Budget Warriors: Your Equipment is built by the lowest builder
Writers Note/ Disclaimer: I dont own anything battletech related, except possibly a noxious green cloud, an old mattress and a unamused colony of spiders.
Woot, Breached 5,000 Words. Hopefully quality is keeping pace with quantity. Anyhow, keep reading and reviewing please it would sadden me greatly to have no reviews or readers. I kinda think things went to fast, but at the same time i'm not to sure how to make it slower..
The sound of metal on metal rumbled through the wide hallways of the refinery as Janos drove the Scorpion tank onwards as fast as he could, coaxing every scrap of power from its fusion engine as he could. The louding repeated pinging noise of his missile detection system blaring in his ear as he tried to escape the light mech that pursued him.
"Kemps, Get your sweet ass down into the cargo bay and drive the Hetzer out now!" Janos's harsh tone brokered no backtalk, there was rapid movement before the radio went silent, Kemps presumably running down to the loading bay as quick as she could. Janos heard the pounding of padded shoes on metal before it faded away, nodding his head and letting out a grunt of satisfaction he resumed his attempts at life.
Yelping in surprise, Janos narrowly avoided a close encounter between his head and the Scorpions roof hatch, his efforts at avoiding bodily harmed earn him a second medium laser mark, he swore he could smell the melted and blasted armor. Tracks clacking with wild abandon Janos, with much effort managed to make the Scorpion drift around the corner, a feat which elicited a curious exclamation from the Wasp pilot.
"What the fra..." was the thought running through the head of the mech pilot, as his mech was running after the Scorpion. Each leaping stride brought it closer and closer to the fleeing tank. The pilots hands white as they gripped his control sticks, legs furiously working the pedals as he gleefully anticipated another kill.
Beads of sweat ran down Janos's face, the dropship bays were less than a hundred meters away. His alarm blared another warning at him, as another pair of missiles slammed into the back of his tank, accompanied by the warm feelings that medium laser impacts always gave him. Desperate for a few more seconds of cover, the turret on top of his tank swung around at his behest, a flight of missiles screaming down the massive tunnel section before blasting chunks from reinforced concrete walls.
It did however, serve its purpose, the Wasp pilot slowed his mech's gait, his sensors fluctuated for a minute before settling on the answer that No fusion engines were powered up in the bay. Which was a good sign, a powered up drop ship meant a dead Wasp.
Confident in his assured victory, he resumed his full forward speed and burst into the open bay, the massive frames of the Union and Mules docked there dwarfing his mech, but no matter. Once he Wasp had dealt with the tanks, the dropships were his for the taking.
"Halt scorpion tank, this is Pilot Rancta of the Ravagers Mercenary Unit, you have fought the good fight stand down now and you will be spared." Glee laced Rancta's voice. He glanced down at his communication console, making sure he was on loud speaker as the Scorpion slowed down and turned to face him.
There was more good news, his commanding officer had begun the pursuit of the two Urbanmechs that had caused so much trouble, but the capture of the Union was well worth the trade off in mechs.
Unlike Rancta who was counting his chickens before they hatched, Janos was smiling inside his tank for a completely different reason. The pilot, in his glee and joy at having captured the enemy and their dropships had neglected to look inside the open hangar bay door of the Union.
Popping open his hatch, and lazily leaning outside Janos calmly responded to the opposing mercenaries offer of surrender.
"Kiddo, you got a lot to learn." He chuckled, before putting emphasis on his next few words, he continued "you can be the one to surrender." Pointing towards the boxy shape sitting in the open hangar bay, Janos told him to look up.
The pilot looked up, and his smile quickly left his face. His head dropped moments later and slammed into his control panel, a curse on his lips. Hands darting over his engine controls he put his mech into a crouching position and powered down.
Popping the canopy, the young pilot slowly climbed out before sticking his hands into the air
"I surrender." He was no longer happy.
