First time for everything, it was the first time for the young ComStar Engineer, Yuna Cassel. The Battle of Tukayyid was her first brush of an all-out war. She, along with her associates was assigned with the ComGuards 278th Division Engineer, tasked with battlemech maintenance, to setting up defences as they held out at the city Skupo. She and other engineers tried to keep the barricade up, communications working, and battlemechs still able to take much more punishment.
The 278th Division was able to fall back to the city, but as they did the Clan Wolf forces was able to resume their attack. The 282nd Division fell, so did the Ninth’s Army 198th, the 247th Division, even the 138th Division’s ambush was quelled. All their sacrifices and they just kept coming and coming, until the 278th Division was surrounded. Beam after beam, shell after shell, explosion after explosion, ammunition were running dry, light from laser beams were losing their shine, armor and cover were being eroded by heavy fire.
On some repair bay, the last of the 278th was cooped up along with some of the remaining engineers, piecing together all they could find; it was nothing more than spare parts enough to build a battlemaster. Nicknamed “Sentinel” -- an ironic name for all they could do for the moment is look, helpless as the city were being reduced to ruins. The BLR-4SL is a complete jury-rig of one of the retrieved fallen Battlemasters, and it was their last ticket out of the city, one sliver of hope for Yuna and her colleagues.
Needing a fresh rewiring, only the arms were mostly intact. The damaged wires upon the torsi could not handle the immense power-surge required by many energy weapons. Thinking of on her feet, Yuna armed the torso with ballistic weapons instead, but stricken with limited ammunition supply she improvised with what they have.
Each torso is armed with a rudimentary Rotary AC/2 at the upper-most mounts; Ultra AC/5s rebored to AC/2 ammunition considering it's abundance. And at cockpit level are two semi-portable, Light Machine-Guns; even more accurate at a longer range than the standard machine-guns at a downside of using small-arms ammunition; those high-caliber rounds commonly used with Sniper Rifles and Medium Machine-Guns.
For amenities, it has a single Laser AMS; an Anti-Missile System replacing the Machine-Gun with a low-heat Small-Pulse-Laser. Along with a Medium-Range Missile 20; modifying the Long-Range Missile 15 to shoot a volley of 20 unguided missiles commonly used as man-portable anti-vehicle weapon, and unlike Rocket-Launchers, reload is automated.
For the arms, she mounted a total of three Extended Range Medium Lasers, complementing the RAC/2s and the Light Machine-Guns at their range. The use of an endosteel frame along with a rudimentary Light Fusion Engine - built from half-and-half pieces of Standard Engine and Extra-Light Engines – allows it to bear many weapons all at once and four additional double heat-sinks keeps it cool. Upon the head is a 1-ton heavy mainframe-computer linked with the Battlemech's weapon fire-control systems to better automate firing solutions; an early Level-1 Targeting Computer.
The last of their team was to retreat, with the last 278th Division MechWarrior just to board the jury-rigged Battlemaster, they were hit by a stray artillery shell, tearing the warehouse open leaving the remaining support team wounded, and the last 278th Division MechWarrior killed in action. With nobody to fight for them, Yuna jumped in the Battlemech and piloted it herself.
Bloodied, unknown of whether it was hers, her comrades’, or her enemies’, she wiped it off her face and secured herself inside. With the Sentinel primed and ready, she stood up guns blazing; she was ready to trade her life for her friends to be spared. The medics and engineers sucked up the pain, and with the remaining vehicles, they took off leaving Yuna to fight for herself.
With the last of the divisions having their own problems to deal with, Yuna led some of the Wolves away as she made her way at the edge of the city, fighting along the way with reckless abandon. On arms reach with the Thor, she locked its arm with her own preventing the PPC from sending a bolt to her battlemech, and then face to face she chewed through its center-torso with the machine-guns and the rotary auto-cannons.
An incoming Loki just beside her was about to ram its arm to her, but with a turn she hit it’s torso with her elbow. Discombobulated, she ripped across its damaged legs, and knocked it down. Effectively out of the fight, yet she took the time to pound the fallen Loki – raining shells across its torso. She was losing it.
Another was some Uller scout, heavily damaged by a previous encounter; it took her nothing more than a short flurry of shells to take it down. But her going down to pound the Uller to oblivion she found the scattered remains of the rest of her team – taken down by this Uller. Despite her sacrifice, they couldn’t get out.
Snapping back, she looked around, listened to the radio, and found nothing. She was all alone at the edge of Skupo.
Yuna survived, it wasn’t because she was with the 278th Division, rather she wasn’t. She looked back and saw nothing but the smoldering machinery. There was nothing for her to fight for in that city, her allies were dead. She was crying as she was picked up by the remaining ComStar forces on her way towards Brzo.
1
The6thMessenger, on 15 June 2017 - 08:24 PM, said:
