Fields of Black Gold
"Do we have contact yet?" Jun asked Kaiden, a hint of impatience showing itself in his tone of voice. The Amber Sword, their Leopard class dropship, sped towards Addicks in a steady burn, their plan to directly strike at the Dragon's Fury after a about two weeks of biding their time coming to fruit.
"Patience…we are trying. It is quite difficult to get a line to the Highlander commander, especially as Tai-I Haag's troops are just some hours away from striking the battlefield." The old man counseled the youth. He laid a hand on Jun's shoulder and nodded at the world in font of them. "Do not worry, even if we are not able to contact Captain Bishop, I'm sure that our actions when we hit the Fury troops will easily tell her we are on their side."
"True, but remember. Our cover is that we are a mercenary group of sorts. If we wish to keep that cover, we will need to act like it." Jun reminded the old man.
"Ah, yes…true. But I have little doubt about that…" he stopped in mid sentence as a soldier motioned Kaiden over. "A moment, Jun." The aged warrior moved away and stepped up beside the communications officer, he nodded listening to the man for a moment then turned to smile at Jun. "It seems we have the most esteemed Captain on the line."
"A mercenary group? And you're offering your services to the Highlanders?" Tara Bishop spoke, almost disbelievingly at the blurred video image in front of her. She found it rather peculiar that a supposed mercenary company would be here, just at this critical moment, and aiding them of all things! It was doubly ironic as the Highlanders were once among the elite mercenaries of the Inner Sphere many years ago.
She mused this over, and turned aside to look at her second. "What do you think?"
Lieutenant Kyle Anders shrugged, and looked at Jason Carlyle, Bishop's second in her lance of mechs. The two traded a glance, clearly torn with the situation. After a moment of hesitation, Kyle nodded. "We need all the help we can get, Captain. With the HPG down, we can't check on them, but if they can really help, especially with a such a force as they said they had with them, they could make the battle much more easier for us."
"Kyle's got my same opinion here, Captain." Jason shrugged. He added tersely, "I just hope they don't gouge our eyes out with a payment beyond our reach."
"I assure you, we will be most fair with our terms." A voice came from the communication monitor. The three quickly turned towards the screen, a dark figure still all they could see, besides a logo behind them of a faded star set on blue. A link came up on the screen and Tara nodded slowly, then activated the link. The terms of contract quickly came up, which she scanned.
She looked up at the dark figure, another incredulous look flashing over her face. "Is this for real?"
A faint chuckle managed to filter its way through. "Yes, it is. Let us just say that we have no lack of love for Katana Tomark. So, do we have a deal?"
She paused for a short while, trying to find a catch in this. She shook her head and punched a key. "Done."
"Excellent."
It was just then that a soldier ran in breathless. "They're coming."
A thunderous rush shook Jun's mech, as he was strapped in the No-Dachi II. In the bay across, Kaiden sat patiently and calmly in his Shadowcat, while to Jun's right was Vincent eagerly awaiting the coming battle in his Highlander IIC. Then lastly there was Kaukatsu's men piloting the other two 'mechs, the Shadow Hawk and Centurion. Jun knew that of them all, he was the least skilled and experienced, that Kaukatsu and his selected men had certainly some skills at least.
Five mechs, five mechwarriors.
He smiled as his fingers danced on the button that had just cut the connection between him and the Captain. He couldn't help but think that even when the threat of the Dragon's Fury just looming over the horizon the Highlander commander looked quite attractive. The young mechwarrior shook his head, as another shudder rocked their dropship as it broke through the atmosphere of the planet Addicks.
Jun opened up an internal communications line to the craft's bridge and leaned over to speak into it. "ETA to the field?"
There was a brief pause, before a voice came in. "We've just broken through sir. We place our arrival in approximately ten minutes. We're picking up some of their transmissions, do you want us to relay it to you?"
The young Koshimitsu nodded, then spoke into the unit. "Very well, send the feed to me." He quickly adjusted the links, to have the video feed display on one of the redundant monitors in his cockpit rather then the mainscreen one, just in case. He ignored another somewhat violent shudder and the Amber Fire descended to an increasingly lower altitude. The monitor displayed erratic feed for a while, before the images and signal became strong enough.
"…being pushed back from the first line of defense, the attack on the left flank was a feint! Their main force is hammering the center and right flanks."
