[CHAPTER 3 – "The Queen and Bishop Advance": Eaton: Dropship Poseidon April, 3061]
I sat in the briefing room overlooking the holo as Colonel Grenadine fleshed out the mission. I had a strange sense of déjà vu and looked around for something to confirm that I wasn't stuck in some sort of time loop. The movement brought pain to my side to remind me that events both good and bad had indeed transpired and that I wasn't still on Outreach.
"First of all, folks, I have some reassignments to make. Thanks to some excellent fighting by you folks and some hard work by our salvage teams, we have two new mechs online. They were able to piece together an Uziel, thanks to Zanshin and his hatchet, from the beheaded one and its companion. We also were able to get that Locust online. Movement speed is decreased from stock specifications until we can get some knee joint parts, but it's fully operational in all other respects. Sara, you'll be driving the Uziel for now. It's similar in weight and weaponry to your old Phoenix Hawk, so you should get accustomed to it easily. The Locust will go into Echo lance and we'll be bringing Diane back on to the active duty roster." A cheerful round-faced woman in the corner of the room sitting next to Paula "Huntress" Jalastar sat bolt upright with mouth agape. I was forced to presume that this was Diane Lawson, one of the wounded mechwarriors of Sara's former lance. She was dispossessed in the ambush and now, thanks to Solaria's gunnery skill with the Locust, she had a mech again.
She shot Sara a look and the two of them were smiling at each other. I made a mental note of their interaction as Colonel Grenadine continued the briefing.
"We've removed the TAG laser from the Raven and installed in on the Locust so Echo lance can do it's own spotting." You did WHAT? I shot Cadence a look and I could tell he was not pleased at all about the arrangement. He caught my eye and pursed his lips in frustration. I nearly interrupted the briefing, but held my tongue.
"…reports have come in from our recon elements. We are facing nearly an entire battalion of enemy mechs on planet. With 9 down, we are facing between 20 and 30 remaining, plus vehicles and infantry. According to information gleaned from our royal wards, the enemy has limited movement capability, just one Leopard-class dropship located here," he illuminated an airfield 500 klicks to the southeast, near the ocean and a large city, but still far on the outskirts of the city. "No doubt the dropship is guarded by several mechs as well. The airfield probably has a complement of aerospace fighters, but reports are conflicting on this and no visuals have been acquired." That was bad. It was always difficult for a mech to shoot down an airspace fighter if the fighter caught the mech off guard.
"Also, we have to hit this firebase here," he pointed to another location, this time to the west "where we know a full lance of heavies is based. They are on patrol looking for us and we need to catch them and take them down. This will be a very hard lance to destroy so I am tasking this to Alpha, Echo, and Peregrine. Dreadnaught and Bravo lance will hit the airfield and the dropship. Destroy it if you can, but if the opportunity presents itself, capture it. Kith, you can fly it, so take a course that misleads them, such as straight for the north pole, and then backtrack to here."
As the Colonel got into the specifics of the firebase hit and patrol sweep, I wondered about our mission. This would not be easy. A well-guarded airfield, mechs, fighters, vehicles, infantry, and above all, capturing a dropship. I started thinking possible plans over in my head.
"Bravo, you'll be working solo and I'd recommend maintaining radio silence. We'll give you 48 hours before we come looking for you. So finish it by then or come home. If the situation changes we'll retreat the ship to our secondary waypoint here at nav Rho. If the dropship isn't here and you can't contact us, we'll be there with passive sensors on." I nodded. Nav Rho was far to the northeast, closing in on the pole, in the middle of very mountainous terrain. Navigating it would be problematic, but finding us in it would be impossible, and that was what mattered.
"Alright. You have your objectives. When this operation is over we'll have free reign of most of the planet and it should be easy to hunt down the rebels then. So fight like it matters. If we lose, our primary advantage of surprise is gone for good and then we will be the ones on the defensive," he warned. Defensive strategies can be good, if they are flexible and reactive, and lure the enemy in, but most defensive strategies fall more into a fortress mentality, and ultimately fail.
