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I know there is no way to stop you, but please do not plagiarize my work for your own purposes. In addition, please do not repost the story on forums outside of this website without my permission. I appreciate you taking the time to read my story, and I only ask that any feedback you give be critical and fair without being overly rude. I am a novice writer, and am merely writing this story as practice for bigger and better things.
Warning: There is mature language in this story. EDIT: Or maybe not since I see that most of it got **** out automatically!
Enjoy
Grit
Longwei Liao lightly dialed back the throttle and waved his free hand back and forth in the air to clear the acrid smoke from his field of view. Ever so slowly the heat warnings subsided as Longwei and his Raven took shelter in the grove. Trusting in his ECM to conceal him, the tired mechwarrior took stock of his surroundings while the lone enemy Trebuchet lay smoldering in the path behind him.
“Dragon Lance this is Wyvern Lead, over.” No response again. He hadn’t heard from the Command Lance for over two hours, and he was down to one Lancemate from his pitifully outgunned Scout Lance. Panning his torso over slightly, he looked over the battered Jenner. Ugly scars marred the entire left side of the mech, and the cockpit showed several spiderwebbed cracks that made the mech look more than ready for a trip to the scrapyard.
“Jun, how are you doing?” Static and heavy, labored breaths came across the channel for a few heartbeats before a response came from Wyvern Two. “Better than you old man. I might still have a ton or so of armor left on this beast.” Longwei winced as he heard the prideful boast from his long time friend, as it came across with a sound much akin to coughing up blood.
Thinking furiously, Longwei kicked his mech into a loping pace towards the rolling hills ahead. “I have an idea Jun, follow me.” He knew that there was still an artillery battery at the firebase a few kilometers south of his position, and he meant to make good use of his last Narc Beacon, which he had been saving for over a day now. “Alright Jun, I know we hurt that Orion in this morning’s sortie. It’s the heaviest mech we’ve seen from that Company, and I’m betting their commander is riding in it.”
Turning his mech to follow, and with barely a ragged cough this time Jun fired back, “So what? He still has at least two full Lances of mechs left in this area alone. Even if we take him down they’ll still roll over that firebase, and there’s nothing left at the spaceport to keep them out.”
“Trust me old friend, I have a little surprise for him if we find him. Maybe if we bloody their noses bad enough they’ll lose their stomach for taking the firebase and spaceport. They can’t know for sure that those places don’t have anything to fight them off. ” Churning out a determined grin, Longwei dialed up his throttle as high as he dare in the heavily wooded thicket, daring Jun to keep pace. Longwei called out, “My ECM can get me in close, I just need you to draw off as many of them as you can to give me a window.”
“What good will it do? Whoever that Steiner commander is, he’s good. Slow or not, he’s still got enough to chew you to pieces.”
“Just do as I command Wyvern Two, trust in me.” Longwei winced after he clipped out the terse command. He knew that Jun would follow him to Hell and back, and that he was only worrying over his long time friend and leader.
Jun’s Jenner hugged close behind Longwei’s Raven as they rounded the side of the latest hill and their radar displays started to show a smattering of enemy mechs plodding away from them at a shallow angle. A garishly painted Centurion was on the enemy Lance’s point, while a pair of relatively untouched Dragons rode the flanks and a lone Catapult followed in between them.
“I don’t see the Orion Longwei.” He could almost see the Jenner shudder as Longwei’s Lancemate contemplated all of the heavy, and more importantly intact, firepower splayed out before them.
“We have to engage them Jun. This is the same reserve Lance we saw break through and chase us away this morning. If we can get past them our target can’t be more than a few klicks up ahead.”
Thinking furiously at how to break through all of that tonnage, Longwei couldn’t help but notice the shallow ravine on the opposite side of the valley a few hundred meters ahead of the enemy Lance.
