The Ballard of Cairo
Part sixteen: Warriors of the Dragon

Idlewind city
Idlewind
The Draconis Combine

Cairo, Jackson, O'Brien and McCoy's tech unit had been on Idlewind for almost three days, passing the time until Cain returned from the raid on Constance in the Ghost Bear Domain. The local garrison didn't know how to treat them. Cairo, Jackson and McCoy were military officers from a Periphery world, while O'Brien was still in the pay of The Wolf Dragoons. In the end they where allowed to land the Wataru at the spaceport and wait.

All that changed on the fourth day.

A company of pirate Mech's used a pirate point to jump in-system less than a day from Idlewind. They landed 400 kilometres from the planetary capital and began to harass local population.

The garrison, consisting of a lance of Zephyr hover tanks and a Mech lance made up of a pair of PNT-10K Panthers, similar to O'Brien's, a CN9-D Centurion and a DRG-5K Grand Dragon, headed off to meet the raiders.

On board the Wataru, Jackson was able to patch into the Draconis com-system so they could listen in on the battle.

"Sir, the last of the Zephyrs just fell to the pirate Shadow Hawk! What do we do?" asked a worried voice, heavy with static.

"Pull back 200-meters. Go-cho Dancer and I will move to assist you. We must hold the pirates until the town in evacuated". Cairo recognised the new voice as that of Tai-I Akira Goto, commander of the garrison and pilot of the Grand Dragon. The radio roared with the high-pitch sound of a PPC discharge.

"It shall be done Tai-I Goto Akira san!" Replied the first voice.

Cairo turned to McCoy. "Are our Mech's ready for a battle?"

The gruff old sergeant smiled "As if I'd let my boys have them in any other condition!" he said with mock anger.

Cairo turned to O'Brien. "Go down and get strapped into your Panther." He turned to Jackson as the mercenary hurried out, closely followed by McCoy. "Get this crate up in the air and take us to the battle zone as fast as you can. Bring us in low so we can jump out, then try and find the DropShip the pirates used and keep it on the ground".

Jackson looked at Cairo. "You're crazy, but you're the boss!" He said, a maniacal grin on his face, "LET'S ROCK AND ROLL!"

To Be Continued...