Black Knight Legion Dropship Black Falcon
Corvatti Mining Colony HB-3
8th September 3063
From the ground, Eric stared up at his Cougar's cockpit while running his hands over the metal foot. He saw the slightly irregular armour plates around the cockpit, remainders of the repairs which the techs did after the other day's battle. He didn't know then, how close he was to being sent home readily cremated. The lasers of the Shadowcat had practically washed away all the armour and came inches from cracking the cockpit glass as well, exposing him to the partial vacuum outside. The Mech had kept him safe and alive. It seemed to sense his gratitude, gleaming ever brighter in the lights of the hangar. Even years after piloting Mechs, Eric still felt awe at the technology and power of them. This might be a light Mech but it had served him well.
But he was now switching to a Hellspawn, a slightly heavier Mech which would serve him better in the upcoming mission, where he would serve alone. Since he'll be outnumbered on the field, he'd need more armour to survive. The Cougar would most likely be handed over to Radcliffe. He found himself with conflicting feelings now, wondering to stick to his original mount or not. However, Radcliffe seemed too eager to jump into a new Mech.
'Well, better not disappoint the old boy,' Eric sighed. He'll give the Cougar to Radcliffe. He earned it when he helped save Eric the few days ago. Eric patted the foot gently and then walked away, never looking back.
Black Knight Legion Dropship Black Falcon
Corvatti Mining Colony HB-3
10th September 3063
The Colonel's voice came over the comm. line.
"Okay Striker One. Let's go over the op order one last time. You will proceed to Nav Alpha as directed by Mandrill and take up a firing position on the pirate base. Destroy their local oxygen and water supply. When the base defenders move on your position, pull back to Nav Gamma, where Alpha Lance will be waiting, powered down in the crystals. Should be a straightforward ambush and breaking their heavy lance should show these lousy pirates how out-classed they are."
Eric started his Hellspawn on a trot towards nav Alpha after checking his systems for any problems. He had been just hot-dropped a few kilometres away from a temporary pirate base, which the Black Legion intelligence division had located after interrogating some of the captured pirate infantry at the mining facility Eric's lance reclaimed. A few kilometres behind him, Colonel Lawhorn and his personal command were slowly rallying at nav Gamma.
Tongue in cheek, Eric keyed a reply to the Colonel. "Roger that, sir. I got no problem being the bait for this little trap of yours. Just make sure you're ready to rock when I clear the ridge at Gamma."
The Colonel chuckled. "No worries, Lieutenant. I'm running short on wise-ass lance commanders; we'll have a hell of a time replacing you. Black Six, out."
It was a pretty big honour to be awarded this mission. The Colonel was impressed with Eric's handling of the situation a few days back, in the face of some bad odds, and thought that Eric would do well as a bait. Eric didn't quite agree much (who would?) , but it was an honour to fight alongside the Colonel, anyhow, so he accepted.
Without BAP, Eric had a slight disadvantage over sensors, but he had an ECM suite instead. It would do well to mask his entry into the base grounds.
His sensors picked up a group of 6 Bulldog tanks patrolling the stretch of land between him and nav Alpha. They haven't seen him yet, so Eric felt that he ought to stay out of their way. No sense alerting the base to his presence yet. Consulting the terrain map given to him by Mandrill earlier, he found that he could approach nav Alpha stealthily from nav Beta. He changed his course eastward and ran to nav Beta, which was a ridge near southern edge of the base. His sensors detected a Thor patrolling the eastern edge of the base. Now that was worrisome. The Clan Mech had the speed and firepower to take him down all by itself. He hoped the Mech wouldn't be in his way when he retreated to nav Gamma.
When he reached nav Alpha, Mandrill sent him a communiqué. "Striker One, this is Mandrill. From the top of the ridge at Alpha, you should be able to make out the firebase. The oxygen tanks should be visible on the far left edge of the base. Destroying any tank should take them all out in the secondary explosions. To the right is the main H20 processor. Disabling it should put a severe cramp on their sustainability here."
Eric keyed his mike twice to show that he understood, and surveyed the scene. The tanks were nowhere on his scanners, but there were signs of Mechs patrolling this south-western area. Funny that he didn't pick up anything besides the tanks. He put the doubts aside as he lined up his LRM launchers on one of the oxygen tanks. He noted with satisfaction a few fuel tanks around the oxygen tanks as well. He'd be knocking out the fuel supplies for this base as well! The pirates were really dumb, placing so much combustible material near each other. He wouldn't be surprised if they'd blow themselves up by smoking around the place too. It just needed a spark.
"Well, wait no longer. Here comes the spark, boys!" Eric said to himself, and thumbed his trigger.