“Ok Jun, here’s how we’re going to do this. I’ll come up on the closer Dragon’s flank and tickle his backside while you go around the far side in passive radar mode. The Cat will probably back up into that ravine a little to get a clear bead on me, and you will be waiting for him. Take him if you can, either way they’ll turn on you to protect the only LRM’s they have. Break contact once they start to flood the ravine and meet me back at the firebase.”
Silence drifted across the comm for several seconds before Jun replied. “You can’t be talking about going after the Orion alone. If we were fresh, maybe we could take him together, but now….” Longwei could feel his Lancemates piercing gaze through the baking afternoon glare of the sun.
“I know it’s a long shot Jun but I have a plan. I’ve been hoarding my last Narc Beacon for two days now just in case we find a target juicy enough for the firebase to shoot at. I’ll stick it up his ass and hold contact long enough to keep him and his friends in one place for an artillery strike.”
The comm broadcast silence again followed by a deep sigh, and a choked off, bloody cough. “Well, you are the craziest son of a ***** I’ve ever seen pilot a mech, and I’m the best light pilot this side of the Chaos March. Let’s do it.” With that, the Jenner lurched forward and down the hillside, brushing through the trees like a whisper on the wind.
Cursing under his breath, Longwei sprang forward as well, dialing up his throttle dangerously high in the crowded terrain. He knew he would have to be quick, ECM or no. A good portion of his armor had already been lost to the deadly accurate fire of the Lance they were about to engage, and both of his dead Lancemates had been lost in the retreat from this morning’s sortie with them and their Command Lance. Leaning forward against his restraints, straining for more speed, Longwei saw his target Dragon just beginning to break into a relatively sparse and empty patch of the valley.
“Five seconds to contact Wyvern Two.” Longwei heard only a click on the comm for a response but he knew it was enough. Flipping the cover off of his SRM 4 trigger, Longwei tensed and squeezed the trigger. Four missiles, fat and laden with explosives, slammed into the Dragon’s backside, causing the surprised mechwarrior to reel from the impact and list dangerously close to the tipping point. Longwei didn’t give him any time to think about what was happening as he splashed both of his medium lasers across the pockmarks in the Dragon’s rear armor. As soon as the beams let up, he threw his nimble Raven into a hairpin turn to the right. Hoping to reach the safety of the treeline, Longwei decided to take a risk and drop his ECM while in the hopes that the entire Lance would get a radar lock on him and turn his way.
Sparing a quick glance back at the Dragon, his grip tightened on the controls as a boiling hot ball of plasma from the Dragon’s PPC rocketed right over his mech’s torso, causing his display panels to flicker with static as the bolt shot past him. Not expecting such a controlled response so quickly, Longwei jinked back to the left to try and avoid any followup shots with the Dragon’s autocannon.
“Wyvern Lead, I’m in position.” said Jun sharply over the radio. “I can see the second Dragon swinging around to get in front of you. No visual on the Catapult or the Centurion.” Only nodding at the remark, Longwei crashed through the edge of the treeline. Just as he was reaching forward to re engage his ECM he was rocked in his harness as a trio of autocannon rounds tore into the backside of his left torso. Shaking off the impact Longwei began to reach forward again and his heart sank, the ECM! The pot shot from that Dragon had just bored a hole clean through the ECM suite in his left torso! Wildly swinging around in another hairpin turn, and barely dodging another eerily accurate burst of autocannon fire, Longwei keyed the mike on his radio.
“Enemy is hot to trot Wyvern Two. I’m about to break free from the Dragon but my ECM is down.”
“I see it Wyvern Lead. I’m going to have to move into the valley to find that Catapult before he dumps his LRM’s on you. I can’t see the Centurion due to terrain but the second Dragon is bearing down on you 500 meters to the north of the first one.”
Dancing between the trees to avoid even more shots of PPC and autocannon fire Longwei swore before he keyed up. “Negative Two, he’s going to get a volley off on me no matter what we do. Wait for him to get set and the others to commit to enveloping me before you engage, copy?”
