Here Without You, Baby
Chapter Five: Strike
By: Sci-Fi Raptor
Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior
Sorry about last week, I was in Florida (working like a dog!), so I will submit two chapters this week.
The Gauss Rifle is one of the most deadly weapons in the Terran arsenal. Able to reload rapidly and generating almost no heat, a platform equipped with one could tear anything to shreds. Of course, it has its drawbacks; the rifle itself it large and heavy and its ammo is also bulky. Despite that, its effectiveness is not reduced. Utilizing magnetic fields strong enough to disable a nearby vehicle, a slug is accelerated near or past the speed of sound, with enough energy to penetrate almost anything's armor.
For the punch it packs, Gauss Rifles do not have the hazards of most conventional weaponry. Firing it too much will not cause a platform to overheat. It does not carry any volatile chemicals to inflict damage, so internal damage would not cause internal explosions. It uses mag-lev technology to deliver the ammo to the gun and the slug is fired by magnetic fields, so it rarely get stuck since it has almost no moving parts. Finally, the slug hits the target so fast; one's location would not easily be betrayed by it.
Gauss Rifles do not do damage conventionally either. They were not intended to blow things up, nor were they intended to slow things down. They followed the sniper's rule: one shot, one kill. Assuming it was fired at the engine. The Guass Rifle fires high speed slugs that almost always penetrate a unit. The energy required for the penetration is high, so it loses a lot of its speed, so it ricochets inside the target instead of going through the other side, therefore mangling all of its internal machinery. If aimed correctly, it could hit ammo racks or the power plant, thereby assuring the target's… elimination.
The Gauss Rifle is one of the most feared weapons in the Terran arsenal. It is a weapon that assures a swift outcome and is always used as the final line of defense. An old technology, its power has only been rivaled by the PPC and recently, the CPC.
The Command Center was a dome dived into three parts by shafts extending from the center. Two of those shafts were entrances for whelled vehicles while the third shaft was for the garage. It seemed completely undefended. Nothing visible seemed to amount to any kind of threat. But that was one of the Terran's strategies, to lull the enemy into a false sense of security.
Mark first dropped off the Liger X and Catherine into a hilltop nearby. It was one of the most dangerous aspects of the mission, since one wrong move could alert the Terran's of their intentions. Luckily, Mark had dropped her off on the face of the hill away from the facility and was not caught. Catherine cautiously scaled the hill until she reached a nominal shooting site. She mounted her sniper rifle on top of the Liger and looked for her targets. Mark piloted the X to the other side of the facility so that when Catherine fired, the Terran's would be unaware of their position. He landed the X behind some rocks and shutdown. He opened the bay doors with auxiliary power the let the rest of the unit out and prepared for the runs he would possibly have to make. Otherwise, he would standby for extract. Amy, Joanna, James, and Seymour quickly filed out of the X and spread out about half a kilometer apart and shutdown. Catherine reported she had found her targets.
After fifteen seconds, Catherine fired her gun and reported that the first target was down and that the group did not seem alerted yet. She fired again.
Sirens wailed. Red lights illuminated the sky and things started popping out of the ground. At first, they were just the regular pop-up turrets that all Terran bases came with. They scanned the area until they found the Liger. Catherine took one last shot and scrambled back into the Liger X. The Command Center's AI formed a targeting solution and red dots were all over her; the air between them was soon filled with missiles.
"Let's roll!" Joanna said, and the rest of the unit activated their HEV's. They quickly closed the distance between them and what Joanna had just identified as the garage entrance. "He's most likely to escape through there," she explained.
The Command Center had acquired them on radar and more pop-up turrets activated. At this point, a ring of exposed, hidden turrets surrounded the base. Joanna ordered everyone to take out the turrets defending the garage so that they could quickly acquire control of it and enter the building. When they were less then a kilometer from the base, however, something unusual happened.
A second ring of pop-up turrets surrounded the whole base's perimeter. The earth behind this new ring began to rumble and large pillars came out of the ground. The top of the pillars made a warm cyan glow and hummed to life.
"Mark, what does CHOAM report about those pillars?" Joanna demanded.
"Wait a second, its analyzing," he said, a little static interfering with the signal. Before Joanna could say anything else, she saw a vortex fly past her.
"What was that?" Catherine said, taking the station's flank.
"I can't tell, they're moving too fast," James said. Amy zoomed in with her specs and tried to see what they were.
"It's hard to tell with the infrared, but the heat discharge on those thing seem to suggest that they're Gauss Rifle turrets," she said a few minutes later, barely dodging a slug in time.
"That is a lot of Gauss Rifles," Seymour commented. Was it him, or were those dodges getting closer and closer?
"Joanna, I have some bad news, those pillars are making a shield around the Command Center," Mark reported in again, the static a little louder.
"But I thought shield have a limit for their radius," Joanna said.
"They do," he said "But the pillars only extend the shield a certain area which all intersect. Its basically a really strong fence."
"Then what do we do to get past them?"
"They only generate the shield away from the building, so I think I can take them out from the air."
"Then get on it," Joanna ordered. She told everyone to pull back.
"Hey, don't we have to worry about those reinforcements that should be rushing here anytime soon?" Catherine warned.
"The closest Terran troop formation that I know of is fifty clicks away. We still have a little bit more time," Joanna assured her.
