128 replies to this topic

[Sparks Murphey]

Half an hour later, Sierra ran quickly through the final stages of her pre-op checklist.

“Whatcha doing in my ‘Mech?” the computer demanded in her own voice.

“I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die,” she replied.

“Voiceprint confirmed. Let’s go hunting.”

She flicked on the comm. “This is Reaper. I am ready op and weapons hot,” she said with a grin.

“Jesus, Reaper, you’re supposed the clear the bay before turning the guns on!” the bay controller replied. She could see him in his little hut overlooking the bay, head in his hands. Several techs skittered quickly away from the Trebuchet. She grinned wickedly as she swept the ‘Mech’s right arm in a gentle arc, and took her first steps forward.

[Xinaoen]

Sparks Murphey, on 13 August 2012 - 03:24 PM, said:

“This is Reaper. I am ready op and weapons hot,” she said with a grin.

Jean smiled to himself in the dim light of his cockpit. He'd been told that the Tombstone Barbershop Quartet were professionals, but he hadn't really expected a professional attitude from them. Once again, he was pleasantly surprised.

"Roger that, Reaper," he replied briskly.

Jean eased his throttle forward slightly; his cockpit rocked around him with a satisfying thud as his Catapult took first one step forward, and then another. He'd always enjoyed the sense of mass from a Heavy; it felt fitting for a commander. He'd never liked light 'Mechs, personally - especially not Wolfhounds.

Jean did a final scan on his systems, and everything checked out green - right down to the NARC-equipped missiles now filling his ammo bays. He nodded with satisfaction, and then flicked the comm open again.

"This is Exile, ready op," he barked. "Who's ready for a bit of theft?"

Edited by Xinaoen, 14 August 2012 - 09:58 AM.

[ChaosGrinder]

The moment she started up her Mech, music blasted from her cockpit. Wicked riffs and a damn deep bass vibrated though the hangar until she closed the cockpit hatch. She preferred loud and brutal metal. With a sharp click the hatch closed and only the bass remained faintly , vibrating hrough the ground.

She always ran through the checklist in silence.

" All systems up and running, we´re ready to go ! " she shouted over the comm, flooding the channel with her music.

Slowly she moved her Mech forward and out of the Hangar. Now her Helmet sealed airtight with a faint click and the weapon systems came online.


(I love you Sparks. Just for the man in Reno.)

[RogueSpear]

"This is Hammer, all systems currently reporting nominal. Find me an anvil."
Dirk set the 75t Helepolis lumbering out after Sierra's smaller Trebuchet. His screens remained clear of clutter, this was an important mission. He would need to concentrate. The only things to distract his eye were the tower and attached screen he was keeping his calculating programs so he didn't cause his mech to freeze up and die to a bluescreen error again, and an array of attached diagrams, coordinates and equations marking the various areas he'd spotted on the map he could provide support from to both bases - and the trajectories, elevations, and other assorted variables he would need to take the dropship out from each one of them.
He resisted the urge to begin fiddling with his equipment again. It's all fine, he reassured himself. It all worked when you were practicing. Just don't get blown up, and nothing will break.
He repeated the mantra a few times, and steadfastly refused to swivel his chair round to face the scribbles and doodles that plastered the rear facing of the cockpit.
Well no one could expect him to behave the whole way out there, could they?

[Rasengetsu]

Keed hopped into the cockpit, quickly scanning the place for his... "There it is, can't start a mission without a good ol' cigar" he said as he grabbed one out of the box. With an excited grin, he lit it up and put it in his mouth. "Sho I shaw Shtabby McShtabbershon yeshterday, he shaid to BOOT THE F*CK UP!" Revin yelled at the AI with the cigar in his mouth.
"Acknowledged, startup initiated, identity confirmed. Welcome back Spike." the computer said as all the lights activated, flashed a few times and power was switched on.
After checking the weapons and activating them, he heard his trusty retractable blade's hydraulic sound and grinned even wickedly.
"This is Reckless, all systems nominal, weapons are hot, cigar is lit and ready for some asskicking." he mentioned on the radio after triple checking the channel. Last time he didn't check, he ended up speaking to an old fart talking dirty.

Edited by Rasengetsu, 14 August 2012 - 01:41 PM.

[guardian wolf]

Chris took in the answer, and immediately went to his hangar. He was pleasantly surprised to see Bubba fitting on the TAG laser onboard. Chris climbed up the ladder, and started up Ace in the Hole. He sat down into his chair, and put his helmet on. The computer chirped to life, and Chris heard his dad, William on the computer.

"What is the best strategy in poker?"