Janos was smiling, waving Kemps back into the dropship, he watched as several rifle carrying Quickcell employees carted off the mechwarrior. The moment the pilot had left the bay, Janos wiped the sweat from his brow, staring up he began to thank the gods that someone was looking out for him, the pilot hadn't seen though his ruse. The unfinished Hetzer posed as much threat as a cardboard cut out of an Atlas.
"Everyone okay? Wheres the rest of em!" Janos turned to look at his radio when he heard Atun's voice, quickly sliding back into his seat after surveying the damage done to his tank he responded, Jacobs voice fading away just moments before
"So am I, I lost the wasp chasing me, thank god." he stated, echoing Jacobs statement of health, glad that everyone was okay a brief thought flashed across Janos's mind. "That just leaves the Centurion and the Javelin, You guys see where they went?"
"No, But I have a feeling we are going to find out soon." was the response he received, and it sent chills down his spine.
He was struck from his state of contemplation by the loud booming noise of a large autocannon, the rapid successions of explosions that followed were presumably the Javelin delivering its payload. Bringing his scorpion up to speed, Janos honestly hoped he was enough to turn the tide of the fight, considering his tank was ninety percent hope and ten percent armor at this point, his hopes weren't that high.
The Scorpion tank began to race across the half a kilometer long dropship bay, Janos never wished as hard in his life for a faster vehicle
"My kingdom, my kingdom, my kingdom for a locust or ciccada." in the remaining time before he arrived, he rescinded his a part of his wish, as he wouldn't of been able to do anything with the Ciccada when he arrived, while he had a fine appreciation for undervalued equipment, not even his own modest genius could fix the Ciccada. Drawing ever closer to the doors on the far side, the explosions and missile fire growing ever louder and nearer, Janos breathed a sigh of relief as Jacob's Urbanmech limped out and into the open room.
"Status report Jacob!" he half shouted into the comms as he closed the final hundred meters to the large hallway.
"Me mechs in a bad wey mun, But Atun be much more trouble" the mangled arm that was barely attached to his mech a testament to his words, internal components and the dim glow of the fusion engine visible through the massive gaps in his armor. Gulping, and swallowing his own fear Janos screeched to a halt as he got a clear view of the situation.
An unblemished Centurion advanced upon the battered and fallen form of Atun's Urbanmech the boxy missile carrying form of a Javelin skidding to a halt besides it.
Looking left and right Janos saw no way to salvage the situation, the Centurion by now was standing over the Urbanmech, its bulky frame dwarfed by the sheer size of the smelters. His hands reaching for the radio to broadcast their surrender suddenly stopped, Janos's mouth fell open.
'No.. it couldn't be..' He thought to himself, before deciding on the fates to risk it. His turret quickly spun around, a direct line between it setting a four second delay on the firing mechanism, Janos popped the hatch and stuck his upper body outside, believing himself finished.
Sucking in a deep breath, he winced as the warm air mixed with explosive fragments scorched his throat.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE AND PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!" he yelled as hard as he could, shaking his fist at the Centurion pilot. Dimly aware that the Urbanmechs head and turned a fraction to see him, Janos nodded and disappeared into a cloud of smoke and fire.
Zero point two seconds. Thats how long it takes for a volley of Doombud 20 Long range missiles to cross a thirty meter distance. Time seemed to slow, as Janos slid down back into the tanks compartment, the fight had only lasted for ten minutes. Not even that, and as the missiles crossed the gap between the Scorpion and the Centurion. A dry chuckled escaped his lips as he realized it came down to these next few seconds.
The two mechs moved to dodge out the way, myomer muscle strands straining to propel the massive machines in a sudden new direction, the effort was for nothing as the missiles streaked over head. Muscles relaxed in response as the threat passed, laughter exchanged between pilots. The booming laughter of a chorus of explosions soon joined in the fun, the rapid thud of twenty quick, successive impacts drowning out any laughter the two mech pilots shared.
Then it was dwarfed by a much larger sound.
