Black Knight Legion Dropship Black Falcon

Corvatti Mining Colony HB-3

17th September 3063

                More autocannon fire! Isabel triggered her jump jets and flew backward behind a rocky outcropping, barely avoiding another blast of AC10. She was getting fed up of playing hide-and-seek with the Bushwhacker. She wasn't meant to take it on, anyway, but with Radcliffe knocked out and Olsen struggling to even hit the Cougar, she had to draw its attention. Several times already she almost got hit with a full blast of LRMs and autocannon shells, but her jump jets brought her out of almost every encounter safely. But she couldn't hide forever. Already her damage schematic warned her of internal damage on her right arm, no thanks to a lucky salvo by the damned Bushwhacker. One of her medium lasers had been wrecked, but at the least there wasn't any other component damaged. If Isabel made a mistake and gave the Bushwhacker a chance to strike her centre torso again, it would be all over.

                She grumbled, "Where's that damned Eric when you need him?"

                "Where is everyone??"

                Robert wasn't holding up very well against the heavier Cougar. The intense pressure was making him make mistakes with his piloting, and now his entire right torso armour and right arm were pretty much worn away. And Robert just couldn't aim well. Not one of his NARC rounds hit, so he dared not use his LRMs. Robert tried to raise Radcliffe on the radio several times, begging for a miracle to save him. Radcliffe's Uziel was still lying prone on the ground, at the bottom of the hill. Robert didn't know if the fall had killed Radcliffe or not.

                Eric managed to get a hand beneath his Mech, slowly pushing the 50-tonne hulk up. It was bad enough that his leg had been wrecked, but now his arm was done for too. Fortunately there weren't any critical components mounted on the arm.

                The Raven had left him alone to tend to its fallen lancemate just 10 metres away. Eric took the chance to quickly get up.

                The Raven saw him rise to his feet, and quickly tagged him with a NARC round. Eric was astounded by the lightning reflexes of the pilot. Man he was fast!

                Eric didn't bother to fire his jump jets when the pilot fired its LRMs at him. With a solid lock and NARC emitter, it would be hard to avoid the missiles, not to mention on a 'broken' leg and a semi-blinded pilot. He crouched over, trying to present the smallest target profile to the missiles, and weathered the rounds. One round impacted near his cockpit, shaking him around but fortunately not cracking the cockpit yet. Eric swore. He had better bring down the pilot quick, before he lost his armour advantage over the other Mech!

                He fired his SRMs, only one missile  hitting but impacting directly on the ferro-glass composite of the Raven's cockpit. The Raven staggered backward. Eric grinned.

                "Payback for what you did to me, chum!"

                The enemy pilot was sufficiently rattled that his follow-up laser shots all missed. Eric replied with his autocannon, sanding further protection from the Raven's torso and even a bit from the cockpit again. Anticipating a blistering counter-fire with LRMs, Eric swiftly fired his jump jets to the right.

                Not a moment too soon, since the pilot did exactly just as Eric expected. Missiles flew without a definite lock, almost all missing Eric completely. Only two missiles hit, drawn in by the NARC emitter. Eric heard his SRMs cycle free, and fired another round at the almost stationary target. The enemy pilot must be so concussed that he couldn't bring his Mech to move. The SRMs impacted on its right torso, further banging the Mech around. The Mech seemed to crouch down, trying to maintain its balance.

                Eric calmly placed his reticule over the Raven's cockpit. He waited for his autocannon and SRMs to cycle free and then squeezed the trigger.

                He saw the autocannon shells crack open the cockpit before his SRMs smashed through the remainder of the cockpit and into the fragile human tissue inside. Eric shook his head at the loss of another pilot, but he didn't have time to mourn the enemy's death. His lancemates needed him!

                Isabel decided enough was enough. Time to face him down! She checked her sensors and found the Bushwhacker about to round the corner which shielded her from him. They had been running around the hill for several rounds now, each time the Bushwhacker managing to sand more of her armour away with each opportunity. Damn it, it was like she was a damned dog, getting chased around the block!

                This time, she would bite back.

                She trained her reticule on the corner, and fired an alpha strike just as the Mech's elongated bullet-like torso peeked around the corner. The enemy pilot must have not been expecting the shot, for it stumbled a little. Isabel laughed harshly when she imagined the look of surprise on the other pilot's face.

                "Didn't expect the little bitch to bite back, right?!"

                She fired her jump jets to bring her closer to the Mech, intent on engaging the Mech face-to-face. The enemy pilot must have been expecting her to turn and run away, and fired his lasers and autocannon at the space Isabel's Shadowcat had vacated. Isabel gave a smirk of satisfaction. She proceeded to rake the enemy Mech with her machine gun, even while flying. Her pulse lasers cycled free and also splashed some armour away from the torso of the Mech.