Another voice suddenly broke through in his cockpit. "It doesn't look like they're doing well, are they Jun? No wonder why they weren't quite so resistant to our arrival."
"It does not matter, Tsunami. Winning or losing, our sudden presence as we hit their rear and flank should be enough to give the Highlander forces time to regroup and turn the tide. The plan will work." Vincent's exuberant voice butted in.
Jun shook his head, and tapped the button. "Enough talk, we'll be there in five minutes. Get ready." He took his own advice, and began to start up the other systems of his mech, running one more last minute checkup. This was it, his first real battle. He closed his eyes, and whispered a prayer as he put down the visor of his neurohelmet. He glanced at the side of his HUD, and began the last check.
"Sir, we are dropping in two minutes…we shall begin countdown at thirty seconds." Jun heard the voice, and tapped a button reply.
"All mechwarriors, call in!"
"Dekker, check."
"Blaire, reporting in."
"Frost, ready to fight." That would be Vincent, he noted, since he knew that only he and Kaiden had callsigns beside himself.
"Tsunami. Let us show these lizards the true art of battle." Jun raised an eyebrow at this, but decided not to reply. It would have been something not quite suitable for the situation at any rate.
"This is Raikage, All mechwarriors have checked in. Ready for drop." He grinned in a mixture of nervousness and excitement. "See you at the victory party."
The faint voice that was the countdown was drowned out by a resounding reply from his fellow mechwarriors. Then the floor beneath them shuddered and began to open to reveal a great expanse of green that were the Plains of Jesara.
The descent was exhilarating, in an almost terrifying way, he thought. The single-use jump pods that had been attached to his mech shuddered as they activated and roared to life to slow his drop to manageable speeds. He took a quick look around the place, and as was right they were dropping just behind the Dragon's Fury field headquarters, which had been placed some kilometers away from the front line. It was rather close, but it fit the hot-blooded thinking of the Fury commander.
Just as they had predicted, he grimly noted. Sporadic fire began to lance up form the ground at them, but it wasn't all that threatening since they had sent all but a skeletal force to the front. The force remaining behind wasn't anything to sneeze at to be sure, there was a lance of tanks and infantry squads guarding their command center and field repair facilities.
Already Jun noted that Vincent and Kaiden were beginning to return fire as best as they could with their powerful Gauss rifles, the hypersonic metal slugs smashing into a Marksman tank and the other destroying a DI-Towed AA cannon. Then they landed heavily, and he and the other less experienced mechwarriors added their own firepower to the fray, as the Dragon's Fury began organizing what defenses they could muster to protect their HQ.
Light gunfire plinked on his 'mech's armor as a crew of infantry manning a machine gun attempted to wear away at his armor. He quickly shifted his mech and let loose a PPC shot that flashed out and incinerated the gun. The weapon and its ammunition exploded in a flash of red flame, and the young man felt a pang of guilt in his heart as he saw the men die. He grit his teeth and hardened his heart. He knew then that war truly was a terrible thing, and his anger against Tomark only grew stronger.
He quickly looked around him and began firing his PPC at his targets, his shots taking out clusters of enemy troops and light vehicles that fired on him. He watched as fire and lightning engulfed his foes before his eyes, but he willed himself not to shut them. He knew in his heart that he would never grow to like death, but it was sometimes a necessary evil. "Tsunami, have we secured the grounds?"
A moment passed before Kaiden replied. "Tsunami here, we have secured the premises. All local defenses have been neutralized."
"Good." Jun nodded again, and switched channels. "This is Raikage to Shadow One, secure the Fury mobile HQ."
A few beeps gave him his reply, as four squads of battle-armor equipped commandos arrived from a pair of combat shuttles that had just landed nearby. He watched from his mech, checking his sensors for any enemy movement. He tapped a button to zoom the ranges out and found much to his pleasure that the Dragon's Fury assault on the Highlander lines had seemed to bog down somewhat.
"This is Shadow Lead, we are securing the HQ. Moving the target and collateral to the DZ in three, ETA should be around ten minutes. Wait…we've found the locations of the Fury mobile artillery. Uploading them to you now." Jun quickly switched to the mech channels as his hand moved quickly over the boards to transfer the information.
"All right, lets do this. There are four artillery units, each guarded lightly by light units. Infantry and a few hover craft. Dekker, Blaire, each of you take a squad of commandos from the Shadow team. Take down one artillery unit each, then proceed to the DZ and secure it. I'll go with Frost and Tsunami to take out the other two. Let's move people!"
