*I don't own battle tech blah, blah, blah. Don't sue me. A long battle here
(plenty more where that came from) and some real action the next chapter.
I'll try from now on to do weekly updates. And now. aaahhhhhwwwwwwwlll, GET
KRUNK! Hmm I wonder why "krunk" got past the spell checker. *
The scenario was chosen randomly by the computer, it took a few seconds to select its variables and load them. The screen went black and Matthew thought the Simulation had crashed until smoke trails appeared from the bottom of the screen. The smoke was from his landing thrusters, he was being hot-dropped at night. "Great," Matthew thought to himself, "I'm in the dead of night and I completely blind. I don't have light amplification either."
When his Mech hit the ground he deactivated the searchlight, it only made him a target. He switched to passive radar and sat back, waiting for his eyes to become accustomed to the darkness. The night was piercingly dim, but after several moments of focus he and begun to recognize things. He was on a forested mountain range. Cautiously bringing the Madcat MK II to a slow craw he stepped around trees and made his way toward the summit with Jump Jets.
Near the peak he made a dead stop. Something far from radar range had snapped, probably a tree. He heard it a second time; it was off to his left. He scrambled as stealthily as he could to put the mountaintop between him and the noise, after all Matthew didn't know if she had light amplification, or even what Mech she was. The darkness blocked his sight for anything past 400 Meters, his enemy was practically invisible to him. Carefully reaching out from his place he did a quick sensor sweep and his reticule glowed red, Target ID, Inferno.
He was in big trouble. She was just as resourceful as him. This battle wouldn't be won by any small effort, but and Alpha strike would help. After achieving a missile lock, Matthew gripped the joysticks tightly and bit his lower lip.
*** "Great, just great." Jessica Mullins complained, "I'm blind and to top it all off I'm a Dire Wolf in the mountains." Suddenly a swarm of fire tore off her missile rack and damaged the left torso. "What?" she exclaimed. A quick sensor sweep revealed the culprit. "I'm gonna make you pay." She rasped. ***
Matthew engaged active radar, now that they both knew each other's prescience, stealth was pointless. It was a Dire Wolf, The fiercest battlemech ever known. One alpha strike could annihilate anything that was less than 45 tons, and mutilate all that was above that.
His plan was to pop-and-drop so he wouldn't be under the guns. Hit and run and there was nothing that she could do about it. A light gauss blurred past his left arm and 2 clan gauss brought it to a blinking state on his HUD. "Two can play at this game," he had realized, "sniping would be useless if I can still be hit. I've got to exploit its horrible speed."
He did a quick 180 and faced the metal titan. The melee was intense, shard of armor, flak, and missile fragments rained down on the now burning forest below. The heat did not help either of them. Matthew was awed at the realism of this simulation; he had never seen anything like this. The pod even buckled as he took a hit or jumped up, he though as both Mechs waited for their weapons to recycle so the barrage could continue.
The after math of both Mech's alpha strikes had left the Dire wolf with out its left arm an missile rack, Matthew had only lost the left arm. It was empty from the earlier attack anyway, He was glad that the shot had been wasted on a dead limb and not the vital components.
There was a small click as Matthew's lasers became operational again and the four emerald beams illuminated the cockpit of the Dire Wolf. Glaring at him was the young woman on the data pad Matthew had seen earlier. This took him completely by surprise, as he had not expected the simulator to show the other pilot at all. She had used this minute pause to unleash her arsenal at him again. He retaliated by scarring her center torso with his LRMs and Gauss placed below the cockpit; the missile swarm blinded her until they had passed again.
The air was filled with all that the two Mechs could muster, they both were circle strafing but neither appeared to be going anywhere. Inferno had been pounded harshly, proof of this lie in her status. She had no left torso or left arm, her center torso and right arm were a brilliant crimson color in Matthew's screen. She was left with a large laser and one light gauss rifle. He was a different story. The right arm was barely hanging on and both missile racks had long ago collapsed following an ammo explosion. His torso was red as well. He was left with 4 medium lasers, not enough to finish the job.
