9 replies to this topic

[Unnatural Growth]

Got called back from leave early for a mission to clear out some Mercs that had attacked and were holding a planet outside Capellan Space with a small mining operation. No intel on what unit(s) had attacked, but they had killed off a bunch of mining techs and shot up a few facilities. Must have been some subsidiary of a company that House Liao had an interest in, because I was ordered to throw in with the band of relief fighters to honor The Chancellor's agreement to assist in the retaking of the planet. My orders are to engage and destroy all hostile contacts.

So be it. As I meet the crew of the drop ship, I'm informed this will be a fast insertion HALO drop. They're expecting resistance to be light, but are not taking any chances. My C.O. specifically requested me for this assignment, and compounded my honor by allowing me to take the unit's brand new Atlas AS7-S. It has literally just come out of refit for the specific mods our unit's C.O. requested. What a magnificent piece of hardware, I am truly blessed! As I watch the crew load my battlemech on the ship, I notice there is some serious hardware already loaded... including another AS7-S!

I try to ignore the warning going off in the back of my head...

We make the jump, and the drop, which both go without incident. Matter of fact, it's too quiet, and I'm starting to not like it. Not one single round fired, either at us, or the drop ships, and our 3 full lances are standing in the drop zones. 3 full lances of battlemechs, for what is supposed to be "light resistance". We start to fan out along a ridge line that leads into a series of canyons. Our light and medium mechs are doing a good job skirting around and scouting for contacts. I see the other Atlas heading down the ridge line and I proceed to follow him. We crest the ridge and drop into a canyon about the same time one of our light's sensor's picks up a hostile heavy mech. Our missile boats start dropping some serious ordinance on it, and I can't help pitying that mech pilot, he's having a bad day already.

So far that has been the only contact, and it's already down. But, ignoring the cheers on the open channel for the "kill", I can't help thinking there's an ambush waiting up here somewhere. I'm following the other Atlas up a narrow canyon, which I don't like, but I console myself in knowing that we have a friendly pair of heavies and a medium paralleling us on top of the canyon to our left.

I'm scanning the canyon tops for any sign of enemy movement as we approach a fork in the canyon. It opens up quite a bit now, and I'm only 80 meters or so behind the other Atlas. As he enters the fork, it looks like he's going to go left, so I start veering slightly right to cover the right fork. Just as I do so, enemy fire opens up on my lance mate from around the corner I'm heading to. He takes some cannon fire, SRM's and what looks like large lasers to his side torso. He's taken quite a hit, but remains upright, and appears to be operational. At least his arm is still attached. Have to love the pounding these Atlai can take.

I continue to press forward at max speed, almost willing my slow mech to push faster, trying to coax every kph I can out of her. Must hurry to engage this threat. I enter the fork and turn right as a hostile assault mech comes into view. It's a Highlander, and as luck is with me, it is in a shutdown sequence from obvious overheating! What fortune for me, and an incredible rookie mistake on the enemy pilot's part. I line up my weapons and since I'm at baseline heat, I give him a full alpha volley of all weapons, straight into his center torso. The blast from 2 large lasers, 2 medium lasers, 3 racks of SRM-6's, and an AC-20 shell rock the Highlander nearly off of it's feet.

After taking this hit, the Highlander powers up again. It immediately fires 2 large lasers at me, sweeping them all over the front of my torso, arms and sides. Incredibly, it shuts down again. Now I'm openly grinning behind my mask and shaking my head, as I know it's finished. Still hot myself from the full weapons alpha a few seconds ago, I limit my second volley to just one AC-20 shell and one SRM-6 rack. That was all it took, the Highlander's center torso exploded, and it's engine was destroyed. At least the reactor didn't go critical, as I was only 50 meters away from it. Total engagement time was less than a minute. My armor is barely even scorched.

Counting myself lucky, I turned to face up the other canyon fork. There was quite a fire fight going on down that narrow canyon leg. My Atlas lance mate was out front, and 2 or 3 enemy mechs were engaging him at once, with a couple of our mediums trying their best to assist. Recognizing his peril, I charged forward past our lighter mechs and edged around on his right to engage the enemy. It was no good. Bad positioning, we were going to get torn apart that way. We both agreed to a fighting withdrawal to the more open fork behind us.