Jun barked out, and the two mechwarriors moved off to do their assigned missions. Jun's mech moved forward as he plotted out the artillery units. They were moving around slowly, but thanks to the quick strike on the HQ, it didn't seem as if they were fully aware of their presence, though he was sure that the front-line troops had noticed their sudden lack of coordination.
Their mechs quickly moved through the plains, taking out the Sniper mobile artillery units in two brief engagements that left nothing but burning hulks behind them. By that time, he was sure that the their element of surprise had begun to fade. Regardless, the presence of three battlemechs on the field suddenly hitting the Fury troops from the rear was nothing to be sneezed at.
"Careful here, Hokage. Take support, we'll take point from here on." Kaiden's voice came through to him. Jun grit his teeth in annoyance at that. He had been doing well all this time had he not? He shook his head and stifled that, letting the older man have his way for now.
"Very well. Take point."
Then they were there. More then a whole kilometer's stretch of grassland was engulfed in fire, great patches of the land gouged and pitted. Countless bolts of gunfire lanced out between the Dragon's Fury in their crimson uniform as they pummeled the Highlander and Republican guard lines. They were one the verge of crumbling when Jun and his companions arrived, and quickly wasted no time in delivering a massive barrage of fire against the nearby Fury forces.
In the span of seconds two IndustrialMech MODs were lying on the ground as their engines exploded, and the enemy infantry troops around began to scatter as the Highlanders' own infantry concentrated their fire on those that they more easily fight. The trio had hit this Dragon's Fury attack unit hard, taking out the two mechs that had been the cornerstone of the attack in this particular part of the line, and laid waste to the few vehicles that were supporting them with anti-infantry fire.
A beeping light on his command screen caught his attention. He quickly identified it as a direct communications request from someone. He activated it, belatedly turning on the image and voice scrambler before the link was done. A man's face resolved itself onto the screen, a weary but relieved expression on his face.
"Hey there, I don't know who you are, but you couldn't have come at a better time."
"Indeed. Captain Bishop requested our assistance here. What is your name?"
The man seemed to pause, then shrugged. "Is that so? Anyway, I'm Sergeant Devon…"
"Well, sergeant. The battle is hardly over now is it? Get your men organized, because we're going to need some infantry support. We're heading straight along the line to let loose on as much Dragon's Fury as we can. Care to come along?"
Tara Bishop breathed heavily on her cockpit as the heat rose once again. Her Hatchetman had been embroiled in the heaviest part of the fighting, trying to come in contact with her opposing commander in her Arbalest. But her own mech couldn't keep it, damaged as it was as she continued to hold the gradually retreating line.
"Damn it!" She had lost contact with her other officers in the battle, after the Dragon's Fury had successfully lured her and her supporting forces away to squash the diverting troops. By the time she had returned to retake control of the situation, the Dragon's Fury had pushed hard enough to make her defensive line look like a large bulge in the center and right.
She let loose another shot with her remaining weapons, the bolts scarring her target, a large DI Schmitt assault tank. She closed to it as it attempted to fire at point-blank range, the two massive cannons letting lose another volley before she could get into melee range. Fortunately for her, the blast missed and merely threw her off balance for a moment before she lashed downwards with the large weapon that gave her mech its name.
The Schmitt's guns were smashed apart and a gaping hole in the tank's armor allowed nearby troops to pour fire into it as she backpedaled. The hatch of the tank opened and its crew frantically leaped out and ran away, just barely managing to escape the tank before it exploded. She saw the tank's crew rush towards her infantry as they attempted charge the line before they were cut down. Such a useless waste of life, she thought.
Her mech was suddenly pushed off-balance by a barrage from her side. Unable to withstand an attack of that magnitude in its damaged state, her Hatchetman collapsed onto its side. The Arbalest that she had been hunting for much of the battle had appeared, and looked none the worse for wear, to her own distaste. The mech moved towards Bishops' own and pointed its guns at her cockpit.
"Well, well…Captain Tara Bishop is it? How delightful it is to see you. I've been looking forward to this. Surrender Captain, and I will let your troops withdraw from Addicks without any further loss of life." The voice that filtered through her comm. was undoubtedly that of Danni Haag's. The confidence that seeped through could have been heard even through the filtering of the military communications unit.