10 LRMs sailed into the sky, flying straight into the bunch of oxygen tanks. A few LRMs missed the tank and smashed into other structures, but with that many tanks around, they couldn't miss the other oxygen tanks. The few missiles tore apart the thin armour on the target tank, and then the fireworks began. Like a domino effect, one tank after the other blew, and when the fuel tanks caught fire too, the explosion threw debris almost 50 metres into the lifeless sky. Alarms started to ring around the base, and activity was increasing.
Mandrill reported, "Excellent shot! The chain reaction has destroyed 80% of their O2 supply!"
Eric didn't reply. Not planning to be around when the pirates came out in numbers, he swiftly made his way to nav Beta and fired a barrage of LRMs at the water processor. It was harder to come down, but 20 LRMs did create quite an impression. Just to be sure, Eric waited for his LRMs to cycle before firing a second salvo. His sensors warned him that the Thor and a Shadowcat were fast approaching from different directions. The second salvo completely flattened the structure, and Eric saw water globules floating off into the semi-vacuum.
"Great work, Striker Lance. We read all targets destroyed. Raven Wing relays 4 Mechs powering up and 3 more moving in from the east. Fall back by quickest route to Gamma."
Eric keyed his mike twice in response to Mandrill and swiftly turned his Mech away from the base. He heard the Mech groan as he forced it to run at its top speed from the base. Already he was getting nervous. 7 Mechs?! He checked his sensors and found a Mad Cat and another two Shadowcats powering up in the base and making haste to cut off his retreat. The tanks were still off the screen, fortunately. He couldn't see the fourth Mech reportedly being in the base, so it must be utilising ECM. No time to find out what Mech was that. There was only time to run!
He was coming over a ridge barely half a kilometre from the base when his sensors threw a new warning at him. Enemy Mech on his right flank!! It was another Hellspawn, which he must have not picked up on his way in. The enemy pilot was intent on engaging Eric, and moved to intercept him. Behind the enemy, the tanks were rolling in to back him up. The situation was getting bad. Beads of sweat formed on Eric's forehead, and not all from the effort of keeping his Mech steady during its run.
The enemy Mech appeared at the top of a ridge and fired its LRMs at Eric. There was no missile lock, and most of them ploughed into the ground in front of him. But the main purpose of the salvo was to slow Eric down, and it worked. Eric had to swerve to avoid the salvo, but he kept his reticule on the pesky Mech all the time. His LRMs locked on and about 10 LRMs pounded the other Mech, forcing it down below the ridge again. Eric throttled back up to full speed, intent on disengaging the Mech and surviving the conflict. The Hellspawn started to run back up the ridge to face him. Eric saw that the Thor was soon within visual range of him, and didn't want to face the Ultra autocannons on the heavy Mech. If that didn't kill him, the LRMs on the Mad Cat would.
"No time to play, little boy. Stop me if you can," Eric mumbled. He deftly piloted his Mech towards the Hellspawn, which had now crested the ridge and was charging down at Eric. He blasted it with his 3 medium pulse lasers, burning away armour from its chest and arms. The other pilot must not have expected the manoeuvre, anticipating a dodge from Eric instead. His LRMs missed Eric completely. Only the fast recharging lasers scoured a bit of armour from Eric's right torso. Eric kept barrelling at the enemy.
The enemy pilot started to panic. He started to back up the ridge, trying to avoid Eric from smashing into him.
Fortunately for the enemy, that wasn't Eric's idea at all. He hit his jump jets and sailed over the enemy Mech, his feet barely missing the enemy cockpit by a metre. The Hellspawn must have realised it and tried to knock Eric's balance off, but it wasn't easy to aim at such a fast-moving target. Eric landed behind the ridge and continued to make his way to nav Gamma. The Hellspawn gave chase, but could only bring its LRMs to bear as Eric had rapidly moved out of his pulse lasers range already. Eric's ECM managed to deviate a few incoming missiles but quite a number smashed into his back. His rear armour held, but a second salvo could've penetrated it. Eric tried a few dodging manoeuvres to confuse the enemy pilot. Nav Gamma drew closer. Salvation was at hand! He checked his sensors and picked up the three Shadowcats fast catching up. The other two heavies weren't far behind either. Just perfect for the ambush.
Eric managed to avoid the second salvo from the Hellspawn and reached the ridge in time, and throttled down. He saw a Black Knight and three Mad Cats in low-power mode, ready to pounce on the Hellspawn. The Mech, without any BAP to detect the four powered down Mechs, ran over the ridge eager to claim a kill. Eric could feel the shock and fear of the pilot when it saw the four heavy Mechs blocking its path to Eric. It started to back up.
