Independence Day
Note: Sometimes I need a break from the long, intricate plot of Rubber Match and have a go at a simple, furious, unadulterated battlemech action. Battle of Luthien seems fit the bill, and also correspond nicely with July 4, hence the title. So please enjoy and happy Independence Day.
This story is inspired by the last mission of Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries.
Kado Guchi Valley, Luthien,
Pesht District, Draconis Combine,
January 6, 3052
"They are coming! The Jaguars are coming!"
Tai-i Fujita drew a deep breath, wiping sweat off his brows. He hasn't fired a single shot, but he already felt like he was sitting in a sauna. His fear was eating his nerves. And the fact that his company stood in a single column on his left and right didn't give him the slightest composure. Not even his samurai-like Hatamoto-Chi. And definitely not the damn mercenary Kell Hounds above his head did the same.
Across the valley, the 31st Jaguars were coming.
Fujita had run countless hours of simulation time in Sun Zhang Academy. He was forged in sweat and blood to prepare for this day, because DCMS believed that the Clans would come back someday. This was what he was trained for. Still, nothing felt like sitting in a real battlemech, facing real death. He thought he was ready. It turned out that he wasn't, and possibly never would be.
"Heads up, Kuritans! Toads are coming your way!"
Toads. Nothing prepared the Inner Sphere against the armored infantries. For hundreds of years everybody believed that battlemechs were the kings of the battlefield. Then along came the Clans with their nasty little buggers they called Elementals, and the rule of war changed forever. The toads were hard to shoot, exceedingly more agile, and very effective against Spheroid's bulky battlemechs.
Fujita's radar blinked in furious red. Elementals raced from the far end of the valley toward his hill, eating the distance with remarkable speed. Kell Hound's aerofighters did their best to strafe the ground, but the size of the Elementals made it difficult to score a hit. The valley went alive with fireballs and mushroom clouds, but the Elementals kept coming.
"On my mark!" Fujita's heart pumped twice his normal rate. He grazed his thumbs on his triggers, ready to unleash his firepower for the first time. However he had no fixed targets. His hand shook hard as they reached 600-meter mark, sprinting and jumping in formation and maneuver alien to him. Every time he locked on one, the other blocked his view, canceling his lock in the process. But Fujita knew he had to shoot. What he hit wouldn't matter.
"Fire at will!" he commanded, and his words were followed by missiles, laser bolts, and autocannon rounds from his company. The strafe hit the valley in such a force that a wall of flame burst from the ground, reaching the sky with its reddish tip. No direct hit were scored, but the shockwave staggered the Jaguar's formation. Some of them were thrown off their feet, others swayed and gimped away. Fujita's PPC found a toad and smashed its chest. The toad engulfed in azure charge storm, then crashed to the ground.
"Keep firing! Keep firing!" Fujita mashed his triggers, sustaining the heat, but he had been sweating since he came to Kado Guchi Valley. Energy and ballistic traces danced in the air, peppering the Jaguar's formation, and as they got closer they started getting direct hits. Body parts started to fill the air, and the ground turned color to dark red. Each explosion was coupled with a burst of fluid and gristle, and half of the Elementals had been wiped out.
Yet they still kept coming.
The closest Elemental dodged the ballistic hail and jumped at a Battlemaster. It grabbed the mech's head, burst the wide plexiglass canopy, and singed the cockpit. The Battlemaster jerked as the head blasted, spitting cockpit parts and charred flesh. The Elemental gracefully jumped off the head, seconds before the Battlemaster tumbled like a log.
Two Elementals clung to Fujita's left arm and started peeling off the armor. Fujita flailed his arm, trying to get them off his mech with no effect. The two Elementals had reached the internal structures and started aiming at the power lines. Panic, Fujita reached of his left arm and grabbed one of the Elementals. He hurled it as hard as he could, sending it spiraling and crashing down back into the valley.
The other one jumped from his left arm to the head. Its mighty claw stabbed the Hatamoto-Chi right at the bridge. Plexiglass chips stormed into the cockpit, and for the first time Fujita came face to face with the dreaded infantry. Through the Elemental's visor Fujita looked into the infantry's eyes. They were dark, mean, full of vengeance. Its stare seemed to stop Fujita's heart from beating, even for a split second.
