Chapter Six: Picking Up the Pieces
*****
"Bad news, Commando. The survivors of Team Two completed their mission destroying the hydroelectric dam, but the Clanners hit them hard. Neither of them made it. An operative, however, discovered a previously unknown underground site."
Dominic started to say something, but Conner overrode the transmission and cut him off. "And the Eclipse?"
"Captain Taylor won't risk the Eclipse against any more of those laser turrets. The Commando teams are out trying to link up with us, but until they make it through, we continue with the mission. Also... we intercepted a conversation between a Jaguar Star Colonel, Ratache Osis, and his aide." Sorenson paused. "Lincoln Osis, ilKhan of the Clans, died on Strana Mechty. So the Star League must be victorious."
Laughing, slightly, Dominic managed to get his two cents in. "I don't suppose we'll be relieved any time soon?"
"No, probably not," the intelligence officer admitted, and quickly changed the subject. "Okay, here are the objectives. The lake bed is drained thanks to Team Two's destruction of the dam, but there are still fixed emplacements to take out. Once you've done that..." The Bushwacker's monitor changed to show a platform in the middle of a lake. "That platform holds an elevator that will take you to the site Team Two found. Let us know when all enemy resistance is cleared out, and we'll head down with you."
*****
"That should be all of them."
"About time," Dominic muttered in response to Sorenson's announcement. His Shadow Cat stood over a pair of burning Bulldog tanks, with two more smoking Bulldogs and two Harassers not far away from the wreckage. Conner's Bushwacker had just finished tearing up a Strider which had tried to catch them from behind while they were busy with the vehicles.
"Come on," Conner ordered. The two Mechs started for where the dam had been, which was now a way into the drained lake bed. Missile turrets flanked the entry, but Conner's laser destroyed them quickly.
Dominic frowned, something about the situation seemed very wrong. Admittedly, he got that feeling a lot, but... he switched on the Shadow Cat's active probe and his suspicions were confirmed. "Hey chief, I've got a contact. There's an Owens bit to the south..."
He didn't need to say any more. Conner was intelligent enough to figure out the mess it would cause if they left the light Mech there—giving it a perfect opportunity to slip into their rear area when they entered the lake bed. "Only an Owens?"
"Yep."
"Okay... let's go. You lead." Conner didn't like having a lancemate lead the charge, but unable to locate the Jaguar on his own radar, he had little choice.
Besides, though he knew all too well the perils of underestimating an enemy, it was just an Owens.
Dominic's first gauss slug blurred forward at about the same moment as the Owens appeared on Conner's radar. The Clanner answered the Shadow Cat's challenge with a flight from its LRM racks, blasting a bit of armor from the Damocles Mech but nothing very serious.
Conner's missiles and laser lanced out to savage the Owens, stripping the left flank bare of armor and halting the Owens' forward progress. Dominic added another gauss slug which smashed the armor from the light Omni's left leg.
The Owens somehow remained upright to return fire with its LRMs again, this time choosing the Bushwacker. Guiding Light took no serious damage, but one of the missiles hit its cockpit, shaking Conner violently and throwing off his next laser shot.
Dominic's lasers struck at the same moment as Conner's autocannon, this time succeeding in knocking the Jaguar off its feet. Not that it mattered, particularly, as the cannon shells punched into the Owens' gyro and ripped it apart. Conner found himself gasping for breath in the sudden inferno that called itself a cockpit, but it was only for an instant before the Wacker's heat sinks cooled the Mech's temperature to more acceptable levels.
His lancemate's Shadow Cat was already heading back towards the wreckage of the dam, but Conner's eyes were following a road that cut through the grass, straight into the cliff which surrounded the lake bed. "Dominic, there's a tunnel over here." He approached cautiously and stepped inside. "Come on."
"Taking the high ground?" Dominic answered. His Cat followed the Bushwacker in and made an exaggerated swing of its torso, looking around before continuing forward. "Why do I feel like I'm... walking up the barrel of a large gun?"
It took all of Conner's formidable self-control to keep from switching his comm system off. Dominic could easily be right.
*****
MechWarrior Derek maneuvered his Adder over a rocky outcropping, finally getting a visual on the massive reading which had been driving his sensors haywire. A mangled Union-class DropShip, with one whole side gouged out of it, lay on one of the slopes, some of the wreckage still burning. It could only be the Inner Sphere ship that had been shot down by Tranquil's orbital defenses.
The debris and flames were still making a mess of his sensors, but certainly there could be no threat here. There might, however, be some useful salvage. The Smoke Jaguars needed anything they could get, even the inferior Inner Sphere technology.
One of the DropShip's Mech bays was split in half, each side like a metal cavern. Derek walked by these without concern. They would be empty after the ship's tumble from the sky. He needed to find a good spot to shut his Mech down, but there was so much debris it would be difficult to find a clear area...
His sensors screamed a warning an instant before he caught the movement on his 360-degree strip. There had been something in the Mech bays after all. It was a Mech... one hell of a Mech.
Twelve SRMs hammered his Adder's side as Derek whirled to face the Sunder. The shot had been from extreme range and the accuracy gave him an uneasy feeling. No. This freebirth Inner Sphere trash could never defeat me. Despite being nearly three times lighter than his enemy, he was not afraid. Both his PPCs lanced out to vaporize armor on the Sunder's left leg and flank.
The assault Mech struck back with its lasers, nearly matching the damage it had taken. The Adder's gyro screamed in protest from the loss of armor, but Derek held it upright.
Small consolation as he looked up into the barrel of the Sunder's heavy autocannon. For a split-second, he saw flames. Then there was nothing.
The Sunder stood over its kill for several seconds before returning to its hiding place in the ruined Mech bay. "See you in hell."
*****
"Shadow Cat incoming."
