It was dusk, and all color was sapped out of the world in favor of a more "artistic" sky. Insects buzzed past the mech cockpit, the pilot oblivious to their movements. The hatch was sealed shut, and with it all hope of them reaching their prey: Leftenant Kurt Beckett. His mind was elsewhere, on events that were currently taking place kilometers away from his position.
Training was nothing like the real thing, he dishearteningly discovered. The difference was not in the risk of life. It was the stress that caught him completely by surprise. Not the stress of fighting – his part in the battle had yet to fight, if ever – but the stress of waiting. Dana should have already sent the signal that destroyed the dropship, and he could only hope that explained the distant puff of smoke he had witnessed. Chances were that the Coral Vipers would not be able to trace the signal until long after Dana had escaped, but there was no way to know for sure. Kurt remembered his confession to her, and desperately hoped in that moment she still lived. If only they had continued their conversation the next day, instead of changing tracks back to the war.
Then Kurt felt guilty for worrying about Dana, when the 3rd and 5th infantry platoons were in the middle of an assault against an enemy-held prison. There were so many things that could go wrong, and only half of them had to do with Coral Viper BattleMech placement. The Vipers had infantry of their own, and a single armored platoon could result in the slaughter of the militia.
He tried to keep his mind off the first two phases of the plan. His task was to cover the militia's retreat, in case one of the BattleMechs managed to follow beyond the Capital City suburbs. The tree cover felt incredibly flimsy as Kurt watched the road. Even with his sensors off, he feared detection. If he could see them... Kurt shook his head; now was not the time to panic. He needed to concentrate.
Colonel Lincoln, the Federated Suns governor, had been a MechWarrior of some skill. Better than average, but not good enough to earn a place in a front-line unit. Kurt held no illusions about his own abilities; he was the shining example of mediocrity in the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns. If any of the mechs came – even the Wolverine or Crusader, both of which were lighter than his Marauder – Kurt would be even matched, at best. His only hope was to catch them by surprise.
Once again, Kurt had to force thoughts out of his head. He had to watch the road. If the enemy came, the survival of the Davion Resistance rested solely in Kurt's hands – along with the mech's throttle and control stick. The instruments gave him some level of comfort, and Kurt was able to focus once again.
"There," he whispered. He saw the trucks first. One hundred kilometers per hour bordered the safety limits on such a small road, but the drivers hardly had a choice in the matter. It was either risk death by accident, or risk death by BattleMech.
With a toggle on the control stick, Kurt zoomed in with the HUD. He counted all four trucks. A good sign. In the sky behind the trucks, he saw a black speck. A bad sign. Davion did not have any VTOLs in the area. It had to be a Coral Viper scout. If Kurt did not destroy it, then the VTOL would report their position to Major Raanan. Not to mention that the VTOL would probably notice a blue-and-red Marauder standing in the middle of a small clump of trees.
Kurt slightly raised the mech's left arm and the PPC within. He had to destroy the VTOL in a single shot, or the whole mission was wasted. BattleMechs could be repaired, after all. On a whim, he aligned the second PPC as well. May be two shots.
The task of firing was taken out of Kurt's hands. A small while streak leapt from one of the trucks and struck the VTOL. An explosion and plume of smoke rose from the vehicle as it plummeted into the ground. There was another explosion, and Kurt briefly wondered if the pilot had ejected. He was too far to tell, either way.
When the BattleMech silhouette appeared in the distance, Kurt was glad he had held his fire. The enemy MechWarrior would have seen the blue PPC bolt, even from so far away.
The mech must have been too far to fire its missiles at the trucks. The only other explanation was that the MechWarrior did not want to waste its long-range missiles on infantry, but Kurt preferred to think that the lives of soldiers were worth more than a few dozen missiles. He estimated the mech's range at two kilometers.
The trucks reached him before the enemy mech was within weapons range. He was positive about the mech's identification by that point: a 65-ton Crusader. The Crusader had comparable armor to his own mech, but relied much more heavily on missiles. Missiles were called missiles because they had a tendency to miss, or so he always claimed. Perhaps today would prove him right.
