Chapter Three: Signs of Life
A/N- Trial by Fire's still up somewhere? Wow. I remember that from when it was still up at the official MW3 site (since there still was an official MW3 site -_-') but anyway...
*****
"No determination on the status of DropShip BlackHammer. We assume it is down. Act according with mission specifications until we devise a rescue plan."
"That was Captain Taylor's response to my request for information," Sorenson explained as the audio feed ended. Conner growled a few expletives he hadn't realized he'd known. They assumed the DropShip was down? That was the most idiotic thing he'd ever heard... where else did they think it was? "Our extraction is an unknown factor at this time. So, we continue with the mission. We do have some good news however. Gunner Paine is down, he's made contact and is moving into position to flank us. Right now the plan is to rendezvous with him in the final strike of the operation, at the Mech factory."
"Dominic made it?" Conner repeated, hardly willing to believe it. "So half of the lance is down..." Frowning, he walked the 'Wacker into the field base's repair area and powered down Guiding Light's reactor. "All right. What's next?"
"There is a barracks in the southern edge of the area, we're hoping for some good salvage there. All reports indicate it is lightly defended, mostly vehicles. However..."
The probe data stopped, and centered on what looked to be some sort of weapons emplacement. "These are heavy missile platforms, and they're sitting right where we'll need to move the field bases for our next mission. They have a range well beyond the barracks area, so you might want to take them out first. Our analysis shows a blind spot in the south."
Already Conner was mapping out his route in his mind. He could swing wide around the plateau, go along the southern edge of the valley, and hopefully take out the platforms with little difficulty.
It was too much to hope that everything would go as planned. But it wasn't as though nothing had gone wrong already. Maybe he'd get lucky.
*****
Keith Andrew's CPLT-C3 Catapult picked its way over the landscape near the northern edge of operations area 3. The MechWarrior was less than pleased. A pair of Fireflies, patrolling the area, had caught him soon after landing.
The Firefly was a solid design, but it was still a lighty, and still relatively slow for its weight. What might've been two easy kills for any other member of the Damocles operation, he'd barely been able to pull off.
The problem, of course, was that he was the artillery support of the mission. With the Arrow IV system taking up most of his Mech's space, all he had for effective weaponry was four medium lasers—hardly better than what one Firefly carried. And they'd been able to keep him ranged to add their small LRM rack to the mix, since a slow lighty was still faster than a slow heavy.
But he was certainly not a member of the Damocles Commando because of luck. Keith was good. And though it'd cost him more than he would've liked, he'd been able to put the two Jaguars down.
What really bothered him was the way they'd fought. Concentrating their fire. It just wasn't something Clanners did. Were they that desperate? Stupid question, he mused, after the way the BlackHammer had been shot from the sky...
"Andrew to Eclipse," he spoke, finally, black eyes narrowing at the lack of any reply. "Andrew to Damocles... anybody out there?" He'd already attempted to contact the rest of the Inner Sphere forces, of course. Several times, in fact. He really didn't expect a response this time either, but...
He had to keep trying. The Damocles Commando's warriors could not give up.
*****
"Sorenson, I'm having some problems over here..."
Understatement. Firing the Guiding Light's laser into the Jaguar Strider's flank, Conner forced his Bushwacker into a run. A new flight of missiles from the platforms to the north just barely swarmed by, creating a huge crater in the dirt.
He was faced with what seemed to be a lose-lose situation. He could stay out in the open, at the mercy of the missile platforms, trading shots with the Strider and Owens which had appeared to challenge his run. Or he could disengage and run for the blind spot to the south, but there was a good chance one of his faster enemies could get to his thin rear armor if he tried it. Not able to be distracted long enough to figure out how to deal with the situation, he would have to rely on Sorenson.
"That hill to the east might give you some cover," the analyst offered after a moment's thought.
Conner glanced at the map on one of the Bushwacker's secondary monitors. A hill with some sort of construction built right into it, only about two hundred meters away. He'd noted it before, but it didn't look large enough to provide much shelter...
Slim chance was better than none at all. He throttled Guiding Light into reverse, lashing out at the Strider again with his laser and autocannon. The Owens' LRMs hammered more armor from his left arm, but he did his best to ignore it. The Strider was more dangerous and had to go down first.
As if to confirm his assessment, the medium Omni managed to score with a full salvo from both of its SRM packs, stripping the Bushwacker's left flank of its last protection. A new flight from the platforms was incoming...
Then he was behind the hill, and an explosion audible even in his cockpit told him the barrage had struck the dirt.
He launched his own LRMs and another round from his autocannon. The missiles went wide of their target and nearly struck the Owens, but the depleted uranium shells hit dead on, punching into the already savaged Jaguar Mech. The gyro went, followed by engine shielding. Its pilot bailed seconds before the explosion.
The smoking Strider already forgotten, his laser lanced out at the lighter Omni. Maneuverability was limited behind the hill's cover, and the enemy's speed gave it a clear advantage.