"Dammi-" Mark radioed, but was cut off by a burst of static. Everyone looked in the direction of the X and saw it being pounded by a multitude of Gauss Rifle slugs. The X made a sharp turn and fell back. "Can't make it… too much… have to get rid of…" Mark tried to radio in, but the static was too much to hear clearly.
"I think he wants us to take out those turrets," James said, stating the obvious. But there was heavy static in this communication.
"They have a srambler here. We better do this quick or we'll lose communications," Joanna said, locking her LMR's at a section of turrets. She fired and let loose a volley of the long range missiles. Her left arm was torn off. "What the-"
"How did those AI's manage to hit us from this range?" Catherin demanded.
"That's what they were," Amy said. "Some of those turrets don't shoot. They do all the targeting. I think if we take them out, the Rifle turrets will be useless." Unfortunately, the Terran AI had finally found their frequency and Amy's last remark was unheard. Catherine charged in with her boosters blazing, hoping she could run the gauntlet. She was rewarded by having five slugs hit her, taking out her forward left leg, right wing and exploding her jetpack.
"Catherine!" Joanna said. She made her way next to her in an effort to cover her from the pummel of slugs heading her way. It was to no avail though, as tens more of them started pelting her Mad Cat into Swiss cheese.
James and Seymour tired sniping the Rifles from their current range, making a hit once in a while, but the effort needed to dodge the slugs was clearly draining their energy. Amy saw no choice but to put her plan into action by herself.
She found a rock formation that could provide a little cover and started targeting the Line-Of-Sight turrets. She fired her LMR and her own Gauss Rifle at a trio of LOS turrets aiming at Joanna. They erupted in smoke, causing the turrets that were slaved to them to fire wildly. James and Seymour quickly caught on and tired their hands at taking out the LOS turrets. Amy took out a few more trios and gave James and Seymour the headway needed to get closer. Once they were inside the ring of Guass Rifle turrets, they followed the ring and took the LOS turrets out one by one.
"…needs help!" Joanna screamed into the comm. Apparently, the LOS turrets were also scrambling their radio channel.
"Calm down" Molly said. "We're on our way." The X illuminated the war scene with its incandescent search beams and descended next to the Liger. Joanna, Renee and Molly carefully took Catherine on board while Mark intercepted incoming missiles that were fired from the remaining turrets behind the shield fence.
When Joanna and Catherine were safely onboard, Mark quickly gained altitude and plowed through the Command Center's defenses. Amy, James and Seymour intercepted missile that were desperately trying to take the X down. Suddenly, an explosion from the garage exit caught all of their attention, and a convoy of Gustav escorted by four Kodiaks started heading south.
"Joanna-" Mark started.
"I know!" she said. "Everyone, after the convoy. We cannot let Johnson escape!" James and Seymour gave chase. Amy tried to follow, but she was to slow to catch up, so she provided some fire while they were still in range. She made a lucky hit on a Kodiak's foot articulator and the behemoth fell forward. The other three hesitated, but the turned back to confront the attackers.
"Joanna…." Amy said, realizing that the two Command Wolfs and her Daishi could not stand up to the three Kodiaks.
"CHOAM, can you hack into the Command Center and take control of the Gauss Rifle turrets?"
"Affirmative"
"DO IT!"
"Target?"
"The Kodiaks!" Amy and Joanna screamed in unison. The scorched earth full of ghastly Gauss Rifle turrets suddenly hummed back to life and the all pointed at the Kodiaks. The Pilots realized what had happened and were in a full retreat. They didn't even finish turning before they were taken out. James and Seymour caught up to the Gustavs and Mark hovered above them.
"Viceroy Johnson, if you value your life, you will immediately surrender," Joanna said through the wide-band radio.
"Never!" he replied. People came out of the Gustavs and fired assault weaponry at them. MPPC and laser fire racked the X.
"Damn, they have shoulder mounted assault weaponry!" Mark said in frustration. He sped up and turned to face them so his shield could protect him. Seeing that they were getting nothing done, the Terrans fired on the Command Wolfs.
"Arg!" James said as his Command Wolf's forward left leg lost its foot actuator. The foot could not compensate for the leg's movement and the whole leg crumpled under the Zoid's weight. But he wasn't near as much trouble as Seymour was. The Terrans were aiming at his cockpit and some were using shoulder mounted Gauss Rifles.
"Seymour!" Joanna cried. A Rifle slug smashed into the canopy and the glass cracked in a spider web-like fashion. Joanna could see the very person who shot the slug lining up to shoot the vulnerable area he had just damaged. It was Johnson.
"No!" Joanna said, willing him to miss. She saw the Rifle's targeter go red and Johnson was about to pull the trigger. "NO!" she screamed.
As if she had summoned the will of God himself, the slug had somehow missed. She looked at the shooter and saw a big bloody hole in his stomach. She saw a few sparks behind him and saw that something had pierced the Gustav's armor. Even from up there, she could hear the Gauss Rifle slug ricocheting inside the Gustav. A blue light started coming from within the Gustav's mangled innards.
"It had to be done," Amy said, her Daishi in a prone position, the arm with the Gauss Rifle within it out front.
"MOVE!" Joanna ordered Mark, realizing what the eerie blue glow was. Mark pumped the throttle and the X was accelerated to two kilometers per second. Joanna looked behind her and saw the effect of a Core meltdown. The Gauss Rifle had shown its devastation's potential when the Gutav's Core went critical and destroyed the convoy with it.