                The Bushwhacker managed a pathetic reply with its medium pulse lasers, but failed to penetrate her weakened centre torso. Landing barely 5 metres from the Mech, she fired her Streak SRMs and continued to hammer the Mech with her machine guns and pulse laser, constantly hitting the centre torso. The temperature in her cockpit started to rise, but Isabel barely noticed it.

                "Die, damn you, die!"

                Suddenly the Bushwhacker fired its LRMs. The enemy pilot's aim was true, but the missiles did nothing much but dent her armour. One warhead even knocked her cockpit and fell off to the ground below. Apparently, the range was too short for the missiles to arm themselves. The Bushwhacker pilot must have panicked and fired the wrong weapon. Furthermore Isabel's Shadowcat was too close for its autocannon to fire. Isabel grinned.

                "Am I too close for comfort, senor? Give me a kiss!"

                She heard her ER large laser cycle free, and this time burned the armour off the Bushwhacker's centre torso with a vengeance. She quickly followed up with her lasers and machine guns, chipping and burning off the last of the armour on the torso. By luck; or as Isabel would call it later, "by supreme skill", all her shots actually hit the centre torso alone. The enemy pilot must have been really shaken by the ferocity of Isabel's fire, and pulled back. Isabel didn't give it much chance. She launched her SRMs and watched the missiles glide into the chest cavity, and into the internals of the Mech.

                The missiles wreaked havoc in the internals of the Mech, damaging the reactor shielding. For a moment there Isabel thought the Mech would go critical right in front of her, however, the other pilot managed to engage the safeties on his reactor in time. Isabel jubilantly pumped her fists in triumph, only then noticing all the sweat on her face and body. She groaned, wiping the sweat off her brow.

                'Damn, now I really need a bath!' she thought.

                She went back to the Robert's last position and found him safe and sound, if not shaken. Eric had came in just in time to take out the Cougar from behind, albeit after taking some critical damage from the Mech. They found Radcliffe in a dizzy state, but quite all right except for a damaged comm. unit and a sprained arm.

                Eric radioed Mandrill. "Mandrill, Striker One. We've got pretty badly banged up by the enemy lance. Requesting further support on mission op, over."

                "Roger Striker One. Alpha lance is en route, ETA 10 minutes."

                That raised an eyebrow. The Colonel was coming to support them? As if on cue, the Colonel's voice busted in on Mandrill's.

                "Eric, proceed with mission op. If you've really found the main depot, they could well be evacuating their supplies now!"

                Eric wondered if his lance could take on more enemies, but he knew the Colonel was right. It was either now or never.

                "Affirmative, sir! Striker Lance, let's move out!"

                Eric limped all the way to the nav point, escorted by his two senior lancemates, while Robert scouted ahead by himself. He was a still little shaken but after surviving his first battle, he seemed none the worse for wear. He soon radioed in some sensor contacts.

                "Good news, Striker One. No Mech contacts. Just a few static emplacements – SRM turrets, and I see a lance of Vedettes on the far end. I think there's a dropship on the tarmac too, but weird, no weapons on board. Its in a power-up cycle but there are no weapons on the dropship, as if the pirates got this ship for discounted prices! This will be an easy kill ….. request permission to engage!"

                "Negative, Striker Four. Hold your position. There could be powered down Mechs anywhere in the whole depot. Let me contact Mandrill for air support."

                "Oh well …."

                Eric shook his head, wondering how Robert got so much nerve all the sudden. He switched to the command frequency.

                "Mandrill, this is Striker One. Flash traffic. Have located pirate depot. Contact with Vedettes, one Hrothgar dropship and about a dozen orbital cargo launchers. Please advise."

                "Roger, Striker One. Engage and destroy enemy forces. Don't let the cargo pods get free or we'll be hunting these lousy bandits for months."

                "Requesting air support as well, Mandrill. We are in sore – "

                Mandrill's voice cut in. "Striker One, we detect pod launch from depot! Take it out before it escapes into orbit. Launching fighters to give extra cover. Phoenix Wing ETA 4 minutes."

                Well, here comes their aerofighter support. Eric contemplated waiting for the fighters to arrive. No point in risking themselves. He could see the ignition of some of the pods from his location.

                Just then the Colonel cut in. "In 4 minutes they will be well out of range. Striker Lance engage those damned pods!"

                Eric sighed. He'd have to risk their lives whether he liked it or not. "Yes sir, we're on it!"

                His lancemates moved in ahead of Eric without needing his orders. Robert waited for Radcliffe and Isabel to catch up with him before they entered the depot and started firing wildly at the launching pods. The SRM turrets went dead when one well-placed salvo from Radcliffe's PPCs struck their turret control vehicle. The tanks were intimidated by the show of firepower and pulled away from the battle, running off into the crystal desert.