“Copy, sir.” was all he got back.
Turning further southward, Longwei smashed his way out from between two massive trees to cut down a river bank and begin to splash right down the middle of a shallow, but wide river. He had two solid contacts on his radar behind him as his Raven cut through the water. Throwing himself into a wide, looping turn around a rock formation jutting out of the middle of the river he spotted both Dragons skirting opposing edges of the riverbank about 800 meters behind him. Wondering nervously where the Centurion was, he braked hard on the backside of the rock formation and started to turn back the way he had come from. Just as he completed the turn and began to throttle up again he saw the ping on his radar, dangerously close to his new six o’clock position. That damn Centurion had swung all the way around the other two and made it to within half a klick without him picking it up!
Angling slightly more to the south, Longwei flew out from behind the rocks with every ounce of speed he could coax out of his mech. It was a good choice too because the nearside Dragon put a PPC bolt straight through the space where his mech would have been if he hadn’t angled away a little more. Ignoring them and praying for the treeline to swallow him up again he turned his torso as far to the left as he could to try and get eyes on the Centurion. Just a few meters to the south of where he was guessing the Centurion would show itself he saw the garish black and red striped infighter break free of the opposing treeline.
Twitching his crosshairs over, Longwei popped off both of his lasers straight at the lumbering mech’s cockpit. Hit! The brilliant green beams struck home just fast enough to make the opposing pilot jerk backwards a bit, causing the LBX autocannon shot to whip just over the top of his own Raven. Longwei didn’t get away scott free though, in retaliation the Centurion sent his own two medium lasers slashing across both of the Raven’s legs, melting precious armor to slag and splashing molten droplets of smoldering metal into the river in a steamy splash. The closer Dragon had something to say about the situation as well, now half as far away as it was when he took shelter behind the rocks. It’s autocannon barked, chewing massive chunks of armor out of his mech’s right arm and torso just as he realigned his cockpit to face forward again.
It didn’t matter though, because in the next breath Longwei was gone. Breaking into the treeline yet again, he began to bob and weave through the trees at such a breakneck pace that there was no way they would be able to keep up with him now. He wasn’t at ease in the least though, because he still hadn’t heard from that Catapult.
“I’m going to start working my way North and West Two, where’s our friend at?”
“You were right Wyvern Lead, he’s setting up on the south slope of the ravine so he can track you the whole way North while you're still in range. I’m up the ravine and behind him just out of passive range, 300 meters.”
“Roger, let him fire two volleys and then give him a slap on the ass just for me.”
“Copy sir, and good luck.”
Grinning fiendishly Longwei intentionally broke into another clearing and revved his throttle to it’s highest setting. The seconds creeped by painfully slow and then… “Warning, incoming missiles!” warbled from his empty AMS computer to inform him of the inevitable. He swung around to the left and faced the oncoming missiles directly, daring all thirty of them to try and rain down upon his fleet little mech. Arching down toward him hungrily, the missiles closed in quickly. At the last possible second he jinked the Raven to the right so hard he felt a rib crack against the harness as he swung around. Half of the missiles missed him completely, but the other fifteen warheads lavished him with metal and fire. His mech shuddered under the the onslaught, and the missile impacts tossed him around in his harness so violently that he felt another rib give way. Listing to one side, Longwei tried to get his mech under control and look up towards the ravine. He saw a flash behind the Catapult just as it flushed another thirty missiles from it’s racks, disappearing completely behind the exhaust fumes. The last impact had hit him too hard and slowed him down too much, he knew he wouldn’t make the next treeline before the missiles reached him. Warily he looked back towards the incoming missiles to watch his impending doom.
Right when the missiles reached the apex of their flight to begin diving towards him he saw a bright flash followed by an immense boom come from the direction of the Catapult.
“CATAPULT DOWN LEAD, I CORED THE *******!”