The gates of hell opened behind the Centurion and its companion, as Atun stared into the barrel of its auto-cannon the pilot inside recoiled in pain as a bright light burned the image of molten metal into his mind, the shards of a blast door flew past and carved a deep red hot gash into the ground. The vanguard of a impending wave of fire and death, the roar of compressed and volatile plasma shooting out of the furnace and out into the open impotently whilst simultaneously ending all arguments as to who was the loudest.
The air temperature skyrocketed, so too did the internal temperature of the Centurion and Javelin. The bloated fusion engine inside each respective mech shut down in quick succession, heatsinks unable to cope as the mech's began to glow a soft red, washed in the warmth of gaseous plasma that rivaled that of the sun. It took almost two seconds for both mechs to shut down, a further two seconds before the furnace itself engaged its own worn and decrepit safety systems. Massive blue pipes overhead flushed sub zero coolant fluid into the massive room, steam billowed from cement and metal alike as the whole refinery wing shut down.
"Jacob, get in here now!" Janos choked out, sweating profusely his Scorpion began to crawl forward, barely surviving the heatwave without shutting down.
Tracks creaking ominously, the Scorpion crawled and limped its way to directly in front of the Javelin, the massive missile system strapped to its turret sluggishly directed itself to the cockpit of the mech, as its systems desperately vented heat to prevent its own shutdown.
Jacob rushed in moments later, his mech staggering back as it hit a wall of warm air. His own heat levels rising, but within tolerable levels Jacob carefully pushed his mech into its usual shambling gait right up next to the Centurion. Carefully bringing the particle projection cannon upwards, he pointed it up at the 'head' of the Centurion, his own mech not high enough to reach the head of the mech instead decided to nestle its weapon below its chin. The point well put across.
"Sur..dur.. ow.. a.. ou.. will.. ..ared." The low quality external speakers on his mech struggled to voice Jacobs words as it slowly distorted and melted, but the command was understood leaning back into his seat, Jacob sighed and breathed deeply, the warm air drying his lips and causing them to crack as he observed the two enemy mechs.
Neither mech made any attempt to restart their fusion engines, painfully aware of the twenty rack of long range missiles pointed directly at one cockpit, and a particle projection cannon prepared to remove another. The temperature began returning to normal within a few minutes, the sizzling of molten materials joined by the sudden sound of depressurizing seals as the cockpit of the Javelin opened up, soon joined by the Centurion's. Both pilots had their hands behind there heads.
Janos popped out of his tank, wearing nothing but his boxers he lethargically waved to the two pilots, rivers of sweat once again pouring off of him.
"You are now prisoners of the Budget Warriors, now hurry up and get down from there I'm dying for a drink."
The two enemy pilots shared an uneasy grin between each other as they stared down at the half naked form of a sweaty man, decided that humiliation was better than death, the two quickly scaled down to the ground floor and were escorted back to the Rusty Nail under the watchful gaze of Jacob.
Wasting no time, Janos lept out of his tank and broke into a furious sprint towards the downed Urbanmech. Running up to the side of its cockpit, he punched in the emergency release code the blistered paint and battered frame completely ignored. Material damaged could be fixed, pilots and friends couldn't. The canopy opened much slower then it usually did, or was it just his perception of time. Janos didn't care either way, beating impatiently on the frame of the Urbanmech he waited for the gap to be wide enough before climb in to check on Atun's status.
Sticking his head into the cockpit, his gaze fell upon the bruised and battered form of Atun, lowering his head Janos sighed deeply, tears welling in his eyes as he reached down to shake the wirey man.
"Atun.. Atun.." He began, gently nudging the still form, "You alive buddy?" hope laced his voice, the canopy slipped into its locked position as it finished opening, a wide open maw, its teeth banks of control panels flashing dimly.
There was no response, Janos poked Atun again lowering himself gently into the cockpit
"Atun!" his voice barely a whisper.
Grabbing his wrist, he checked Atun's pulse, a faint throbbing greeted him in return. He was alive.
"Janos.." the groggy, almost inaudible voice slipped from Atun's mouth "next time.. knock quieter, some people are trying to sleep." A faint smile spread across his face, his lips cracking and a faint smear blood staining his forehead. "And put on some pants."
