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[Jon Vekken]

The Set Up: This story shows what happened to the 17th Lyran Guard. Each post is a seperate section of the story.

This unit is based out of the Planet Persistance, near Bandit space. Thier job is to patrol the borders in the region and prevent the Bandits and the Free Rasalhague Republic

Here is a look at the color design of the unit. My Mech is a Jenner 7D:



So, without further delay.. here's part one...

[Jon Vekken]

Planet PERSISTANCE – November 3048

Hauptmann Fleigg stood in front of the assembled Mechwarriors. The Mech jocks were waiting impatiently for the days briefing. No one knew what today’s mission was. Two days ago, they had just come back from Toland. Rumors persisted that the Pirates had been massing at Icar, a single jump away from Persistance.

“Attenshun!” Hauptmann Fleigg cried out. The assembled men and women stood up and at attention. Hauptmann General Georig entered the room, flanked by Kommadant Schaefer.

“At ease boys.” The general said. “Today we have a special mission. The 17^th Lyran Guards are going to Icar.”

A collective gasp came from the room. Murmurs filtered around as Jon Vekken leaned over to his lance mate Robert Becker and commented; “Icar? That’s the place we last got our butts handed to us. I hate that place. Too much rough terrain to effectively scout in.”

“Alright, enough chatter boys.” The general continued. “We’re going in and routing the pirates once and for all. We’re going finally push them out of Fedcom space and let the Rashies deal with them.”

Jon looked at Robert. “The Rashies? Isn’t that where these pirates came from to begin with? The Free Rasalhauge Republic can’t control them. That’s why we’re here.” Robert nodded in agreement.

The general continued his plan for the engagement. 1^st Battalion was going in first. Shadow Company’s scout lance would recon the city of Togar, so that they would be able to set up a base of operations. The rest of the Regiment would come in after the city was secured. As the meeting came to a close, the mechwarriors moved out to their respective mechs to give them a once over before deployment.

Jon Vekken walked up to his mech, a two story tall Jenner. The mechanics were doing some final maintenance, making sure everything checked out. The armament was being loaded into the missile racks. He would have a full load of Short Range Missiles. He saw Robert coming up to him, already in his suit.

“Are you ready for this Leftenant?” He asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be. Hey Anna, how’s that hip joint on your Wolfhound?” Jon said.

Anna Vaine was climbing up into the mech when she turned and shouted down; “Yea, it’s working, I’m about to test it now to make sure.”

Anna climbed in and put on the neurohelmet. Even locked into the bay like it was, she was still able to raise the leg up at the hip. The mech looked ungainly with its right leg sticking straight out. She lowered the leg and Jon gave a thumbs up sign to her.

John looked over to his left and saw Gregor Hagan already moving his Javelin out of its moorings and over to the dropship. “Robert, get into your Panther and let’s get this over with. We’re first in, so we’ll do this by the numbers.” Jon said.

They parted and Jon climbed the ladder to the cockpit of his mech. Jon got to the top of the ladder as the head mechanic Jackson stood up from the cockpit. “She’s all yours Leftenant. I’ve checked everything out and she’s running fine. But be warned though, the second laser in the left arm is still a bit touchy. We’ve bolted down the wiring as best we could, but it’s still loose. If we had more time between missions, I’d pull the entire thing and give you a new one.”

Jackson handed Jon the neurohelmet. He clasped him on the back and then proceeded down the ladder. Jon put the helmet on and tested out the connections. He grabbed the left stick and rotated it around to see if the arm functioned properly. The arm moved flawlessly. Jon then flipped the switch cover up and targeted the Panther in front of him.

“Hey Leftenant! You’re locking on! What’d I do?!” Robert called through the comm system.

Jon laughed. “Nothing. Just testing out the weapons.” The targeting receptacle for one of the two lasers in the left arm held its target perfectly. The other one for the troubled laser shook around slightly. It wasn’t completely steady, but it wasn’t real bad either. It would have to do. He shut down the weapons system and signaled for the clamps to be removed. Working the foot pedals, he slowly moved the Jenner out of the dock and over to the dropship. It was going to be a long day.

Edited by Jon Vekken, 01 February 2012 - 08:01 AM.

[Jon Vekken]

Planet ICAR – November 3048

Jon Vekken walked his Jenner down the ramp of the Spherical dropship. They made planetfall two hours ago. He used the foot pedals to kick the mech into high gear and the rest of his lance followed suit.

“Keep those sensors set on high.” Jon said. “We don’t want any surprises. Last time we were here, they were camouflaged in the hills. Let’s make sure that won’t happen again.” Jon watched as the other lances of the battalion set up around the dropship, with the command lance heading for the very hills that he just talked about.