We all made our way down to the mech bay and powered everything up. I looked Eltanin over for any problems and when satisfied, turned to go find my mechwarriors. Instead I faced Sara. She had a stony expression but concern in her eyes.
"Be careful out there Vance. This one isn't going to be simple at all." Lots of tension in the air. Emotions run high before a big mission, but you don't need distractions on your mind. Sara was a big distraction. Now was not a good time for anything too serious, so I deflected the mood.
"I will. Make sure you bring all your hair back with you this time," I joked. She burst into laughter and a wide smile.
"If you don't come back I'll just come looking for smoke signals to rescue you," she retorted. She laughed once more than turned to her new mech. The Uziel had been repainted, but still had some battle scars. Dual particle projection cannons made it an excellent fire-support mech, as PPCs had incredible effective ranges compared to other weaponry. She looked once over her shoulder and flashed a smile as she started climbing the leg-mounted handholds.
"Well sir, it looks like you're getting better at that," said Solaria. The little punk. I rounded on her and met her ear-to-ear grin with my game face. She sobered up a little as Zanshin and Cadence approached in the background. Dreadnaught silently strode into our midst with his professional air and stood waiting for orders with his arms crossed. Technically he was the same rank as me, but assigned to me this mission.
"Now is not the time for this, Solaria." I commanded. "Dreadnaught, how are you going to play into all this anyway?" The man smiled knowingly and pointed over his shoulder to the aerospace fighter bay, and suddenly it all made sense. His fighter was a LAM. Land-to-Air Mech. It could transform between mech, fighter, and a LAM hybrid. Right now the mech stood in front of his bay. It was as short as the Raven nearly, but if you looked carefully you could make out the aerotech components, the engines, fuselage, control surfaces. LAMs were very expensive, and very advanced. And his was a custom LAM as well. The whole mech, with the aerotech control surfaces and wing components, looked like a fearsome insect, the weapons looking like pincers and antenna. It was very disquieting to see the monstrosity the graceful aerofighter became when the situation called for it. Cadence uttered a rather profane epithet and then turned to Kith.
"Where in the thousand worlds did you get that?" Kith smiled wickedly and just looked at me.
The story would have to wait for another day. So now I had a fifth mech with aerospace capabilities… this was excellent. They all listened intently as I laid out the mission profile, and soon we disembarked.
It was a long, arduous journey to the outskirts. We kept under cover, or at least, as much as is possible with the giant war machines. Cadence's was far ahead with his Raven, spotting, jamming, and concealing our movements electronically. He was deft and skilled, and left tracks that were barely noticeable.
The rest of us were not nearly so skilled, and our larger mechs made the process more difficult as well. To compensate we walked single file and matched strides to overlap our footprints. This meant our one track was very visible, but the mech tonnage and class was masked fairly effectively to a ground observer. However, this constant attention to our footwork made the trek wearisome and strenuous. By nightfall eight hours later, we were tired and I called a halt so we could rest awhile.
The terrain was rough and dusty. The desert sand was broken only by jagged outcroppings of crimson stone, smooth on the windward face from the constant weathering of sand and grit. While my mechwarriors sat on some large boulders and worked on their rations and water bottles, I climbed a dune and pulled out my starlight binoculars. Far off on the horizon I could see the lights of the city, polluting the sky above it like a wisp of smoke. My immediate surroundings were completely devoid of any human influence, though I knew a road lay far to the south running east to west, and the one large river was to the east.
I turned back to my group of warriors and joined them in refreshing myself with some food and drink. Solaria sat on the ground and seemed lost in thought, while Cadence paced anxiously about, constantly scanning the horizon and listening for enemies. Zanshin and Kith were cleaning their weapons, Zanshin was holding a heavy support cannon of some sort, and Kith had a Zeus heavy rifle. That was a lot of firepower between the two of them, and I knew that Zanshin carried even more with him. I drew my right-hand pistol and attached the silencer, then switched to my armor-piercing ammunition. I replaced the weapon and looked around, inhaling the dry air deeply. It had a cleanness to it, like the sand had scrubbed it of pollutants. I was looking up at the bright stars in the sky when Cadence made a shushing noise.
