Chapter Two: Up In Flames
*****
He'd dubbed the Bushwacker the Guiding Light. The same name he gave every Mech he'd ever driven, no matter how short his time in it might be.
All systems showed nominal as Conner ran the pre-launch diagnostic tests. Again... and again... once more for good measure...
Suddenly it was five minutes until deployment. "Team One, check in." They'd already checked in of course, now wasn't really the time to discover somebody was missing. But regulations said to it again. Just in case.
Nothing could be allowed to go wrong on this mission.
"Damocles One-Two, ready to deploy." Dominic.
"Damocles One-Three, all set." Keith.
"Damocles One-Four, prepared for drop." Jess.
A few minutes more, and the mechanical voice of Guiding Light's computer began the drop countdown. "Deploying in fifteen... fourteen... thirteen..."
On two, the 'Wacker's drop pod lurched violently forward, and was shot out into space. Why so early? "Sinclair to BlackHammer, what's going—" The question was cut off as the Mech's display came online, feeding information from the cameras mounted on the outside of the drop pod onto the 360-degree screen.
There was a gaping hole torn in the BlackHammer's side, and all of the pods seemed to have been launched—all prematurely. "What the hell?" he whispered, more to himself than to anyone who might be on the same frequency.
That answer was not long in coming. Green light flared from the planet's surface, vaporizing five—if his count was correct—of the drop pods entering the atmosphere before hitting the BlackHammer. A second explosion burst from the DropShip's hull.
He switched from Team One's private frequency to the common channel, but very little was making sense.
"What the hell was that?"
"This is the Eclipse, we are abandoning the mission!"
"Mayday, mayday, we are going down..."
A burst of static ended all transmissions, and Conner knew chances were good that with the exploding DropShip in the atmosphere he wasn't going to hear anything else until he hit the ground.
*****
"I said get me online!" Corporal Thomas Sorenson was usually fairly calm and easygoing, but then again, he usually wasn't watching a DropShip and half of the mission's forces going up in flames. His uncharacteristically snapped order brought a quick response from the tech working the communications unit of Team One's lead mobile field base vehicle. "We'll worry about the others later."
Nodding nervously, the tech punched in the connection to Lieutenant Conner Sinclair's Battlemech.
"Lieutenant, this is Sorenson. Your field base commander. We're down on target, but you're falling slightly off... if your course doesn't change, you should splashdown just outside of this fishing village." As he spoke, he patched some old probe data from an early flyby of the planet to the Bushwacker. "Status of the BlackHammer is still uncertain, so for now rendezvous with us here—" he highlighted the area for Sinclair— "and we'll go from there."
"What about the others?"
Sorenson had been hoping he wouldn't say that. "We haven't been able to contact anyone else from the Hammer. The Eclipse has abandoned its run." The Eclipse was the second DropShip, carrying commandos 4 through 6. "It's set down beyond the mountain ranges to the north."
One of the techs, who'd been looking over the probe information, signaled to him. "Hang on, new data..."
*****
Conner was a bit annoyed. Status of the BlackHammer was uncertain? What the hell was that supposed to mean? The damn ship had all but exploded. He waited for Sorenson to come back online.
"Sir, our probe data is extremely out of date," he began, almost apologetically, "but... the only way you can get here is over this bridge." On one of the 'Wacker's monitors, green dot highlighted the area Sorenson was speaking of. "It's protected by SRM emplacements, so watch your step. Also, there's a large facility near our location that seems to be a communications center. Take it out on your way here."
"Right." No sooner had Sorenson finished speaking than the drop pod's explosive charges blew, separating the pod from the Mech. His main screen changed to show the Tranquil sky, and suddenly Guiding Light struck the ground with a jolt.
Water, just as Sorenson had said. He checked his radar—two contacts. APCs both, and easy targets. Across the beach they came, still out of their firing range. He wasn't going to let them get into it.
Backing further into the ocean, he drifted his reticule over the first vehicle and waited a moment for his LRMs to lock. Three of the missiles smashed into the sand, probably making visibility hell but otherwise not affecting the oncoming APC. The other seven hit dead-on, but all in different parts of the vehicle, not quite enough to destroy it.
Irritated, Conner triggered his large laser, aiming not at the already savaged vehicle but its companion. The laser's touch melted away two of the APC's wheels, but it was going too fast to stop. Instead it ended up plowing into the damaged vehicle, causing both to explode.
Easy enough. He exited the water just past the Jaguar village, checked his radar again. Two turrets were showing but he didn't have a direct line of sight, so there wasn't a lot he could do about it. He started towards the bridge.
Static. "You want us to leave it?" Even through the interference that heralded an intercepted Clan broadcast, he could hear the disbelief. "Hauling explosives... aff. Parking it on the bridge."
"Did you get that?" Sorenson asked immediately. "Laborer frequencies. But definitely something about explosive charges. Watch your step, sir."
"Don't need to tell me twice." Distracted by the broadcast, Conner was slightly surprised when a pair of missiles impacted the Bushwacker's arm. The turrets. He turned his Mech to the first of them and silenced it with his laser, then aimed for the second.
Before he could get a shot off at it his sensors screamed a warning. "Mech power-up detected."
"Damn." He switched to the new target, ignoring when one of the new flight of missiles hit Guiding Light's flank. Even as he prepared to face the newcomer, tagged as an Owens, he triggered a burst from his autocannon which obliterated the turret in seconds.
An Owens. What the hell was the Clan doing with an Owens? One of the newest toys from Luthien Armor Works back in the Draconis Combine, the Omni's presence caught him slightly off guard. Salvaged from the Huntress campaign no doubt. Reinforcements had arrived faster than he'd thought.
While a light Mech, the 35-ton machine was on the top end of that category. His computer tagged it as the one serious combat configuration the Owens possessed, but his Mech should be able to smash it easily. Relatively.
As long as he didn't let it use its speed to very much effect, which meant not letting it on the beach. While the lighty was trying to clear the cliff, he raced up the bridge.
His sensors went off a second too late as a fireball consumed the bridge. "Holy—" Whatever he was about to say was cut off as the 'Wacker stumbled backwards, forced off-balance by the destruction of the bridge. The gyro recovered, but just barely, and the Owens managed to get off the first shot.
Only one laser hit, one of the mediums, melting a bit of armor off Guiding Light's right leg. He snapped off a shot with his autocannon and laser, nearly taking the Owens' arm off... but not quite.
The field base had obviously picked up the explosion. "What's going on over their, sir?"
"The bridge blew."
"Ah... the hauling explosives." It seemed a little late to be remembering that transmission, Conner thought, trading shots with the Jaguar. "We missed that one, sorry."
Speaking of missing... his laser went wide. Annoyed, he hammered at the Owens with his autocannon and, as an afterthought, the machine guns mounted on the Bushwacker's nose.
The Owens' skinny left leg snapped under the assault, sending it pitching to the ground. But the Jaguar pilot was good, snapping off another shot even as the Mech fell and costing the 'Whacker nearly half a ton of armor from its right torso.
Cursing under his breath, he drilled another autocannon shot into the fallen Mech, this time melting through the last of its armor. His laser followed up, coring through to the reactor.
"Sorenson, do you have any more contacts?" he asked, looking away from the explosion. He was tired of being taken by surprise by every Jaguar under the Tranquil sun.
"There's a lot of movement, but nothing especially close," the intel analyst reported. "Take out that communications facility and come to the rendezvous point. We've received some information from Captain Taylor of the Eclipse."
Finding the facility and lining up his first shot at a large com dish, Conner read Sorenson's tone easily. It wasn't good news, whatever it was. He could guess.
The mission was still on.