Black Knight Legion Dropship Black Falcon

Corvatti Mining Colony HB-3

15th September 3063

                A few days have passed since the destruction of the pirate firebase, and so far Eric's lance had only been assigned to simple missions like escorts and patrols, which all went quietly. There had been a few more pirate attacks, each usually carried out by lances of light Mechs, but none of the action came to Striker lance's mission areas. Eric took the chance to get used to his new Uziel, and also some time to customise it for his use. Isabel had traded in her Osiris for the Hellspawn Eric had used in the last mission while Radcliffe had upgraded his Mech to a Shadowcat, salvaged from Eric's mission. Eric's Uziel sported a Clan ER PPC as well as a IS PPC due to the fact that the quartermaster didn't have enough ER PPCs to spare. He removed his machine guns and SRMs to squeeze in extra armour and two Streak SRM4s. Hopefully he wouldn't fry himself alive with that kind of configuration, but then he wanted the extra firepower.

                Well, now he would see why he would need the armament.

                Mandrill sent him an audio briefing to his Mech just a few minutes ago, detailing his mission for that day.

                "Your next mission would be a convoy escort. Flanker lance is bringing the convoy in from Sector Four. Striker lance will rendezvous with Flanker at the designated nav point and continue escorting the convoy on to the supply depot. A light Mech was sighted carrying out recon on the depot just yesterday. Expect an attack to occur anytime soon."

                Eric turned off the player in his cockpit and double-checked his systems before throttling his Mech forward, leaving the Mech hangar and boarding a dropship bound for their mission area. He opened a line on his lance's frequency.

                "Form up on me, Striker lance. We've got work to do, and I don't want to be late."

                Radcliffe and Isabel replied with sighs and groans about the non-stop work they've been having, but complied anyway. Soon they were dropped near the designated nav point where they would meet Flanker lance. Mandrill's voice came on again in Eric's cockpit. She was being overworked, watching over almost all the Legion's troops in the field, but she didn't mind checking in on the wise-cracking Eric now and then. She repeated her orders to Eric.

                "Striker Lance, proceed to Nav Alpha and relieve Flanker Lance from escort duty with Corvatti miner convoy. Escort the convoy along the Nav route to the supply depot and report any pirate contacts."

                Then she added a warning. "The haulers you are escorting are loaded with volatile crystals, so be cautious of collateral damage."

                Eric winced, feeling slighted at being warned of such an obvious fact, but kept quiet about it and just replied affirmatively to Mandrill. He started his Uziel trotting towards the nav point with his lance-mates in tow.

                Isabel opened a comm. link. "Nice ride, sir. Looks like Striker lance is going places!"

                Eric smiled, and was about to make another wise-crack when Radcliffe chimed in. "Preferably some place other than this dreadful pirate-besieged rock!"

                Eric rolled his eyes. "Can it, Striker Two. Get your head in the mission. We'll be done with the pirates soon enough, and the word is the Colonel has been talking to a Steiner liaison about Kentares IV. Could be a big contract."

                "Looks like we're getting called up to the big leagues," Isabel replied enthusiastically.

                Sounding slightly miffed, Radcliffe only replied with a statement. "There's the convoy, sir."

                Eric was going to fire back that he'd already seen the convoy long before Radcliffe's squat Shadowcat did, but decided not to push the issue. He stopped his Mech at the nav point and watched as the convoy come up to their position. A Chimera and two Osiris walked alongside the haulers, dwarfing the tracked vehicles. Eric opened a comm. line on the Legion's general frequencies.

                "Flanker One, this is Striker One, reporting ready to escort Corvatti convoy."

                The Chimera approached Eric's Uziel, marked Flanker One on Eric's IFF. It was one of Eric's pals, Greg.

                "Roger that. Congratulations on the lance upgrade, Eric. When you get done watching these corporate crawlers, let's head out for a round at the cantina."

                Eric smiled at Greg's use of the word "crawlers". Mechwarriors often held most tracked vehicles in low regard, probably all except heavier vehicles like the Shrek or the Challenger X MBT.

                "Thanks Greg, I'll rouse you when we get in. Striker out."