The Crusader did not fire its LRMs at Kurt. It should have. Kurt would have. Then he reminded himself that the Marauder was not only hidden, but most of the systems were switched off. He would not appear on the enemy's sensors until a range of 250 meters.
His sights were lined up with the Crusader's center torso. No. He had a real opportunity to take aim, perhaps thirty full seconds. That was a rarity in BattleMech combat, and Kurt wanted to take full advantage. He aimed lower, at the mech's hips. A little bit of luck would knock out a leg, disorienting the enemy pilot enough to prevent a call for help. The moment he was sure the autocannon/5 was within range, Kurt squeezed the trigger and fired three deadly weapons at the Coral Viper BattleMech.
One PPC bolt struck the hip dead-on, and the running Crusader stumbled. The second ineffectively struck the torso, the single most armored part of any BattleMech. The autocannon rounds exploded hirer on the Crusader, just below the cockpit.
Kurt kept his active sensors off. There were possibly three other mechs out there, and he did not want to call their attention. Not today. Even if it put him at a disadvantage against the Crusader.
The Coral Viper mech noticed Kurt immediately, but it did not fire its missiles. Instead, the Crusader continued its charge until the rest of its weapons were in range. A dozen missiles launched from the mech's legs and lasers fired from the arms. Most of the weapons exploded against trees or missed everything altogether. A few missiles exploded against the Rebbie's armor, but only enough to be classified as a scratch.
All his weapons fired at once would cause enough heat to nearly cripple Rebbie the Marauder, and Kurt cared too much about the BattleMech to let that happen ten seconds into the battle. Instead, he fired his own medium lasers at the Crusader, along with the autocannon that had served him well with the first volley. The first laser beam did not compensate for the Crusader's movement, but the second did. It struck the torso, along with another explosion of ammunition from the autocannon/5. Kurt tried to maintain his patience.
The Crusader twisted its torso as it passed, the legs continuing to follow the trucks. It was almost as if the mech was more interested in the infantry than a real threat to its existence. Then Kurt realized its strategy. The Crusader was actually circling his mech, while the pilot maintained a full run. A similar attempt by Kurt would certainly result in a fall; his estimation of the enemy MechWarrior went up a notch.
Kurt maneuvered Rebbie to keep the Crusader in his sights. The weapon indicators were slow to light up green, and return fire came before he was ready. This time, the lasers seemed oblivious of the trees and struck the Marauder head-on. Even though they dealt little damage, Kurt felt a rise of panic threaten to take hold. He was under fire, and an unlucky hit to the cockpit would result in his death. The missiles exploded against Rebbie's armor, also ineffectively.
This could not keep up. The Crusader had not yet dealt serious damage, but it soon would. Perhaps another volley or two. Kurt had to respond decisively, and he did so without his medium lasers. Kurt aimed center-mass and the PPCs fired again.
Both of the particle projection cannons struck the Crusader's right leg, the same leg that had been damaged previously. Where before armor was scraped away, now a hole was bored through to the other side. Sparks washed out of the wound like so much blood as fresh wires and myomer bundles were exposed. The artificial muscle failed and the BattleMech fell to the ground, its leg suddenly unable to keep up with the mech's movement. The Crusader's arms snapped out in an effort to keep the mech from falling completely, but not in time.
No time or consideration was given for the MechWarrior's safety. Kurt carefully lined up his sights at the mech's freshly exposed back and fired the remainder of his weapons. Something exploded beyond the armor, and the mech went limp.
Kurt started to move his mech away from the Crusader and turned back towards the road. There were no more mechs in sight.
This was one of several predicted outcomes of the operation, and the Davion rebels were prepared. A salvage truck hidden in the woods across the street broke through the tree line, even as Kurt fired his PPCs into the Crusader one last time. There was no chance of the mech being operational, nor did Kurt hope to make use of the spare parts. The objective was to eliminate one Coral Viper BattleMech, and his forces had succeeded.