Matthew frantically searched for an alternative, the odds of a direct hit to the cockpit were very small, especially with four pulse lasers. The Dire Wolf would move if he went for a DFA. He had seen an instructor once use a risky tactic before that had destroyed an Atlas with an Osiris. The Osiris had charged the Atlas at top speed and Jumped up, bringing its foot to eye level. He had kicked the Atlas's cockpit in, killing it instantaneously; He had only seen this once but never attempted it.
A thick blue mist poured out of the side of the Dire Wolf, she was winding up for a big attack. Flushing coolant got rid of heat quickly but it hinders the ability to cool the Mech in the long run because of the lack of coolant. Matthew took this to mean that she wouldn't have to worry about later.
Matthew had charged with what was left of his battered Mech hoping to kick her right in the face. His Mech was rocked by a well-placed shot in the right torso. The upper part of the Mat cat MKII had jerked to the side, Matthew had no clue where he was headed now. He had made a rough impact on the Dire wolf, He had failed to crush the cockpit but he had tackled her. She reached for the self-destruct lever to discard her tangled shell and seize victory before the pulse lasers had pierced the cockpit glass.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" came the piercing scream of defeat and disbelief. Matthew Slammed on the foot pedals igniting the jump jets and had narrowly escaped out of the blast radius alive. Even the feeblest of weapons could've killed him at this point. The Mad Cat MKII was barely standing; his HUD flickered on and off showing that the only remaining parts of his Mech were the center torso, and right leg, both blinking red.
Matthew took a deep breath and slunk back into his seat. There was immense relief knowing that he was better than his lance mate, however small that lead was. After all having a subordinate that was better than you was unheard of among the clans.
That door on his left swung open and there were those same light purple eyes glaring at him. "Get out," she ordered, grabbing him by his collar and leading him to the bar. "Vodka" she told one of the two bar tenders on duty. "And for the gentleman?" he inquired. "The same, on the rocks please." Matthew answered.
"How did you do that?" she demanded angrily. Matthew had responded coolly at this so as not to cause a scene, "Good reflexes I guess," he shrugged.
Her eyes became slowly hotter and became a puncturing stare. "I fight Techs, Elementals, Cargo pilots and Greens and when you show up it all goes to hell?" "Fraid so." He said calmly, downing his freshly arrived drink.
"Who are you?" She asked, veins were starting to pop up from her forehead, never a good sign. "I am Star Captain Matthew Bradley, I command your lance on Black Earth."
Her jaw dropped, this was a large shock to her. "How do you know who I am?" she asked cautiously. "I saw you on my roster pad and then I recognized your handle from the simulator. Inferno, that's your handle right?" She nodded as she reached for her glass. "You're the best I've ever fought, no wonder I lost you're a Star Captain"
An excited voice interrupted from across the room, It was Dave "Oh, Hell yeah!" The view screen showed a Shadow Cat pumping round after round of Autocannon in to a limping Vulture. He was so close that the Vulture couldn't fight back, and both arms had been blown off long ago. The sea of dunes that they had been fighting on had given him much cover as he raced toward the Vulture. His only damaged spot was the left torso that was yellow.
The shadow cat run swiftly around the crippled Mech, he was helpless. The Pilot ejected and Dave escaped the blast unscathed. The other pilot opened his pod and went straight to the bar. "Next," Dave declared proudly. Inferno leaped from her chair and dashed to the simulator. "Fool," She spat, "you'll regret your arrogance."
Matthew turned around as the bartender refilled his drink and walked to the other side of the bar where he was serving an attractive young woman. "Amy?" He exclaimed. She looked up at him and smiled. Matthew grabbed his glass and walked around the bar, taking a seat next to her.
Matthew and Amy had been in love for years, only separated from each other by their duties, the clan's duties. Neither of them minded serving the clan, in fact they enjoyed it. They were all to happy to do their part, until it meant leaving each other for longer than a week. She was a technician that worked with computers and data; she did not yet know that Matthew had been promoted to piloting a mech.