                Eric switched frequencies to the one the convoy was using.

                "Corvatti convoy, this is Black Legion Striker One. We're here to escort you into supply depot."

                "Roger Striker One. This is convoy leader, uploading route. Next point is marked Beta."

                Data flowed in on his nav computer and Eric saw his nav markers being updated.

                "Roger, marking next point Beta."

                Isabel walked to the back of the convoy column while Eric and Radcliffe took the right and left flanks respectively. Once in position, the convoy started its crawl to the supply depot.

                They approached nav Beta slowly. A high cliff towered over the nav point, which would be a perfect spot for an ambush. Eric sent in Radcliffe to scout the area first, while he marched in front of the column. Part of him hoped for a safe trip, but another part of him yearned for the action that his lance had been partially denied for the past few days.

                His yearnings were answered, and safety cast to the winds.

                "Striker One! Reporting two hostile contacts, Cougars in the vicinity! One bogey on the cliff, the second one is engaging me. Request backup!"

                Radcliffe updated their tac maps with the location of the bogeys. Eric told Isabel to remain as a rear-guard, in case some pirates come in from behind. The convoy would remain on course, maintaining their current speed. Not that they could go any faster, anyway. He throttled his Mech to the maximum, surging ahead of the column, while activating his radio.

                "Mandrill, this is Striker One. Engaging two pirate Mechs along convoy route."

                Mandrill responded almost instantly. "Roger Striker One. Engage at your discretion but ensure safety of the convoy. Mandrill out."

                Eric was thinking about requesting support, but then his lance should be heavy enough to fight out of this battle, for now. Just then, a missile lock warning sounded. Enemy LRMs! He saw a flight of LRMs rocketing up into the thin atmosphere from a Cougar and then down towards his Mech. Not willing to lose so much armour at the start of the battle, he activated his jump jets and managed to avoid a few rounds. Almost 15 rounds battered his torso armour, exploding almost a tonne of armour but creating no breach. Fighting to keep his controls steady, Eric cursed his luck.  He sighted the infernal Cougar standing on the cliff, pulling back down the hill while cycling its LRMs. At the base of the cliff, Radcliffe was slugging it out with the second Cougar, which was obviously intimidated by the fact that Radcliffe was piloting a larger chassis. Eric decided to join in the fight, since he would be unable to engage the other Cougar straight-out yet. He throttled down while taking careful aim at the Cougar, which wasn't aware of the medium Mech menace coming closer on its left side.

                Two PPC bolts smashed into the rear left torso of the Cougar, wreaking substantial damage and actually penetrating the armour to spark an internal explosion in the Cougar. The LRM ammunition stores went up in a resounding explosion, tearing off the left arm and throwing the Mech to the ground. Amazingly the Mech didn't explode, but the sensitive gyroscope had been torn apart by the explosion, rendering the Mech useless. The hapless Mech powered down. Eric grinned. His first salvo and he had already downed a Mech. Radcliffe wasn't so impressed.

                "Hey, that was supposed to be my kill, boss!"

                "Uh, sorry about that, Striker Two. You can take out the remaining Cougar if you wish. I'll back you up." Eric grinned deviously again.

                Just then his threat indicator sprang to life, alerting him to the squad of 4 pirate Vedette tanks which were rushing along the convoy route, determined to join the battle. Sporting Ultra AC 5s and machine guns, they could rip through the un-armoured haulers in seconds. Eric changed his mind.

                "Vedettes incoming! You'll have to take care of them. I'll go mop up the Cougar. I've got the bigger Mech, anyway."

                Radcliffe seemed to ignore the last barb and complied with Eric's order, running towards the new enemy contacts. Eric ran his Mech around the base of the hill to find a suitable spot to jump up to. The Cougar wasn't relishing the idea of coming down to face him one-on-one so Eric had to do the necessary introductions himself.

                A large laser flailed at him just as he completed the first jump on to a lower plateau. It struck his right foot, doing nothing much but drilling a big hole in the armour there. Eric looked up but still couldn't see the elusive Cougar. He swore silently, triggering his jump jets to climb up to another plateau. Temperatures in his Uziel was starting to really cook him.

