Revenge Is Sweet
By Dan Bryant
PROLOUGE: Mathew Tirrel stared up at Star Colonel Reese. "So. You think you can get away with resisting our occupation on Terra. You will now find out what happens to worthless freebirth scum like you." Said Reese.
"I will not be your bondsman you son of a−"
"Silence you fool. You will obey . I am your master now…"
~~~~November 6, 3062~~~~
WHAMM!! My stolen 65 ton Cauldron-Born swayed to the left as 20 LRMs shredded the armor on my left arm to pieces. Warning lights and signals bleeped all around my cockpit. Still, I fought to keep my C-Born upright, and I brought my crosshairs over the enemy Catapult. I waited until I had a clear headshot at the enemy mech, than pulled the trigger on my aiming stick. Ten tons of pure lead ate through the Ferro-glass shield protecting the pilot. Then, I stabbed at his already damaged right shoulder with my extended range medium and small lasers. The green beam melted the rest of the armor there and hit the missile rack, which happened to house an Arrow V thunderbolt. Big mistake.
The Catapult's whole torso was vaporized by the explosion. My mech caught the splash damage, and I saw the last of the armor on my right arm disappear in one big explosion. My C-Born was knocked backward, and I was engulfed in waves of heat. As I struggled to get up, I heard a voice on the comm. That said "Very impressive Mr.Tirrel. But, you will not be able to defeat another heavy lance. Surrender, and you will live. Continue to fight me and you will die. It is up to you."
I looked at my radar. Sure enough, it showed another heavy lance in bound on my position. I could only run. I swiveled my mech around, and put the throttle on full. Lasers shot by, barely missing me. I felt a jerk as a large laser hit my rear torso. My mech was faster, and after a half hour, they gave up chase. The only problem with my escaping the clan Jade Falcon, was I had no where to go…
~~~~November 12, 3062~~~~
"So…You have full combat training?"
"Yes." I replied. What else did they want?
"You want me to let you join the Red Vypers?" Asked Lt. Harbuck, slamming my data files onto the table.
"We cannot fix your mech back to the way the clans had it. We do not have the technology."He looked at me. "We do not have access to much clan tech."
"But can you get it back to working order?" I asked.
"Yes, but it will take some time." He replied.
"If you are willing to pilot our Thanatos for the time being, you may join the Cobra lance. The cost for repairing your mech will be subtracted from your pay."
"You may meet your lancemates in the mech hanger. They will show you your temporary mech and your headquarters." He pointed out the the window of his office. It was overlooking the hanger. I could see the Thanatos from his office. I could also make out a group of people sitting at a card table down next to a Catapult and an Uziel. Harbuck called on his radio down to the rest of the Cobra lance.
"Cpt. Jackson, I have a replacement pilot for your lance. You'll find hes fully capable of fighting with your men. He will be piloting the Thanatos until we can fix his Cauldron-Born."
"What's is' name?" Came the reply.
"Mathew Tirrel."
"Send em' down ere' will ya?"
"Okay"
Harbuck turned to me.
"Your equipment is in your sleeping compartment. You'll find everything you need to pilot your mech."
"Good luck out there rookie. You'll need it."
I climbed down the stairs and made my way across the hanger. When I reached the card table at which my lancemates were sitting, they called over to me, "Hey are you the rookie?"
"Yes"
A tall muscular man walked up to me and said, "My name's Roy. I pilot that there Catapult. If these guys give you a hard time, I'll be glad to introduce them to my LRMs."
"Thanks." I replied.
The others introduced themselves as Tommy Jackson, the captain, Julie Dunne, and Mike O'Neill. Cpt. Jackson had brown hair, and although he was short, he looked as if he could tackle even a gorilla. Mike had dirty blond hair, which was all over the place, and an evil grin that clearly said "Get in my way and I'll cut you up and eat you."
Julie had long black hair that fell down to her waist. She too was short, but she had a tough look about her.
"C'mon, I'll show you where your sleeping" Said Roy. He led me through a door into a hallway. I was the third door on the left. My room was small, but I had a water bed. I thought to myself, "Y'know, being a merc might not suck as much as I thought it would…"
~~~~December 3, 3062~~~~
"Enemy lance, inbound on our position. Julie, try to get a fix on their location, and verify what we're up against. Over."
"Roger. Wait… Okay. Got it. Lets see… We got an Argus, an Atlas, two Uziels, and a Chimaera."
"Okay. Cobra lance, form on me."
"Roger."
"Roger that."
"Copy."
"Yessir."