The Jenner trudged along for what seemed like hours, getting closer to the city of Togar. Nothing appeared on the sensors to indicate the pirates were in the area. The team finally came upon the outskirts of the city. Tall skyscrapers dotted the landscape. City fighting was always rough, but a light mech could move about with ease, especially if it had jump jets. Most of the buildings registered as hardened structures, easy to support the weight of a light mech. Jon checked his sensors. The buildings were blocking most of the signal. He had to get an aerial up.

“Tango Charlie.” Jon radioed. “Tango Charlie. This is Shadow Scout One over.”

“Shadow Scout One, this is Tango Charlie. Report your position.” Came the reply.

“Tango Charlie, we are in position outside the city. Aerial sensor buoy going up.” Jon said.

The wolfhound’s aerial sensor buoy shot into the sky, Sensor readings came in and Anna was able to see. “Leftenant, we have two targets in the southern part of the city. We are too far away to get a complete read on them.”

“Tango Charlie” Jon relayed; “We have two targets but unable to get complete read on them. We are moving in closer to get reads on them.”

“Understood Shadow Scout One.” Came the reply. “Tango Charlie out.”

“Ok folks, Let’s move out.” Jon told his lance.

They moved out along the southern roadways, moving along closer to the targets on Anna’s radar. They past a mall in a major business district. A park opened to the left when Anna’s voice came over the radio.

“Targets have spotted us and are moving to intercept. I count two… no, make that three mechs. Unknown weight class and configuration.”

Jon punched the jump jets to put the mech up on the roof of a nearby building. The mech soared up four stories and he guided it over to land on the hardened roof. His sensors, now no longer blocked, showed the incoming mechs. Readings on them were unclear. Either they did not register among the known database, or the sensors were still being fouled up from the buildings.

“Get ready team, they are only a couple clicks out.” Jon said. Just then, the klaxon sounded inside his mech indicating a missile lock. He took three steps towards the target and tapped the jump jets. The mech, as graceful as a two story machine can, stepped off the roof and dropped to the street below. Missiles impacted the building behind him where he once stood.

“They’ve got range on us. Scout Four, you’ve got range, take Scout two over to the main highway and set up. We’ll get them when they come into range of our LRMs.” Jon commanded.

Scout Two moved into position, his Javelin’s Long Range Missiles, primed and ready. The Panther set up next to him; the PPC warmed up and aimed. A large mech appeared about a click off onto the main highway. The two mechs targeted him waiting for it to be in range.

“What is that thing? It’s bigger than us!” Robert asked. He stood at the ready as the mech blatantly walked down the middle of the street, daring anyone to shoot at it. The mech got closer… closer... almost in range… just another 100 yards…

The two mechs exchanged volleys of missiles. The missiles flashed by, peppering the ground with a dozen or more hits. Robert ducked his machine around the corner of the building. Suddenly there was a flash and a green ball of energy slammed into Scout Four, shoving the mech back.

“What the hell was that?” came across the radio from Scout Four. “I just got hit with a PPC shot and I’m not even close to being in range.”

Another barrage of missiles screamed across the expanse. This time slamming full into the Javelin. The Javelin stumbled backwards, slamming into a building. Luck would have it, otherwise the mech would have fallen to the ground.

“Leftenant!” Came Anna’s cry over the radio; “Two more bogies just came onto radar! They’re behind us!”

“FRAK!” Jon cursed. He turned his mech to the new threat. One of the mechs was his size and coming up close. The odd design made little sense to him. What was this mech, something new? The right arm of the mech lit up and a green bolt smacked into his leg. The Jenner stumbled, but kept upright. Lights flashed on the panel, indicating heavy armor loss to the left leg. Jon thought as he finally came into range and loosed off his SRM pack. The missiles cratered the armor of this new mech, but did little damage.

A repeating blue flash came from the mech. Lances of blue energy caught the right torso of the Jenner, melting away the armor, a barrage of missiles shot out as well. This mech was not stopping. Jon wrenched the controls to stay upright. Lights blared on the dash. He locked on with his four medium lasers and fired. The heat spiked in the cockpit momentarily as it started to bleed off. Jon cheered as the mech rocked and stumbled back a bit.

Jon punched the fire button on his missile rack while waiting for the mech to cool a bit for another round of lasers. He got hit from another barrage of missiles and that pulsating laser beam. He didn’t know what it was, but it was some sort of new tech. The pirates didn’t have anything like this that they fought before.