"Get off my land!" Fujita screamed and drew his Mydron. He fired a single round at the Elemental's visor. The drab-shaded plexiglass shattered, and although the bullet didn't go through, the Elemental warrior was stunned. Fujita yelled and fired his sidearm again and again. The visor turned red, and blood sprayed from the slit on top of the Elemental suit. The power armor shook and quivered, then sloshed out of the cockpit, back to the ground.
Fujita leaned on his command couch, gulping for air in frantic pants. It was the closest he was to death, and if his reflex didn't kick in on time, he would've shared the same fate with the Battlemaster pilot. Staring into an Elemental's eyes and live to tell the tale was certainly a death-cheating experience, but he wouldn't want the second time. Once was enough.
When he regained composure, Fujita observed the battlefield. His company had been disarrayed. Everybody stopped shooting and had been dealing with Elementals. A Mauler and a Marauder had fallen with burning cockpits, but the rest of his company seemed to be in good condition. The Elementals dismantled some weapons from the other mechs before the Kuritans slaughtered them.
"Regroup!" Fujita ordered, and switched to long-range radar. From the thick cloud of smoke came out their omnimechs. Fujita counted two Mad Cats, three Lokis, and two Thors. The Kell Hound aerofighters had scored some hits on them, evident from the cracks and scars on their armor. But they marched on as if the scars didn't bother them a bit.
Fujita felt his stomach churn. Many people had said that Clan battlemechs were not unstoppable. But still, Fujita couldn't picture himself escaping those monsters. Tyra Myraborg? Lucky blow. Kai on Twycross? Anomaly. Snowbird on Planting? Fluke. Those were few that escaped Clan battlemechs, as opposed to thousands that fell under their feet. This was the hard reality.
But Fujita wouldn't go down without a fight. It was a samurai's fate to die in combat, and Fujita wanted to fulfill his fate as a warrior of Draconis Combine. The Clan invaded Luthien, and even if they were destined to win, they wouldn't get Luthien easy. It was the only thing Fujita could do.
"Imperial City is behind us," Fujita rallied his troops. "If they get through, DCMS will fall into the hands of the Clans. Do not let them pass. Stand your ground at all cost! Die with honor! For the Coordinator!"
"For the Coordinator!" his comrades replied in unison.
"Concentrate fire on the Mad Cats!" Fujita ordered. "Give it all you got! Open fire!"
Once again ballistics and energy bolts poured down on the inbound Jaguars. The Mad Cats crisscrossed their path, but the torrential firepower didn't give them enough room to escape. Their armor, already thinned out by the Kell Hounds, blasted and flew in every direction. The laser and PPC bolts melted the remaining armor and thrust deep into the structure. Fire quickly broke out on and around the generators, and the Mad Cats buckled under the Kuritan's punishment.
But this time, the Clan fired back from the distance. The Mad Cat's missiles, coupled by the Thors' PPC, zipped across the valley and slammed home at an Awesome's broad chest. The deadly accuracy quickly turned the mech into a burning hulk. Armor bits sprayed like a geyser, and the 80-ton mech staggered.
Fujita lined up his crosshair at a Mad Cat's shoulder and fired off. His twin bolts drilled the Mad Cat's torso like hot knives through butter, pulling a large crack all the way to the back. Fujita's comrades picked up what he left. Multiple laser shots ripped the cracks wider, and a single autocannon hit was all it took to blow up. The Mad Cat disintegrated in a fireball.
The Thors sent their answers at the Awesome, still reeling from the previous attack. Their PPCs again struck the same spot as before, shutting down the Awesome's central control. A single laser blast from the remaining Mad Cat gutted its center torso, and the subsequent missile attack torched the SRM bins. The Awesome exploded in furious color, matching that of the Jaguar's Mad Cat several seconds before.
Meanwhile, the Lokis had come to range and started to bring their autocannons to bear. At close range, LBX20 cannons had few rivals. The muzzle booms echoed throughout the valley, followed by explosions and flying limbs. A JaggerMech leaned to its left when its leg was wobbled by such firepower. The mass shift breached the leg, and the stocky mech crashed to the ground legless.
