Chapter 5: The Longest Patrol

Silence pervaded the cockpit of John's Commando yet to him, it was music to his ears. John had muted his intercom once they had reached Nav Alpha, not wanting to listen to anymore of Dead-eye's crackpot stories that he felt were more appropriate for a barroom setting instead of a patrol. The designated nav point was empty, as John had suspected and they quickly continued onto the next objective.

John checked his HUD and noticed that Nav Beta was only 200 meters away. I guess I'll flip this line of communication back open now. I'm turning it off once we're headed to Gamma though.

"...And so there I was on Taeron IV. I had two Clints on me in the front and three Jenners in the rear. With only one salvo of LRM left I...", Dead-eye stopped momentarily as they were both interrupted by the automatic phrase of Nav Beta reached. spoken by their onboard computers. John silently thanked the soulless computer voice as Dead-eye's voice could no longer be heard. John noted that they were making excellent time on their objectives as he torso twisted his mech left to right.

"No enemies here, sir.", he reported over the intercom. As John cycled through the radar and prepared to throttle to Nav Gamma, he noticed that Dead-eye was completely still. His mech's torso was tilted slightly to the northwest, the exact direction that the three other mechs took off in. Before John could shoot an inquiry, Dead-eye frantically shouted "Shut down! NOW!".

John immediately obeyed his orders and shut down his mech, watching the arms of his Commando go limp like a rotten banana. Although John did lose focus once in a while, he was never one to back down from a fight. But this completely alien tone of voice that Dead-eye had shown concerned John. God, what's going on? Dead-eye may be a pompous jackass, but even I know he wouldn't be worried about anything on Venza unless it was something big.

Seconds passed, then minutes. John could feel a bead of sweat rolling down his neck ever so slowly as he scanned the horizon in front of him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but John knew that looks could be deceiving especially in a combat situation. Feeling his throat parched, John wanted nothing more than to power up his mech and throttle back to the barracks for a nice cola. But he knew that powering up his mech in an unknown situation like this would be foolhardy. Shifting around in his seat, John's mind wandered to the possible causes of this alarm. Pirates perhaps? The Combine did say that there was light pirate activity here but then why would Dead-eye get so alarmed? Perhaps there's a bomb threat back at the barracks? What if Venza is being outright invaded? The Commonwealth and the Combine haven't gotten along greatly recently from what I've read...

John's thoughts were soon dispelled by a small crackle over his intercom.

"Kid, you there?", asked a gruff voice who was obviously Dead-eye.

John wondered if he was hallucinating as his mech was completely powered down, but he suddenly realized that there was a battery powered two-way emergency radio onboard his mech that operated at very low frequency bands as to avoid detection in times of crisis.

Finding the button for the radio, he pushed it and responded "Here, sir."

John thought he heard a sigh of relief as Dead-eye's voice boomed over the radio, "Alright good. Thought you might've had a heart attack or something. Anyway, we're clear to power up now so do it and then we can talk without draining the emergency battery."

John did as he was told, powering his Commando back up.

REACTOR ONLINE

PLANET: VENZA

SENSORS ONLINE

AMBIENT TEMPERATURE IS 95.1 DEGREES

WEAPONS ONLINE

LOCAL TIME IS 9:54 GST

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL

After the automatic power up checks were complete, John questioned the Roughrider commander about what had just happened.

"Well Kid, it's like this. Those three mechs you saw when we first started are three of my finest men. They had a patrol route pretty far from where we are in the northwest. I don't know if the DC told you this , but that's where all the reported pirate activity is."

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Dead-eye continued, "You see, one of my men detected an assault lance on his radar. No visual but if that radar was right, he wouldn't have lived to tell the tale of a visual in his light ass Panther. None of them would honestly. Shutting down was just a precaution in case there were any other units in the area."

John furrowed his brow at this unpleasant and unexpected news. This can't be right. Pirates with assault lances? It's not unheard of but I thought only pirates way out in the Periphery would have those kinds of units stocked up.

Dead-eye continued, oblivious to John's thoughts "Anyway, let's just finish this patrol and get our asses back to the barracks. My lance is already within 500 meters of base and we'll get a debriefing when we get back.".

John was silent but Dead-eye paid no mind as he began moving toward Nav Gamma. Letting the severity of the situation sink in for a moment, John finally headed for Nav Gamma as well.