They kept popping out around the corner, taking shots and dodging back to cover. It was hard with the angle and high rocks to land any good weapons fire on them. The low weapons mounts on the Atlas's arms wasn't helping. I noticed a rock slide to my left that looked like I could walk up it to the canyon top. It gave me the idea to try and get over the top and drop on them. The huge mech took forever to climb the rocks, but after an eternity, I was on top. I then proceeded to push across the top, causing the enemy line to panic and break ranks, fleeing down the canyon bottom. We mowed through them like a sword through grass as they fled. None of them made it out the other side.

As we stood at the back end of the canyon, I kept getting an intermittent "hostile" blip on my sensors. Turning just in time, I saw a hostile Spider up on the rock pile across the canyon opening. Without even thinking, I fire a full alpha volley into the center of the mech from a mere 200 meters away. Smoke pours out of the Spider, but incredibly, it backs out over the rock pile and disappears over the ridge.

We press down the long back canyon in pursuit, watching the ridge top as we parallel it. Sure enough, the Spider reappears, along with another enemy mech. We engage them both, and a few of our friendly light mechs engage them from behind, having circled on them. Our light pilots make short work of them.

Friendly scout data indicates there is also a hostile Atlas on the other side of the ridge, and we press on to the end of the canyon to make the turn to engage it. My lance mate is first to engage, but he is now in pretty bad shape and smoking profusely. I'm trying to push forward to get in the fight, as most of my armor is intact, but the hostile Atlas has been backing down the river bottom, and I have a lot of ground to cover. I notice the enemy Atlas is a new -K variant, which surprises me. I'm forced to watch helplessly as my lance mate is being torn to pieces. I can't bring my weapons to bear on the hostile for fear of hitting my lance mate.

I force myself to stay focused and call out to my mate to circle right. He's able to hear me over the static and weapons fire he's receiving, and as he clears the target to the right, I engage. I give him one full alpha volley, followed up by several AC-20 rounds and more SRM-6 volleys to finally bring him down.

The last hostile mech has fallen. All told, there were 12 enemy mechs destroyed, and we lost 3 friendlies. Incredibly, my lance mate in the other -S variant survived. His Atlas took an incredible amount of damage, lost both arms and most of it's weapons, but he assured me, they would be able to rebuild it.

My own mech took surprising little damage, all things considered. Sure, I had several armor locations that were burned nearly through to the structure, but all my structure and weapons were still intact and operational. My admiration for the Atlas is steadfast. My hope is that my C.O. will be pleased enough with my performance to assign me to permanent pilot status on this grand battlemech.

As we break orbit to rendezvous for the jump back, we notice an unmarked drop ship arriving with new mining equipment and a new crew of techs for the planet's surface. Remembering my training to not ask impertinent questions... I pretend I see nothing.

[Unnatural Growth]

Having time to kill while waiting for the jump ship to finish recharging for the return jump, I write up my After Action Report and transmit it to my C.O., coded for his eyes only, as he requested. Now that all my duties are completed, I have nothing to do but wait. The ship's engineer's said we have another 5 days before we can make the jump. I spend most of my time in my quarters, getting caught up on technical bulletins and other mundane reading. The few times I've joined the other pilots, they've had some disquieting conversations. I scoff at most of their "stories", chalk it up to the undisciplined "rabble" that they are.

But still... there was that day on leave, my half-brother was home at the same time. We had not had leave together in years. He seemed very preoccupied, and I could tell something was bothering him. He had said he needed to talk to me about something. Something important, something private that had to stay between us, no matter what. This surprised me as he was one of the most level headed officers in the ASF, and was certain to be promoted to Major soon.

He wanted to know if I'd heard anything, anything "strange", as he put it. His unit had been transferred to reinforce trade routes on the edge of Capellan space, and while escorting merchant ships he had been hearing things... troubling things. About unidentified battlemechs, with possibly new developments in weapons and tech. Far more powerful than anything we've fielded or encountered in battle. Using unusual battle tactics... We were cut short by the start of the family's Gathering Ceremony, so we didn't speak for long. He wanted to talk more during our leave, but that next morning, I received the call to return to my unit.