It was early December. We were on Terra, in New Mexico. Some rebels were acting stupid again, so we got hired to kick their ass. Luckily, they managed to fix my C-Born, and I was allowed to pilot it again. Earlier, I had stood in the hanger and was thinking about what I should name it. Finally, it came to me. Cobra. It was perfect. It made sense too, since I was in the Cobra lance.
Now, I rode my mech into battle. I had also managed to modify my baby, so it could host 75 tons of weapons, and jump jets. It cost a little more, but since the Vypers were a successful company, my pay was high enough to cover the cost.
Now, back to the battle. My HUD showed a very stupid Argus, coming over the hill in front of me. I grinned wickedly. That Argus was goin' down. Cobra sprang into the air on newly placed jump jets. I came down directly in front of the Argus. It sprayed hopelessly at me with machine guns, but I lashed out with a ERPPC, and cut his machine gun arm right off. I heard the missile lock sound, and 10 LRMs slammed into my right torso. Luckily for me, C-Borns cockpit is placed to the left, so I was spared most of the damage. I responded to this attack by firing off 12 SSRMs, which had an awesome affect on his torso.
Armor was ripped away, revealing gears and machine work. One hit with my two LBX AC10s, and his mech started jerking around wildly. He rammed into me, and at point blank range, he fired every weapon he had. The splash damage destroyed his mech, but I caught it full in the face. I leapt into the air on jump jets, and escaped the huge explosion from the other mech.
"Captain, I got one." I said as I crunched the Argus's ruined cockpit with my mechs foot.
"Good. Now get yer' ass over here and help us with this goddamn ATLAS!!"
"Copy that."
I knew Atlas had the most armor of any mech around. They took forever to destroy, but, I steered my C-Born over to where the others were fighting the remaining mechs. I saw the burned out shell of the Chimaera, and an Uziel that was blackened and charred. My PPC barely even dented the Atlas's thick armor, but they did some damage. Suddenly, the remaining Uziel turned to Mike's Hunchback, and fire its two PPCs. I watched in horror as his mech keeled over from the damage. Then, the Atlas hit it with a heavy gauss rifle.
"Oh shi−" His transmission was cut off as his mech exploded in a shower of sparks. His ejection pod went off, but it was at an angle to the ground, and it exploded on impact. There was no doubt. Mike was dead.
I dragged my crosshairs over the Atlas.
"Take this you piece of shi−"
The sound of all my weapons blasting cut off my transmission. Heat filled the cockpit, and a computerized voice said "Heat level critical. Shutdown imminent."
"OH FUDGE!"
My hand slammed down on the override automatic shutdown button. My
mech started up again, but the cooling liquid didn't keep the heat from being unbearable. I flushed several gallons of coolant, and my mech cooled off.
"That's why you don't do that stupid." Said Tommy.
I said something very naughty to him, then turned to the Uziel. Slugs from my auto-cannon hammered the left arm, finally cutting it off. Artificial blue lightning cut through the ferro-glass over the cockpit, and I shot off my large laser, and the cockpit melted, no doubt killing the pilot inside.
All that was left now was the Atlas. Two PPCs melted the armor on my lft arm, and I saw I had no more PPC there. Finally, Tommy struck out with all his Highlander had. His shots went straight through the Atlas. It kneeled over, and fell to the ground, where it lay motionless.
"Okay. Cobra lance, set your heading 250. Its back to base for us."
~~~~Later that night~~~~
All of the Vypers partied that night. We drank, sung, made fun of the infantry… Ahhhh. Life couldn't be better. We held a funeral the next day, for Mike.
I woke the next morning to the sound of the intercom saying, "All units. Report to the hanger. I repeat. All units report to the hanger."
I pulled on some clothes, and walked out into the mechbay, where I met up with my lancemates at the card table.
"What the heck is goin' on here?" I asked Roy.
"I dunno." He answered sleepily.
I looked up and saw Harbuck standing on a platform about thirty feet up the wall.
He looked down at everyone and said, "Unfortunately, we will have to move out of this base here on Terra. The Jade Falcons have taken hold of our planet, and are threatening to destroy us if we do not comply. We have been given 24 hours to follow up on their orders, otherwise, they will move to attack us. Anyone that is foolish enough to remain here and fight, will most likely die trying. These clanners are dangerous. They are bred to fight. We load the dropships today, and move out as soon as possible."
"Where will we go?" I yelled up at him.
"We will station at outreach. The Wolfs Dragoons have offered us a small base, until we can find a better HQ."
Suddenly, a rumbling sound filled the air.