"What are you doing here?" Matthew asked as he sat down. "I'm a software tech for a star port being built on Black Earth. What about you, I though you were still on New Kent." She inquired. "It's classified." He said simply. This answer was disappointing to her, the man she had not seen for months had walked up out of the blue and could not tell her of why they had met again so unexpectedly.
"Well what can you tell me then?" "I'm a Mech Pilot now. I'm leading a lance to protect you while you build the star port. And I love you."
The last part made her dark blue eyes light up with her smile. She was radiantly beautiful, her shoulder length cherry red hair framed her fair face. She was only up to Matthew's chin but still she was almost taller than most of the men she had worked around. Sitting as she was now, she was eye level with him.
"You're not just trying to get me drunk are you?" she jokingly suggested. "Why of course I am! What would give you any Idea to the contrary?" he laughed, "So what kind of tech are you?" "I'm a software tech, play with disks all day." "I get the fun job." Matthew said proudly.
A String of curses were flung back and forth from the pods. "Swiftwind driver!" Inferno growled "Freebirth!" Dave shot back. "Tin Soldier!" she reciprocated. "Cargo Pilot!" he returned.
This went on for some time and their match was a draw, she had killed him but was too injured evade the blast. Dave stepped out and looked around, He couldn't see Matthew anywhere. The clock above the doorway read 2309 hours, so Dave wandered back to his quarters. Matthew wasn't there either; Dave kicked off his boots and went to sleep.
Dave awoke the next morning at 700 hours. He stretched and yawned and sat at their small table to find out what he should be doing right now. There was a meeting in 45 minutes that he was supposed to be at. Dave got on the console and found the mess hall. Vaguely hoping for Matthew to be there, he ate breakfast alone.
Dave found his way to the briefing, there seated next to the head of the rectangular table was Matthew. Several important looking people surrounded him. Dave took a chair next to him and the briefing began.
The briefing took nearly half an hour but what it boiled down to was, Matthew had the final say in all that happened on this planet. Specialists would run nearly everything, infantry, transportation, cargo, construction, manufacturing. They all would answer to him.
The scenario was chosen randomly by the computer, it took a few seconds to select its variables and load them. The screen went black and Matthew thought the Simulation had crashed until smoke trails appeared from the bottom of the screen. The smoke was from his landing thrusters, he was being hot-dropped at night. "Great," Matthew thought to himself, "I'm in the dead of night and I completely blind. I don't have light amplification either."
When his Mech hit the ground he deactivated the searchlight, it only made him a target. He switched to passive radar and sat back, waiting for his eyes to become accustomed to the darkness. The night was piercingly dim, but after several moments of focus he and begun to recognize things. He was on a forested mountain range. Cautiously bringing the Madcat MK II to a slow craw he stepped around trees and made his way toward the summit with Jump Jets.
Near the peak he made a dead stop. Something far from radar range had snapped, probably a tree. He heard it a second time; it was off to his left. He scrambled as stealthily as he could to put the mountaintop between him and the noise, after all Matthew didn't know if she had light amplification, or even what Mech she was. The darkness blocked his sight for anything past 400 Meters, his enemy was practically invisible to him. Carefully reaching out from his place he did a quick sensor sweep and his reticule glowed red, Target ID, Inferno.
He was in big trouble. She was just as resourceful as him. This battle wouldn't be won by any small effort, but and Alpha strike would help. After achieving a missile lock, Matthew gripped the joysticks tightly and bit his lower lip.
*** "Great, just great." Jessica Mullins complained, "I'm blind and to top it all off I'm a Dire Wolf in the mountains." Suddenly a swarm of fire tore off her missile rack and damaged the left torso. "What?" she exclaimed. A quick sensor sweep revealed the culprit. "I'm gonna make you pay." She rasped. ***
Matthew engaged active radar, now that they both knew each other's prescience, stealth was pointless. It was a Dire Wolf, The fiercest battlemech ever known. One alpha strike could annihilate anything that was less than 45 tons, and mutilate all that was above that.