Fujita switched his target to the nearest Loki and hit alpha strike. All but one PPC bolt connected to the Loki's body. The Clan mech jolted, staggered by the impact of both missiles and particle charge. A bad gash on the front armor blossomed as it teetered. Fujita didn't know how his PPC affected the Loki's electronics, but at such range, it wouldn't matter. He had to kill the Loki one way or the other.
Fujita started to circle the Loki when a single blast hammered him from the right. One of the Thors had singled him out. Lucky for him, his armor stopped the blast and his electronics were still intact. Fujita forgot the fact that Clanfolks would not gang up on somebody, unless their enemies started it. He should've had taken advantage of that weird code of honor. He just wanted to swarm the Clan mechs with firepower. Now two mechs were on him, and he knew he was in big trouble.
Regaining balance, Fujita concentrated fire on the Thor. Waste heat swept the cockpit, and Fujita dumped a third of his coolant, taking down the heat level two notches. Molten armor sprayed like blood when his PPCs hit the Thor's chest. The 70-ton mech backpedaled, coping with the impact. Fujita followed suit with his SRMs. Half of the missiles crashed into the Thor's hip. The Clan mech lurched further, almost failing, if not because of the mechwarrior's superior reflex.
Fujita turned toward the Loki, but he was one step behind. The muzzle flash of the LBX20 blinded him, and the entire cockpit roared in trembling quake. His console burst, and before he realized, a piece of plastic lodged into his shoulder, pinning him to his command couch.
"Kuso… Argh!" Fujita winced, straining to sustain the sharp sting on his left shoulder. His left arm trembled, and the warm fluid trickled down his arm. He reached left to grab the piece off his shoulder, but the slightest move would turn his vision dark. He reached down to his ejection lever, but it wouldn't budge. Something held it tightly in place. Without the ability to eject, Fujita knew he just had to finish the fight, whatever the outcome might be.
The shadow of the Thor loomed in the distance, and Fujita hit his alpha strike button. The heat almost took his consciousness away, but he still found the strength to watch one of his PPC bolts landed on the Thor's left shoulder. The missile launcher, packed with incendiary rounds, went off in flames, and half of the Thor's shoulder disintegrated, leaving only burning void. The sudden loss of mass was too much for the mechwarrior to compensate. The Thor leaned and stumbled.
But the Loki was still up. Lasers ate the remaining armor on the torso, and the LBX20 once again ripped the Hatamoto-Chi like cardboard. Fujita didn't have the strength to keep his mech standing. For all he cared, he was already dead. As the mech careened lower and lower, Fujita braced for impact. In a desperate move he yanked his joystick backward. The Hatamoto-Chi doubled over, preventing it from falling face down. The quake almost broke his straps.
The Loki moved in for the kill, but two Wolverines stabbed it from behind. The heavy mech jerked forward, then turned around toward one of the Wolverines. The Kuritan didn't have a chance to escape when the big LBX20 cannon barked with the rest of the lasers. The Wolverine's chest exploded, throwing the limbs spinning in air. The other Wolverine quickly turned away.
Fujita, torn between life and death, saw a small opportunity to kill the Loki bastard. He put his mech back on its feet and charged the Loki. By the time the Clan mech turned to face him, Fujita's right arm had came close to its cockpit. Wasting no time, Fujita hit his trigger, singeing the Loki's cockpit in a blue firestorm. The 65-ton mech hobbled aimlessly, swaying left and right, then collapsed and fell to the ground.
Fujita didn't know if he was able to continue. The stinging pain on his shoulder took most of his consciousness, and his mech was badly shot up. Out of 12 mechs in his company, 9 were incapacitated. Only a Wolverine, a Catapult, and his Hatamoto-Chi remained standing. Fortunately, it was the last mech that tried to break through Kado Guchi Valley. Kell Hounds managed to hold the rest of the Jaguars on the other side of the valley.
"Congratulation, Kuritans," the Kell Hound hailed him. "You have kept your Imperial City safe. Looks like the rest of the Jaguars are retreating."
"Domo, mercenary," Fujita replied weakly. "The Clans are all but unstoppable."
"You got that right, Kuritan," Kell Hound answered him with a chuckle. "You got that right."