"Having a way to protect your winnings,"

"Voice ID confirmed, welcome back Chris,"

Chris spoke into his coms as he walked the Shadow Hawk out of the shanty garage.

"This is Ace of Spades, ready to play,"

[Thom Frankfurt]

"Icepick here. All stystems go." Nik spoke calmly into his mic when there was a pause in all the chatter on the comline.

Adjusting the flackjacket he wore over his normal coolant vest, (a habit he aquired after being wounded during his escape from Menke, FYI the Raven's head isn't armored that well.) he squinted while flipping the toggle switch for his Chameleon's ECM.

"Counter measures up and running." With that he brought the fifty tonner up to a trot. "Try to keep up."

[Vodkavaiator]

Rudbeck stumbled into the mech bay by his watch at least 30 minutes late, holding a fresh bottle of whiskey and positively beaming. His face was covered with a percular pattern of marks of what looked like red lipstick. He swore silently to himself as he heard the loud thud of moving mechs and looked up in time to see Nikoli passing by in his Raven.

"*** **** you, you bloody ********, you can't well leave without me!" He roared as he waved a fist in the direction of his commanding officer.

Continuing to curse he ran in a parabolic line towards the dock where he felt sure that he had left his mech. If it came to the worst, then he reasoned he would simply have to ask for directions, doubtlessly someone had to know where the lone Griffin of the company was stored. Making a sharp right turn, Rudbeck smiled at the confused looks on the faces of the three mechanics whom were responsible for the maintenance and repair of his machine and who stood impatiently or perhaps worriedly in front of it.

"Sasha! I trust everything is ready? It would appear I am running a bit late! Scrap the checklist, I shall be going into this cold!" He shouted happily at the tall red haired women, dressed in a simple mechanics overall who stood with a certain air of command in between the two others of her trade.

"What? You can't be serious Rudbeck, where the hell have you been!? Are you drunk?" The chief engineer asked with a heavy Russian pronunciation to her words.

"Yes, I mean no! Of course not! What do you take me for my dear? I am not some sort of amateur! That was some wonderful whiskey however...spiffy planet really, lovely locals..." Rudbeck began as an expression content took shape on his features. Eventually he seemed to notice the strange looks the mechanics were giving him and he snapped out of his revelry.

"HA! Fear not my friends, I have not forgotten about you! Here Johnson, hold this for me will you?" Rudbeck said as he threw the bottle of whiskey in the direction of one of the younger looking mechanics.

"What?"

"Let no man say that Rudbeck forgets about his mechanics! I have brought you what passes as the finest whiskey amongst the locals!" Remi continued in a theatrical tone. "To the Griffin!"

"Sii...iirr!" Johnson stammered apologetically.

"Never call me sir! How many times must I tell you that!"

"Errrr...I mean Remi. I think the Senior Lieutenant is correct, you're drunk aren't you? Maybe you should sit this one out? I am sure Nikoli will understand." The young man offered as he nervously scratched the back of his head.

"I know!" The third mechanic began cheerfully, who looked and sounded nothing like what one would expect from a Kuritan. "We can say it was a leg actuator! There is no way Nikoli can tell you to sortie in a mech that can barely walk."

"Da, that would do nicely, we had to replace the actuator last week so it sounds believable that the leg might present further problems." Sasha agreed, nodding thoughtfully.

"Yeah, Maeda, great idea!" Johnson added as the three mechanics began an animated discussion on how to best affect said damage on the mech.

"HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY STARK RAVING MAD!?" Rudbeck shouted at the top of his lungs, throwing a second whiskey bottle which had appeared seemingly out of thin air in the direction of his mechanics. "I shan't be missing what promises to be yet another glorious chance at death!" Falling into an angry silence as he glared at his crew.

"Johnson!" Rudbeck finally began, momentarily composing himself, before he marched angrily to the three and grabbed his neurohelmet from the hands of his angry looking chief mechanic.

"Yes?" The Lyran borne mechanic, cautiously replied.

"Fetch me another bottle of whiskey."

"Rudbeck..." Sasha said with edge of ice to her voice as she glared furiously at the mechwarrior, "You are in no condition to pilot your mech, but we won't stop you, it's not like you ever listen to what we say. Go and get yourself killed if you wish you damned drunkard! See if we care!"

Rudbeck appeared momentarily taken aback and looked if anything rather apologetic as he reflected on Sasha's words. However, a smile returned to his face as he addressed his crew of mechanics, "My friends, my comrades as we met in love, let us part in love. I have full faith in your abilities, so please have some faith in mine."

The three mechanics at first eyed Rudbeck suspiciously, followed by looks of alarm as he took two steps to the right, then three to the left before walking straight into a wooden crate of ammunition.