Jon sidestepped a shot from this new mech. He fired off two lasers. One of which went wide, the targeting system just not cutting it. Cursing at the added heat for a useless weapon, he linked fire controls for the other three. Back-stepping, he went down a side street.

“This new mech is big! I’ve hit it with everything I’ve got. I’m running way too hot to do anything else!” said Gregor over the radio. “I’ve barely dented the thing! I’m pulling back to 4^th street”

“Leftenant, my Javelin’s pretty banged up. I’ve lost most of my armor after a scuffle with this small mech. Looks weird with his arms up over its head. That thing has speed beyond speed. I was finally able to cripple its leg so it couldn’t move fast. AND I’m out of missiles.”

“Scouts, let’s get out of here, regroup at Bay and 4th. We need to fall back and report in.” Jon commanded.

The four mechs broke off from the enemy. Surprisingly the enemy did not give chase. The larger mech kept firing its energy weapons at the retreating mechs. Jon’s lance evaded any more trouble and got to the outskirts of town.

Edited by Jon Vekken, 09 February 2012 - 06:38 AM.

[Jon Vekken]

Planet Icar – Togar City Outskirts

Anna’s Sensor buoy continued to relay information to the Scout lance as it retreated into the woods outside of Togar City. The sensor blips continued to grow in number as they left the city. Once they got away from the city and safely into the wooded terrain, Jon stopped the team.

“Ok scouts, report.” Jon radioed; “What’s our status?”

Robert spoke up first. “My Javelin is out of LRMS, I’m down to a few barrages of Autocannons and then it’s out except for a medium laser. My armor’s blasted all to hell. My right arm is useless, hanging limp. The servos in the shoulder are destroyed.”

“My panther is hurt bad.” Gregor replied; “The engine is leaking coolant. It’s mighty warm in here. I don’t dare fire off that PPC until I get some repairs. I’ve got a half load of SRMs available. They shouldn’t cook me too badly if I need to fire them.”

Jon reported that his one lasers was out of commission, that he had three loads of SRMs left, and his right leg was bare of armor. Anna reported in last.

“My wolfhound is still in decent shape. Some armor is gone, and one of my lasers is destroyed. My Large in the right arm is good still; though the arm is a bit stiff to move. As far as the enemy mechs, we barely dented them. The smallest one was limping after he took a shot from Gregor’s PPC. Any normal mech that size would have had that leg sheared right off!”

“I’ve also compiled the data from the sensor buoy. Scans indicated that the large mech we faced was in the Heavy Class of mech. Preliminary reads on it show that it had one LRM launcher; from the shots, it was a 15 pack. The mech also had a PPC. I saw another weapon that was fired. It was a Lubalin Ballistics-X AutoCannon from the looks of it. As far as the first two mechs, I lost sight of them as they circled around the buildings. Sensors indicated that they were of medium size. Unknown load-outs.“

“The last two mechs to join the fray were lights like us. However, the one you faced commander was big for a light. He had weapons and armor that shouldn’t be on a mech that size. That little one, if you can call it little, dashed around so fast, it reminded me of a Locust, except this thing had tons of weapons on it. It has two medium lasers, and two SRM launchers. One a six pack, and one a four. He’s limping, and the other guy’s arm was badly damaged. As far as the others, minimal damage.”

Jon radioed back to base. “Tango Charlie. Tango Charlie, this is Shadow Scout One. We took a beating. Some new kinds of mechs. Unknown design and markings. I’ve never seen mechs with a silver and green color combination on them. They had some sort of bird holding a sword as an insignia. Didn’t recognize it.”

“Roger Shadow Scout One. Status of battle?” Command radioed.

“Damage bad all over, missile racks almost empty if not already. Enemy status, damage negligible. One enemy mech limping.”

“Understood Scouts. Get back here, we’ve got two lances moving to your position. We’ll resup..<BZZZZT>” Just then, the radio went dead, static across the channel. Jon looked up and saw several large explosions to the west, where their drop ships were. Command had been hit, and hit hard.

“Damn it!” Jon said as he punched the console. He had to get back there. Unknown what was going on, but the battalion needed to regroup. “Ok scouts, on me. We need to get back to base. It’s under attack.”

It took roughly an hour for the scouts to get back to the drop point. When they got there, they were very surprised. The dropship was decimated. The thing was cracked open like an egg. Smoke and fire rolled out from various fissures in the shell. Everything lay in ruin around it. The support battalion, Grounder as they were called, lay scattered around. The tanks were smoldering, and the line of Jessies blown to pieces. There were two Atlas’ laying on the ground. Their fusion reactors shut down, the containment walls ruptured on both. Mayhem was everywhere, and yet, there was no sign of the enemy. A couple pieces of their mechs lay on the ground, yet nothing salvageable.

