Cold morning defending the HPG -- you know Comstar -- never giving us enough equipment or decent intel; we are, after all, just mercs. The drop was looking bad from the start, I took a position up on the wall, there is something fitting about having a raven perch on the top of the walls looking down on the enemy.
It didn't take long for things to bad. Their fast lance took the high-ground and kept our mechs in the open. We didn't realize it but that was just a setup for a shower of missiles that blocked out the sun. Mech after mech fell in the initial onslaught, their spotters purposely taking out or heavy guns, leaving us sorely lacking any hard punches.
I used my height advantage, firing fiery blue beams into the backs of the enemy. Always riding the top of the heat limit. I finally managed to get clearance to call in artillery strikes and managed to get the enemies attention. A full lance of the enemies turned, firing on me on the wall and I was using the structure for cover, firing and ducking, trying to buy time for my team to pull itself together. Dumb-fired missiles rained down on my position, my AMS quickly overwhelmed. I knew I had to leave.
I sped towards the back-hillside to get down off the wall, without jump jets I would break my legs falling from the wall. I didn't realize that a nova had anticipated my move. I'll give it to those clanners -- they know how to fight even the dishonoured ones who come to fight with the mercs. My target computer fed me data that his legs had already taken a few hits so I began the methodical process of taking off his legs -- first the right leg then the left. Surprisingly, I had sustained relatively little damage from the encounter but had lost precious time to reinforce my team.
My team had some damn good pilots and they used my diversion to their advantage pushing the enemy that had turned to try to feast on my raven. It’s wasn’t enough. By the time I made it back into the battlefield smouldering mechs had littered the ground, some of the pilots ejected, many were lost that day but there was no time to mourn. By my count there were 3 enemies left and I had a duty, to my comrades and the contract, to finish them off.
Rule number 1 of the Strategic Infiltration and Reconnaissance corps is don’t be seen. I moved around the battleground, hiding behind walls, destroyed mechs – anything that would give me cover – trying to locate the remaining mechs. I spotted two, hanging close to each other, a kitfox with a bad leg and a Cataphract with a few scratches on his paintjob. I picked the kitfox first, and landed a solid alpha into his damaged leg. Sparks flew as I tore it to pieces. He was too slow in figuring out where the shot came from and I unloaded another alpha into his good leg. The armor on his leg glowed white hot. Two more good shots and I’d take him out but I wouldn’t get those shots from here, the CTF pilot was reacting now and it was time to move.
I spun around and gave it the juice, my mech pounding up and down almost screaming with the sudden onslaught of power from its engine. The CTF moved towards my previous firing location and the Kitfox backed into a corner – I had nothing. Sometimes luck happens at just the right time, bad and good are just sides of the same coin and the CTF pilot flipped that coin and drew bad. He presented his back to me and I unloaded into his lightly armored rear CT. His back armor smouldered and melted. If I could position for a few more shots he would go down. I had more luck, the pilot of the CTF was overconfident that his mech would carry him through and he tried to press me. Weight is all well and good, in enclosed spaces, but in the open gimme speed and maneuverability every time.
But it’s not the arrow, it’s the archer.
I flanked him and fired again, moved and fired. It didn’t take long for him to be in shambles taking repeated hits to his rear torso. I could tell when he realized he was outmatched when he stopped and looked towards where the kitfox had barricaded himself and started towards his only hope. It was just another chain in the bad luck collar he was wearing. He turned his back towards me as he started to trundle off and one more alpha blew through his center. His ejection pod shot up before radiation cooked him and I thought about blowing his pod out of the sky but he rolled lucky on this one: I’m a killer, not a murderer.
The kitfox was an easy out, his decisions now governed by fear, drove him to keep hiding and he was not ready when I dropped down the ledge in front of him and severed his good leg at the knee. He didn’t even get a shot off.
In life, there are times when She really likes to punch you in the gut. For maximum effect, She makes sure that the punch comes right when you are at your peak so that the fall to the ground is much longer, harder and more painful. I had just dispatched 3 mechs, the damage to my bird could be buffed out, and I expected the hidden third mech to be some smouldering pile, cowering, awaiting the raven. I knew exactly where he would be, under the central transmission dish hiding in the ‘basement’.
I pushed to the nearest opening to the basement, ready to plow in, guns blazing. That’s when I took the punch to my gut. There was no smouldering mech. No whimpering injured animal waiting to be put out of its misery. There, in front of me, armor as pristine as the day he walked out of the factory, it was the Telamon, the Enduring Atlas. We looked at each other, a micro second in real time but hours in pilot time and then there was just reflex. Hard bank while letting go an alpha at his CT, spin and accelerate away with AC fire just missing my mech as I spun off. My sensors told me that his armor was barely scratched and even worse news, he wasn’t coming out of the basement to chase me.
He was Ursa, backed into his den, claws and teeth ready and I was the raven, contract bound to go in after him. I poked around the other entrances to the basement trying to peck away at him without going in but he had wedged himself back into a corner, guns facing out. Time was running out on my contract – If I didn’t get the job done soon I would lose my payout. There was no way I could chip away at his armor in time – he was a Goliath and I only had a slingshot.
But I am a raven, we pick at the soft spots and that last peek into his cave showed me a weakness to his position. If I came in from the far side I could hide behind a pillar and that would give me my chance. I was reminded of some old vids where ravens were feasting on a carcass. I remember the monotone narrator saying that the eyes were the first part of the corpse to go; that the ravens would often fight over them -- the enduring atlas has very big eyes.
So here is my plan, I have one minute until my contract expires, a place to safely stop my mech for a second without getting blown apart and an Atlas with one big eye socket and my aim is steady. No time to wait, no time to breathe. I go, full speed and duck behind the pillar, the Atlas fires missing behind me and the rest hitting the obstacle between us. I peek forward, fully taxing my optics to the maximum zoom, place the cross hair on that big red eye and fire everything.
I expected a puff of smoke and the atlas to crumple. Like I said, life, She likes to make you hurt. That’s when She gave me the second punch. I was more than a little surprised when my targeting computer showed me that his head structure was still in place protecting him. It would take another full alpha to finish him off. He had already started moving to come around the pillar. It was me or him so I stopped, took a deep breath. It’s when you are stuck in a situation like this that you realize how long it takes your weapons to charge. Mere seconds to someone watching is a series of painful lifetimes to the vulnerable mech pilot.
Charged!
Atlas clear of the obstacle!
Fire!
Comstar Flash traffic:
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Strategic Infiltration and Reconnaissance is pleased to report that the terms of the contract have been fulfilled please transfer the agreed-upon cbills to our account. Salvage can be dropped off at the usual place. Have a nice day
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Edited by A Saskatoon Berry Pie, 20 September 2014 - 11:53 AM.
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