And now, here was this "rabble" of mostly undisciplined and poorly trained mercs, with their own stories of strange engagements with superior hostile forces. But it was always third person accounts, and "I crewed with a guy on a drop that said his lancemate's brother was killed in this battle..." . I shrug it off. Honestly, the way most of these guys get their "training", they could see a Jenner in the trees and call it a King Crab. After watching them in combat, I have to grudgingly admit that their gunnery and pilot skills are good, but their basic formation discipline and target prioritization were less developed than a Shia-ben-bing still in first year academy training.

We finally make the jump, and since my home base world is closest, I'm lucky enough to be the first stop on the return trip. I'm down in the bay, supervising the unloading of my mech, when I see my C.O. walking up the ramp. I can tell already, he's angry. In fact, I've never seen him this angry before. He's almost unable to stand still and return my salute, he's shaking so hard, and his face is almost purple. He didn't get this angry when the new Sao-wei backed the old training Jenner over his new staff car. As soon as his hand drops from returning my salute, he unloads on me. More vitriol and cursing than I heard on my first day at the academy. It takes a few volleys for me to even know what I'm being dressed down for.

He gestures wildly at the mech behind me, screaming "Is this what you call minor damage! How in the hell do you call this 'operational'! I can see the wall behind it through the damn torso! The only reason that thing is standing is because it's bolted into the bloody rack! I already told the Senior Colonel we could have it turned around quickly and ready for the next mission! Now because of your incompetence, I'll have to personally apologize to the Jiang-jun! This is a disgrace!

I interrupt him finally, "Sir! If you please! THAT,"... gesturing behind me, "...is NOT our Atlas."

He stops cold, almost afraid to breathe. I point back over his left shoulder at our mech. "THAT is our Atlas."

Wild eyed and gob smacked, he slowly pivots on his heels and looks in the direction I'm pointing. And there is our Atlas, sitting in it's cradle, waiting to be unloaded. Sure, it's taken some damage, but it's all minor scorching and some armor pieces are melted bad enough the entire armor plate will need to come off. But it is indeed, fully operational. He turns back towards me in shock. I help him save face by asking if he'd like to go over the damage report with me now, or like to read it later. I informed him that I had already cataloged all the damage and prioritized what needed fixing first and foremost. But, I said, if it needed to, it could go out again now, as is, with just an ammunition resupply.

He blinks a couple times, looks down at the damage report in my hand, and says that no, he'll read it on the way back to his office, pulling the report out of my hand. He then orders me to carry on, oversee the unloading and movement back to the maintenance hangar, and report to the senior engineer with what needs to be done. He pops me a quick return salute and says "Nice work" as he pivots to head back to unit HQ.

After watching him depart, I turn and look back over my shoulder at the shattered Atlas sitting in the rack behind me. I can't help but chuckle to myself over the whole incident, and guess that I'm really not headed to a court martial after all.

[Unnatural Growth]

It takes a while to get the Atlas unloaded and transported to the hanger. Once there, I go over repairs needed with the chief engineer. Nothing jumps out at him as being a problem, and he thinks he can have it rearmed and armored in a matter of weeks. He says all the spares he needs are on hand. Since that's all settled, I get up to take my leave of him and head back to my quarters and get some rest. On my way out the door, he calls out to me, and says that "Bye the way, your Shadowhawk's repairs are completed. Only thing left to do is paint it. The CO was in earlier and said to give you anything you wanted on it." Tired, and not really thinking clearly, I call back over my shoulder while still heading for the door, "Red. I've always liked red." As I'm walking out the door I hear him repeat "Red?!" I have a laugh and head to my quarters. All I want is a hot shower, with real water, and a bed.

Bright and early next morning, I'm in the situation room, and we're getting a briefing about some comms issues in the sector. It also seems one of our long range sensor outposts has gone dark. Everyone agrees, it's probably nothing, but the CO wants to send a detachment to check and repair the outpost. He also wants me to take my lance and go with them. He says, "I don't want to commit a large force there, not for a routine maintenance mission. Can't waste the resources. I'll authorize your lance to take one heavy, a couple of mediums and a light. That should be more than adequate. Once the sensors and comms are restored, and the defensive turrets are online, you can withdraw your lance and return to base."