Janos chucked at first, before his voice broke out into a booming laughter that echoed out into the main bay area, Waving down two Quickcell guards, Janos quickly freed the battered, bruised but alive Atun from his mech and began to take him back to the Rusty Nail.
Rusty Nail Common Room / Recreation Deck
Amity II, Amity System; February 29th
An ice pack pressed against his forehead, an a crutch constructed out of some stray wire and two strapped together pool cues Atun stepped into the rec hall, bleary eyed and groggy he looked around.
"Whadidimiss" he blurted out, plonking himself down on a bench near the table "Some shouting woke me up" he concluded as he stole a half drunk bottle of alcohol from the hands of a nearby person that he didn't recognize.
Janos shook his head, gesturing to several of the men around the table and to one in particular he began to introduce them.
"These are the fine boys and women of Ravager Command, the lovely folks we just gave a hard thumpin to a day or so ago." A chorus of heads smacked into the table as Janos began introducing them, cries of "Dont remind us, we'll never live it down" joking floated around the room as the surviving mech pilots were introduced, happy to meet the skilled Urbanmech pilot who had downed them.
"This, This is Serge Hansen, leader of Ravager Command." Janos nodded to the rather odd looking man sitting to Atun's right, connecting the dots Atun realized that the man had an odd look on his face because Atun had just stolen his beverage, shrugging Atun extended his hand out.
"Pleasure." He mumbled out, sighing in pleasure as the frosty beverage poured down his greedy gullet.
"All mine." Serge responded, grasping the hand firmly and shaking it twice, "It most definitely is an honour to meet the pilot of a trashcan who can fight and live."
"We won didnt we?" Atun retorted, finishing the last of the drink and throwing it expertly into a bin a few feet away, "Speaking of which, arnt you mad you lost, and some of your men died?"
Serge closed his eyes for a minute, seemingly relaxing before he responded, his soft russian tone quite the opposite from what you would expect from a massive frame like his
"Your new the mercenary business I take it," He began resting his chin on his hands "In this business, men, women, friends and family are all potential casualties, and yes while I do mourn the loss of our fellow brothers in arms we mercenaries in general don't take it out on another mercenary, house units.. maybe." Several soldiers in the back listed off several Capellan and Lyran regiments they would like knocked down a peg or ten.
"If you hated ever unit that inflicted a casualty on your unit, larger commands would have no friends and wouldn't be able to cooperate with anyone." pushing over a pile of papers for Atun to review, he continued "its simple, mercenaries have several in-house rules so to speak, we bargain for our freedom and equipment from each other, paying a ransom and such in respects."
Atun whistled, reading over the documents, happy to be on the winning side as he examined what appeared to be a list of mechs, vehicles, money and a agreement of somesort.
"And as you can see, theres no hard feelings, well no lethal feelings." He shrugged somewhat. "we came, we fought, we were outsmarted and got our cans handed to us by.. cans."
Atun nodded, he could see how this worked out, but something still nagged in the back of his mind.
"What was all the shouting about?" he asked, waving Jacob over and shuffling over somewhat on the large bench he had commandered.
"Ah mun, dat was one of the most funny tings I be seein in mah whole life." Jacob was chuckling as he set himself down in the chair, nodding to the other mercenary commander.
"Ah yes.. About that" Janos also was smiling, so too was Serge. Atun began to think they had all contracted some form of illness while he was passed out, tapping his fingers impatiently on the table, he waited for a explanation.
"Well you see, our contract with Quickcell granted us the rights to take prisoners of war, which in this case are the fine fellows sitting around us."
Atun raised an eyebrow at that statement, looking around he cheekily commented
"Dosn't look like a prison to me."
Jacob rewarded him with a smack across the back, whicih prompted a light yelp from the still sore Atun.
"As I was saying, going by various agreements, treaties and rules of war, I your most benevolent and wise commander negotiated the paid release of the Ravager Command you see before you, in return for a small sum of C-bills, we are being given the mostly intact Commando,the intact stinger I shot down and the Harrasers you and Jacob torched in the initial probe." Janos seemed pleased with the deal, so Atun assumed it was a worthwhile swap.