"Maeda!" Rudbeck shouted from where he lay on the bay floor, "Help me to my mech!"

Maeda looked questioningly at the chief mechanic, until she offered a brief nod before he moved to help the former pirate. Johnson stood fretfully nearby the pair in case the mechwarrior experienced further problems with his balance whilst Sasha uttered a series of angry Russian words, which Rudbeck could only assume were some form of curses before storming off in the direction of the command room.

Finally sitting within the cockpit of the Griffin light mech, Rudbeck sat down or rather fell into the command chair, winking conspiratorially at Maeda as the mechanic returned his gesture with a smile and words of luck before departing, closing the entry hatch behind him. Alone in the cockpit Rudbeck smiled warmly as he lovingly ran a hand across the throttle and main joystick of his mech. Cast out of metal and painted in a now faded black they spoke of the long years of service the humble mech had endured. With a flip of a switch and a quick series of commands entered into the Battle Computer the ancient machine began to buzz with life.

"So, Triss, it is time to see if we are really alive once more and perhaps to finally wake up from this dream." Rudbeck whispered to the mech as if he was afraid that someone would hear him.

The voice of the computer rose in reply, ""Are you sure what side we are on?"

"We are always on the losing side." Rudbeck answered smiling. "You know that my dear."

"Voice print confirmed. Welcome back Rudbeck, are you ready for some questionable activities?"

"Always my love, always." Remi answered with a laugh. "Let us have our dance."

"This is Cutlass, ready op." Rudbeck announced over the comms as he red-lined the throttle of the Griffin and burst out of the hangar as support personal threw themselves out of the way and the bay controller burst into a fit of cursing at "the ***** piloting the Griffin."

Edited by Vodkavaiator, 15 August 2012 - 08:14 PM.

[ChaosGrinder]

She stood outside the hangar, idling.
" So what´s up , are you all lazy ******** ? I guess there´s stuff to burn, twist and smash ! What are F*ckin´ wating for ?! "

Turning around she waved her Atlas´ hands at the rest of the group. Silly people. How could one wait if there was plenty of stuff to destroy ? She started to grow impatient.

"Cmoooon ! Guuuys ! Move your A**es ! "

[Sparks Murphey]

Sierra pulled the Trebuchet back to a stroll, and almost got flattened by Dirk’s Helepolis hot on her heels. Just barely jinking the ‘Mech to the side, she did a quick head check of the ‘Mechs outside the hanger. It looked like the guy in the full face helmet, Kazzen, and the creepy new guy Barret weren't out here yet.

“Hey, Outlaw, I think your mic is off. It’s the little red button marked ‘Eject’,” she jibed, “D’you want us to send Dirk over there to sort it out? Or should Spitfire fix it with her Acka?”

She carefully didn’t say anything about Barret’s absence. He was...unsettling, and she wasn’t about to go calling him on his silence.

[Xinaoen]

New Tombstone's rock formations (on a clear day).

---


Location: FRR Garrison "Fort Shear"
Time: 14:35

The weather today was lousy, even by this planet's standards.

A violent wind was blowing from the south, carrying with it a swirling haze of twisting dust; it'd take a sharp-eyed pilot to see anything past about thirty meters through the almost-total "brownout," as the locals called it. Strange shapes loomed in the fog. Upon closer inspection, they were revealed as loops and spires of pocked red stone: bizarre formations carved out by millennia of almost-constant buffeting winds. In clear weather, it was rather scenic; nobody was sightseeing today.

Private Greg Martin liked windstorms.

He was supposed to be patrolling the perimeter, but nobody was going to come out in this weather to make sure that he wasn't slacking off. He'd parked his Jenner in a shallow ditch, where it'd be invisible from the base even under clear skies; a bottle of contraband rye kept him company in his cockpit. He'd powered down just in case anybody came looking for him, but it didn't seem likely. Patrolling out here was stupid enough, let alone patrolling for the patrols.

"It's not like anyone would bother to attack us," Greg muttered to himself.

---

Jean Owen checked his map, and grunted with satisfaction. He'd ordered radio silence as a precaution, but his prior calculations told him that Alpha team should be in position near the comm station by now. Meanwhile, his own team would be arriving at the garrison within the next minute or two; then the real fun would begin. Jean grinned. If everything went well, he'd be retiring in style after this mission; it seemed appropriate that the DCMS would be the targets. One final act of defiance before disappearing into the night. Any minute now -

Jean braked hard as he crested a ridge; his reaction was fast enough that he barely managed to avoid tripping over the powered-down Jenner crouching in the ditch before him. He could actually see the FRR pilot staring slack-jawed at him through the ferroglass of the 'Mech's cockpit, as if the man couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. That made two of them.