                Radcliffe ran up a small hill overlooking the path the Vedettes were taking. They had picked him up on their scanners and weren't too eager to engage a 45-tonne Mech without much support, so they were staying a little further from him and keeping in formation. Radcliffe wouldn't be able to bring his ER medium pulse lasers and Streak SRMs, his primary weaponry, into play at such distances. But his ER large laser could tear holes into them at distances like that.

                The lead Vedette opened fire on him just as he came up on the crest of the hill, but the autocannon rounds impacted harmlessly on the crest of the hill. He replied with a shot that severely scarred the tank's armour, forcing it to retreat behind its 3 friends. The trio of would-be defenders broke ranks when Radcliffe activated his jump jets, closing the distance between them very quickly. Radcliffe grinned devilishly. He was now going to be like a wolf set free in the middle of a flock. His medium lasers flashed, cutting the armour on another tank but still not claiming a kill. 'A few more steps and I'll be close enough to let loose my SRMs', Radcliffe consoled himself. He set down his Mech 300 metres from the tanks, this time firing both his ER large laser and medium pulse lasers to carve more armour from the closest Vedette, cutting into its tracks and wrecking its tread. The Vedette hit him back in the right torso with an autocannon round, shaking the Mech a little.

                The other tanks were in full retreat, leaving their stranded friend behind. Radcliffe started to run towards them, intending to smash through their rear armour and gut the vehicles. He fired his pulse lasers into the immobile Vedette, this time striking the gun port on the tank and probably flash-blinding the gunnery crew. He ran up to the tank and gave it a swift kick on the side, penetrating its armour and exposing its fragile innards to the hostile environment outside. Radcliffe didn't waste time gloating over his first kill. It had taken too long and he still had the other three Vedettes to hunt down.

                Eric saw that the convoy was already approaching the hill, and was worried the Cougar would take pot-shots at them. The Mech was already pretty badly scarred in several areas, thanks to his PPCs, but Eric was having so much trouble managing his heat curve that he couldn't make the kill without his reactor going critical. On the Cougar's part, the pilot was good at evading his shots, though his or her gunnery was hopeless without the lock-on efficiency of his LRMs. Eric's Uziel still had more than 9 tonnes of armour while the Cougar packed less than half of that. If only Eric could score a hit on its jump jets, he could end the fight faster. He slammed a fist on his arm rests. He was stuck on a ledge just 7 metres beneath the cliff, unable to risk jumping that high and letting the Cougar hit him at his or her own will.

                He should check on Radcliffe's status, but assumed he could do okay without supervision. He triggered another round of SRMs when the Cougar peeked over the rim, but only one missile hit as the Mech quickly ducked behind cover. Eric's anger was starting to boil over.

                "Damn it! Here I come, you yellow-livered scum!"

                He activated his jump jets and swiftly came up on a plasma flare. The Cougar had been waiting for just this moment.

                Just as Eric's Mech started to come over the rim, the Cougar swiftly ran towards him. Eric hastily fired off his IS PPC and his SRMs, but he fired on thin air. The Mech came so fast that Eric only understood its intent too late.

                The enemy pilot triggered the Cougar's jump jets to propel the Mech at him, while triggering an alpha strike just seconds before their Mechs collided. The lasers burned and melted armour from the arms and torso of the Uziel, and the unarmed LRMs did not much but pit the Uziel's armour. But the combined impacts all threw Eric's Mech off balance. Then the Cougar smashed into Eric's centre torso. Already flying in the air, Eric had no way to hold his Mech steady.

                Eric screamed, "Son of a b****!!" The two Mechs tumbled to the ground, 20 metres below. The split second it took for the Mechs to fall seem to last an eternity for Eric.

A/N : Sorry for the delay in posting this update. I had finished the top part of this a while back but didn't find the time to complete and upload it. As per some requests, I'll be deviating a little more from the original Black Knight story. Just a little more. Frankly I'm a bit lazy to change much of the story, but then without any changes then I myself would be too bored to write it out. As always, please do correct me if I made any mistakes.