His plan was to pop-and-drop so he wouldn't be under the guns. Hit and run and there was nothing that she could do about it. A light gauss blurred past his left arm and 2 clan gauss brought it to a blinking state on his HUD. "Two can play at this game," he had realized, "sniping would be useless if I can still be hit. I've got to exploit its horrible speed."
He did a quick 180 and faced the metal titan. The melee was intense, shard of armor, flak, and missile fragments rained down on the now burning forest below. The heat did not help either of them. Matthew was awed at the realism of this simulation; he had never seen anything like this. The pod even buckled as he took a hit or jumped up, he though as both Mechs waited for their weapons to recycle so the barrage could continue.
The after math of both Mech's alpha strikes had left the Dire wolf with out its left arm an missile rack, Matthew had only lost the left arm. It was empty from the earlier attack anyway, He was glad that the shot had been wasted on a dead limb and not the vital components.
There was a small click as Matthew's lasers became operational again and the four emerald beams illuminated the cockpit of the Dire Wolf. Glaring at him was the young woman on the data pad Matthew had seen earlier. This took him completely by surprise, as he had not expected the simulator to show the other pilot at all. She had used this minute pause to unleash her arsenal at him again. He retaliated by scarring her center torso with his LRMs and Gauss placed below the cockpit; the missile swarm blinded her until they had passed again.
The air was filled with all that the two Mechs could muster, they both were circle strafing but neither appeared to be going anywhere. Inferno had been pounded harshly, proof of this lie in her status. She had no left torso or left arm, her center torso and right arm were a brilliant crimson color in Matthew's screen. She was left with a large laser and one light gauss rifle. He was a different story. The right arm was barely hanging on and both missile racks had long ago collapsed following an ammo explosion. His torso was red as well. He was left with 4 medium lasers, not enough to finish the job.
Matthew frantically searched for an alternative, the odds of a direct hit to the cockpit were very small, especially with four pulse lasers. The Dire Wolf would move if he went for a DFA. He had seen an instructor once use a risky tactic before that had destroyed an Atlas with an Osiris. The Osiris had charged the Atlas at top speed and Jumped up, bringing its foot to eye level. He had kicked the Atlas's cockpit in, killing it instantaneously; He had only seen this once but never attempted it.
A thick blue mist poured out of the side of the Dire Wolf, she was winding up for a big attack. Flushing coolant got rid of heat quickly but it hinders the ability to cool the Mech in the long run because of the lack of coolant. Matthew took this to mean that she wouldn't have to worry about later.
Matthew had charged with what was left of his battered Mech hoping to kick her right in the face. His Mech was rocked by a well-placed shot in the right torso. The upper part of the Mat cat MKII had jerked to the side, Matthew had no clue where he was headed now. He had made a rough impact on the Dire wolf, He had failed to crush the cockpit but he had tackled her. She reached for the self-destruct lever to discard her tangled shell and seize victory before the pulse lasers had pierced the cockpit glass.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" came the piercing scream of defeat and disbelief. Matthew Slammed on the foot pedals igniting the jump jets and had narrowly escaped out of the blast radius alive. Even the feeblest of weapons could've killed him at this point. The Mad Cat MKII was barely standing; his HUD flickered on and off showing that the only remaining parts of his Mech were the center torso, and right leg, both blinking red.
Matthew took a deep breath and slunk back into his seat. There was immense relief knowing that he was better than his lance mate, however small that lead was. After all having a subordinate that was better than you was unheard of among the clans.
That door on his left swung open and there were those same light purple eyes glaring at him. "Get out," she ordered, grabbing him by his collar and leading him to the bar. "Vodka" she told one of the two bar tenders on duty. "And for the gentleman?" he inquired. "The same, on the rocks please." Matthew answered.
"How did you do that?" she demanded angrily. Matthew had responded coolly at this so as not to cause a scene, "Good reflexes I guess," he shrugged.
