CHAPTER 9 – "The Exchange of Pawns": Eaton: April, 3061
Dawn stretched across the horizon, spreading the light from the star unevenly onto the desert landscape. Long shadows of deepest black abruptly gave way to the deep red I had already come to loath, and in a small, subconscious way, even fear. Though whether it was truly fear or just the burst of adrenals and stimulants from my medipack was always hard to tell.
Combat was once again upon us, and soon our roughly man-shaped behemoths would flatten, incinerate, and perforate anyone and anything that got between us and that almighty paycheck. In the back of my mind some memory of a shinto priest brought a final word of prayer in affirmation in a monotone tenor. If we worshipped anything, it was probably money. Or perhaps we worshipped power. Money and power were interchangeable in the world we lived in, so it probably amounted to the same thing.
The Grenadier echelon was pointed southeast, and we were now bearing down on the ancient firebase at flank speed, the steel hooves of our mounts treading down flora and fauna alike. The mad dash was short, blessedly so, as mounted on the central control building was a cannon of immense size and power, linked to a radar fire control system. So far, it had not spoken its word of death on our heads.
The Colonel, in the center of the attack formation, came on the comm then.
"Alright, we know the attack pattern. Alpha, sweep north of the main gate and neutralize defenses as you go then bust straight in so we get the infantry to the control tower immediately. Provide covering fire and shield them from any hostiles. Once we get inside Bravo will head directly for the mech bay and attempt to catch any empty mechs for capture. Anyone on foot near them is to be killed immediately, Vance. Shoot first, and this could be the biggest prize in the history of the Grenadiers. Everyone stay focused and most importantly stay with your lance. Let's do it."
At this we all went to active sensors. Somewhere deep within the fortress, alarms would have started blaring now. I glanced at the tactical screen and absorbed the input. No mechs on scope, radar showed the skies as clear, and the range was steadily decreasing. Only 600 meters to the northwest corner now.
My tac-grid screamed then, and lit up like a Christmas tree with red hostile radar contacts. We were being tracked by at least a dozen sources on the base.
"That'd be the turrets. Destroy only as necessary" said Colonel Grenadine.
Bright laser blasts cut through the air around us just as the comm clicked off. Kellie's Thunderbolt took several hits and a few near misses grazed the Colonel's shoulder.
I worked the fire control system and magnified my view, following the line of the wall and aligning my reticle on the turret. Paired lasers pointed back directly at me. I fired my PPC and watched as the beam struck one of the guns, filling the air around it with vapor and smoke. A split second behind me, the rest of the Grenadier PPCs were lighting up the dawn. The turret returned fire once, then was silenced.
We reached the smoldering corner of the firebase where the turret had been half a minute later and ran now along the wall of the compound. It was a dark tan, some composition of steel or concrete, and lit only from the reflected sunlight on the surface, as no dawnlight fell on it yet. The north gate seemed to be unguarded still, the surprise and timing of our attack our greatest ally.
Terrance's Shadow Hawk, in the lead, was suddenly engulfed in a series of terrific explosions. Red desert rock was thrown high into the sky by black smoky fireballs at his feet. The black roses blossomed with an inner orange core and propelled his mech onto its back before the view was obscured. Kellie's Thunderbolt and Sara's Uziel skidded to a halt, Kellie running into the wall with her shoulder and digging a rut in the concrete-like tanned stone. A hail of rocks hit my cockpit and haze and dust filled the scene before me. I discerned what happened just as the view began to clear. Terrance was on his back and slowly rising, his leg armor and lower torso armor ripped to shreds and blackened to a charcoal color.
"They've mined the entrance," shouted Huntress "we can't go in this way!"
"We'll go around to the south entrance then." Commanded the Colonel.
I keyed my mic "That will take too long, we need to keep the element of surprise on our side. If we go to that entrance they will be waiting for us there."
The comm was quiet for a moment, then the Colonel spoke up, in a mildly irritated tone.
"What exactly are you proposing we do then?"
"Terrance, Solaria and Zanshin all have jump jets and can clear the perimeter wall. While they head to the mech bay, we'll blast our way through either the minefield or even the wall itself. It would take 5 or 6 minutes to even get to the south entrance, and we'll be done here long before then."
"My jump jets show malfunctions right now, but I like the idea of us making a new door" growled Terrance.
"Alright, change of plans. Solaria, Zanshin, get in there and prevent any new hostiles from powering up. Everyone else, back away from the wall and shoot where I do."
