54 replies to this topic

[Odanan]

Spoiler

Windschreiter, on 14 October 2016 - 06:36 AM, said:

Category 3 - unnamed heroes; 1300 words

Twelve


Back in 3024 DC liaison was looking for a light Mech-only company to garrison the world of Valentino near the DC/FS Border. They were putting out good money for a low risk job – it was too good an opportunity for our CO Nicole „The Queen“ Renner to let it slip by.

So in June the “242nd Suicide Kings“ were setting up garrison on a hellish world full of Volcanoes. It was all very quiet and we got used to the hot temperatures, fooled around and thought we were the kings of this world.

We were playing a game of draw poker. I just picked up my Hand. Went through the Cards – Ace of Spades… Ace of Clubs… Eight of Clubs… Eight of Spades… „SADDLE UP! WE MOVE OUT!“ the Queen shouted as she was running to her Phoenix Hawk. We dropped our cards and the guys saw my hand, as we started to run to our Mechs Joe said: “Don’t worry – this means nothing!“ with a canny smile he dodged over to his Raven. “Worry? When I find the time I will“ I thought to myself as I scrambled up to the cockpit of my JR7-F.

Damn its hot in here before even powering up. Already sweating I flip the buttons to engage the starting sequence while pulling my neurohelmet on. Then came the sensation. All systems nominal. “Striker lance report in!“
“Striker Two – Jenny and I are good to go!“
“Striker four – Ready“
“Striker Three? What’s your status?“ – “Just a Sec Sarge“ -“„Damn it Joe! Command and Pursuit are already moving!“ – “Ready“

We made haste to regroup with the others. The Queen was briefing us on the go. Obviously some FedSuns Raiders sneaked to the Surface. Intel reported 8-12 Mechs moving to “Terra Therma“ – a huge volcano with a thermal power plant in its centre.

”Suicide Kings listen up! We take position up high in D5 and wait for them. If things go south so do we – our escape route is through the centre up to H6.“

The first sign of the enemy was a double PPC shot tearing through the armour of Charles’ Wasp Right torso setting of the Ammo. The Wasp got engulfed in a Ball of fire and then was gone. Charles was gone. “Windschreiter and Vertigo take Lances Striker and Pursuit down there and mix ‘em up! Tell us what we’re fighting!”

The Queen started sniping away with her large laser joined by both Panthers PPCs. With the high outside temperatures they wouldn’t be able to hold up the barrage for long. We threw our Mechs to a full run down to D4. “Striker Lance we move D4/C4 and try to get their backs!”
PPCs and Laserbolts were flashing over our heads. The Davies don’t seem to have adopted to temps, they fire too fast. Well at least they might be shutdown or riding the red line when we get them.

A Warhammer appearing on our right flank turned that “when” to an “if”. He let loose a volley of Medium Lasers and SRMs. The Lasers found the Right leg of the Raven, most of the SRMs went wide.

“DAMN HE GOT ME!” Joe was screaming at the edge of panic. Turning to the Raven I saw that he was limping – without his speed he was no match for the Warhammer. “Striker Lance! Take down Alpha NOW!” I ordered as I marked the Warhammer as Alpha. The Raven was desperately trying to get away, but his opponent wouldn’t let his prey escape that easy.

Firing both PPCs at once shut the Hammer down. Bloodlust soared in my ears. He. Was. Going. Down. I charged at him firing two lasers a time to avoid overheating.

The Warhammer tried to back off as soon as he powered up again, but it was too late. We were over him. Both Jenners and the LCT tore through his back armour. Laser and Machine gun fire released the mini sun inside. Cooking the pilot alive.

Still high on adrenaline we returned to Joe and his Raven.

“Come on Joe, we get you to cover!” – no response. As I moved closer I saw why: the PPCs both hit the cockpit. Leaving only a black hole where my Friend sat. Tears were dwelling up my eyes.

“we’re a couple of shooting stars, Joe, and we’ll never be stopped.” I murmured in my cockpit unable to do anything… think anything …

“STRIKER LANCE WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Thrown back to reality I checked my Minimap: only six of us left. “We ran into trouble – Joe’s dead...”

