MechWarrior: Shadow Company
Chapter four
Fine… I don't own anything in this story except the plot. And a few characters…
(AN) The call signs for the lance are as follows: Alison- Shadow cat
Cory- Black knight
Eric- Warrior
Fox- Samurai
"Woohoo!"
"Stow it, Culwell!" Fox said as he hacked another Mech in two, jumping away just out of range of the reactor explosion.
"Sorry, sir."
"They're ganging up on me, dammit! I need backup!" Alison yelled over the radio.
"Rodger that, Foxtrot three, Foxtrot lead is on his way." Once he had finished putting a gloryfire out of commission he ran off toward Alison's position. "Foxtrot two, cover the air!"
"Rodger sir!"
In the rear view, Fox saw Eric take to the skies.
"Shit! Toads!" Cory yelled, near panic.
"Two! Air strike those damn toads!"
Suddenly a computerized voice came from nowhere. "Foxtrot four down and out. Mission failed. Terminating simulation."
"Damn! Sorry guys, my bad."
"Cory, if you keep this up we'll never get past this training session!"
"Quiet Eric! It's not his fault. We weren't expecting elementals to show up right there."
"Thank you Alison. Now then, we are going to do this again…" The whole lance started to moan. "Quiet! We are going to do this until we don't lose a single Mech. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir…" They all replied.
"Good"
They continued training until lunch.
At lunch Cory plopped down next to his other two lancemates. "God, am I glad to be out of those simulators!" He said as he stabbed at his steak.
"Me too, but be ready to go right back in there and have a new surprise." Eric said as he finished chewing. "This is how the Vulparian Elite Guards train."
"Hold up. How do you know about the Vulparian Elite Guards?" Alison asked.
"Simple," He stuffed more steak in his mouth. "I was raised on Vulparia."
"What? I thought humans weren't allowed to live on Vulparia unless they were in the… Military. Oh. So, you were in the Vulparian Royal Army at some point?"
"Yes. That's how I got my LAN." He replied.
They sat talking the rest of lunch. Afterwards they left, but as soon as they got out the doors the speakers came on.
"Foxtrot lance report to the briefing room."
"Well, now what do they need us for?" Asked Eric.
"Probably just got assigned to trash duty." Cory answered.
The walk to the briefing room wasn't very long. They were there in only a few minutes. Fox was already waiting for them.
"Glad you ladies decided to show up." He said as a greeting. "Take your seats and listen up."
"Now, we have been selected by the high command to be part of patrol unit. Since we have some of the faster Mechs in the field we are to patrol the perimeter around the clearing. We also have to hook up with Charlie lance from the Bulldog. They, however, are a light lance, so they won't be much help in a firefight. They have a Cougar as lance commander, two Osisris MODs, and a Raven. Any questions?"
No one raised a hand.
"Good. We have thirty minutes before we meet up with Charlie, so get a shower or a quick nap, but be in your Mechs by twelve hundred. Dismissed."
With the end of the briefing, they all headed to the Mech bay.
Fox jumped up to his Mech's head and got in. He started the reactor and got in the cooling vest while putting on the neurohelmet. He finished and saw that the rest of his lance had also come online.
"This is Samurai to Foxtrot lance, you guys ready?"
"Warrior is ready OP."
"Shadow cat reports ready OP."
"Black knight, give me a target."
"Alright, fine." He switched over to the command frequency. "Samurai to command, reports ready OP."
"This is command. Aren't you leaving a little early?"
"We want to be punctual, command."
Alright then. Opening the bay doors. Be careful out there."
As promised the gantry doors began to drop, and Foxtrot lance was ready to hunt.
"Foxtrot lance, form up on my lead." Fox commanded as he walked his Mech down the gantry.
Once they had moved to the randevous point they stopped their Mechs and stood at a Mech's form of attention. After about twenty minutes Charlie lance showed up.
"Finally!" Fox sighed over the radio. "I was beginning to think you got lost in that maze of dropships."
"Hahaha. Very funny." The apparent leader of Charlie lance replied. "Now, can we get this patrol over with? I got a date."
"Whatever you say."
The greetings over, they started the patrol. Two hours later they arrived at NAV point EPSILON, a little bit before were they had started. "Well, nothin here but grass and trees." Charlie lead said.
Suddenly, alarms started going off, and two groups of five red blips popped up on the radar.
"Shit! Shit! Shzzzzzt!" The radio cut off abruptly.
"Charlie four, come in!"
"We've been ambushed! Foxtrot lance, take up defensive positions!" Fox ordered as he ducked his Mech behind a large tree. He looked around and saw that the rest of his lance had gone behind cover as well.
