof and he fought to keep the mech upright. The kinetic impact was brutal enough to buckle several armor plates on the legs of the Shadowhawk and partially caved in the roof but sent ice, snow and debris geysering up into the air obscuring everything in Scar’s view in a grand eruption of white.
His sensors immediately blanked out which he counted on as he no doubt dropped off the Blackjacks sensors as well in addition to obscuring the Blackjack’s field of fire.
Now for my next trick thought Scar pleased with himself
Still using the improvised ice and snow storm for cover Scar reversed the throttle backing up. Twisted medal screamed as he extracting Shadowhawk’s armored legs from the ruined roof and dropped his mech off the building to the ground landing lightly. With a little luck the Blackjack would waste precious moments waiting for the Shadowhawk to reappear or better yet still continue to pour shells into the haze.
Moving left at a trot Scar took special care to keep buildings between the Shadowhawk and the suspected Blackjack’s position as he advanced.
“Contact Locust!” Called Kat over the sound of her machineguns “He’s too fast!” she cried out franticly. “I can’t stop him!”
Scar kicked the Shadowhawk up to its full 86 kph and abandon stealth to catch up.
“Break Left Bossman!” Kat yelled
Scar heard the distinct sound of discharging Particle Projection Cannons. Igniting the Shadowhawks Jumpjets Scar recklessly vaulted up to a building to get a better view.
Scar caught remnants of a smoking Locust its left torso sheared off but still able to pour fire into the back of the Battlemaster which was wildly trying to evade as both Amaro and Kat tried to get clean shots on the Locust.
Flash of fire and metal fragments exploded out of the back of the Battlemaster as the Locust’s fire finally caught the core of the mechs Gyro. Like a fine tuned jet engine with a metal bar thrown into its intake the Gyro disintegrated, destroying itself as the Battlemaster unable to counter its own momentum gracelessly crashed the ground.
“….Bossman is down” Emotion dripping from Kat’s voice. “Hes...he’s ok!” she said with relief apparent in her voice.
The Locust was already streaking away back towards its Lancemates and Scar began lining up a shot on its rear torso.
A series of cracking thundering echo’s sounded demanding Scar’s attention. Scar turned to the right see the entire side of the pass, one gargantuan frozen glacier cracking shattering and disintegrating into one massive avalanche of ice.
They blew the pass.
“GET CLEAR” yelled Scar over coms.
It was too late. Scar knew it.
Already a tidal wave of Ice and snow was consuming everything in its path including buildings, obstructions and mechs that might be in its way. Kat, Amaro and Bossman where swept away and buried under millions of tons of ice and snow as the avalanche rolled onwards. Scar’s Shadowhawk swayed drunkenly as the building Scar was on was assaulted. The building groaned, twisted and began to list as the sheer amount of mass snapped its’ support structures.
Scar ignited the Shadowhawk’s Jumpjets and leapt clear just as the building itself was swept away.
The Shadowhawk barley made the jump, touching down on a building just outside of the avalanche’s reach.
The awful rumbling finally ceased as the avalanche exhausted itself. Scar turned his mech around to survey the damage.
Most of the buildings and a large portion of the pass itself were buried in ice and snow making it impassable.
Scar pinged his Lancemates and got back Faint replies. Their mechs were still operational and they were alive, just buried under one hell of a lot of ice and snow.
Contacts! Scar brought his targeting reticle up as sensors outlined enemy mechs!
It was the Locust and Blackjack beating a retreat across the other side avalanche zone and the Thunderbolt stood stoically acting as vanguard for his Lancemates. The armor was rent and blackened and smoldering slightly but the mech stood strong waiting.
The Thunderbolt was still in range. Scar could engage with his AC5 and LRM’s, maybe he would get lucky and bring the mech down before it was out of range.
Tempting.
Instead Scar raised the Shadowhawk’s left arm and threw the Thunderbolt a salute.
It was a brilliant plan that almost worked perfectly. They delayed the advance of our lance and slowed the Mechanized battalion behind them by a few precious days, a week at the most as we take the time to clear the pass.
The Thunderbolt satisfied turned and followed his Lancemate.
Shame to pass up the chance at a perfect rear torso shot like that, but I have a feeling we are going to need all the ammunition we could find for the battles ahead, this conflict was far from over.
Scar dropped the Shadowhawk to the ground and walked it to the edge of the Avalanche to begin clearing ice with the mechs articulated hands and start digging out the rest of his lance.
No, let them have this victory.
They paid for it with Blood and Iron.
Edited by Carrioncrows, 18 September 2013 - 02:44 AM.