“Shadow Scout One to Battalion. Shadow Scout One to Battalion.” Jon radioed. “Do you read? Base decimated. Nothing left.”

“Assault One to Shadow Scout One.” Came a reply. “Glad to hear you’re still about. We’re regrouping at Delta X-ray. That’s Delta X-ray. We’ve radioed for everyone to regroup here. We have some supplies if you need them, and repair stations set up.”

“Roger that Assault One.” Jon replied. “We’re on our way.”

The Scouts headed west towards Delta X-ray. It was a small area in the hills, designated as a fall back point. The area had heavy deposits of ore that suppresses sensors. It was used effectively against the 17^th Lyran Guards when they were here last, this time it’s going to be in their favor.

[Jon Vekken]

Planet Icar – Mountain Fortress

Jon Vekken powered down his Jenner. Tossing the neurohelmet onto the console, he opened the mech. It was good to get out of the thing and onto solid ground. A couple of techs started to go over the mech and assess the damage. Jackson was at the foot of the mech waiting for Jon to come down.

“Afternoon Leftenant.” Jackson greeted. “I’ll get to work on her and the others as quickly as possible. We’ll get you patched up as much as we can.”

Jon shook the big man’s hand. Jackson turned and started shouting orders to what was left of his crew. He had lost three techs in the flight from the dropship. The weapons could be patched easily, but armor would be a bit more piece-meal. Jon knew that Jackson would do whatever he could to get the mechs ready for the next fight.

Jon met the rest of his team as they climbed out of their cockpits. As they looked over the damage to their machines from the outside, they were greeted by Hauptmann General Georig and Kommadant Schaefer.

“Sir!” Jon said as he saluted the general.

“At ease Leftenant.” HG Georig said while he saluted back. “We’ve received your transmissions. We’re glad you made it back in one piece. We’ve got a full team assigned to your mechs, because you won’t be staying long. We know that the force is superior in weaponry and superior in numbers. You’re the only scout lance left for us; our other two lances were decimated at the dropship. What we need is some more Intel. We need to know who they are, and who they work for. The design you indicated on the mechs do not show up in our database of known units. These guys came out of nowhere. We’re going to give you a day’s rest and then we’re sending you back out. We need that Intel, and if possible, we need one of those mechs.”

Jon and his crew moved off to get some food and a little rest. They were going to need it if they were going back out tomorrow.

[Jon Vekken]

Planet Icar – Mountain Fortress Day 2
Jon and his crew were sitting in the mess hall enjoying a cup of caf and going over the mission briefing. They were planning their strategy and the route they were going to take. Jon looked up from the maps when a member of the Shadow Tigers came in.

“Leftenant! A member of the Second Scout Lance is returning!” He reported to Jon.

Jon got up and headed out the door with the soldier in tow. The rest of his lance followed shortly after gathering up the maps and materials. Jon headed over to the entrance of the fortress. Coming up the long winding road was a Commando Mech.

“That’s Frank’s mech.” Jon mentioned. He walked up to where HG Georig stood. The mech looked to be in bad shape. The left arm was missing; the right was locked in position, the shoulder servos destroyed. The right leg was missing 90% of its armor, the knee exposed and damaged. The left hip was exposed, the wiring fried. A blackened section of the head was visible as well. It looked like it took several good hits. Surprisingly, the torso looked to be in great condition.

“Sir, something’s not quite right here. That mech is severely damaged, but the torso is clean.” Jon said to the commander.

“I see that.” HG Georig said as he turned to his radio operator. “Commander, get some guns trained on that mech. Something’s not right. Attention, mech pilot; stop your mech there and power down. “

The mech continued limping forward, heedless of the warning. “Stand down now.” Came another warning. The mech ground to a stop. The torso pivoted to face the General.

“She’s firing her missiles!” Jon yelled.

The SRM rack in the mech let out a volley of missiles straight towards him. Jon dove for cover as the missiles impacted the ground. Several people that were standing with the General were blown into the air when the missiles exploded. Jon was knocked around by the concussion wave. He came up to one knee as he looked at the carnage. His head was ringing and he could see more mechs pouring out onto the trail and others jumping into the sky, heading for the base.

Through the smoke, he could see his lance mates heading for their mechs. He saw Gregor climbing the ladder to his mech when a PPC hit the mech and blew shards of the torso away. When the smoke cleared, he saw that the ladder had been burned away where Gregor was. Jon tried to stand and stumbled. He looked down and saw the General laying face down in front of him.