Zanshin hit his jets and the Hatchetman leapt forward and over the wall. Solaria hesistated a moment, looking at me, and then went over herself. Too late for that now. If Zanshin's the traitor…that might have been a very bad call.
The rest of us were backpedaling and aiming at the wall when Colonel Grenadine's dual PPC blasts rocked the center of the wall, blowing a huge crater into the side of the firebase. Then we all opened up.
Laser energy, high velocity explosive shells, missiles, and particle beam weapons all focused on the wall in a torrent of destruction. Chunks the size of automobiles flew free of the base, some cartwheeling dangerously close to the feet of our steaming mechs. The missiles seemed to be doing the most damage and it was then I realized that the outer portion of the wall had ablative armor. I signaled this to Huntress and we scattered our rockets across the face, blowing the absorbing armor off the wall.
It was Sara's PPCs that punched through first, after a minute of the hellstorm, and now the pieces were blowing into the courtyard in huge chunks. We redoubled our efforts, pouring the energy into the ever widening gap, and soon we had a gap big enough for even the largest of our mechs to use.
"Go! Move now! Alpha first! Infantry dismount and follow us in!"
Kellie drove her Thunderbolt forward, smashing chunks with her hand acuators as she stepped through, enlarging the hole. Huntress and Terrance were right behind, followed by Sara. As she moved her Uziel through the gap, I heard Kellie scream, panicked, on the comm.
"Contact, two heavies! Open fire, open fire dammit, DIE!"
From inside the dark courtyard I could see glimpses of flashing laser light as Sara cleared the breach. I got in line behind the Colonel and Cadence and just then noticed the infantry now pouring through the front gate. Then didn't have to worry about setting off an anti-mech mine and had run across the surface of the minefield with reckless abandon.
Cadence leapt his Raven through the hole nimbly, and I moved through myself then, crunching shrapnel and fragments underfoot as I went, and then I surveyed the courtyard.
An enemy Atlas and Annihlator were to the East, backed against a plain building, and I caught sight of a colossal Marauder just before it disappeared behind the control tower in the center.
"Cadence, NARC the Atlas now!" I shouted as I lined up my PPC. My shot clipped its bearlike right paw and struck the waistline, blowing a huge hole down to the internals.
I didn't see whether he fired or not, but a split second later I locked on with my LRMs and fired a volley, swarming the giant with concussions as he stepped forward and prepared to fire. Another Atlas. Let me count the ways I hate thee…
This Atlas was similarly deadly, just as tall, but far less damaged than the first one I'd faced on planet. In truth, the first I had ever faced. I had hoped it would be my last, but here I was again staring into that death's head grin. I would never truly shake that image of Atlases throughout my career. They would always be the penultimate in raw, unbridled destruction and I would both respect and fear the machines for what they were - siegebreakers. Machines that knew neither subtlety nor grace, but only death. The first to kill and also the first to die, as everyone shoots at the biggest threat first. Death to the opposition and death to the pilot alike. I knew though, that somehow, when death came for me, it would be personified by the grim skullish visage of the Atlas.
Death came first for Terrance though, and in his death he saw that visage clearly. Already damaged and in a lighter mech than the rest of Alpha, he had quickly been selected as a target by the rebel mechs. After entering the courtyard and cursing under his breath at the minefield treachery, he had spun at Kellie's cry to face the juggernaughts across the firebase's courtyard. The Atlas had immediately been joined by the Annihilator and he and Kellie had blasted the quad-cannon wielding Annihilator first.
Deadly at short range, the Annihilator raked Terrance's mech with the autocannons, blowing first a hand free and then the entire left arm. Terrance did not stop firing though. His already shimmering mech now blazed heat as he fired his own cannon, smaller and alone against the four horses set to quarter him. Kellie's gunfire joined his but the Annihilator absorbed the damage and stood in a wide gunfighter stance, the gyros absorbing the motion shock. Another cannonade blew his right knee out, and he went to his knees, arm extended and firing madly. The third broadside blew his extended arm to pieces and scored the torso armor. He turned back and fired his missiles without trying to rise. Huntress and Sara then joined battle, blasting the annihilator and finally rocking it off it's foundations. Terrance screamed in rage at the rebels.
