AN:
Edited on Oct, 16th 2014Fixed some grammatical issues for the convenience of the readers.
Chapter TwoAboard Comstar Union-Class Dropship "Trident"31. March 3058, 12:00 Terran Standard Time
Deep Periphery, approaching Planet TZ-908Sitting in my 'mechs cockpit, the only thing I could do was waiting while being pushed into the pads of my seat from the decelerating of our "Trident" after passing the turn-over point. I tried to compensate the exhaustion of the stress by doing some meditation. Earlier, before the jump, we had moved our 'mechs into the dropping tubes. The transit our old 'Vanguard' provided was as smooth as possible. But the troubles started immediately after that. Our jumppoint wasn't empty as it should have been.
A little unarmed Tramp1-class jump ship was merely 5 klicks off our position. The combat patrol of our two Chippewa2 Fighters which was launched directly after our rematerializing had no other choice than to attack and cripple it with the support from the pair of Union's that had only started a little later and the remaining fighters after it refused to surrender, before it could withdraw in an emergency jump.
The intended destroying of a jumpship provided a sour taste, because there were not so many of them left and in the history it was forbidden to be attack them, even in the toughest battle. Our mission profile however left us no choice but to do it. Nevertheless, before being destroyed in a failed try to jump anyway after getting extensive damage, it was able to send a warning to its comrades on the planet.
After we sorted the puzzle with our ship sensor readings in the approach, it seemed that there was a clan outpost on TZ-908, but that it had been raided by a pirate band with an aged Overlord3 and a company of 'mechs. Due to their surprise attack they had been able to cripple the clan Union C-class4 on the ground into need of large repairs, but not without getting their own dropship damaged severely. The 'mechfights had been even crueler, for the clans had an absolute hate for pirates and the 'cowardice' of a sneak attack did the rest to set them on edge.
Without a functional dropship the pirates were unable to retreat and had no choice but to fight. In losing half of their 'mechs and damaging the rest, they were able to destroy two of the five clan 'mechs and most of the powerarmored clan infantry, called 'Elementals' (nicknamed 'Toads') which speaks for their combat abilities. In the aftermath the surviving mauled clan forces had retreated into the woods, seemingly to regroup.
Our problem now was that we had two enemy forces at hand, none of them to eager to see us, and no chance for the intended surprise attack. That led to some last minute changes in our plans. The company from the "Swordfish" was assigned to go after the remaining clan forces, while it would be our job to hunt down the rest of the pirates, which were chasing the rest of the clan garrison. The problems that we would have with the sensors wouldn't help either. But our opponents would suffer the same restrictions, what could lead to a merry hunt, which might continue for days, even weeks. The "Trident" would set for the nearly undefended base after dropping us and unload our infantry contingent with the tanks to take the remaining of the tattered outpost.
My look wandered above my safely stored equipment within the cockpit. Most of it was devices or weapons I didn't really expect to need, but I've learned my lesson early: that it's easier to spare something you brought along, than to anger about something you placed aside. As long it's reasonably transportable and you have enough storage, carry on.
An old metaphor out of one of my books ran through my mind: Watch your six, spare your ammunition and don't deal with dragons. Well, in some aspects we were working for the dragon, the Draconis Combine. So there should not been any problems from there, I resumed with a smile.
Via Intercom I received a message from Virginia. "It's bloody good to be on the way into fight and kick some asses again before rusting into uselessness, but has it to be this way?" she asked with a pained undertone in her voice. "If I would be sado-masochistic by birth, I would already joined those fighter jockeys", she huffed. Thomas, being our commander replied instead of me, "Virginia, we know that it's hard, especially for you to withstand those two G's. We are only another two hours from landing, so I fear you will have to stand it a little longer. It's not so that you are going through this for the first time, right?"
"The bloody hell you're right, but that doesn't mean that I must enjoy it, being squashed into strawberry jelly, does it?" Virginia answered.
I couldn't help it, but to insert, "Of course not Virginia-chan." Slyly I concluded in German, "Du bist nicht halb so genießbar, wie du sein müßtest um eine vernünftige Marmelade abzugeben."
After a silence of some seconds she flared, "Keiichi, you little sick bastard. I will get your ass for this."
Under laughing I shot back: "Surely, right after you found someone who holds the ladder for you to get there."
The resulting roaring laughter continued for some seconds 'til we sobered up again. After another remarkable dull hour we were contacted from the bridge to get our last mission updates and downloaded them into our computers.