"Black Six to Alpha Lance. Let's take them out." The 4 Mechs powered up and didn't let the Hellspawn get away. Laser fire cored deep into the Hellspawn, and Eric felt pity for the enemy pilot for a while when the Mech crashed to the ground, its innards completely gutted. But then it was a dog-eat-dog world here, and anyway these pirates didn't deserve any pity for the havoc and death they have wreaked.
Eric watched as Corporal Adan, Sergeants Lustig and Anders lined up their Mad Cats next to the Colonel's Black Knight on top of the ridge. The enemy Mechs were still charging in, unaware of the sudden demise of their friend. They'd know about it soon enough, but too late to save themselves.
More than hundred LRMs took flight, each locked on to the three Shadowcats closest to the lance. The Colonel, armed exclusively with laser weapons only, fired his large lasers at the Mechs, further adding to the confusion. Then the lance ran down towards the enemy Mechs.
Eric walked up behind them and decided not be left out of the battle as well. When he came over the ridge, he saw that two of the Shadowcats were limping, easy prey for the Alpha lance members. Eric didn't really need to join in the fight, as the remaining forces were almost outmassed by the Colonel's lance. But he would do his best to help. He showered one of the gravely wounded Shadowcats with LRMs while running towards the battle. Corporal Adan finished it off with a blast of his two ER large lasers and two ER medium lasers, reaching deep inside to crack open the reactor shielding and forcing the pilot to shutdown his Mech. The second Shadowcat tried to flee, only to be caught in the LRM salvos and scathing laser blasts of the two sergeants. It crashed to the ground in a heap and never got up again. Colonel Lawhorn raked the third Shadowcat with his large lasers and medium lasers, melting away enough armour to topple the Mech to the ground. The pilot saw the futility of its situation and announced his surrender over the general frequencies, powering down his Mech even faster than you could blink an eye. Eric grinned. The ambush was working well. There only remained the heavy Mechs and the ECM-equipped Mech.
Hey, where was that last Mech?
A swift check of the sensors revealed only the Mad Cat and Thor in the vicinity. Even the enemy tanks had pulled back to the base, not willing to slug it out with such an elite lance of pilots. If the third Mech had successfully fled to the base, they could not engage it any longer. A short check with Mandrill revealed that the Mech had indeed followed the tanks back to the base, and seemed to be evacuating the base.
Eric tried to launch his LRMs to support Alpha lance in taking down the remaining Thor, but the Mech pilot proved to be quite dodgy. It was desperately trying to flee, but its armour was in tatters. Laser fire continued to slag its armour, some reaching into its internals. The Mad Cat had already went down in flames, brought down by the concentrated salvos of the whole lance. Soon, the Thor radioed its surrender and shut down. Eric felt a pang of regret, which usually came after the action had ended. He didn't even take down a single Mech! What a disappointment. The consolation was that his Mech has largely untouched, save for his rear armour.
Eric formed up on the Colonel's right flank. The Black Knight was scarred in quite a number of places but still with enough armour to join another battle. The Colonel turned his cockpit to face Eric.
"Good work Striker One. Remind me back at base to work out a lance upgrade for you."
Eric flushed with pride and happiness. A lance upgrade! And so soon! The other lance leaders would be so envious of him. However, Eric decided to push his luck.
"Roger. There is this new Nova Cat I noticed in the latest quartermaster report ….."
The Colonel laughed. "Ha ha .... easy there Eric. Something in the medium range should suffice for now."
Eric grinned. It was enough, for now. At the least he could bring in more firepower.
Mandrill spoke up. This time her voice reflected some cheeriness, probably relief from the fact that the ambush had went off without a hitch. "Tactical command shows zero hostiles on scope. Remaining pirates have evacuated to the east. Alpha and Striker lances return to base, heading 285."
Eric was tempted to quip about Striker lance being only the size of one Mech, but kept his mouth shut. No point in cracking too many jokes in a mission.
A/N : This mission had less action, I didn't really feel that Eric could've done much anyway, unless he wanted to get in the way. I made an embarrassing mistake in my last chapter, all right! Thanks to Mr. Nice Guy for the notice. I had outfitted the pirate Shadowcat with too much armament. I actually had removed the jump jets and some armour when I customised the Mech, but then in the story I let the Mech jump around like a rabbit. I thought of changing it all but I think I'm a bit lazy :P
Sorry for the mistake, I try not to repeat such things.
Angel_Unit2, I agree that a scout unit shouldn't be slugging it out with other Mechs. I'm just trying to play along with the Black Knight storyline, so sorry but I can't help it. I've got plenty of loopholes in the storyline to explain already, like why would some stupid pirates plant their precious oxygen and water supplies near the outer periphery of their base, which I might add was not defended by any static emplacements!