"So, again who were you arguing with?" Atun asked, still missing several vital pieces of information.
"Were you not listening?" Serge asked, shaking his head in laughter "The head Quickcell man here wasnt too happy about being cheated out of my Centurion and the rest of my commands salvage, in response he began yelling at Kemps demanding his make Janos fork over his payment."
"Ah. and did she?" Atun asked, leaning forward in interest.
Yelping in pain again, as he was hit once again across the back, this time by a much smaller hand.
"No she did not, and she is right behind you." sitting next to Janos, she looked Atun up and down "I informed facility executive Burchalter that Janos was well within his rights to keep his payment, he fired me in response."
"You don't seem to fussed." Atun remarked, looking at Jacob he wondered why the man was smiling and muffling his laughter with his hands.
"Ah, thats because a local unit was hiring, something about tactical officers and needing a driver for some heavy vehicles." A small smirk crept across her face, the first smile Atun had ever seen to have graced her features. Before his own face dropped, and then suddenly became a big grin as he realized where this was going.
"That also means I am higher ranked then you Lance Commander Zu." Atuns head hit the table, which prompted a round of violent swearing and laughter from the assembled pilots as the punchline to a joke long awaited finally fell.
After the laughter died down, and Atun had recovered, he asked another question. Wondering if he would regret this one too.
"So why did you decide to come work for us?" secretly, he wished deep down it was because of him
"Oh, the pay is nice, I get to meet knew people, go to new places and I don't have to deal with Quickcell bureaucracy." he face resumed its stoic posture, standing up she nodded goodbye to the assembled mercenaries before she began to head back up to the command center "I'll go start to prepare for lift off, Jacob come help me."
Jacob nodded and quickly vacated his seat as well, shaking hands with several of the other pilots he ambled off towards the command center, his own slow lumbering gait reminiscent of the mech he piloted.
Atun, once again out of the loop was cut off before he could ask yet another question.
"Amity is lost, League forces are retreating, the Lyrans have the planet. We're leaving as our contract stipulated defense of the Quickcell Factory on League territory, not Lyran." Janos quickly interjected, seeing the look of confusion on his face.
"Aye, You lot will be hitching a ride with us to Stewart, our short contract with the Lyrans is up and I feel it is in my best interests to vacate the system quickly, League space seems nice." Serge quickly explained that they had a waiting jumpship at the Nadir jump point, an invader class with the second half of the Ravager Command already on board. "With the Lyran overlord gone, we have room for some passengers, so we are giving you a lift to help pay our release."
Atun nodded his head in understanding and headed to his bunk, quite content to sleep for the rest of the journey.
Rusty Nail Main Cargo Bay
Stewart System; March 7th
Jacob wiped his brow on his shirt, and looked around the hangar/cargo bay, various supplies and parts simply lay everywhere, highest in concentration around the five vehicle frames sitting in the corner.
"Finally, everythings back to normal." a brief smile crossed Jacob's face, Atun was hard at work less than four feet away carefully separating layers of armor and valuable components from the chassis of a Harraser.
"Stop daydreaming Jacob, and help me remove this missile pack." Atun verbally prodded, a wrench in one hand as he steadily worked at the bolts and connections holding the turret to the frame of the hovercraft, the top rack had already been removed the replacement armament for the vehicle two pairs of guided technologies twin shot short range missile launchers to replace them along with two whole tonnes of additional armor plating. The week spent in space was well spent, separating from Ravager command a day ago Kemps at Janos's behest put the Rusty Nail in a burn towards the capital city on Stewart, with Janos frequently managing to duck out on work as he had to 'go and organize parts and supplies'.
The 'salvage' from the first Budget Warriors contract had taken them a lot of time to process, out of the four harassers two had been fixed and restored to full functionality, the chassis of the two destroyed beyond repair hover tanks having been cannibalized to fix the other two, while leaving them an abundance of spare parts for the next encounter.