Jean opened his comm, struggling to keep his voice under control in spite of his fury.

"Hammer, this is Exile. Open fire. Repeat: open fire." Jean struggled not to swear into the comm. "Take that microwave dish out now, Dirk. We've been made. Over."

The Jenner's limbs began to twitch as its power-up sequence began; Jean swore, and then yanked a lever. His 'Mech's foot crashed into the Jenner's left torso, knocking the light 'Mech over onto its back. It was at times like this that he missed the Catapult C1's four medium lasers.

"Look alive, people," Jean barked. "Things just went and got interesting on us."

Edited by Xinaoen, 20 August 2012 - 11:35 AM.

[ChaosGrinder]

" YEAH BABY ! THat´s how i like it ! Raiders roll. " , she screamed into her comm and sped her Atlas up.

She stayed around Dirk and his big-a** artillery walker. Her music was loud as allways, but she didn´t care. She was here for destruction, for burning mechs, running infantry, collapsing buildings.

Then the call came. " Open fire." That was all she needed. The time was right for some heavy carnage. She activated her sonsors and prayed someone would come and look for Dirk and her. She requested targed markers from the Teams and got ready to unleash tons of ammo and gigawatts of laser energy. She could allready smell the burning gas and the hot, twisted metal.

" Get me target markers guys ! I got 20 missiles for you ! "

[RogueSpear]

Dirk hastily grabbed at his throttle and yanked it hard to reverse, the big mech juddering slightly as he fought to balance it's forward momentum. He was passing through a small valley with the big Atlas, sweat breaking out on his brow.
I can't shoot through this hill.
"Hold please, hold!" He nudged the throttle up to 20 kph, enough to start walking forwards and hit his jets, rising gently over Meredith's head, slightly scorching her paintjob.
Not that Dirk noticed as he slammed into the side of the cliff, digging his left arm into the rock and bracing while his jets recycled, hanging off center to keep the barrel of his sniper from being fouled in the rock. The loose rock crumbled around him, the mech beginning to slide dangerously as he shifted weight slowly and continuously, just enough to keep him from sliding into thin air. Bony fingers darted across his controls, far more complex than that of a normal rig, the second keyboard inputting precise amounts of power hastily worked out by muttering lips. Fuel restored, he pulled the mech up by the arm and kicked backwards with the legs, triggering his jets and sending a small landslide cascading behind him as he turned in mid air, landing gracelessly but efficiently on the opposing bank. Throttling up, he spun his torso to face the direction of the array, comms chatter from the two combat teams unheard from his speakers as he calculated.
Pen and paper appeared in his hands as he pulled a 360 revolution in his chair, the nib stabbing at a control, bringing maps, coordinates, and homemade simulations onto auxiliary monitors as he worked out the firing arc from his position. Lacking an original targetting computer, Dirk had been unable to fully rebuild an 'efficient' program for controlling the artillery piece.
Idly he wondered if it was a worrying thing that he could plot the firing arc for an artillery piece, factoring in wind speeds, horizontal and vertical distances, opposing objects, and other factors to a greater degree of accuracy than the computer, faster than it would take. But he discarded the thought as he came up with his final answer, deciding he merely needed to brush up on his programming skills.
"New arc plotted, sorry for the de-" The voice of the sniper reaching out silenced his own, even to his own ears, "-d not yet reached established points. Round has fired, please confirm arrival. ETA in...6...5...4...3..." The loud thunk of another round chambering could be heard even through his sound suppressing headphones.
As he counted down to one with his dashboard clock, it suddenly occurred to him he should unmute Meredith's channel now the battle had started. Music or no, Nik would murder him if he found out. "Do we have arrival? We should have had arrival." He asked anxiously.

[Sparks Murphey]

A little part of Sierra always panicked when she heard Dirk make that call. She could laugh at the idea of a lance of Atlases chasing her, confident in her ability to outshoot anything she couldn’t outrun. But Dirk’s Sniper spat explosive death out to 9 kilometres. There was no outrunning it, just the hope that it would miss you by enough. And every time he called “Round has fired”, it usually meant he’d fired it at something near her. There was always the chance that he’d get a number wrong, or stumble at the wrong moment, and the high-explosive shell would drop on her ride instead.

Bright orange blossomed through the swirling dust and she released the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. “Confirming round arrival, Hammer. Ah, it looks like...” she struggled to see through the thick dust. The buildings of the comm relay were silhouetted against the fireball “...looks like you’ve overshot, I’d guess by about one-zero-zero metres. Good line, though.”