"Never! Die you…"
As the Colonels PPCs struck dead center on the Annihilator, leaving glowing wounds on the chest, the Atlas took one step and fired. The lasers and missiles crisscrossed with my own before striking and Terrance's Shadow Hawk exploded sending fragments far across the battlefield and leaving a boiling black oily cloud where he had stood.
Someone else screamed into the comm as the whole of Alpha fired on the Annihilator, now cutting into it's rounded, almost fat belly. I almost chuckled at the mech for a split second, but then it regained composure and fired again, this time at Kellie, scattering heavy damage across her torso and ruining some of her lasers.
I fired also, my PPC and missiles streaking across the battlefield and joining Alpha's fullisade. The combined assault ripped open its fat belly and cut deeply into the fusion core. The hapless pilot did not manage to eject either and now a second black cloud reached towards the brightening sky.
Eye for an eye… We all turned our attention towards the Atlas now and moved to encircle him, firing continuously. He looked right at fired at me, damaging my torso, and then left and fired at the Colonel's Warhammer, deeping the scars on it at well. We were leading the crescent, I on the north and Colonel on the south, and the whole of our company between, our vengeance hot and our lasers hotter.
We had just passed the control tower when our weapons tore his machine apart also, blowing off the head and as the torso collapsed, it was rocked with explosions and jerked like a reflexive headless corpse. Death comes to the Atlas, just as it is dealt. I turned south to flash a thumbs up and my stomach clenched in a raw spasm of terror.
"Colonel! On your three!"
The Marauder that had rounded the corner and been forgotten in the melee stood a mere ninety meters to his right. He spun his 'Hammer with reflexes and speed befitting of a mechwarrior of his status and opened fire at the same moment as his foe. Beams arced and centered for a split second on both machines full blast, knocking both back, and as both righted again, dual PPCs from each mech also struck the other.
Marauders and Warhammers are as mortal enemies as Montagues and Capulets. Both have massive long range firepower and similar speed. Warhammers have slightly better firepower at close range, but not the heat dissipation capacity to use it for long. As the Marauder pilot switched to his autocannon the Colonel let loose with his missile rack, scattering holes in his opponent's hide.
I checked the range and fired my PPC and missiles just in time to prevent a second autocannon shot then, but only clipped him. Kellie burst around the corner at the same time and fired at the ground in front of the Marauder, throwing a cloud of dust and a hail of stones into its chest and face, staggering and blinding him, and she and the Colonel advanced on the now outgunned and outnumbered Marauder.
With surprise gone, the Marauder turned and ran, firing one last PPC barrage but missing wildly as he sought the cover of the southeast corner of the control tower, with his enemies in hot pursuit.
I scanned the tactical grid, then looked up and noticed the infantrymen now beginning to reach the door to the control tower. Excellent. If another mech or two showed up, we could turn the turrets on them. Maybe we could also find out where else they had placed mines.
"Zanshin, Solaria, report, do you have contact with any enemy mechs?"
For an agonizing moment, there was no response. Then Solaria came on the comm.
"Sir, we are in the west mech bay and there is an Awesome parked here. I'm pretty sure we just killed the pilot, or a pilot at least. We have no other hostiles on scope."
That was good news at least, but we were still down one mechwarrior. I turned my attention back to the battle and saw Kellie and the Colonel follow the Marauder around the corner and the south courtyard was lit now with gunfire and lasers.
"Sergeant, this is Huntress, have your men secured the tower yet?"
"Negative huntress we are encountering light resistance, but it is… …in process."
His transmission was punctuated by bursts of gunfire and I smirked as I pushed Eltanin up to speed to join Kellie and the Colonel. Their mechs showed on the command console, as did Solaria's and Zanshin's in the west mech bay, tucked behind the tower from my current position.
A pair of bright flashes in the south courtyard stone heralded back to me the death of the Marauder as I neared the control tower's northeast corner. My attention was suddenly diverted by a new radar contact warning, but when I check my tactical grid there was nothing new to show.
"Stay alert, I'm getting an intermittent contact on scope, Colonel do you see anything?"
No answer came. Jammed.Somewhere, someone was ruining our signal by flooding the waves with useless garbage. I noticed Huntress and Cadence guarding the infantry by the north door to the tower. Sara must've cleared the corner and headed to the rear.
I decided to pince the south courtyard with Sara to join Kellie and the Colonel, just in case there was an enemy contact powering up there. My heat level had fallen and I double checked my weapons and battle damage readout before I rounded the corner and entered the south courtyard.