We all stopped cold and followed his gaze. The wind subsided briefly, and then we heard it… the heavy dull impacts of mech feet.
"Mount up! Passive sensors, Cadence cover us with the ECM, everyone get online now!"
We hurriedly stashed our gear and ascended our five mechs, and since I was closest I was up first. I dropped heavily into the command couch and brought the mech back from standby mode, quickly setting my sensors to passive. If they had a visual on our position, we'd be seen plain as day on thermal imaging or night vision. I cringed as I brought my weapons to bear and checked my grid, expecting a laser blast at any moment.
"I'm online," said Cadence.
"Good, go head that direction and keep it quiet, find out what we're dealing with here. Do not engage." The Raven pivoted and dashed back down our trail as the other mechwarriors checked in. Close call. My comm came to life as Cadence reported in.
"One lance of heavies. Big boys… a Thunderbolt, two Marauders, and an Atlas. They seem to be following our trail." Dammit. That was nearly twice our combined tonnage. The Atlas was problem enough, but a pair of freaking Marauders? They were probably just as deadly. This was a fight we couldn't win, and they were on our trail, and closing.
"Alright, get back here, I have an idea that could shake them. Cadence, scout straight east and find me that river, and maintain our single step formation."
I pushed Eltanin up to flank speed and made best speed between the dunes. Our lighter mechs were faster than the behemoths in pursuit. Additionally, they were going slow to follow our trail, and didn't know we were running yet. They weren't on the scope though, and we had yet to be hit by an active ping. At 87 kph I was moving faster than I ever had with Eltanin, and felt the mech begin to warm just a little from the extra heat buildup. Cadence flashed past me at his top speed and scouted ahead for a few minutes.
"River dead ahead sir," he reported.
"Good work. Cross it and travel five minutes at top speed due east on the opposite bank, make your tracks obvious, then backtrack and meet us at the river." It was an old hunting trick. Make them think you left the river, then return to it and travel in the water, where no tracks can be seen. We continued running pell-mell for our target.
I came upon the river suddenly and was surprised as I burst into the shallow part, thrashing plumes of water high into the air and nearly losing my balance before I slowed down. I turned North and stayed near the bank, with the water about hip-deep. Zanshin came on the comm.
"Sir, our target is South."
"Yes Private, I know that, and so do they. When they figure out that we used the river for covering our tracks they will immediately assume we headed South, and head that way. We will therefore go North. Do not question any further orders." The comm went dead.
Cadence soon caught up and fell in line behind us. We trudged up the river for ten minutes before I ordered a halt.
"Cadence, can you program our mechs to go into the deep water on autopilot and go to standby, then return when recalled from your Raven." I asked. The commlink was quiet for a time, but then Cadence answered.
"That would be fairly trivial. I could have it done in two minutes tops as soon as you transmit the override codes."
"Alright everyone, you heard him and you know what comes next. Get onshore, transmit your override code and slave your mech to Cadence, then grab your gear and get on the ground." I waded out of the water and got to work sending my coding sequence to Cadence. Then I snagged my jacket and personal commlink and popped the hatch.
The others were already on the ground and ready. As I climbed down I noticed Zanshin had his cannon slung on his back and Kith was cradling his Zeus rifle. Both looked upset about being out of their mechs and weren't trying to hide it. Solaria didn't look mad, but instead frightened and unsure of herself. She wore her sidearm but didn't have much else.
I put the commlink earpiece into my inner ear and affixed the throat mic. I zipped the transmitter into the back of my tactical vest and then put on my black jacket.
"Cadence?" The mech turned to face me, it's hawklike visage looking deadly and meancing in the dim starlight. "Put them in the middle of the river now." The mech stood motionless. Then suddenly the other four, one by one, jerked to life and oriented themselves eastward. They strode out into the water slowly and submerged fully in the deeps of the river. In the daytime, they would probably be easily seen since there was probably only a few meters between them and the surface. Had there been more light at the time, I would have realized I need not worry, as the river was so brown and muddy that it obscured them completely.