"Very well, sir. How long until lift off?" He says the jump ship won't be ready for another 24 hours. So we lift off this afternoon. I go over my roster with the XO, and he gives me my mech assignments. It's going to be a 'Phract 2X, a Centurian AH, my Shadowhawk 2H, and a Jenner 7F. He then says for me to take the Sao-wei with me, as he's been assigned to my lance, and this will be a good mission to get his feet wet. The XO says, smiling wryly, "Put him in the Jenner. But don't let him back over anything."

I call down to the hanger and give the chief the list of mechs needed. I tell him I need them loaded on transporters and ready to load in the drop ship in 6 hours. He says his boys aren't done painting my mech, and they've been working on it all night, which I reply "Just do the best you can. I need them loaded and ready by 1400 hrs." After briefing my men on the mission, and getting everything settled with the maintenance detachment, my lance mates and I are down on the tarmac at 1400 hrs, watching the transporters bring out our mechs. And there, sitting in the rack on the second transporter, next to the standard grey and green of the Jenner, is my freshly painted VERY bright red Shadowhawk. The men let out a few gasps of surprise when they see it come out of the hanger. I'm standing there, mouth hanging open, in total disbelief. I have to admit, it does look good though. The chief comes trotting up panting, and pops me a salute. When I return it, he stammers out, "Well, my boys got it finished. The paint's still wet in a few places, so tell them @&*! drop ship monkeys to keep their hands off of it." Then he says, "As a matter of fact, I better go make sure they get it loaded right side up for a change." And off he trots muttering about drop ship crew monkeys all the way. I watch my mech slowly moving towards the drop ship wondering how will I ever explain this to the CO?

[Unnatural Growth]

We make lift off and rendezvous with the jump ship in plenty of time to get strapped in and secured for the jump. Everything goes as planned and as we make our descent to the planet, the drop ship commander informs me that the nav beacons are out on the outpost. I don't like the sound of that at all. I exchange looks with my 2nd. He's thinking the same thing, "Uh oh". But we're in it now. So as the ramp comes down, I get the mechs unloaded first, before all the maintenance gear. I tell the Sao-wei I want him up on that hill top in his Jenner scanning the horizon. I get the Cent pilot to take a hill top on the other side of the ravine and scan the other horizon. I have my 2nd in his Cataphract standing by at the mouth of the ravine, while I stand by near the drop ship in my Shadowhawk.

It takes forever to get the maintenance detachment, and all their gear unloaded and underway towards the outpost. As the drop ship departs, I send the Jenner and Centurian ahead to look things over. Everything seems normal until they get to the outpost itself. It appears to have been heavily damaged by an orbital strike. Not liking the looks of this, but at least so far, we haven't encountered any ground forces. Finally, my 2nd and I bring up the rear with the maintenance transports. I tell the senior maintainer, I want the picket sensors put out first, in case we have any hostiles moving in the heavy woods surrounding the outpost. I don't like this location, too many ridges, outcroppings and dense woods to conceal ground forces in.

He and his men get "busy", but it's not my idea of busy. What should take a couple of hours, has taken them all afternoon. They finally get the secondary power generator up and running by nightfall, so we at least have perimeter lights and heat. He says it will be days before the main power generator is operational. I admit my patience is wearing thin for their lack of professionalism. At 0500 hrs, I roust them all out of their racks to get on the tasks at hand. I have the Jenner and Centurian out on patrol, and my 2nd and I are standing by the outpost to keep an eye on the maint crew. I've already dressed down the senior maintainer again this morning, and it's not going well. I'm thinking about a lead pipe and a shovel at this point... but I'm trying to work with him to get this outpost up and running.

Then one of the picket sensors goes off. I look towards it's direction and key into comms to find out where the Jenner and Centurian are patrolling. Their grid numbers put them on the opposite side of the valley. Uh oh. I grab the long range scope and look towards the picket sensor. It's the farthest one out there, just on the distant ridge. As I steady the scope and go to maximum zoom, the ridge pops into view. For a moment or two, I see nothing but trees. Then...wait...is that... ? I can see trees being knocked down, coming in this direction. I do some quick range estimates in my head and turn to my 2nd, "How fast can you jump in your 'phract?" He starts sprinting towards his mech as I run to find the senior maintainer. I find him sitting in the shade under one of the auto turrets. I jab my finger at the turret and ask, "How soon until these are operational?" He says tiredly, "18 to 20 more hours." I say we don't have that much time, "What can I get in 15 minutes?" He says "How about a hot cup of coffee" motioning to the one in his hand. I say, "Well then you better put out the extra cups"...motioning to the distant ridge line and dropping the scope in his lap, "because we've got company coming."