"What the…?" I muttered.
Everyone rushed outside. We looked up, to see a Hrothgar class dropship and two Talon class dropships descending on our base. When the had landed, the bay doors opened. Someone walked out, and Harbuck ran over to see who it was.
"Who the hell are you?" He asked her.
"You don't know me? I come from Solaris VII. My name is Kayla Tirrel. I believe my brother is with you."
At that I stepped forward. "That would be me."
"Hello brother. I come seeking to help your merc regiment. I have brought a couple of friends…" She pointed behind her, and six or seven pilots walked. "We are willing to help you fight the clan."
"How many mechs did you bring?"
"Ten. Two Thors, one Vulture, one Dragon, one Gladiator, one Ryoken, two Shadow Cats, one Templar, and one Owens."
"Holy cow…!"
I saw Harbucks eyes light up. "You are willing to help us?!?!"
"Yes."
"Good. Tonight, we make a plan…"
~~~~December 31, 3062~~~~
"Okay. All lances in position? Good. Now remember the plan. Lances Viper and Rattle Snake Attack the front, while Hammer, Cobra, and Axe sneak around back, and attack the base."
"When I give the signal…wait…OKAY! Go go go…"
Me and the rest of the Cobras went passive. Walking slowly, we made a U shape pattern around the landing area.
It had been almost a month since we started resisting the clan. A number of battles had taken place, but now it was time for a final Assault. We got into position in back of the base, and waited for the signal. After about three minutes, a single flare went up, signaling us to attack. "CHARGE!!!"
Fourteen mechs charged forward, blasting the living daylights out of anything in our way. My first target was a Madcat. I twisted my torso around until I had it in my sights. I let fly with LRMs that flew from Cobras missile racks. Impact. I saw the Cats' right arm go flying off. He zapped my C-Born with two PPCs, and I saw my right arm go to red on the damage indicator.
My LBX AC10 punched a hole in the Madcats torso, but it didn't do enough damage to bring it down. Finally, I let fly my PPC, and the poor Madcat's cockpit melted down and boiled the pilot inside. Next, was a Thor. I leapt into the air, and came down on it, crushing its missile rack, and knocking it down. I stomped the cockpit into ruins before I went for my next target, Star Colonel Reese's very own Madcat MK II. She battered me with two gauss rifles, blasting of one missile rack, and severely damaging the other.
Then, she obtained a lock on me and fired all her LRMs. My only missile rack was shredded to pieces, and my right arm was destroyed. But, I still managed to nail her with a PPC in the cockpit. I hit her with my remaining large laser, and she retaliated by nailing my left arm with a gauss rifle, blasting it to pieces. Great. No weapons. I put my throttle on full, and jumped up over Reese. My Cobra landed right on top of her head, and she finally fell. I was knocked over, and when I finally managed to get up, my teammates were scrapping up the last of the mechs and tanks.
"Cobra lance. Concentrate fire on the dropship."
"Roger."
I saw 13 mechs turn to the Hrothgar. 13 mixes of heavy weapons blasted it into submission. And, like a huge monster, the ship fell to the earth. We had done it. We had destroyed the Jade falcons only means of getting off the planet. Two dropships had gotten away during the assault, but the only thing that mattered was that we had defeated the Jade Falcons. I had gotten my revenge for all those years in prison with the clan. And that saying is true y'know. Revenge is sweet.
~~~~January 28, 3063~~~~
The croud roared around me as I steered Cobra over the ruined Black Knight. Only me and Kayla left on the field. She was in her Loki, I was in my C-Born. I stalked out into the center of the arena. There she was. She lashed out with her AC10s, but I was sure I would win. I leapt forward, using my favorite method of attack, Death From Above, but she sidestepped me and I missed. Grinning wickedly, I hit her with my PPC. Her right arm melted and liquid metal dripped onto the ground where it bubbled. She jumped over me, and hit me from above, knocking me down. I lay on the ground, and aimed up at her. I gave her every weapon I had. Waves of heat overcame me, but I still shot out. The force of my Alpha Strike actually pushed her up and over me. I got my mech to its feet, and nailed her right in the missile rack. The missiles exploded, and I saw the ejection pod. I grinned and said "You'll always be second best sis."
I did my victory lap, and when I got out of my mech, the fans rushed me. This was the life I wanted. The Solaris life.
Please review my work, and tell me what you think! Its my first time writing fanfiction, but I'd like to hear your feed back.
Please submit review. Please? Pretty please?? Plleeeeeaaaaaaaaaase.