"Bulldog, this is Charlie one, we've been ambushed by the clanners! Charlie four is down and ahhhhh!"
Static filled the radio. Fox watched helplessly as Charlie one's Mech's cockpit was torn apart by a PPC and the pilot disintegrated.
Fox grabbed his Mech's controls and jumped out from behind his cover, firing one well placed shot before hiding again. He knew he had hit his mark when he heard (and felt) the loud 'thud' of a Mech hitting the ground.
He fired five more times, taking down three Mechs, before the clanners found the tree, and fired on it with a vengeance. He checked his radar to find there were only four Clan Mechs left. Suddenly his Mech was hit, his computer told him he now had some damaged shoulder armor.
Then the firing stopped, and a voice came over the radio. "This is Star Captain Peter of Clan Jade Falcon. You are outclassed here. If you surrender now, we will make you our bondsmen."
"This is Sergeant Geoffrey Freedman of the Inner Sphere Army. I do not believe you would be making this offer if you were not afraid of what my lance has done to your binary. So now I make you an offer, power down, surrender your Mechs, and we will take you bondsmen."
"Why you insolent little… very well, we withdraw out offer of life. Now you die!"
As the Star Captain finished, Fox once again leapt from his hiding place and fired another light gauss slug, but this time he didn't hide again. Instead he ran straight towards the Clanners, katana held high, ready to slice a Mech in two. The gauss slug hit home, he had targeted the Star Captain's Mech. The slug slammed into the cockpit, killing Star Captain Peter in an instant.
The plan had been to kill the commander and disorganize the rest of the Mechs. And it had worked. The rest of the Mechs started to lose their bearings, and were now easy prey.
Fox hit his jump jets and went sailing over the Clan Mechs. He landed behind them and yelled over the radio. "Fire!"
The Foxtrot Mechs came out from cover and fired one volley.
Eric's SRMs leapt from their launchers, while his experimental laser gattling gun shot out beam after beam of intense green light.
Alison's ER lasers darted at the Clanners, one hitting a Puma's arm and the other stabbing its leg, while her LRMs launched forth a barrage of missiles that slammed into the Puma's other arm.
Corey's ER lasers danced across the Clanner Mechs, while his Auto cannon crushed a Ryoken's cockpit, and his missiles hit the Puma's previously damaged arm, destroying the PPC housed within.
The Clanners fired back, but few shots hit anything but trees. One PPC slagged some armor off Cory's chest. Some SRMs also hit Eric's leg armor, but did little more than scratch it.
Then Fox added his own power to the mix. He charged in at the Clanners from behind, who had apparently forgotten he was there. Using his katana, he sliced through a Hellhounds Auto cannon arm. The pilot had thought that hiding behind the others would save him, but the sudden lose of weight caused the Mech to tilt over and crash down on its good arm, destroying one of its ER lasers.
During this time, another volley came from the Foxtrot Mechs. They all concentrated on the remaining Puma. When it went critical, only the Hellhound was left. Fox activated his external speakers. "Clan Mech pilot, I herby claim you as my bondsman. You now serve the Inner Sphere under my direct command."
The Clan pilot also activated his speakers. "Aff, sir. I accept my position of Bondsman." He sighed.
Fox turned his Mech to look at his Lance. "Good job guys."
"Shouldn't you be more careful around a Clanner?" Cory interrupted.
When Fox replied, he had a slight growl in his voice. "Yes, Corey. However, I have taken this one bondsman. Show him the same respect you would show another lancemate, now help him up."
"Yes, sir." They replied at once.
Fox called back to Charlies two and three. "Charlie lance, this is Samurai- give me a sit-rep."
"This is Charlie two, thanks for pulling our butts out of the fire Foxtrot. We're back at the Bulldog getting repairs. You running or what?
"Hell, no! I may be a fox, but I don't run from my enemies. I kick their asses!"
"Wait, you mean to tell me that lance of yours took down ten Mechs?"
"Well, only nine; we took another one bondsman."
"… Rodger. We'll tell command to expect you with a guest. Charlie two, out."
End Chapter
I forgot how to spell my friend's name, so that's why theirs two spellings of Cory.
Sorry, I forgot the quote for last chapter. Both of these are from some random website my friend found. He printed them out and gave them to me, he also said that their were a lot more there so I should have plenty of quotes from now on.
"Whenever you have plenty of ammo, you never miss. Whenever you are low on ammo, you can't hit the broad side of a barn."
"If only one solution can be found for a field problem, then it is usually a stupid solution."
I only got one review this time but I'll update anyway.
Thank you, Ogerwolf1 for being my only reviewer! And thanks for the tip. P
