Berry ducked involuntarily. A PPC bolt lanced past the shoulder of her mech, passing so close she imagined she heard the spit and crack of the static charge through the armoured canopy of the Raven's cockpit. Straightening up in her seat, she glanced to her right to check on her lancemates. Falco's Locust was pounding ahead like an ostrich and Virus's Spector was raising dust close on its heels. Angel's Cougar was further away and a short distance behind them. As Berry watched, it was straddled by a flurry of explosions from a salvo of LRM rounds.
"Ow!" shouted Angel, and swore copiously. The former Clan mech stumbled, but stayed on its feet. Regaining its stride, it continued its headlong dash for safety, trailing smoke from its back.
Berry checked her readouts in the HUD. Speed fluctuating between 90 and 100kph, according to the gradients in the stony, gently undulating desert valley surface south of the base. A few scorches to her rear armour, but integrity otherwise good. Three red dots, representing the still-operational elements of the enemy heavy lance, were quickly falling behind, range 750m and increasing. Whether it was due to old optics, play in the joints and myomers or just poor gunnery, they were finding it hard to hit the fast moving scouts. Hits from weapons with the range had thus far caused little damage, and the lance was in good enough shape to withstand any more they might take.
All the Raven's weapons were loaded and ready to fire, although in this situation there wasn't much to shoot at. There was a red dot at the far left edge of Berry's scanner, but it showed as a Bulldog and would never get into range at the lance's current heading and speed. Nav Epsilon was 11k ahead. Friendly forces strong enough to withstand anything on planet were there to welcome them back into the fold.
Easy In, Easy Out.
Berry briefly considered how the sortie had gone so far and really couldn't fault a thing. Hornet lance had been combat-dropped about 20k out from their target and made their run-in to the Capellan base at Nav Alpha using a nap-of-the-land approach with sensors down, so as to draw as little attention as possible. Orbital recon through the wide, cloudless skies of Camp Marriott had given them a best approach and nav points to follow and they had used these to create their own route through the shifting sands north of Alpha that reduced the chance of them or their dust trails being seen from the base. The plan seemed to work. They had encountered nothing on the approach more threatening than a Sand Buzzard. Powering down at the muster point, the mechs had been parked in the lee of a huge dune and the lance's mechwarriors had studied the maps and recon on a folding table Angel had strapped to the leg of her Cougar. Three of them had pored over the images whilst smoking cigars and drinking a strange, alcohol-free brandy that Falco had supplied for the purpose. Berry had felt like a General from old Earth planning a battle in the North African desert. Falco himself had climbed to the top of the dune to study for dust plumes with binoculars. He had seen some on the horizon, but they had obviously been on a close patrol of the base and had stayed well off. Outside of his mech he was more comfortable with his own company, and Berry was happy to leave the veteran merc on watch, albeit with specific instructions to change over with one of the others if he felt the slightest bit tired.
After planning the route, they had waited for the appointed time, filling the time by playing cards and swapping stories. Periodically Berry would change the watch for a time to allow Falco to stretch his legs. He would spend the time checking over his Locust, the Braille Warning, and smoking his long, slim, spice-scented cigarettes. Berry had asked him once why he had given his mech such an odd name. He had smiled and responded, "because being a scout pilot is like the blind leading the blind."
The wait had been for their comrades from Dingo medium lance to draw off the mechs defending the base. They and the rest of the friendly forces had touched down at Nav Omega and set up a base, codenamed 'Wingate'. Dingo were to perform a hit-and-run on the south side of Alpha, luring as many assets as they could into a trap. There, the serious firepower of the two heavy lances, Charger and Bison, would cut them down. While this was going on, Hornet lance were to run through the base from north to south with cameras rolling, identifying any juicy salvage and targets for later operations and causing as much damage and chaos as they could on the way through, before making a break for Omega and the safety of their comrades' weapons umbrella.
This attack was just the first stage of an overall plan to strike at the four oddly isolated bases scattered across the barren western landmass of Camp Marriott, a Capellan world near the border with the Federated Suns and the Periphery. The bases formed the corners of a rough rectangle in a parched valley. Wingate had been erected roughly at its centre. All of the Liao outposts were close enough together to strike at from Wingate, but far enough from each other to make mutual support difficult.