“GET A GRIP WINDSCHREITER! Regroup in D6!”
Adrenaline kicked in again – rage took over and carried me on.

Two Firestarters and the Queens PHX we’re fighting two Wolverines when we joined up on them.

They were too focussed on our Phoenix Hawk that they didn’t notice us until our Lasers found them. It was a brawly mess, Lasers melting armour, autocannon shells flying through the air with the thunder echoing from the nearby mountains.

We focussed our fire on one Wolverine, but the heat was affecting our targeting and he was very agile. Almost dancing through our fire. Not good enough. Conrad charged his Jenny up beside the WVR and alpha’d his leg off. The Wolverine fell. Jenny froze in place. And was gone.

The rest of us ripped apart the fallen Wolverine viciously, but the other WVR took his chance and ran.

“We take him down! Come with me! “ I shouted over the comms. “Negative! There are 4 more contacts that way, Windschreiter. We retreat.”

“But…”

“This is war, Windschreiter… Pe-“

Two PPCs hit Fernandez’ Firestarter right torso from behind, cutting through the paper thin armour and wreaking havoc in the delicate internals and ripping the right torso off the Mech. “MOVE” the Queen ordered as the Firestarters right arm dropped useless to the ground.

We turned and ran towards the entry. Then another double PPC hit on Fernandez’ Firestarter broke through the armour of the centre torso unleashing the energy of artificial lightning in its interior, disintegrating the Firestarter.

Only four left. Charging.

“Keep pushing, He’ll shut down soon if he keeps up that rate of fire!”

Romero lead the Charge in his Locust. Moving up the ramp he got obscured by rocks.

“BATTLEMASTER!” was the last thing he said – then he disappeared from the Radar.

Three left.

The three of us turned the corner and only 100 meters ahead stood a Battlemaster. In the next instant the air was filled with Medium Lasers, PPCs and SRMs from the BLR – vaporising our second Firestarter.

Two left.

The Battlemaster still wouldn’t shut down. My targeting computer finally labelled it as “HELLSLINGER”

“Push past him! WE NEED TO GET OUT!”

At 30 meters his PPCs were useless. But not his Medium Lasers and SRMs. And then the Queen was gone.

I don’t know how I got past him or through the centre to our escape point. When I got there I lost one arm and most of my armour. And my entire unit. My friends. My family.

I will find the Hellslingler and I will take him down.

All that’s left from the 242nd Suicide Kings is me and this song from ancient Terra:

„They were twelve of the bravest men that I've ever seen
They were waiting on a mountain top to defend their queen
Against the rambling troops of bandits hiding in the stormy night
And when they heard hollow steps nearing they knew they had to fight

They were twelve and they were fighting,
Their blood covering their hands
Against the growing crowd of enemies no one of them could stand
Just the youngest of our brave men was resisting in his rage
But when he also fell he left this world at fifteen years of age

They were twelve of the bravest men that I have ever seen
Much too young and much too courageous and much too valiant“

(authors note: I know that the Hellslinger has some L2 tech in it, but I figured there might have been a version with 3025 tech - update: read up on it on Sarna[should've done that beforehand *cough] so a Star League era Mech still around in 305* had been around in 3024 )

Edit: Authors note 2: Song is called "Twelve" by Peter Heppner
Edit2: added category and word count
Edit3: corrected category and Authors note

Jesus, Windschreiter that was some terrific piece of Battletech literature!

[Odanan]

Spoiler

Ninjamoose, on 12 October 2016 - 02:11 PM, said:

It was supposed to be simple.

Everyone knows it never is for whatever reason; "A plan never survives contact with the enemy" and all that. But it wasn't supposed to be this difficult.

It was a simple smash and grab. The Steiners had a light mech presence (hired, of course) and no infantry/armored defenses in some backwater town only called River City. It had a small population and smaller economic impact, and the aerospace fighter and airfield that we were there to destroy was worth more than the entire town combined. I don't even know why that stuff was important, but the Ragequit Mercenaries don't like to ask too many questions.