“General!” Jon said, “Get up, we’ve got to get you to safety!” Jon turned the general over and stepped back. There was nothing he could do for him. He looked over to his mech. Jackson was waving at him. Jon stepped over the General and stumbled towards his mech.

Dodging machine gunfire from an enemy mech, he reached the base of the mech. He turned to see where the gunfire came from and saw that same light mech coming towards him. The Mech aimed at him and he could see the lasers powering up. Just then, the mech’s left side exploded as 185mm projectile punched through one side and out the other. The ground shook as an Atlas walked past, pushing the wreckage of the enemy mech aside.

Jon grabbed the ladder and started the climb. His hearing was coming back. He heard the screams of people as they lay injured and dying. He saw Anna starting to move her wolfhound out into the fray. Jon looked over at the Javelin and saw Robert lying limp in the cockpit. The right arm was blown off the mech and shrapnel had decimated the cockpit before he could close the canopy.

Jon donned his neurohelmet and powered up the Jenner, doing a quick check of systems. He was grateful that the laser was fixed, and that most of the armor had been patched. His SRM’s had been loaded up to 75% of capacity. He smiled at the status then looked up from the console. His smile faded as he saw a large mech staring at him, raising its arm up, and targeting him.

Jon punched the jump jets and he was slammed into the seat as the mech took to the air. The enemy mech fired and missed. Jon hit the maneuvering jets and shoved his Jenner towards the enemy. He angled his lasers down and fired them all, everything hitting the mech. The enemy started to back up to get a good shot off when Jon cut the jump jets. His mech slammed down on top of the heavy mech and crunched it. Jon punched the jets again to keep control of his mech and touched down on the ground.

The mech he hit was mortally wounded. One of Jon’s feet had crushed in the cockpit. His lasers had burned holes in the torso. Jon saw the MechWarrior n the cockpit, trapped against the support beams, unable to do anything with his mech. He turned and moved off in search of other prey.

“Anna, what’s your status?” Jon radioed.

“Leftenant, I’m in trouble! I could use your help here!” Anna replied.

Jon replied that he was on his way. He kicked the Jenner into high gear and followed the radar towards Anna’s position. Anna was moving between the trees trying to keep the enemy from getting a good fix on her. Jon saw that she was outclassed. A large hunched over mech was firing at her. It looked as though it didn’t have any missiles at all. The mechs continued to square off at medium range. Jon punched the jump jets to get a better angle on the enemy mech. He brought the targeting receptacles over to the mech and saw that one of the four wavered. He punched the console next to the joystick and the receptacle stopped wavering. He then pulled the trigger and four laser blasts shot out at the mech, two of the four scoring, the rest burning through the trees adjacent to him.

Jon dropped his mech to the ground and continued up at a light run. He saw his heat was coming down some and he fired off his missile rack. The six missiles corkscrewed through the air hitting the mech on the right side. The pilot of the mech seemed to not care about him, as he continued his assault on Anna.

The mech fired his weapons. Jon could not believe what he saw. Twelve lasers fired in rapid succession. Each one burning holes in Anna’s mech. The Wolfhound stumbled backwards, threatening to fall. Anna fired off her large laser into the mech, the mech seemed unfazed. The mech fired again, twelve lasers shooting out across the expanse between the two mechs. Anna’s mech was knocked backwards and slammed into a couple of trees. It broke through them and crashed to the ground.

“Anna! Get out of there!” Jon cried out as he saw on his radar that her core was breached. It was going to explode. Her auto eject system didn’t fire because the mech was on the ground. He saw the other mech turning towards him. He cursed.

“Oh no you don’t. You’re not getting away with this.” He said as he fire-linked everything he had. He targeted the mech and attempted to pinpoint a spot on the mech to do some damage. He targeted the mechs leg and fired. Every weapon on his mech fired and the enemy’s leg exploded. Overheat shutdown warning sounds echoed in Jon’s mech. Jon punched the override button to stop the automatic shutdown. He then fired his jump jets to get clear of the impending core explosion.

The Jenner flew back away from the two mechs just as the wolfhounds core breached. The resulting explosion flattened all trees within a hundred meter radius. The enemy mech was destroyed in the explosion. Jon’s Jenner caught the heat of the explosion, the automatic shutdown kicking in. His mech powered off to allow it to cool. Without power, Jon braced for the impact. The Jenner toppled to the ground. Even bracing, Jon felt pain as he was forcibly wrenched around the seat. His head banged against the console and he blacked out…