The merc force was made up of elements of the Heron Rifles and the 66˚ Caribinieri, two mercenary commands in the employ of House Davion. The Herons had supplied Hornet, Dingo and Bison lances, whilst the 66° had brought Charger lance to the operation. The two companies had worked together before and the pilots knew each other well. Berry had chuckled at the pre-mission briefing as individuals scanned the room for familiar faces and old friendships, rivalries and love affairs had been silently rekindled by momentary glances.
The combined unit were charged with attacking each of the Liao sites in turn, denuding them of as much defensive materiel as they could, before returning to each, destroying any remaining defences piecemeal and plundering anything of value they could find. The deal said they could keep any salvage they recovered.
The opening of 'Operation Doorbell I' had played out perfectly. Hornet had powered up at the time agreed and followed their route between the dunes to the outskirts of the base. They achieved complete surprise and destroyed two laser turrets while they were still pointing southwards, toward where Dingo lance had made their lightning attack. The remaining emplacements had turned their guns on the onrushing light mechs, but their fire was ill-coordinated and three more were destroyed as they charged past. Virus and Falco then found the turret control tower and levelled it, leaving base defence in the hands of a few light tanks and skimmers and a heavy lance of punchy but tired designs. They had been picketing an area beyond the southern perimeter and immediately turned back towards the base, but too late to do anything about Hornet lance's brief rampage through it. The tanks and skimmers dotted around the base were destroyed piecemeal by Berry and her comrades as they came upon them. They also took two generators and a communications complex out of action, further weakening the site, before charging on, using the remaining buildings as cover against the fire of the returning heavies. By the time they crossed the southern threshold, they had already bypassed the defending lance, ducking and dodging incoming lasers, missiles and projectiles whilst attempting to score some hits of their own. They had concentrated their fire on an already-damaged Crusader, presumably hit during Dingo lance's earlier sortie. Combined fire disabled one of the Crusader's legs and left it virtually stranded. The remaining heavies, two Catapults and a battered-looking Warhammer, gave chase to little effect. Hornet lance were out and free.
They thumped on through the wilderness, with Epsilon ahead. The rest of the Herons at Wingate would not be rushing out to meet their kin. The hope was that their location and strength on planet would not yet be known by the defending Liao forces, so strict discipline remained in force.
"Berry!" Angel's voice on the comms. Dammit. Still a long way from safety. "Berry, I've got incoming bogies on my right. Scanners show them as choppers. Warriors, mostly, with Cavalrys and Nightwinds mixed in. Jeez, there must be twenty aircraft out there, closing in fast."
"Shit." If left unchecked, the massed choppers were fast enough to slot in behind the retreating scouts and lacerate their rear armour. Alternatively, Hornet lance could stand and fight and risk being pounded to atoms by their massed fire, as well as allowing the outpaced heavies to catch them up and join in the fray, with surely fatal results. Not much of a choice. Decision time.
"Hornet lance, turn towards the incoming choppers. Try not to get tangled close up, but pick them off with as much range as you've got. They won't need much to take them down, but don't let them swarm you, or you'll be in trouble. And keep moving!"
She watched as her lance veered right to meet the attackers. The swarm of red dots now filled a bright wedge on the edge of her scanner. She watched as Virus reached the point where his large laser came into range. The weapon lanced out a beam and a chopper slowly began to tumble from the sky. Angel followed, despatching more with ER large lasers and LRMs. Falco tried to bat another away, but his mediums had neither the range nor the power. The Locust got too close and was engulfed in a cloud of missile fire. Instead of turning, however, he charged straight on under the cloud of helicopters, causing them to hesitate and turn after him. Two collided whilst manouvering.
"Ha ha!" shouted Virus, gleefully. "That's five down already."
Falco, you're a genius, thought Berry. Mad, but a genius. The choppers were tightly packed and being so hemmed in, they seemed overcome by indecision. Berry got as close as she dared and alpha-struck into the chattering mass of aircraft. Another chopper slid woozily from the sky and nose-dived to its destruction. Weapons recharged, Angel and Virus picked off another two from the swarm. Berry flicked her HUD to check the condition of Falco's Locust. He had made it through the shadow of the hovering VTOLs and out the other side, and was now peeling round at top speed to make another run. Apart from a few upper body hits, the little scout still seemed in good shape, but Berry worried about his chances doing that again more than once.
A lock-on tone woke her from her tactical evaluation. A salvo of LRMs fell all around her, a couple crashing into the right side of her Raven. She opened her mouth to curse, but internalised it, ramping up the speed on her mech. The choppers were beginning to disperse
"What are we up to?" asked Angel. "Who's keeping score?"