They "volunteered" Rabbi, Raz, Johannsen and I. We were to take light stuff, specifically 60 tons and lower to keep up our mobility. We were assaulting an urban area so speed and stealth were key. I took my Raven 3L for ECM cover and close range firepower, Rabbi took his Shadowhawk 2K so we could have some long range cover, Raz took his Dragon 5N, and Johannsen took his trademark Locust 3M.

The briefing was short and simple. Same **** different day. Get in, neutralize any opposition, smash the airfield, try to keep the fighter salvageable. We were to come from the beach to avoid any nasty surprises in the forest, sweep and clear block by block, then wreck the airfield.

Loading was short and simple. We all took mechs on the lighter range of the scale, and the pilots of our dropship were surprisingly not bitchy about it.

Prep was simple. We landed in our staging area, offloaded the mechs, loaded the ammo bins. We thought that, if the Steiner mercs had any idea we were here they'd launch a pre-emptive strike. We were proven wrong.

When the mission started, that's when the **** hit the fan.

As soon as we made visual contact with the city, we received a thickly accented transmission coming from somewhere inside.

"I'll give you one chance to turn around and leave, mark up the mission as a failure, and say the intel was wrong and there were more defenses than you anticipated."

We stop, watching and waiting for movement. Raz spoke up with his authoritative (some would say overconfident) voice;

"This is Razgriz Gundam of the Ragequit Mercenaries. Why don't you make this easier for us and have you and your boys eject? The salvage would be appreciated."

"Ragequit Mercenaries? This is who you send me? Sad."

Raz switched to closed comms.

"**** these guys. I want a block by block sweep, two streets apart. Don't fire until you make visual contact. We still don't know what these guys are running in, but it's presumably close ranged and fast. Johann, take point."

We bark out confirmations in unison as Johann gunned the throttle on his little 20 tonner.

We started the process of corner-checking, marking points of interest, and moving fast, comms silent and everyone on passive radar.

"Raz," Rabbi speaks up quietly, "it's a pretty bad idea to split up and sweep solo through a city like this when we don't know where they are, or even *who* they are. Should you and I stick together, with Moose supplying ECM cover?"

"Noted, but no. Chances are the Steiners hired some no-named Good Ol' Boys from around here. They're probably running whatever they could scrape up or beg for. I'm not too worried."

I was to the far left of the formation, which might be why I got away.

We're making best speed through the city, but hell knows that means nothing with how city fighting works. Lots of tight corners, lots of little nooks and crannies for baddies to hide in, lots of places for traps.

"Hey Raz," Johann calls out.

"What's up."

"I got a tunnel here going underneath the airfield, I'm gonna check it out".

"Team hold. Be careful, we still don't know where they are. Tell us if you find anything worth salvaging"

I brought my Raven to a stop, and idly kick around some cars on the street. Sucks for that guy, but I'm bored and we were supposed to be razing the place when we're done here anyways.

The line crackles to life and a nigh-unintelligible southern accent screams out:

"OH **** HE'S GOT-"

We all stopped dead, listening to the unmistakable sound of an open mic receiving nothing.

"Johann? You there buddy?" Is all Rabbi manages to squeak out.

Raz takes back over.

"Get to the airfield. Now. Moose, check out the tunnel and try to find Johann."

I grumble, off mic of course. I sprint towards the tunnel.

Thankfully I was coming from the river-side of the city, and he didn't see me, but as I round a building near the mouth of the tunnel I see him.

An Atlas, a clearly custom variant judging by its weapon loadout of 6 Medium Pulses, and AC/10, and LRM10 struts his way out of the tunnel, turning towards the middle of our formation, straight towards Raz. His mammoth, 100 ton Atlas, painted deep green, emblazoned with a sickly yellow image of a boar's skull, was an absolute powerhouse. It was loaded to the brim with both long range and close ranged weaponry, capable of reducing my little Raven to slag. If all else failed, he could just beat me to death with his sledgehammers disguised as hands.