Yet the Owens was running at him, coming in range of his best weapon, the autocannon. Why, though? What was the point of driving a light Mech into the optimum range of such heavy weaponry?
No sense passing up the advantage. He snapped off a shot with all of his weapons, aside from the machine guns which were not yet in range. It was only when he glanced at his weapons status on his HUD that he realized the problem the Owens was having.
The same one he'd just been struck with. No ammo.
*****
"We have reports of enemy flanking. Hold your positions. Engage only on direct line of sight."
Dominic frowned at the intercepted transmission, then carefully steered his Shadow Cat over the ground behind the Smoke Jaguar Mech he'd been following. He was running low on gauss rifle ammunition but that was okay, if he did this right he would only have to use up one round. It was just a Puma, after all.
Of course, he predicted something would go wrong. Something always went wrong.
No sense in worrying about that until it happened. And while he couldn't paste on his counterfeit cheerfulness from the BlackHammer—not in the field, not after the DropShip's destruction—even Damocles' master cynic had to admit odds were better than fair that he could handle this. A quick smash and run. He'd already done it plenty of times.
He approached his quarry, slowly at first, then pushed his Black Prospect into full throttle. The Puma had to know he was coming by now.
It did.
Already, his Cat was not in the best shape it could've been. Being hit with one PPC, let alone two, was way down near the bottom of his priority list.
As the Puma raised its arms to fire, he kicked in his jump jets, closing with the smaller Battlemech. The blue lightning went low, as he'd hoped, then it was his turn.
Not for nothing had Dominic Paine been given the callsign Gunner back during his training days. Given a few moments to aim he could hit anything. Even from 400 meters out, running at an angle and against a rather quickly moving target.
Lasers splashed away armor from the head of the enemy Battlemech. Then his gauss rifle spat a silver blur at the light Omni's cockpit, smashing ferroglass and framework and MechWarrior before its advance ended.
He allowed himself a grim smile. "Took him down with one shot."
*****
Though without any autocannon ammo, Conner still had missiles and his laser, and that should be enough to take the Owens down. It didn't make him enjoy the situation any more.
Lasers struck his exposed left side, by some miracle failing to hit the engine shielding and instead destroying a machine gun. He fired his own weapons and stripped the small Mech's right arm off. Not that it helped his case. Nothing there except the depleted LRM rack.
He triggered his remaining machine gun, out of range but not intending to do any damage. It was a gamble, but all he could do as his weapons cycled.
It paid off. The Clanner was worried slightly by the shot, just enough to pause for an instant. Since it was easier to shoot when walking slowly than sprinting around at 130 kph, the Owens let off a shot from its stopped position—bad idea.
The Bushwacker weathered the storm, hit on its right flank where the armor was still relatively strong. Conner fired. Half of his missiles hit, taking armor off the Omni's right side and head. The laser hit the left leg, nearly cutting it off but not quite.
Things were going too slowly. There had to be something he could do.
Friendly fire... isn't.
It was one of the simplest lessons a MechWarrior learned. Another risk, but...
He raced out from behind the hill, fast as Guiding Light could go. The Owens followed. After a moment, his radar showed another missile flight incoming.
If he kept running forward, the missiles probably would not hit him, maybe skimming by and forming yet another crater in the dirt. Not quite what he was going for. He turned a complete 180, gyro protesting slightly as he taxed the limits of the 'Wacker's agility. Too late, the Owens—standing precisely where the Bushwacker had been seconds before—tried to turn as well.
The missiles got there first. But the Owens was tougher than it looked, and despite losing nearly every shred of armor it'd had left, it remained standing. But its defiant last shots missed before Conner's laser demolished its gyro.
The rest of the trip to the platforms was fairly uneventful. Once he'd finished destroying them, however, a new transmission came through. "This is Gunner. I'm moving forward to the next mission area."
Not good. Whatever the next mission was, it would have to be quick. At this rate, Dominic would make it to the rendezvous point long before he could get there. But, it wasn't as though the other MechWarrior could just stand still waiting to fit into the lieutenant's schedule.
"Right, see you there."
"Maybe even in one piece. Gunner out."
Sighing at his ally's pessimism, Conner turned his laser on the vehicles milling about the barracks. It wasn't a difficult task, though the two Bulldog tanks managed to sever his left arm before he was finished. Otherwise the damage was light. "Okay, the barracks is ours." He turned the Bushwacker to watch the MFBs approach and see what could be salvaged.
"We've had two more contacts, sir," Sorenson reported. "Two members of Commando Two dropped successfully and are attempting to carry out their mission—taking out a hydroelectric dam to the north."
"Any chance to rendezvous?"
"Not until we're finished here."
That was fine with Conner. The mission was starting to shape up. Maybe it could be salvaged. Only a hope, again. But chances kept getting better. "Okay. Figure out how much time we've got if we're going to meet up with Dominic." And then, to get enough optimism out of his system that he and Dominic would speak the same language when they met, "We're going to pull this off."