Tara spat out the blood that seeped from her lips, wiping them on her sleeve. "I will never surrender to a blind ambitious fanatic like you!"
There was a poignant pause before Haag replied. "Then you shall die." The Highlander captain sighed and closed her eyes for the fire that would take her life.
"No." Bishop's eyes snapped open at that. The voice was familiar, she knew, as she realized that it was the voice of the mercenary commander she had spoken to just before the battle had begun.
"Commander, you have quite a thing for entrances I see." Tara smiled tiredly as she saw the No-Dachi II loom over the two light mechs. Behind the heavy, she could see the silhouettes of two other mechs, and she turned to her side to see if her sensor equipment were still functional so she could identify them. To her satisfaction they were still working, if somewhat roughed up. She raised an eyebrow as seeing the information run up her screen. "I am not surprised you have managed to turn the tide of the battle against the Dragon's Fury."
"Who are you!" Haag's voice ripped through the comm. waves, her infuriation at realizing her situation now having made itself present in her mind.
"Who I am does not matter. What matters now is that you have failed. The defenders of Addicks, of which I have been hired into their service, now have the victory. It is you who must surrender."
"What is this nonsense…!"
"Silence, Tai-I Haag! Your command center and HQ has been captured, your artillery support destroyed, and your main forces are being surrounded and outflanked as I speak. And finally, you have three enemy battlemechs right here before you amidst the wreck of your troops. Surrender."
Tara could almost imagine the shock and frustration now blossoming in her opponent. It was a shock to her as well, though a pleasant one. The mercenary had saved them a lot of lives by striking so hard and quickly and forcing the Dragon's Fury to defeat. A brief but loud scream filled her ears for but a moment before she shut the link down to the Tai-I.
"So mercenary, what are your terms?" Tara pulled off her gloves, her hands sweaty from the exertion of the battle. Beside her stood her lost officers, having survived the battle somehow, she knew they would tell her when it was all over.
"Time to pay the keeper…" She barely heard one of them mutter, Jason or Kyle she wasn't sure. It didn't matter, they had gotten victory, but nonetheless she hoped that the mercenary leader was reasonable enough.
"The terms…" The man who stood a short distance from her, accompanied by a squad of commandos in battle-armor and three other men whom she assumed were his officers had still his neurohelmet on him, as did his companions. He glanced to the side at one of the other men, who nodded slowly. Then he took off his helmet, as did the others.
He was young, of that she had no doubt. But he looked so vastly younger from his officers. The thought that went through her mind was once again one of shock. How could such a youth lead this force?
"Hey, I know you…! You're that kid. The son of that multi-billionaire who owns Dynasty Tech. But aren't you supposed to be…" Kyle stepped forth, but was cut short by the youth raising his hand in a gesture of silence.
"Dead? I would like to remain so, if you so understand me. My true name, as your companion knows, is Koshimitsu Jun." He directed the latter sentence to Tara. "I think you understand why I wish to remain dead. The terms are simple. You keep my secret, among other things."
"Among other things…?" She looked at him curiously.
"Yes, among other things. First is that you allow me to claim salvage over the Dragon's Fury field base and its resources. Second is that you release to me ownership of the Dragon's Fury Arbalest. And lastly, is that you release the prisoner Danni Haag over to me. Is that fair?" He looked at her, his eyes flashing with something she couldn't place.
She looked at her own officers who seemed uneasy with the deal, especially on the part of releasing the Arbalest and Danni Haag. "I have no idea what you wish to Haag, but as for the rest they are understandable. Very well, on my word the Highlanders as representatives of the Republic defense forces accept your terms. Is there anything else?"
Jun thought it over for a while, then nodded. "There is one last thing. I would encourage you to spread the word about us. Vaguely of course." He chuckled softly, and flashed her a mischievous smile. "You could mention it along with Tai-I Haag's death, of course. I shall sent a shuttle for her in three days time, at Neo Carthagia's spaceport. For now however I have business to attend to. I do hope we don't find ourselves on opposite ends of the battlefield, Captain."
He took his helmet and placed it over his head again as he turned around and walked away back towards his mech along with his companions.
"What an interesting bunch of people…all cloak and dagger kind of thing, don't you think?"
"Jason, shut up."
They watched as the mechs heaved to life and began walking away towards their dropship.
"Do not you think that was overly theatrical?"
"Vincent, shut up."