I finally find my voice.

"WHAT THE ****? THAT'S THE BOARS HEAD! HE'S MOVING TOWARDS YOU GUYS!"

Raz cuts in.

"Moose, settle down. You're sure it's-OH ****"

I sprint towards Raz's last location as I spot, quickly jetting above the city, an ejection pod.

As I rounded the corner to the square where Raz was last broadcasting from, I spotted the broken wreck of his Dragon, arm ripped free and missing, center torso torn open with a hole that you could drive a forklift through, laid flat on its back, remaining arm and leg splayed out.

I called out to my remaining team member.

"Rabbi, you good?"

"Yeah I'm good. Where are you?"

"Raz's last known. he got out in his pod. I'm making my way to your position. Lets get the **** out of here."

I floor it towards Rabbi's location, when I make the mistake of flipping on my active radar. I spot a red blip... Right in front of me.

Thank god my mic wasn't open, and that I must've surprised The Boars Head as much as he surprised me. He crashed through the building ahead while turning towards me. He sprays out with his medium pulses, the emerald streaks splashing off of the building behind where I was just standing, my SRM6 leaving pockmarks on his torsos, as I ducked into an alleyway.

"Rabbi I've got visual, he's two streets north-northwest of Raz's last known, I'm taking the long way, make best speed to the beach, converge two streets south-southeast."

I weave between the buildings to the marker I set up to find Rabbi waiting, and we start making our way back to the exfil point on a main road. We thought we were in the clear, the avatar of death being sated and letting us go.

Thats when, from between the buildings, he steps out right in front of us, eyes black and dead.

Rabbi yelps in panic, I slammed my throttle to max reverse, ignoring my mechs groans of protest.

The Atlas lashes out with what I recognized as Raz's autocannon arm and swings low, knocking Rabbi's legs out from underneath him. He followed up with a savage, overhead smash square into his CT, crushing it and washing the makeshift club in radioactive fire. Rabbi punches out, but his pod skitters across the asphalt and burrows deep into what looks like an apartment complex.

I stopped, as the Atlas stood up to its full height and glared down at me.

"Tell them what you saw here, and tell them that The Boars Head sent you."

He turned and dissapeared back into the buildings.

I got out. I made it back to the base, unharmed. I told command what happened and they rotated me to field tech, which to be honest I am A-OK with.

The salvage teams were never able to get in, every one being lost trying to get into the city.

Rabbi made it back on foot, pretty ****** up from making a no-knock entrance into a set of buildings, and they tracked down Raz in the middle of the bay. Johann never came back.

That's the operation that convinced me that urban ops are not my cup of tea.

This is very good too!

Edited by Odanan, 21 October 2016 - 03:25 AM.

[Odanan]

I don't know if this is the old file with the name of the hero pilots I told you guys, but the TheRealLoc.xml inside Game/Localized/English.pak has some info.

Examples:

Lines 38329 to 38336:

		  <Data ss:Type="String">VTR-DS_desc</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">Ardan Sortek's personal Victor.</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">Ardan Sortek's personal Victor.</Data>
		</Cell>

Lines 34549 to 34556:

		  <Data ss:Type="String">CDA-X5_desc</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">Gibson Federated BattleMechs&#8217; X-5 Cicada prototype.</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">Gibson Federated BattleMechs&#8217; X-5 Cicada prototype.</Data>
		</Cell>

Lines 37504 to 37511:

		  <Data ss:Type="String">STK-M_desc</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">Colonel J. Elliot Jamison's personal Stalker.</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">Colonel J. Elliot Jamison's personal Stalker.</Data>
		</Cell>

Ember pilot has a name! Lines 56899 to 56906:

		  <Data ss:Type="String">FS9-E_desc</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">The personal Mech of Portia "Torrent" Ryan.</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">The personal Mech of Portia "Torrent" Ryan.</Data>
		</Cell>

Also the Loup the Guerre! Lines 64477 to 64484:

          <Data ss:Type="String">TBT-LG_desc</Data>
        </Cell>
        <Cell>
          <Data ss:Type="String">The personal 'Mech of Peter Chandler.</Data>
        </Cell>
        <Cell>
          <Data ss:Type="String">The personal 'Mech of Peter Chandler.</Data>
        </Cell>

And here he is. Lines 35824 to 35831:

		  <Data ss:Type="String">JM6-FB_desc</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">The personal 'Mech of "Devil" Donald Vincent.</Data>
		</Cell>
		<Cell>
		  <Data ss:Type="String">The personal 'Mech of "Devil" Donald Vincent.</Data>
		</Cell>

And that's it.