Much to both Atun's and Jacobs dismay, the 'salvaged' commando was beyond their ability to repair, the gyro destroyed beyond recognition had turned what would of been a promising addition to their force into a large tower of parts. With gyro's being almost impossible to come by, and a Lyran one at that. Atun was out voted, three to one to scrap the Commando for parts and use it to upgrade and repair the other equipment.
It took two days to completely strip the Commando down to its component pieces, its chassis sequestered away into the cargo hold. Its myomer muscles draped across containers, armor slabs piled with the rest in another corner. The shattered remains of its gyroscope carefully placed in storage, gyro parts were hard to come by even if it was mostly destroyed, it could be used to fix another mech.
With a grunt, and a impressive display of teamwork yet more parts were added to the growing pile that littered the bay floor, giving each other a cheerful pat on the back Atun and Jacob surveyed there work. Cables and strands snaked there way across the floor, the bulky boxy shapes of several Sureshot six shooters neatly stacked atop each other, barely visible behind the much larger wheeled box that was the Hetzer. Held up by a series of cables and hoists the vehicle was suspended over the spheroid shaped cable covered mass that was the Commando's fusion engine.
Atun had requested, nay outright demanded that supporting technicians be hired at the next planet, this assertion was met by laughter from the other three crew members.
"Really Atun, any technician trained enough to assist in battlemech and vehicle repair or modifications has been snapped up by production companies or house units." Admonished Kemps, contrary to what Atun had hoped, her tough strict demeanor had not gone away. Instead, she was even more strict, pressing Atun harder then ever.
"Ya mun, we be lucky to findin some technically minded applicants on dis here planet." Jacob had remarked.
"Besides, we cant afford extra personnel at the moment." Janos had closed with a sense of finality.
Grumbling somewhat, Atun had resumed his work without complaint that day, instead returning the next morning to voice the same opinion, and the next and the one after that.
Finally, he had a breakthrough. That breakthrough was today.
"Alright alright Atun, We get the point, when we make planet fall we will see about hiring some technical assistants, doubt we will find much anyhow." Janos grumbled, his resistance long since eroded. Kemps was surprised at Atuns persistence, she herself had long ago given up when higher ups refused to see reason. "Now shut up and heave!" Janos added.
The two mechwarriors, one expert technician and one random female crowded around the bulky tube of the Fusion engine and grunted in unison. The bulbous housing scrapped along side the panels of the Hetzer, unwilling to move. But the combined stubborn nature of the Budget Warriors was greater then that of the fusion engine. With a final groan, both human and metallic the larger Omni-150 engine slid into place.
Dropping down onto the floor, Kemps panted in exertion, her hair tied behind her in a bundle.
"How do you men do this.." She shook her head, and rose unsteadily to her feet.
"Easy, we have practice." Atun chanted, wagging his tongue at her he continued "Your the designated driver of this tank now boss lady, so you need to learn how to care for her." Atun started
"Use her" Jacob added
"And love her" Janos concluded.
Kemps looked at all three, before dusting herself off and leaving the area shaking her head, her belief that they were crazy re-affirmed by the events of today.
"Whats with her?" Atun asked, as he stared at the retreating form of Kemps.
"No idea, back to work!" Janos responded, before he made to smack Atun again, spurring the man into action.
"Some days, you just no want to bother some women.." Jacob sighed, before he got back to work, retreating under Janos's glare.
It was another two days until landfall, and there was plenty of work to do. Janos had decreed, in his infinite wisdom and knowledge that much alteration, maintenance and organization had to be done; The Hetzer had to be fully operational before landfall, the stinger was to be repaired and the Harassers ready for use or sale. Between the daily training routines and strategy and tactics sessions he had with Kemps, the grueling physical work out that Jacob put him through and the various tasks Janos had everyone do Atun wondered if he died and had gone to hell in the cockpit of the Urbanmech back on Amity.
Either way, as he stared out one of the view windows, the looming spherical shape of Stewart in the visible in the distance. Atun mused that he would never run out of things to do.
Nui - Glad your still reading :D