"So now what do we do sir? I'm not exactly sure what we're gonna do now without our mechs," complained Zanshin. I rounded on him angrily and decided to not let his size intimidate me.
"Perhaps you'd rather die fighting that lance of heavies, Private?" I sneered. He almost backpedaled a step and shook his head. "Then just learn to follow orders. They think there is one mech, and when they finally get here, Cadence will easily shake them. They could spend days chasing him and never catch him. Trust him, and trust me." The irony was of course that my untrustworthiness was what made me trustworthy in this situation. My treachery was the plan now.
"Mount up on the Raven folks, Cadence, we need to get past our entry point before the heavies get there. Then past it there is a road and bridge. Drop us off there. Then you backtrack to here after the lance has passed, cover up these tracks, and wait for further instructions. If they come this way, power everything down and hide in the middle. Let them pass as I'm guessing they'll be on the bank to look for exit tracks. If we don't come back, head for navpoint Rho and tell command where our mechs are. I'll contact you if the mission is successful. Okay, make your best speed and try to keep things as steady as possible for us riders." As I said this I climbed the Raven and got next to the missile rack mount. I found some good handholds and Solaria worked her way in right in front of me. Zanshin got near the laser mount and held on tightly. He did not seem to relish the prospect of being on the top of a mech that might be a target for a lance of heavy mechs. Kith surprised me by pulling out a pair of gripper gloves and crouching on top of the middle of the mech. Gripper gloves generated an energy field that allowed you to climb nearly anything, the sonic effect somehow sticking you to the surface. They also had amazing strength, allowing a wearer to easily crush concrete in his hands.
Without much warning, the Raven broke into a quick trot, splashing water and mist high into the air around us. He slowly increased speed and the experience was absolutely terrifying. We hung on for dear life as filthy silty water very nearly engulfed us in our passage. I would find out later that he had pushed the mech to top speed and the few agonizing minutes of fear were soon over. I saw the bridge up ahead, well lit and made from stone and metal. The same deep red stone we saw in the desert. The mech slowed down and we gratefully climbed off, now throughly soaked and muddied. Uncaring, we dropped into the water, waist deep for us but only ankle deep for the mech. Cadence turned his mech around, gave us a nod and burst back the way we had come, sending us running further inland to avoid the plumes of water that came shooting towards us.
We looked pretty bedraggled. We took some time to clean the bulk of the water and grime from ourselves and our equipment then started planning a highway ambush. The road was well-lit, but if a car came alone it would be easy. I ordered Solaria to give her gear to me and she immediately realized what was going to happen next.
"Oh no you don't. Please tell me you have some better idea than the 'pretty girl needs a lift gets the car to stop' sort of ambush. That is probably the oldest one in the book!" I smiled and I heard Zanshin chuckling under his breath.
"Sorry Solaria. Get them to stop just in front of that lightpost and keep their attention on you as we ambush them from both sides at once." I commanded.
"I'll take passenger side," said Kith as he hefted his Zeus "tell them your boyfriend ditched you here when you told him you were breaking up with him." He smirked and then blitzed to the other side of the road. Solaria sighed audibly and walked out into the light.
We didn't have to wait long. A wide-tracked utility truck came after about three minutes. We hunched down low to avoid the headlights and Solaria put on a good show, waving and jumping. In her jean shorts and tank top, she cut a pretty desirable figure even from far off, short though she was, and we heard the engine slow and the brake whine as the vehicle slowed to a stop. Solaria cheered with genuine happiness and made her way in front of the vehicle with shouts of thanks as we dashed out of our hiding places and drew weapons.
The young man at the steering wheel leering at the well-defined tattooed beauty in his headlights suddenly felt a bright red light on his eye from the right and turning to look immediately felt the muzzle of Kith's rifle press into his cheek, the laser sight brightly illuminating his temple.