Edited by Odanan, 21 October 2016 - 03:53 AM.

[Aranzor]

Got the Ember and the Loup de Guerre updated now, thanks again!

Also found a correction for Jester: Leigh Voss appears to have been the pilot.


To be clear again btw. The story needs to be about how your main character encounters one of these heroes. Even for category 3 when you have more leeway for a hero's story, your main character cannot -be- the pilot of the hero mech in question.

[Highlighter]

Aranzor, on 21 October 2016 - 05:57 AM, said:

To be clear again btw. The story needs to be about how your main character encounters one of these heroes. Even for category 3 when you have more leeway for a hero's story, your main character cannot -be- the pilot of the hero mech in question.

Do I need to clarify my story to indicate that Raymond is the intended main character, and not the Clan warrior?

[Odanan]

Aranzor, on 21 October 2016 - 05:57 AM, said:

Got the Ember and the Loup de Guerre updated now, thanks again!

Also found a correction for Jester: Leigh Voss appears to have been the pilot.

To be clear again btw. The story needs to be about how your main character encounters one of these heroes. Even for category 3 when you have more leeway for a hero's story, your main character cannot -be- the pilot of the hero mech in question.

Oh boy.

[Karl Streiger]

Odanan, on 21 October 2016 - 07:55 AM, said:

Oh boy.

Same here -

my Character can't have the grim determination that is needed to carry my story - and I was not on misery - heck my character is still a child in the current mwo time line.. Oh dear indeed.

Puh...*rubs head maybe the grand father or a uncle

[Highlighter]

Karl Streiger, on 21 October 2016 - 09:30 AM, said:

Same here -

my Character can't have the grim determination that is needed to carry my story - and I was not on misery - heck my character is still a child in the current mwo time line.. Oh dear indeed.

Puh...*rubs head maybe the grand father or a uncle

Why not create a new character specifically for the story? I don't think there was any stipulation that we had to stick to a certain RP character.

[Aranzor]

Highlighter, on 21 October 2016 - 10:18 AM, said:

Why not create a new character specifically for the story? I don't think there was any stipulation that we had to stick to a certain RP character.

Indeed there isn't! I think this may be the perception because someone asked if they could include this story as an aside from their character's larger story, which is also fine so long as the story remains encapsulated.

You're free to tell the story from whatever character your wish, so long as it IS NOT the hero/hero mech that that character comes across.

Hope that helps to better clear things up. ^^

[Ibrandul Mike]

MORE STORIES! I WANT MORE STORIES!

[FLG 01]

Aranzor, on 21 October 2016 - 01:14 PM, said:

You're free to tell the story from whatever character your wish, so long as it IS NOT the hero/hero mech that that character comes across.

Does it mean I am allowed to use a canon character? There is a character from whose point of view I would like to write the story. It is a very minor character, little more than the name is known but what is known is perfect for my story.
I am asking because there is the line "Do not use established characters." I could use a non-canon character I invented, but I feel the story loses a bit of emotional impact.

Ibrandul Mike, on 21 October 2016 - 01:29 PM, said:

MORE STORIES! I WANT MORE STORIES!

Mine is pretty much finished, should be done this weekend.

[Aranzor]

FLG 01, on 21 October 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

Does it mean I am allowed to use a canon character? There is a character from whose point of view I would like to write the story. It is a very minor character, little more than the name is known but what is known is perfect for my story.
I am asking because there is the line "Do not use established characters." I could use a non-canon character I invented, but I feel the story loses a bit of emotional impact.