Conner swore at Dominic's announcement, turning from the wrecked Firefly that had caught them exiting the tunnel. A Point of Elementals had accompanied the light Mech, but Dominic had taken care of them quickly enough. He turned his own Shadow Cat's lasers on a single remaining turret, then turned to face north.
Two flashes of ruby light indicated an A-variant of the medium Omni, and its pilot was obviously one of the Clan's better warriors. Both lasers cut into Dominic's right arm and sliced through, dropping the gauss rifle to the ground. Conner cringed. He's hardly a threat anymore.
Very much a threat, however, was the other Shadow Cat, now sprinting forward to bring its missiles into play. Both Commando Mechs opened fire with everything range permitted, although their quick shots were poorly aimed. One of Dominic's lasers struck the forward-thrust head of the oncoming Mech, while a few of Conner's missiles blew armor from the Cat's left leg. The Jaguar Mech ceased its advance, but returned fire. This time, thankfully, only one laser hit, melting armor from Dominic's right flank.
The Cat backed off a bit, and the Inner Sphere force pursued, exchanging another salvo as they passed where Sorenson had said the elevator would be.
The sound of thrusters igniting from inside the elevator shaft froze the battle, if only for the briefest instant. The next second a shuttle burst out into Tranquil's atmosphere, quickly gaining altitude before vanishing from sight.
Not, however, before Dominic cracked, "Think we can hitch a ride?"
"Pay attention to the fight, Gunner." Conner was very uneasy about the whole setup, especially when he took advantage of the lull in fighting to glance about the battlefield. Just barely visible in the muddy soil, small metal objects were sticking up. Mines! After Team Two struck, they must have been expecting us... so they should have sent reinforcements, but all they've done is mine the place... unless...
The elevator's whine snapped him out of his thoughts just in time to see the form of a Thor rising out of the elevator. "Dammit!"
Dominic echoed his sentiment, though in far more words. "So, now what?"
"Take the Shadow Cat, and watch out for mines. I'll handle the Thor." Or die trying.
Skepticism dripped from Dominic's affirmative. "Got it. Have fun with the big guy. I'll bail you out when I get done here."
Conner ignored him and lashed out with everything he had, and was rewarded when his missiles scattered over the Thor's chest. His laser cut into the left arm and the autocannon hammered armor from the opposite leg.
The Thor struck back with a vengeance, its PPC melting armor over the Bushwacker's center and melting a machine gun into uselessness. Conner snorted. Nice of you to relieve me of that, if you had to destroy a weapon. Fragmenting autocannon rounds sanded more protection from Guiding Light's flanks, and spoiled Conner's next missile shot, the warheads passing just beside the Omni.
Dominic was in a very one-sided battle with his Clan counterpart, and his was the wrong side. Something Conner had told him popped back into his head. Watch out for mines? He shot a quick glance around the battlefield and located one of the small metal devices, which was conveniently—or in his mind, stupidly—placed next to one of the support structures for the bridge that ran over the lake bed towards the elevator.
"Let's see if Jags can play follow the leader," he muttered humorlessly, aiming his Shadow Cat directly for the mine. His armor schematic showed armor on the Mech's legs was still quite strong. Lucky.
His Jaguar counterpart followed, lashing out against his backplate with its Streak missiles. Dominic felt his Mech shudder as one warhead broke through and damaged the gyro. He fought gravity for a moment, then the Cat had recovered and continued sprinting forward until he was nearly on top of the mine.
He flipped his MASC on at the same instant the ground exploded around him. Sensors screamed warnings of armor damage all over the lower half of the Shadow Cat, but he ignored them and slammed down hard on the jump jet pedals.
Not a great combination in most cases. A much better pilot than Dominic would've had trouble keeping his Mech upright under the circumstances, but this time that was exactly what he was counting on. Black Prospect dove to the ground, burying its cockpit in the mud of the lake bed and giving the Jaguar pilot an opportunity too good to pass up.
For a few agonizingly long seconds, Dominic was positive his plan had failed. And he was going to die for it. Then a low rumble felt even inside his cockpit convinced him otherwise.
The bridge support began to crumble, unable to remain standing after the damage the mine's explosion had done. With the support went the bridge itself, raining huge blocks of ferrocrete on the Omnimech beneath it. Crushed beneath the debris, the Cat's reactor shielding was penetrated and the reactor exploded, taking ferrocrete, Mech, and Clanner with it.
Dominic fought Black Prospect upright, but his damage schematics showed him he would be going nowhere fast, if at all. He saw Conner's Bushwacker still dueling with the Thor, coming off on the worse end of the deal by far. "Let's see if we can fix this situation."
Conner used up his last autocannon round on the Jaguar Omni, shattering the armor on its shoulder and ruining the missile launcher. The missiles did not detonate, continuing the same damnable lucky streak the Clan pilot seemed to have enjoyed the entire battle. Not bad enough he blows out my targeting system and gets through a crack in my armor to blow my laser, oh no! Growling in frustration, he fired Guiding Light's missiles, and was rewarded by a spike in the Thor's heat profile. Engine hit. Finally.
Twin beams of emerald light stabbed through the Thor's battered chest armor, staggering it backwards as its gyro took damage. Even as it fired its autocannon, sanding more armor from the Bushwacker, Conner's missiles followed up on Dominic's damage. The warheads penetrated into the Thor's heart and followed up on the work the lasers had started.
The Jaguar Mech dropped, its gyro ripped apart by the Commando's attack. Conner half expected the pilot to attempt to keep fighting, but the Omni's cockpit blew away.
The Clanner had not been quick enough on the eject switch as his Mech fell.
Carefully averting his eyes from the command couch's horizontal flight smashing its pilot against the ground, Conner opened a transmission to Sorenson. "We're done here. You can bring the field bases in. We sure as hell need them."