Yes! With the Catapult down the missiles had lost their lock, and he lazily drifted his Raven around the projected impact area. He panned his torso across his entire field of view to scan for the remaining three mechs while the missiles detonated uselessly in the dirt nearby him.
“Alright Wyvern Two, head back south again and come in behind them when they try to envelope me again. Go active on your radar as soon as one of them takes another shot at me and spread your fire across as many of them as you can. Hurry Jun, it won’t be long now.”
Intermittent radar contacts drifted on and off his display as Longwei skirted the edge of his current clearing, waiting for them to break through and engage him. Man these guys must be good to be in front of me already. That Centurion must be running a massive engine. Both Dragons broke into the open just under a kilometer away to the Northeast of his position, one cutting straight towards him and the other arcing out to the south to get behind him.
Time to get busy. Cutting back towards the Dragons, Longwei sped through a depression to shelter himself from their weapons until he could get into range. I might not have ECM anymore, but I’m still a fast SOB. Rocketing out of the the depression, the fleet Raven shot towards the gap between the two Dragons as Longwei settled his crosshairs over the mech on his left.
Longwei slammed down on both sets of triggers and sent four missiles flying towards the Dragon along with two stabs from his lasers. The lasers gouged straight into the Dragon’s center torso, but the skilled pilot jinked the lumbering mech over far enough to cause three of the four warheads to miss him completely, suffering only a glancing hit on the left shoulder from the last missile.
Not waiting around for the response, Longwei begun to cut in towards the second Dragon. Come on baby fly! Longwei jumped over a fallen tree trunk and then propelled his mech into the air off of the boulder behind it, causing the otherwise well aimed PPC and autocannon burst from the oncoming Dragon to pass directly between his mech’s skinny legs. Landing hard but ready for the jolt, Longwei sent a volley of beams and missiles into theDragon’s right shoulder from near point blank range. “YES!” he yelled to no one in particular as the brutal combination of firepower fused the Dragon’s arm in place, severely limiting the ability of it to bring it’s autocannon laden arm to bear on him as he sped past.
“Time to dance with the devil old friend.” The statement announced the arrival of Jun’s Jenner, and he was ready to bring forth his own furious fire. Running out of the same depression that Longwei came from, Jun actually split each trio of medium lasers and washed both Dragons in green fire at the same time in a punishing display of targeting skills and firepower. Turning in towards this new threat the Dragons laced the space between them in blue fire and glowing tracers from their main guns, but Jun was one step ahead of them. Belching fire, the nimble Jenner rocketed through the air several meters above the crossfire, staying just high enough to miss the deadly latticework of weapons fire.
Not sitting idle during his friends impressive display of mech piloting, Longwei had maneuvered himself around the backside of the Dragon with the fused shoulder joint. “I see a dent in this Dragon’s scales Jun, help me hammer the nail in his coffin.” Not missing even a single heartbeat, Jun twisted his Jenner in midair and dumped a full alpha strike of six lasers directly into the wounded Dragon’s shoulder at the exact same moment that Longwei pumped his own pair into the backside of that same shoulder joint. Molten armor sloughed away by the ton as the injured Dragon reeled away from the brutal assault, sending it’s own retaliatory PPC burst wildly high over Jun’s still hovering Jenner. Looking at the exposed internals being laid bare by the sagging and useless right arm of the Dragon Longwei saw his chance and took it.
Gritting his teeth and squinting away the hot afternoon sun, Longwei jammed down on his alpha strike trigger. Four explosive laden missiles drifted across the gap between the two mechs, riding a bridge of emerald green coherent light and disappeared into theDragon's torso. After the slowest heartbeat Longwei had ever experienced there was a flash and then the wounded Dragon spit fire out of it’s torso, rocketing the mech into an outcropping of rocks so violently that it’s entire opposing side crumpled at the impact.