"We are commandeering your vehicle, and your life if you twitch," threatened Kith who held the heavy rifle easily with one hand as he leaned in the open window.
"Shut off the engine and step out slowly." I commanded from the other side. He turned his head slowly to face Zanshin's assault cannon. The man was in no position to argue and did as was ordered.
"It'd be quickest if we just shot him and threw him in the river sir," said Zanshin, causing the man's eyes to widen and a bead of sweat to appear on his forehead.
"We're not here to orphan any children, or grieve any parents." I turned to the man and produced a cloth I had previously moistened with chloroform and applied it to his mouth and nose. I held it on forcibly and his knees sagged. Chloroform would kill if applied long enough, but if it was just a few seconds, unconsciousness was all that resulted. The man now lay on the asphalt at our feet.
"Zanshin, get in the back with him, bind and gag him with anything you can find. Kith, you're shotgun, Sol, you're driving." She let out a laugh and we all climbed in. The passenger compartment had a narrow opening between the two seats that led to the back. The man was some sort of electrical technician, judging from the tools and equipment in the back. He had probably been out repairing a power or communications tower. Zanshin was securing his hands and feet with wires and doing a thorough job of it. The man had a bump where his head had hit the ground and some scratches but was otherwise unharmed. I situated myself and patted Solaria on the shoulder.
"Alright, take us into town Solaria, Kith, keep that rifle out of sight but ready." We began the hour-long drive into town, and by the time we got there, the night was getting cold.
Cadence found himself bored almost immediately. He made his way far north of the hidden mechs and started making rabbit trails for any pursuer to follow. Since a Raven can make rabbit trails at over 100 kph, and an Atlas can follow a rabbit trail at closer to 30 kph, he soon just set his autopilot to the task with no fear of detection. So to pass the time he started working on a decrypt for the random communications his heavily modified communications suite was picking up. Surprisingly, they weren't even using a very good encrypt pattern. He loaded his slicer utility and starting picking away at the enemy comm channel.
Within minutes he had discovered their frequency and had it decrypted. The incoming lance was a very talkative bunch, as non-professional warriors tend to be, and Cadence started up his recorder.
"How far do you think he went down-river, boss?"
"At least to the bridge. He probably would turn off then, scared off by the lights."
"I don't get it, why cross the river then come back when he was a lot closer before?"
"Because, stupid, he got spooked by something, probably a patrol from Imbrahim's lance. So now he's wading through the water so he leaves no tracks for us to follow. It's an old hunting trick!"
"So how come we're not in the water too?"
"We don't need to hide our tracks, and this way, we'll catch him because he's moving slower in the water than we are on the ground." Cadence started chuckling.
"Oh, I guess that makes sense. They teach all this stuff to you at the academy?"
"Of course. And a lot more, too. Now shut up and keep your attention and your searchlight on the ground."
Cadence smiled broadly to himself. They were headed south, and at the pace their mechs were making, they wouldn't reach the end of the river before midnight. At the pace their brains were working, they wouldn't reach any solid conclusions for much longer, maybe all night. When they did figure out to go north, they would be so far south that they'd spend almost as much time returning, and that was if they worked hard all night! By then, he could have made 5 days worth of tracks on the dunes for them to follow. Plus he'd have plenty of advance warning from their constant comm chatter. How many days does it take four rebels in heavy metal to bring down one little Raven? Cadence thought for a moment. Well, it's certainly more than two, and possibility an exponential function inversely related to their intelligence. He smirked and plotted the asymptotic data in his head.
Cadence then turned and headed for the river, checked his life support, and plunged in. He brought his Raven to standby and set the machine to wake him in two hours, he had about four hours of air. He could easily afford to catch some sleep now that he had them playing his game. Many mechwarriors preferred large mechs with massive weapons loadouts. Sure, that was fine if you had a stand-up fight on your hands, but Cadence preferred the versatility his Raven, which he called Pi, to any firepower. He could detect them far off, jam their sensors and communications, and outrun them easily. They could kill him with one shot, but he would never be in their crosshairs. Cadence smiled, and slept.