[SnagaDance]

Hey, this makes for some really nice reading! There's some Clan references, which is a bit weird considering this is about Liao space but ok. I also don't know what the 'ASF' is, afaik it's the CCAF but still, some good story with a nice fluid writing style, keep it up!

[Unnatural Growth]

Snaga,

Thank you for the feed back and compliment! I welcome any and all feed back. I was beginning to wonder if maybe I'd made a mistake, starting all this story writing. It kind of ballooned on me from a basic write up over a real in game match that occurred. And I'm thinking maybe I started this in the wrong section of the forums? Like maybe I should have put it in "fan created" section?

But as to the clan references, that is a valid point and I'm still wondering how much to weave into the story at this point. I was going for "current time" 3050 era, and yeah, the clans haven't hit Capellan space yet. But maybe, as early as this, there are whisperings of it? Like from commercial trade fleet ships that maybe operate in wide sections of IS space? Or from hired merc units that operate anywhere there is a paycheck?

Dunno really, still looking at that. And "ASF" is the aerospace division of CCAF.

[Mr D One]

"Now Aimee, as good as you are, I want you to be careful. The Liao's will be looking to reclaim what they think is theirs. It is there folly. It's F8ed to us, for we...blah blah blah"

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, whatever Commander Dee, is what was running through her mind. Yes you are a great assault pilot, and even better lover, but you just love the sound of your voice too much.

A whooshing sound interupted her thoughts, the Raven Battlemech had emerged out of the ocean. Water cascaded down the angular form revealing a black glistening machine. "Finally!" she exclaimed to her control panel, "Nevermore, we can move a lot faster now."
The Raven "Nevermore" seemed to hum in reciprocation , as Aimee pushed up the speed to 140 kilometers. It would be flat rolling terrain for 5 minutes before she reached the great forrest. This was the intel she had received where the enemy would be.

With the exception of various stones and shapes the Raven loped along in an even straight line. Approaching the great forrest edge, Aimee noticed a thick plump rock standing upright bending slightly askew with two smaller boulders. She chuckled to herself of how much it reminded her of her Commander's genatalia. She tried to turn her gaze from it but it was such a perfect likeness, she could not stop staring at the formation.

Growing heat and excitement was rumbling in her loins. The seat was becoming moist. Reaching for a towel, Nevermore sounded a loud proximity alarm.

COLLISION ALERT!

Aimee slammed on full reverse, but it was too late. Trees buckled under the strength of the reinforced Ferro Fibrous Armour chassis.

"*****!" exclaimed Aimee. If they have someone with keen vision.... Man, the commander will be pissed... she thought. I guess I won't be getting my rocks off anytime soon.

[Unnatural Growth]

One,

O.o

Really?

Gee thanks for that.

I think I'd rather you just said my story was terrible, I should stop writing and to go jump off a bridge.

Still not sure what to make of that one, One.

[Mr D One]

OldOrgandonor, on 26 November 2014 - 04:28 AM, said:

One,

Gee thanks for that.

I think I'd rather you just said my story was terrible, I should stop writing and to go jump off a bridge.

Just trying to offer a point of view from the other side, OrganDoner. I picked up my story thread from just before when your character spotted the trees falling.

It's like I am writing the Avengers side, and your writing Guardians of the Galaxy side point of view. Shared universes and all. It's like I am Timothy Zahn and your Kathy Tyres, its like etc etc.

Have you ever played Front Mission 4?

Your story inspired me to write that point of view. It's a great compliment to you that you made me want to write.

Edited by Dar1ng One, 26 November 2014 - 05:41 AM.

[Mycrus]

Dar1ng One, on 26 November 2014 - 05:40 AM, said:

Just trying to offer a point of view from the other side, OrganDoner. I picked up my story thread from just before when your character spotted the trees falling.

It's like I am writing the Avengers side, and your writing Guardians of the Galaxy side point of view. Shared universes and all. It's like I am Timothy Zahn and your Kathy Tyres, its like etc etc.

Have you ever played Front Mission 4?

Your story inspired me to write that point of view. It's a great compliment to you that you made me want to write.

his story inspired me to gg yawn.