After some considering of the latest plans and maps, Thomas resumed. "Upon the new scans it seems, that the pirates had really left the base almost defenseless. They pulled off all their 'mechs after the clans and they are altogether at least two days away from the base. What remained are three infantry platoons with some support weapons. No match for our boys with the support from their tanks. Hmm.. It seems that the pirates lost the direct contact to the clan forces, they got at least 40 klicks away. That means we should worry only about that six more or less damaged 'mechs and won't be caught in a crossfire. On the downside is that the woods are really massive. Jesus, there are some monsters of tree which are almost 90 meters high with the resulting diameter." "What a pity that it's nearly nine months 'til Xmas", Alicia joked. "Looks like we are missing the possibility to get a really amazing tree this year."
"Somehow my intuition tells me that our honorable Captain wouldn't approve the notion to get his bay filled with an oversized Xmas tree", William declined.
"And if he should, you would have to spend a fortune for the tinsel and the globes", I assisted.
After an other short, omnious pause Virginia stated adamantine: "I'm going to strangle anyone with his own guts, who insists to use me as a Christmas angel on top of that stupid tree, got it?"
"Cool down everybody", Thomas ordered. "Let's better do a last check before readying for atmospheric reentry. Keiichi, what's about our scramblers?"
"No sweat, boss", I replied, while checking my instruments. "I have chosen a special encoding algorithm with a build-in compress/decompress function. They might get something over the com if they are lucky, but I guarantee that they won't be able to decode anything, thanks to the new equipment we got. The shortness of our impulses will also hinder any attempt to locate us. The same I've done to our field communicators, which was a little trickier due their small size. ... OK commander, all system checks are done. Delta 5 reports final readiness and stands by."
One after another Virginia (Delta 4) in her Timberwolf, Alicia (Delta 3) in her Man o' War and William (Delta 2) in the last Timberwolf reported their status after checking their machines. So Thomas gave a last message to the bridge, "TacCon, Delta Star is green and standing by for drop."
Only a little earlier at the Masaki household.
After getting their backpacks the Masaki household, with the exception of Grandpa and Noboyuki, assembled at Washu's latest invention.
"Look's really weird", Ryoko said to Aeka, who seemed to be likewise unsure. The machine was a strange sight with all that cables and extensions around.
"Don't be so rude, Ryoko", Sasami insisted, cuddling Ryo-Ohki. "I'm sure Washu-chan did her very best to enable us our vacation."
"It always makes me grateful, that at least one person is able to pay tribute to my working", Washu said as she closed up to the gathered group. Interestingly enough her rucksack was floating behind her in the air. Obviously it was under her dignity to act as a beast of burden, even for herself and had done something about it.
"This is, as said before, my latest invention. It's an Nspace-folding Transporter device with a remote control, so I'm even able to operate it after the portal has closed after we got where we want to go. It's completely foolproof but conceptually spoken state-of-the-art. I don't want to bother you with technical explanations that you won't be able to understand, but this is one of my masterpieces. I've loaded the accumulators through the last days fully with the Solargenerator, so we have plenty of energy for our travel. If I would have used a normal plug our next electricity bill would have been marvelous. I've planned so far to visit different places, so each of us will get what he or she wants, earlier or later. That's OK so far?"
After a collective nodding, Washu continued. "For the first, what's about a little swimming at the ocean coast? I propose that we split our vacation into smaller bits, so we will be able to sleep at home, if we really want." With a little, affectionate smile to Sasami she said," But that doesn't mean that we have to. A small night camping out in the open might be adventurous, what do you think?"
Meanwhile in her back Mihoshi was examining the backside of the machine closer, full of excitement. With huge eyes she was watching every detail around. It wasn't really her fault, that she didn't see the wrench that lay forgotten on the panel. After looking at a small part on the bottom she stretched.
Unfortunately, her left hand touched the tool, sending it spinning down within the device. Worse, it directly went for the accumulators, short-circuiting them. Fail-safes tried to intervene, but it was too late and there was too much energy. So the machine did with full power in a twinkling burst what it was build to do, and the whole party left in a blinding flash of light.
1 Jump ship for interstellar Travel, able to transport up to two Drop ships.
2 Innersphere Aero-/Space fighter, 100 tons.
3 Spheroid innersphere Transport ship, for traffic ship to ship or to/from planet. No jump capacity (interstellar travel).
4 Spheroid clan Transport ship, for traffic ship to ship or to/from planet. No jump capacity (interstellar travel).