Sierra winced as she realised that now he’d be walking the shells back towards her, based on a rough guess through the dust. Hopefully Nik could get close enough with his electronics to scope it more accurately.

A hulking shape suddenly loomed out of the brown mess. A shape with a hatchet. It seemed to be preoccupied with the explosion, but recovered quickly as it saw her Trebuchet. Sierra slammed her ‘Mech into reverse as it raised it’s arm.

“Contact!” she shouted into the mic.

[RogueSpear]

Dirk winced as Sierra confirmed the miss. He'd been so sure he'd got his math right...He sighed as he adjusted the sniper's elevation slightly. He must have got the relative vertical difference wrong - he'd need to stop playing with the sensor kit, just as soon as he had finished tweaking it.
"Apologies Sierra, delivering second rou-" He heard her scream of 'Contact!' just as he fired again. He bit his lip to keep from shouting down the line asking what was happening, from screwing things up by desperately calling for a play by play.
He breathed out slowly, and laid his fingers at the ready lines on the keyboard. "Pack-kage delivery in s-seven...six..." He whispered shakily into the mike. "Please c-confirm arrival."

[ChaosGrinder]

Heyoh, what´s that ? Action without me ?! I feel scammed ! " she shouted and turned around.

Five green beams of stone-melting hot light shot through the air and hit a big rock behind them. The stone molded like glass and the wind formed a complex sculpure from molten rock.

" Damnit, i want do do something", she said to herself impatiently. The waiting killed her almost every time.

Suddently a red marker flickered across one of her target screens. " Yeah baby ! I got a marker from you ! ... oh f*ck this, you´re 3.5 miles away ! Bring them to me ! " she laughed and started another scan. Maybe she had luck now and someone would go looking for her...

[RogueSpear]

Dirk was shaken from his reverie even as in the distance his second shell shook the earth. The unmistakeable sound of rock splitting under laser fire still echoed through the valley behind him. "Fire in the valley, marking coords, moving to support Spit!"
He quickly shuffled the big mech into a run, jetting through the air above the canyon, clearing the small hillocks around him by a good twenty or thirty metres. Desperately his eyes swept the valley, trying to see what Spitfire was shooting at, but failed. "Spitfire, what is it? What do you see?" He called desperately into the mike. Rock crumbled underfoot as he skirted close to the edge.
Rock! That's it!
Hastily he unmuted her mike and the constant broadcast of third rate rock bombarded his speakers again. "Spitfire, say again, what are you shooting at?"
More rock tumbled into the valley below him as he skirted round, the sniper depressing as much as it could as he leaned forward, ready to eliminate whatever was beneath him in a single shot.

[ChaosGrinder]

" Wha- ? Nothing . I am horribly bored. I shot a F*ckin´ rock. Calm down buddy. I got your back. " she said with a laugh and waved her Atlas´ hands as the mech would dance.

" Scan returned nothing", she sighted. Opening the Heat-distribution-panel she activated all of her heatsinks. Instantly the red bar dropped below 1%.

" It is .. eerily quiet. Where are this lazy ******** ?! They can´t be Fapping all day ?! "

[RogueSpear]

Dirk sighed in exasperation. Really? We're trying to hide out here and she's just blasting away at **** at random? She didn't even have her sinks on! If they've got thermal imaging sats we're screwed. Hell this b*tch is supposed to be guarding me, I'd need to trap myself in a crumbling canyon and wait for them to cause a cave in just so she could see any ambusher's weapons fire!
"Can you not do that? I thought we were under attack. And turn off the music! I can barely hear anything anyone's saying over that cr*p!" He tried to tune into the two combats breaking out, but over the loud 'music' he could only catch one word in three.
Probably didn't help his ears were still ringing from the last round he fired.
He turned the Helepolis to move back to his previous position, possibly advance to one of his planned firing positions, but the rock beneath him finally gave way. With a startled cry, Dirk tried to swing the sniper clear as the big mech slammed into the ground and sliding towards the edge of the canyon.

EDIT: Skipped a line. Oops. I need sleep.

Edited by RogueSpear, 21 August 2012 - 06:31 AM.

[ChaosGrinder]

" I hate idling maaan. This is killing me ! I need to blast something ! "

She turned around and with a shout, she pushed her mech forward. " Dirk fell over ! You don´t fall down there, i dare you ! "

" Stay with me buddy, i want your gun behind me ! " Spitfire shouted and ran for Dirk´s Helepolis sliding toward the canyons edge. Truning down her blasting music, she stomped forward.

" Artillery down, i repeat, our fife support is temporarily not awailable ! " she shouted over the comm hoping Dirk would be up in time.