Her eyes became slowly hotter and became a puncturing stare. "I fight Techs, Elementals, Cargo pilots and Greens and when you show up it all goes to hell?" "Fraid so." He said calmly, downing his freshly arrived drink.
"Who are you?" She asked, veins were starting to pop up from her forehead, never a good sign. "I am Star Captain Matthew Bradley, I command your lance on Black Earth."
Her jaw dropped, this was a large shock to her. "How do you know who I am?" she asked cautiously. "I saw you on my roster pad and then I recognized your handle from the simulator. Inferno, that's your handle right?" She nodded as she reached for her glass. "You're the best I've ever fought, no wonder I lost you're a Star Captain"
An excited voice interrupted from across the room, It was Dave "Oh, Hell yeah!" The view screen showed a Shadow Cat pumping round after round of Autocannon in to a limping Vulture. He was so close that the Vulture couldn't fight back, and both arms had been blown off long ago. The sea of dunes that they had been fighting on had given him much cover as he raced toward the Vulture. His only damaged spot was the left torso that was yellow.
The shadow cat run swiftly around the crippled Mech, he was helpless. The Pilot ejected and Dave escaped the blast unscathed. The other pilot opened his pod and went straight to the bar. "Next," Dave declared proudly. Inferno leaped from her chair and dashed to the simulator. "Fool," She spat, "you'll regret your arrogance."
Matthew turned around as the bartender refilled his drink and walked to the other side of the bar where he was serving an attractive young woman. "Amy?" He exclaimed. She looked up at him and smiled. Matthew grabbed his glass and walked around the bar, taking a seat next to her.
Matthew and Amy had been in love for years, only separated from each other by their duties, the clan's duties. Neither of them minded serving the clan, in fact they enjoyed it. They were all to happy to do their part, until it meant leaving each other for longer than a week. She was a technician that worked with computers and data; she did not yet know that Matthew had been promoted to piloting a mech.
"What are you doing here?" Matthew asked as he sat down. "I'm a software tech for a star port being built on Black Earth. What about you, I though you were still on New Kent." She inquired. "It's classified." He said simply. This answer was disappointing to her, the man she had not seen for months had walked up out of the blue and could not tell her of why they had met again so unexpectedly.
"Well what can you tell me then?" "I'm a Mech Pilot now. I'm leading a lance to protect you while you build the star port. And I love you."
The last part made her dark blue eyes light up with her smile. She was radiantly beautiful, her shoulder length cherry red hair framed her fair face. She was only up to Matthew's chin but still she was almost taller than most of the men she had worked around. Sitting as she was now, she was eye level with him.
"You're not just trying to get me drunk are you?" she jokingly suggested. "Why of course I am! What would give you any Idea to the contrary?" he laughed, "So what kind of tech are you?" "I'm a software tech, play with disks all day." "I get the fun job." Matthew said proudly.
A String of curses were flung back and forth from the pods. "Swiftwind driver!" Inferno growled "Freebirth!" Dave shot back. "Tin Soldier!" she reciprocated. "Cargo Pilot!" he returned.
This went on for some time and their match was a draw, she had killed him but was too injured evade the blast. Dave stepped out and looked around, He couldn't see Matthew anywhere. The clock above the doorway read 2309 hours, so Dave wandered back to his quarters. Matthew wasn't there either; Dave kicked off his boots and went to sleep.
Dave awoke the next morning at 700 hours. He stretched and yawned and sat at their small table to find out what he should be doing right now. There was a meeting in 45 minutes that he was supposed to be at. Dave got on the console and found the mess hall. Vaguely hoping for Matthew to be there, he ate breakfast alone.
Dave found his way to the briefing, there seated next to the head of the rectangular table was Matthew. Several important looking people surrounded him. Dave took a chair next to him and the briefing began.
The briefing took nearly half an hour but what it boiled down to was, Matthew had the final say in all that happened on this planet. Specialists would run nearly everything, infantry, transportation, cargo, construction, manufacturing. They all would answer to him.