I want to say yes....but I'm really worried about what issues this might create. So lets do this: If you -really- want to use a created canon character it must indeed be a minor one, and you have to send me a quick message of the character and I'll OK it on a case-by-case basis.

[FLG 01]

Thanks, that's fair. I'll PM you and promise: it is a truly minor character.

Edited by FLG 01, 21 October 2016 - 07:48 PM.

[Aranzor]

Highlighter, on 21 October 2016 - 07:14 AM, said:

Do I need to clarify my story to indicate that Raymond is the intended main character, and not the Clan warrior?

Sorry, missed this question before. As no hero has been announced yet for that mech, you're good to go on both perspective and category, Highlighter!

[Odanan]

Aranzor, on 21 October 2016 - 01:14 PM, said:

Indeed there isn't! I think this may be the perception because someone asked if they could include this story as an aside from their character's larger story, which is also fine so long as the story remains encapsulated.

You're free to tell the story from whatever character your wish, so long as it IS NOT the hero/hero mech that that character comes across.

Hm... I think that was my case. My story is a part of a book I'm writing (that will certainly never be finished).

In that story the main character was involved in the development of the CDA-3F and when I saw this contest I though: why not the X-5 prototype? I remember PGI named their Gibson Federated test pilot (but can't remember the name or find it anywhere), but I suppose there was more than one prototype or test pilot, right?

So I wrote that short chapter of a battle I had plans to write (but never actually started). For me these events are a great kickstart for actually put the words on the "paper". See, writing never comes easy to me.

PS: You can find some other excerpts here in the forums (the last one was in the Cyclops Event - the main character of the recent story is the Cicada pilot of the previous Cyclops contest).

[Aranzor]

Odanan, on 22 October 2016 - 11:41 AM, said:

... I remember PGI named their Gibson Federated test pilot (but can't remember the name or find it anywhere), but I suppose there was more than one prototype or test pilot, right?

And I'm perfectly fine with that actually, you just can't write the story from his point of view IN the pilot's seat.

[TygerLily]

Can, I just say, I really enjoy this prompt/contest for 2 reasons.

1, I think I have dug into more of the lore part of Sarna and some old BT books than ever before for heroes, their history, their Clans and units.

2, thankful that inspite of touching on the hard-and-fast lore there was a lot of freedom in the story making.

I ended up making 2 entries plus a started a third lol But I'll probably just write that third one for funsies later on...

It's funny, my stepdad introduced me to BT mid90s but we mainly played it as a game. Even playing MW2 and Mercs I never gathered how big the BT story/universe was and how much writing had been done on it. Wasn't till I got into MWO that I think I got an appreciation for it all xD

So, mission accomplished, for me!

Edited by TygerLily, 26 October 2016 - 08:09 AM.

[Aranzor]

TygerLily, on 26 October 2016 - 08:00 AM, said:

Can, I just say, I really enjoy this prompt/contest for 2 reasons.

1, I think I have dug into more of the lore part of Sarna and some old BT books than ever before for heroes, their history, their Clans and units.

2, thankful that inspite of touching on the hard-and-fast lore there was a lot of freedom in the story making.

I ended up making 2 entries plus a started a third lol But I'll probably just write that third one for funsies later on...

It's funny, my stepdad introduced me to BT mid90s but we mainly played it as a game. Even playing MW2 and Mercs I never gathered how big the BT story/universe was and how much writing had been done on it. Wasn't till I got into MWO that I think I got an appreciation for it all xD

So, mission accomplished, for me!

As always man, you're right on it for why I set up the contest this way!

It was also thoroughly enjoyable to sneak in a writing perspective challenge. Normally most fiction writers create their own world within their story. How would one handle being forced to add an element they couldn't entirely manipulate?

[ProfPyro]

Just to be clear on the cutoff, is it the beginning of the 28th or the end? Utc or pacific time?

[Aranzor]

I think to give as much time as possible, lets say end of the 28th by PST. That way we'll have the weekend to judge.