"Forget the score. I want you all to get up to full speed and skirt round the remaining aerial threats. Try and keep at maximum range, but keep them penned in together. If we run round them in big circles, we might be able to confuse them and avoid being targeted. All commence corral manoeuvre, anti-clockwise, NOW!"
Her lancemates' mechs seemed to jerk surprisedly into action and began thudding in big circles round the chattering helicopters. Berry joined the procession.
"HERONS, FIRE AT WILL!" yelled Berry. To her surprise, she found herself laughing as she launched repeated alpha strikes into the buzzing mass of choppers.
This was a most ridiculous situation. Someone had fucked up. Hornet lance had played their part to perfection and had been on the run-in of a virtually perfect sortie. Then they had been ambushed by a veritable hive of choppers, meaning that someone had missed an entire airbase. There was an installation measuring several square kilometres within the mission recon boundaries, and someone had missed the whole thing. She laughed again. It was okay. The choppers were being cut down quicker than she expected and the heavy lance hadn't showed yet. Falco's Locust was looking a bit rough, but he was a big boy and he knew when to step back. The fire from the swarm was slackening as their number depleted. Hornet lance would get back to base and then they could find out why no-one picked this lot up. The blind leading the blind, indeed.
"Falco, break off and make for Epsilon. We can take the rest. Tell the force commander what has happened, where we are and that there is a possibility we have a part-lance of heavies inbound."
"Sir," replied Falco. The little Locust broke off from the circuit and opened up to full speed towards the horizon. The helicopters didn't chase him.
No sign of the following lance yet. They might have given up when the Hornets got out of range. If not, they would be here any moment. Berry looked up. Her lancemates had been doing terrible execution on the enemy machines. As she watched, Virus opened up on the choppers again and a Nightwind slid towards the ground. There were now only seven left. The ground was littered with wreckage and the Hornet pilots were having to keep one eye on their target and one on where they were going. She rounded a recently downed Warrior, keeping it between her and her target, and opened fire. The lasers missed, but the last two missiles in the salvo caught the chopper, a Cavalry, on the chin. The explosions caused it to reel, but didn't bring it down. Berry ducked behind another wreck and then out the other side, where she was caught by a barrage of SRMs. The Raven staggered and nearly collapsed. Warning panels lit up on the HUD. Her left leg and torso turned red in the integrity display. Another one of those and she might go down and not get up again. She waited until the Raven was steady again and lined up for another shot. The Cavalry was having trouble tracking the fast-moving Raven closer in and was still side on when Berry hooked up. She launched another alpha strike. The lasers caught the chopper high on the engine cover. The missile salvo plastered the helicopter's flank around the same area, but one caught it higher up on the rotor shaft. The hub came away, shattered blades falling like confetti. The Cavalry, suddenly separated from its means of support, dropped like a stone in an almost comical fashion to meet the desert floor with a shuddering impact. She checked the scanner again, but it was almost impossible to make anything out in the pulsing red glare of the warning lights in the cockpit.
"Aah!" A pained yell dragged her away. Virus's Spector was emerging from the smoke of a missile barrage.
"You okay, Virus?" The comms crackled, interspersed with curses and shouts.
"Missile impact made the fucking fire extinguisher go off!" The radio lapsed back into static punctuated by furious muttering.
Berry had to force herself not to giggle. She heard Angel also trying to stifle a laugh.
"It's not fucking funny! The cockpit's covered in white powder and I can't read half the screens!" shouted Virus. He brought down another chopper. There were now only four helicopters left. With so few remaining, they were harder to keep herded together and could move with greater freedom, making them harder to hit and their fire more accurate.
"Hornet lance, cease corral manoeuvre. Engage aerial targets at will." She spotted an opportunity immediately. A Warrior was trying to line up Virus, which allowed Berry to catch it unawares from behind. She fired all her weapons into the machine's underside and it tumbled out of the sky, exploding from within as its remaining munitions detonated. She saw another Warrior sliding crazily downwards beyond it.
"Status," Berry shouted.
"Two left," replied Angel.
"One left," responded Virus.
"JESUS!" Berry yelled. A fusillade of SRM rounds slammed into the Raven's back. The landscape rolled drunkenly as the mech pitched forward with the impact. What seemed like every single light and panel in the cockpit lit up with a burning red. "Ah! What the hell?!" A shadow passed over her cockpit. She looked up and saw the wreck of the last chopper roll lazily out of the sky from the top of her screen to crash lifelessly into the desert in front of her.