I must have lit off his autocannon ammo. “We got him Jun!” As Longwei rolled out of his turn his breath stuck in his throat. Just as Jun brought his Jenner into a feather light landing facing towards the remaining Dragon the missing Centurion crested a hill less than one hundred meters from the backside of the 35 ton mech. “JUN, break off! The Cent....”, Longwei’s sentence died in his throat as he watched a withering array of lasers, missiles, and autocannon shells converge on the already battered Jenner. That Centurion pilot knew what he was doing, aiming the strike at the Jenner’s previously maimed left side. In a brilliant flash the entire left arm and most of the torso simply ceased to exist. “JUN!!!!!” Longwei screamed uselessly into his mic as he watched a full quarter of the mech expand outwards in a wash of flame and shattered components.
Gritting his teeth and leaning forward into his restraints Longwei recklessly charged the motionless Centurion. He cut back and forth between hills and rock formations, firing off his lasers as fast as they would cycle while he closed the distance. Adrenaline and rage fueled his movements. He stutter stepped between two hills, letting a cluster of autocannon fire pass mere inches in front of him. Moments later he veered in sharply, cutting just behind a wash of SRM’s before disappearing behind another hill. The Centurion was good, but he knew he was at a disadvantage until the remaining Dragon could reinforce, and he began backpedaling down the hill while firing off one laser at a time.
Oh no you don’t. Longwei began veering around the far side of the hill the Centurion had just disappeared behind, hoping the last moment change of direction would further confuse the retreating mech. Just as he was about to clear the far side of the hill static burst across the comm in a ragged but familiar voice. “Knockout combo on my mark.” Instantly recognizing what he was supposed to do, Longwei redlined his throttle and settled his crosshairs over where he thought the Centurion would come into view. As he crested the side of the hill and laid eyes on the distinctive red and black slashed menace three brilliant beams came down from on high, stabbing right into the cockpit glass of the backpedaling mech. Longwei fired his own weapons right at the same spot, with his lasers lancing in right as the previous three let up. Racing along behind the green beams were his last four missiles, bringing fury and vengeance with them. The Centurion’s superheated cockpit glass caved inward upon impact of the missiles, followed shortly by the entire head splitting open as the mech slowly fell backwards to the ground.
Longwei didn’t wait around to see the spectacular death of the Centurion. Spinning around as soon as his lasers let off, he looked up into the air to catch a glimpse of his old friend. Somehow, with half of his mech just gone, Jun and his Jenner had survived the devastating strike from the Centurion. Longwei’s moment of elation at seeing his friend still alive was short lived however. Retribution came around full circle just as the poor, battered mech set down from it’s latest jump, still standing in the same spot that it took the last strike from. The last Dragon had been waiting for it to set down, ready to bring forth it’s own cleansing fire to finish the job started by it’s late Lancemate. There was no cry out this time, no transmissions. Longwei merely watched as the smoking wreck of a mech disintegrated under concentrated fire from the Dragon. The Jenner eventually collapsed under it’s own weight and settled to the ground in a smoldering heap.
Giving one final nod towards the fresh grave of an old friend, Longwei accelerated away from the Dragon at his best speed. The Dragon was fast, but not fast enough to keep up without support. Leaving the enemy pilot behind Longwei took stock of himself and his mech. Looking down, his hands started shaking at the realization that he and Jun had brought down 225 tons of enemy firepower with their two measly scouts. He had at least two broken ribs and he was out of food and water after several days of fighting. His Raven had paper thin armor remaining, no missiles, no ECM, one Narc Beacon, and no support. In fact, about all he had left was two medium lasers and the stubborn determination to keep fighting.
Longwei began sifting through comm channels, hoping to raise someone, or anyone for that matter. After several minutes of fruitless effort he gave up. Giving one final look towards the fresh grave of his friend, Longwei accelerated his mech into the fading sunlight and left the smoking wrecks of a Trebuchet, Centurion, Dragon, Catapult, and one Jenner behind.
Edited by ginger, 07 March 2014 - 03:26 PM.