                Meanwhile, Eric managed to core the engines of one pod with his single PPC, while Isabel had claimed a pod by herself too, before it even took off. Robert amazingly managed to tag one flying pod with NARC and blasted it to bits with his LRMs. When Radcliffe joined in, the lance managed to take out about 10 pods, allowing only 4 to escape into the orbit. Even so, the pods could still be intercepted by Phoenix Wing. Eric felt elated. Not a single loss on his side! And it wasn't a trap as he was worried about earlier. The lance of pirate Mechs they faced earlier must have been the primary line of defence for the depot.

                Before Eric could convey his congratulations to his team, another communiqué came in from Mandrill, and it was no congratulatory message.

                "Striker Lance, be advised. A Talon class dropship is approaching your position from low orbit. It is not responding to our hails."

                Eric's eyes bulged in horror and disbelief. That dropship would easily blow them all to pieces, in their current condition.

                 "Striker One, this is Black Six. Alpha lance is two klicks out from Nav Alpha. Fall back by best available route and rendezvous at Alpha!"

                Without wasting any time, Eric shouted his orders to his lancemates. "You heard the Colonel! Move to nav Alpha! Now!"

                "Sir ….. what about you? Your leg is bust."

                Eric felt a choke in his throat and swallowed it down. "Never mind me, Striker Three. Get out of here! It's a direct order! I'll hold off the Talon!"

                Suddenly Robert barged in on the conversation. "The Hrothgar is taking off! Fully loaded with crystals and it's pulling full thrust to get out of here!"

                Eric felt so much despair. Not only was his lance about to be murdered in cold blood, they were going to fail their mission. He fired his PPC at the pirate dropship, but his shot did nothing much except scar a little of its armour.

                Without warning, a savage salvo of Gauss rifle slugs and PPCs slagged the Hrothgar's centreline armour, coring into its innards. Missiles poured into the doomed dropship and wrapped the spherical dropship in fire. Before anyone could even utter anything, there was a huge explosion that almost blinded Eric and knocked his Mech over. Eric had to shake his head to clear the cobwebs.

                "What the hell ….."

                "Was that from the Talon?"

                Eric didn't manage to reply to his lancemates before a voice with a heavy accent called out gleefully over the general frequencies.

                "Attention Black Knight Legion mercenaries! Not like you to let the big one get away."

                Eric checked his transmitter. The transmission came from the Talon! It was now within his visual range, coming in to land on the depot barely 10 metres from Eric's prone Mech. The amount of weaponry on the trapezoidal dropship was staggering. Fortunately, the weapons were not pointed at his lance and were powered down to avoid hostilities. Only then he noticed that the Colonel's lance had just arrived on the scene. Eric heaved a sigh of relief.

                Colonel Lawhorn challenged the unknown speaker, stepping his Black Knight forward as if presenting himself. "This is Black Knight Legion command. Identify yourself."

                "This is Major Clarissa Dupree of the Lyran Alliance. We're here to brief the Legion on its next assignment."

                There was a smattering of confusion on the Legion's channels. The Colonel ignored it all and replied, "I do not recall signing any contract to support such a claim."

                "We'll settle terms en-route. We're advancing you this pair of Mechs as a gesture of goodwill."

                The dropship had landed and was opening its bay doors. Eric got his Mech up and managed a good look into the Mech bay. He was awestruck at the two pristine Mechs he saw standing in the bay.

                Eric gaped at a Mech he'd seen only in the holovids chronicling Task Force Serpent's assault on the home planet of Clan Smoke Jaguar (Huntress). He couldn't keep the awe out of his voice. "Looks like a Clan Ryoken."

Isabel stepped up next to him and used her large laser to point at the other Mech. She was no less lavish in her awe. "Is that a Sunder? Never seen one before! Sure is big!"

                After a few moments, the Colonel replied to Dupree, "Affirmative, Major Dupree. Mandrill, better clean up Tac Comm. Looks like we're entertaining new clients. Black Six out."

                Another mission well done.

A/N: Sorry for the hyper-extended battle scenes and pretty windy story this time. I don't think I can update my Black Knight fan fic for another few weeks. Exams around the corner, and I've got to buck up! Hope to get more reviews though. Kind of disappointing. What happened to the many reviewers on this site? Where's Strikepenguin, for example?? They seem to have been gone for a long time. Sigh. BTW, thanks to Marwynn for your review and encouragement. I'll try to incorporate non-Black Knight Mechs into the fic! I tried restricting it to the game Mechs only because it'd be easier to picture them and to know which critical are the weapons are located (right torso, left arm, etc). I do feel damned awkward writing about pirates piloting Clan Mechs (even a Timber Wolf!!) but I was following the story. Now that the story progresses to Kentares IV, Clan Mechs wouldn't be too weird now.